THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE - Death on the School Playing Field

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — these Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon,
West Sussex, U.K. Everyday stories about real people.

DEATH ON THE SCHOOL PLAYING FIELD

The nearby Steyning Grammar School

What was our education system like in the past? Even within living memory?

There are no prizes for guessing this impressive institution in its heyday below. It is the Maidstone Girls Technical School I attended. Do not go looking for the school because unfortunately after I left the education system, the property was sacrificed to a new road system at the bottom of the Sittingbourne Road. The school's annexe was St. Faiths (a large house further up the road.... and that is now under new housing too)

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Schools in the mid-twentieth century did not close because of walk-outs, protests, strikes etc.... nor due to inclement weather in those days..... we trudged through the snow.

We wore a maroon uniform with light blue blouse and were continually inspected. Miss Thomas was large in stature and formidable and ruled the school with the proverbial rod of iron and I would describe her as a dragon...... hair pulled back in a bun....... long black dress. The formidable Miss Price was the Deputy Head who took us for French. No one imagined in those days that children would ever address these pillars of the community by their Christian names.

The Misses Thomas and Price hopped from bus to bus on Maidstone's public transport after 4 o'clock when school came "out"..... in an attempt to catch any girl who attempted to take off her hat before arriving home. Who said the best days of your life are schooldays?

Below are the infants at the Findon School situated on School Hill in the school year 1943-4. Perhaps you recognise some of them? Maybe you recognise yourself?

Back row, left to right
Bob Fell, Daphne Bushrod, Phyllis Collier, ? Raymond Beal.

Middle row, left to right
Margaret Griffin, B. Nicholson, M. Webb, J. Warren, Valerie Bushrod, Sylvia Bennett.

Front row, left to right
V. Turner, T. Small, Sylvia Mills, David Whittington, Barbara Pelling, Phyllis Pierce.

The title of my main storyline "Death on the School Playing Field" sounds like the title for an Agatha Christie book but this is no tale of fiction. It was a true wartime occurrence during the Second World War and rather surprisingly it only came to my attention early in 2010.

Over the years, some of the local Findon children (and others from nearby villages such as Goring), have attended the Steyning Grammar school in the neighbouring village of Steyning. They included my own daughter, Janine, in the 1980s. We lived in Henfield at the time and she travelled by school bus each day to Steyning and even she had not heard this harrowing wartime story.

To begin at the beginning. The origins of Steyning Grammar School are to be discovered in a school "for little boys" back in 1584 and housed in Brotherhood Hall in Church Street — where the school is still to be found today, although obviously with many additions. In its present form it was founded in 1614 and has suffered many ups and downs over the years.

I will set the scene for the wartime catastrophe.

Date: Monday 8th March, 1943. The war was hotting up. There had just been a mass exodus of soldiers from Findon, both Canadians and British. The roads had been blocked by tanks rumbling through our village but they had magically disappeared overnight and the streets were now rather strangely eerie and quiet.

Bill Day told me before he died— "The lower end of Church Drive was packed with bren-gun carriers and trucks. The soldiers showing us lads over them and then playing football with us in the adjoining field.

The Canadians showed us how to play, I think it was softball, very similar to our rounders.

Just before D-day all along the bye pass was packed with lorries, tanks and army vehicles of every kind. Then suddenly when we got up they were all gone, the place seemed so quiet, so strange and so frightening".

Bren carriers on the Downs during the Second World War. Could this be on Cissbury Ring?

Michael Grand has related that he was a child in Findon during the war and remembers the Canadians giving the children rides on the bren carriers. No safety regulations in force in those days!

I am writing about a time when the RAF were in the process of bombing Germany and everyone had the jitters waiting for something to soon. Life was on hold but hopefully the end of the war was in sight. On that particular Monday morning, I am told that nearby Worthing suffered it's 743rd air-raid warning in the wee hours. Yes, I do mean 743rd, I have not made a typo. Aircraft passed over Findon, flashes were spotted in the sky from the direction of Shoreham but Findon survived to see another day.

In 1943 there had already been stern wartime punishment for some local schoolboys when the Worthing magistrates came to the decision that birching was to be the order of the day. Eight lads were ordered to be birched after they had stolen two hand grenades and 24 rounds of ammunition. Not only were they considered to be thieves..... but they had caused danger by attempting to detonate their booty by placing the bullets on an open fire.

During this year of bombing, aircraft crashes and tanks rumbling through Findon, it is not surprising that the cricket pitch off Long Furlong ran into disuse. But one nearby pitch was going to be rolled that morning....

Location: Steyning Grammar School.

A 12-year old pupil, John Anthony Norman, was just an normal schoolboy with a run of the mill every day life. He was known as "Jan" by his parents (because of his initials) and peers because of his initials. That morning he had been caught and reprimanded in the school gym by newly married schoolmaster, John Scragg (Johnny) below. The youngster had attended the school for some five years and his crime on this occasion was only a minor offence. He had been noticed not wearing gym shoes while sitting an exam and this was to have terrible consequences. Whether he forgot to put on the gym shoes or had not bothered is now a question lost in the mists of time.

Just reflect how many times you committed such a crime during schooldays. It seems that in those days the cane was not inflicted for infractions of rules, nor detention or the writing of lines for minor schoolboy misbehaviour at Steyning Grammar School. In lieu offenders were inflicted with Punishment Details.

When it came to the school lunch hour on 8th March 1943, John Scragg held sway as the Duty Master in charge of the boys during the break. He could not be in two places at once supervising the school building and also out on the playing field. He chose to stay at the school. Two lunch-time Punishment Details left the building in Church Street and crossed the High Street and headed to the school playing fields. This was a usual occurrence and comprised —

(a) junior boys acting as a Clean-up Squad to pick up rubbish and litter, plus

(b) a gang of around eighteen older lads, including Jan, to undertake duty with the groundsman's roller.

It was completely normal that a master was not to be present and the children were all supervised by a solitary prefect as they proceeded to the playing field. The prefect had the awesome task of keeping order and preventing any pranks by the younger boys. The punishment ceremony was to roll a grass pitch with a one and a quarter ton roller intended to be pulled by a horse.

Just a normal Roller Gang Punishment Detail was in progress until 10-year old, Paddy Burges-Watson (sitting on the back as counter-weight for the shafts) got his hand trapped. The Prefect's attention immediately shifted to him as he dealt with the injured youngster. One thing leads to another. The roller slowly and methodically trundled across the pitch unsupervised.

John Norman better known as Jan, grasped the opportunity to start larking about and he scrambled up on the roller as it progressed. He began hopping backwards on top of it imitating a slave driver whipping his native workers. It was just a boyish prank. Eventually commotion broke out as they reached the "B" game pitch.

The boyish laughter increased. The Prefect suddenly noticed and shouted to Jan to get down. To the everyone's total shock and disbelief, Jan stumbled and as if in slow motion slid under the roller. At this split second the roller appeared to be out of control. The group involved in the pushing action were unable to halt the motion of the weight. To their utter horror it traversed the length of Jan's prone body and did not come to rest until it reached his head. He was instantly crushed to death in front of his peers. 67 years on, the scene of sheer terror can now only be imagined and the picture in everyone's mind burdened them for ever more.

Fortunately, there were soldiers of the Canadian army housed in tents on the same field and they heard the hullabaloo that followed. They ran to the scene and being the only adults available they immediately took charge. Word went back to the school and John Scragg and the matron ran across to the playing field.

During the mayhem, young Paddy (you will remember that he was the one with his hand trapped) found that he was completely forgotten ...... he paused somewhat stunned at what he had witnessed. He stood for a moment wondering what to do next and then retreated and made his way home. He was taken to hospital but it was discovered that no bones were broken. He had a lucky escape that day.

The headmaster, Mr. A. C. Stuart-Clark held an immediate investigation back at the school and it is said that the inquiry took most of that Monday afternoon.

At teatime the next day, Tuesday 9th March 1943, there was yet another air raid and the siren sounded. Twelve Luftwaffe aircraft appeared flying extremely low in towards our coast. They were so low that they appeared to be just above the waves. They came in at sea level so as not to be detected by the radio-location. Six attacked our area on a hit-and-run raid and the others flew on to Brighton. The enemy left six people dead in nearby Worthing and three missing (presumed dead?). I am relating a few of these local incidents to illustrate how the traumatic news of a school accident could be easily overlooked in such mayhem at the height of the war in a Sussex village.

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A week later, on Tuesday 16th March 1943, Jan was cremated in Brighton and interred in the quietude of Wiggonholt graveyard. An assembly was subsequently held at the school in his memory.

In the ensuing days an inquest was held on the accident in war torn Steyning. Rather surprisingly it apportioned no blame at all to the school or the headmaster for the incident, nor to the prefect in charge on the fateful day.

Memories of the calamity faded as news of the conflict with Germany took over. A fog floated across the death at the school. Boys enrolling during the next few years heard of the roller accident merely from mouth to mouth playground gossip.

Mr. A. C. Stuart Clark, made a rather unexpected departure as Headmaster at Steyning Grammar School a year after the tragedy. This was to take up the Headship of Brighton College. Who stepped into his shoes at Steyning Grammar School then? John Scragg (Johnny) became the Headmaster.

In later post war years, pupils had not even heard of the loss of one of their number and the tragedy in 1943 was forgotten.

Jan was born in on 11th December 1930 and was 7-years old when he started at Steyning Grammar School. The only reminder of his existence at the school is in the record of Steyning Grammar School "Old Boys" and this merely reads......

John Norman 1938 - 1943

.....and no further reference to his demise during wartime is made.

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61-years after the roller accident, a memorial service for John Anthony Norman was conducted at the church at Wiggonholt on 8th March 2004 and a granite stone erected. When I came across this story, it piqued my interest and I set about asking some of my regular surfers who were Old Boys of the school, if they could help with any off the record first hand information. John Greves, who was brought up in Findon (now living in Walton-on-Thames) has always been a useful contributor of local information said...

Yes the fatal accident happened on what is now the Town recreation ground .... across the High Street from the old School Buildings.

As you say our School careers did not overlap but the offending roller was pointed out to us .... bit creepy .... so heavy always wondered how anyone could get it moving fast enough to kill.

The Steyning Old Boys Assoc keeps tabs on everything that happened up to the date when it joined up with the Secondary Modern to become one of the very few Comprehensives that had boarders and kept its old name.

1953 Form 3 was a teacher's nightmare ... sent several round the bend.

Two saved the day for Headmaster John Scragg who cared about Oxbridge candidates ... hadn't a clue about hidden talents of the rest.

Doug Attrell from Goring emails regarding John Scragg.... "I think most of the pupils were scared of him. I know I was. He retired when Steyning Grammar became a comprehensive".

Doug discovered further information for me on John Scragg...I found this in an obituary for his widow who died last year (2009)...

JEAN SCRAGG
When Jean died on 6 February, aged 88, it seemed, as several Old Boys remarked, that an era had ended.

She married John, who was twenty years her senior, in 1943, a year before he became Headmaster after AC Stuart-Clark’s unexpected departure to take up the Headship of Brighton College.

As wife of the Headmaster, she was expected to play a part in running the School. Since, in the past, there had been an element of confusion and friction when Headmasters’ wives were involved directly with the boys, her role was to be under the boys’ radar and she was put in control of all the domestic staff.

Doug then came up with another piece of information...."Another snippet from the latest Steyning Grammar School newsletter......

Those who met him in 2004 at the Requiem Service for John Norman (1938-1943), killed in an accident on the Playing Field in 1943, will be sorry to hear that his younger brother, Ian Norman, died in February 2010.

Although Ian had been offered a place at Steyning Grammar School, he never took it up, having won a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital.

I wonder where that infamous old roller is now..... rusted away..... under prickly brambles somewhere?

Continue if you would like to read about the Victory Pageant

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THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life around Findon and even beyond.

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Do let me know of anything you hear about Findon - not too controversial. Please note that opinions expressed in the Findon Chronicles are not necessarily reflective of my own thoughts.... but sometimes they are!