Letter: Can Anyone Tell Me About Thornchase School?

Published on: 12 Sep, 2018
Updated on: 12 Sep, 2018

Thornchase School being demolished in 2011. Picture by Charles Brooking.

From Michael Griffin

In response to: Brooking’s Architectural Rescue – Thornchase School, Merrow

I am looking for information on Thornchase. I was there when I was six or seven and I think it was a home. Although I do have parents, can only one help with my quest to find out why I was there and what the place actually was this would between 1947 and 1951?

I have seen Thornchase referred to as a boarding school but I do not believe it was a boarding school when I was there, I tend to think it was a children’s home.

Can anyone tell me what year the boarding school started up, and are there any photographs of Thornchase you are willing to share with me? I would be grateful for any help. There was a farm to the side of the House and the back fence gate went out onto the common at the back.

Responses to Letter: Can Anyone Tell Me About Thornchase School?

Nina Jenkins Reply

May 6, 2019 at 10:59 am

It was apparently described as a school for ‘maladjusted’ children, although I stayed there for many summers in the 1950s as my aunt worked there, as a deputy matron I think. I was only young and didn’t know what the home was but I don’t remember any of the children being ‘maladjusted’. They were just my friends.

In later years, I vaguely my aunt making a reference to some children who “had problems”. I was particularly fond of one boy whom I later learnt had fallen out of a window and was apparently paralysed as a result. I think I still have a photo of a group of us children done up in fancy dress. There was a lot of entertainment, mainly put on by the children, in those days
Peter Servian Reply

July 5, 2020 at 10:41 am

Was it off Grove Road in Merrow? If so it was behind my childhood home in the 1950s and 1960s.
John Lomas Reply

July 5, 2020 at 7:47 pm

Thorn Chase is shown on this oldmap.
https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/502332/150105/12/100954
The site is now Downs Drive.
Graham Fletcher Reply

July 18, 2021 at 1:03 pm

In the 1940s my late father spent several of his leaves from the Royal Navy at Thornchase.

I only have vague memories of the stories because my father died when I was a child.

My half brother also spent some holidays there. I have several photographs that include a person annotated in a photo album as ‘Mag’ my brother referred to her as Aunty Margaret.

I do not know if she was a blood relative or just a courtesy aunt. I understand the she was at some time the matron. She looked to be in her early 60s.

As I said, my memories are vague, but I do not recall Thornchase ever being referred to as a home for mall-adjusted children, just as a children’s home.

Having just become interested in my family history, I would like to know more, especially the surname of Margaret and whether or not she was actually the matron, dates, etc.
David Nash Reply

October 30, 2021 at 5:00 pm

Hi everyone interested in Thornchase. Just picked this subject up.

I can confirm that I was an “inmate” at Thornchase in about 1944-5. It was as some have described, and in my time a children’s home for kids out of control (so probably young delinquents) or with special needs.

I have only very happy memories. We “the insiders” were able to attend the local school and St John’s Church in Merrow, where I became a choirboy.

We made friends with other local children and also the inmates of the prisoner of war camp on the downs at the top of Grove Road.

I believe that eventually Thornchase was devoted to just teenage girls who fell into the same sort of category.

I am happy to follow this up if anyone is still interested.
J Spooner (Mrs) Reply

January 3, 2022 at 3:14 pm

My late husband lived at Thornchase when a children’s home. He was there due to family problems. his mum was a single mother and she couldn’t cope his uncle had died and his grandparents were in shock. It was thought best that he was removed but there had been no ill-treatment or neglect, nor any problem with his behaviour.

He kept in touch with one other lad but he never said much about it. He said one teacher had been a bully but I can’t remember a name.
It would have been late 1940s or early 1950s when he was there.
Alice Osborne Reply

March 3, 2023 at 12:23 pm

I was an evacuee at Thornchase, Merrow during the Second World War along with my friends Maureen Nort and Christine Riddley.

Thornchase housed both boys and girls of all ages, we were all evacuees from London. The school was next to the Italian prisoner of war camp which backed onto a golf course. Latter German prisoners were billeted there.

At the time, Miss E Bayatt was the person in charge. My name in those days was Alice Mann.

I would be interested to hear of other memories.
Mark Devine Reply

January 31, 2024 at 5:59 pm

I was at Thornchase, from 1974/75 – 1977. The dates vary. The “Headmaster” or “person-in-charge” was Mr Barron. He had a son called Richard and daughter called Nicky. Two staff members I remember are philomena and Susan. The school was mixed, and backed onto the golf course. I have no idea why I was there and my mother died 2yrs later. I do remember being friended by a young Indian boy, but apart from that – my memory is hazy.

Anyone who was there from that period, I’d love to hear from