..... It was the
Headteacher's idea to write the history of the St. John's
School. I was a governor there then and, being interested
in local history, readily agreed.
..... The school
is almost as old as St John's Church. The church was
built in 1843 and the first ever school building followed
two years later. Nothing remains of that building, it was
replaced by the present upper building in 1910. The lower
building was put up in 1884. It is no doubt correct to
say that in its time hundreds of teachers and thousands
of pupils must have been associated with the school.
Equally, it is certainly correct to say that many of them
would havehad very interesting stories to tell about it. Many personal triumphs and
tragedies have passed into the mists of time and will
never now be retold, but many live on. More than one
married couple have been heads of the Boys' and Girls'
departments, for example, and once there were no taps or
main drainage in the school. Children used to sit in
galleries for lessons - outbreaks of diseases such as
diphtheria and scarlet fever would close the school for
weeks on end - a teacher named Mr Pain was sacked for
excessively caning children and a Mr Weeds took others
for gardening. Why were people once so fearful of the
authorities providing their children's education? And why
did the children go to High Trees to collect horse
chestnuts for the Government during World War One? These
and a great many other subjects make up the whole that is
the history of St John's.
..... There has
always been a great interest in the school from ex-pupils
and ex-staff members alike. History evenings at which
oral and visual information about the School's past has
been given have always been popular. The last one, at
which a look around the School buildings was followed by
a talk and a slide show, filled the main hall with well
over a hundred people. School events commemorating
historic dates in the life of St John's have been equally
successful. As well as locally historical and personal
interest there is the fact that St John's history is
encompassed within national history. The school has
endured wars and has reflected the social history of our
country.
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The
history of St John's School began on 21st August 1840
when a decision was taken at a parish vestry meeting to
claim compensation from the Brighton, London and South
Coast Railway Company for the loss of grazing and other
rights when it built the railway across common land in
the Manor. Four years later the churchwardens were
holding a meeting to decide what to do with £535.7s thus
obtained. The decision was to spend one third of it on
the poor rate and two thirds on building a National
Schools at St John's. The Schools (Boys', Girls' and
Infants') opened in 1845 and St John's, now in the form
of a Community Primary school, is still going strong.
Picture
at left: - St John's Church in 1857, still as originally
built in 1843. Sweeping changes have since been made,
including the replacement of the surrounding fence with a
flint stone wall.
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.JPG) .It is now
available
This
book is available from St John's School. Twelve chapters
and numerous pictures tell the story of the school from
its conception in the early 1840s to the present day. The
price is £10, with all the proceeds from sales going
directly to the school. If you wish to buy a copy it is
available at the office at St John's School during normal
school hours. If you would like a copy posted to you
please send a cheque for £10 + £2 P&P in the UK
(£4 elsewhere) including your full name and address to: Gabi
Slaughter, c/o St John's School, Pendleton Road, Redhill,
Surrey RH1 6QG. If you have any questions, or in
case of difficulty, email the author direct.
'The School on the Common', The History of St John's
Schools' Redhill. Author and Publisher: - Alan Moore
Distributor: - St John's School.
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Children outside the school in 1918
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The Girls' School on Empire Day, 1911 |
.JPG) Fleur Adcock
with some of the children With Fleur is ex-St John's
teacher, Mrs Barratt, herself an ex-pupil of the 1920's
and who, when later a teacher there, had Fleur in her
class in the early 1940s. |
Ex-pupil
and poet Fleur Adcock OBE is an ex-pupil of St John's.
She visited St John's on November 16th, 2000 on a
nostalgic return to her old school. While she was there
she took a special assembly and shared some of her poetry
with the children. Afterwards she visited each class and
the children were able to share the poems they had
written with her. A poem Fleur wrote about the St John's,
and which was published in the 1970s, is included in the
book.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the picture
of the 1922 St John's Years ago the children of St John's used
to assemble each Empire ------------------ football team
below Charlie Pearce is
Day on the common alongside Mill Street in company with
the ----------------------------- second from
left in the front row children of other schools. Together they
would be addressed by the
Mayor on subjects mainly to do with the accomplishments
of their 
country in the world and the success of its Empire. One
of the children
from St John's who would would have heard a number of
Mayors speak on those occasions was Charlie Pearce. After
he left school he became a Reigate and Banstead
Councillor, remaining so for around 30 years. Towards the
end of that time he was himself Mayor of the Borough but
never got to address local children on the Empire as by
then its days were over. As far as is known, Charlie
Pearce was the only St John's pupil to become Mayor of
the Borough of Reigate.
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