Letter: My Recollections of 1940s Guildford Schooling

Published on: 30 Sep, 2019
Updated on: 30 Sep, 2019

Pupils from Quarry House school on Pewley Down, July 30, 1934.

From Peter Sharman

In response to: Can You Help Solve Mysteries of Guildford Schools’ History?

Reading comments here about Guildford schools has prompted me to contribute my own modest recollection. I started at Ludlow school just after my fifth birthday in September, 1948.

I had never been away from home until then so I was mortified when my mother left me crying my eyes out as I held on to the iron railings at the front of the school, watching her walk away.

I recall the painted wooden chairs and tables in the reception class and the numbers and letters of the alphabet that formed a frieze around the walls. Each of these characters was brightly coloured and, until this day, I have a form of synesthesia (probably based on that exposure) in that I always associate letters and numbers with matching colours.

The playground was home to the outside and rather whiffy black loos and also to a massive heap of coke. In retrospect, it was amazing how many kids were wearing callipers because polio was still a real scourge in those days. Almost every aeroplane that flew over was confidently declared to be a Spitfire or even a Meteor by the older boys.

I can still smell the colourful oilcloth table covers we had in the canteen. Our first history lesson was a rivetting introduction to “cavemen” and probably inspired my lifetime interest in history. I recollect that we had some event where we all had to be dressed as elves or gnomes and I had a photo somewhere of a school group in which I was supposed to be dressed as an elf.

Incidentally, I used to walk to and from Beechcroft Drive to Ludlow Road daily. which involved crossing the A3 on foot when I was five, I was chaperoned by Rosemary who, I am guessing, was eight years old at the time.

Our family moved to Woking about two years later but we returned to Guildford when I was nine and I started in Miss Chaplin’s class in the C of E school in Farnham Road. Much of that year’s curriculum seemed to be taken up with stuff to do with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11.

I distinctly recall how Miss Chaplin would place a crate of milk on top of the Courtier stove in the winter and also the distinctive smell of burnt milk as the occasional bottle split open, sending its contents cascading down the hot casing. Miss Kemp was headmistress and she seemed to be well-respected and known by many Guildfordians.

My younger brother was in Jim Pewton’s class and I finished my time at junior school in Mr Ralph (?) Downs’s class where we were taught many skills, including making glove puppets and writing and performing plays involving them. The heads were modelled in clay which then became moulds to produce painted papier mache shells for the final heads. Hands were made from felt etc.

I remember that Gerald Jones and I put on a version of “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” that involved some mechanical model we had constructed from Meccano. Ralph Downs was obviously interested in the Festival Of Britain and introduced us to illustrations of what later became iconic furniture.

A weekly feature would be the special treat of watching a cine film in the main hall, courtesy of Jim Pewton. Mr Downs would organise quizzes and singing while we were waiting for our school dinners.

We used to walk in a crocodile to the sports field behind The County School for games and once a year we walked to St Nicolas Church for Empire Day celebrations. We sat our 11-plus in Queen Eleanor’s School in Onslow Village and five of us were lucky enough to pass.

We were variously sent to Guildford Grammar School, Godalming Grammar School or Farnham Grammar School, which later became my particular alma mater, but that is another story.