St John's School |
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The upper building of St John's School as it was before 1910 and as it is today
For informtion about the writing of the book about the history of the school click here |
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St John's School |
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The upper building of St John's School as it was before 1910 and as it is today
For informtion about the writing of the book about the history of the school click here |
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| The building of the original school in 1845 | ||
| The history of St John's School begins one
hundred and fifty-five years ago when the only church was
St Mary's at Reigate and the town of Redhill was not yet
in existence. At this time there was no local council and
local affairs were conducted at regular organised
meetings run by the church. On 21st Aug 1840 one such
meeting was held to consider a proposal that £411 of
parish funds be put towards the building of a new church
to serve the growing population. This new church, built
in 1843, was soon consecrated as St John the Evangelist. The London to Brighton railway had recently been built across part of the nearby common where people let their animals out to graze. Because the railway stopped many of them doing this a decision was taken at that same 1840 meeting that the Railway Company should be made to pay compensation. Four years later, in October 1844, £535 was received. Local people decided to spend one third of it on the poor and two thirds on a new school. In 1845 that school it was built opposite the church and became known as St John's School. |
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| These views, the first from the common, the second from St John's Church, show what the School looked like when it was first built. The school building seen here is where today's upper building is. Who the builder was is not known. In the picture on the left St John's Church is on the left of the picture and in the centre is the Royal Earlswood Asylum. Just visible between the school and the Asylum is a tall funnelled train on the railway line that provided some of the money to build the school. In the picture on the right the horsedrawn wagon is on what is today Pendleton Road. None of this building remains today. | ||
| The building of the lower part of the School | ||
| Because the Church had been involved with
the meetings and the money to build the School the Church
also ran the School. Because the population continued to
grow the school had to be made bigger from time to time
and the Church had to find the money for this. Sometimes
it could not afford to improve the school or even to make
necessary repairs. The Government said that if the School
was not looked after properly it would take the School
away from the Church and run it itself. People were
concerned that their children would not get the religious
instruction they wanted. Lots of meetings were held and
eventually £1500 was raised by door to door collections
in Reigate. With this money the lower building we see
today was built and opened in October 1884. The architect
- the man who designed the new building - was Mr
Haughton. He had recently built a new school at East
Grinstead but where he lived is unknown. Once again, the
builder is also unknown. Up to now the boys and girls had all been in the one building. Now the new, lower building became the Boy's School and the infants and girls stayed in the old building. |
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This wonderful view taken from St John's Church shows how St John's had grown from the small isolated building above into a large group of buildings. In the foreground are cottages in Pendleton Road. At the top centre of picture, just left of the pointed clocktower, is the original building. On the top left of picture is the lower building that was put up in 1884 and still stands today. Behind the original building, and to the right of the clocktower, are the buildings put up in and around 1861 to enlarge the school. All this cluster of buildings was demolished and replaced by the upper building we have today | |
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| On the left is the entrance to the old school building under the clock tower, but exactly where was it in relation to the school as we know it today. In the wonderful old picture on the right it can be seen that it was on the south side of the school close to the part of the common that is the car park today. The house was built for the occupation of the master of the school. Note the orderly line of girls entering the playground. | ||
| The re-building of the upper part of the School | ||
| In 1902 the
Government passed a law taking schools away from the
Church and putting local councils in charge. At St John's
the lower building - the Boys' School - remained with the
Church but the rest of the school was taken over by
Reigate Council. The building had greatly changed from
the picture we see above, with the clock tower and other
buildings shown on the left having been added. They were
old, lit only by gas, poorly heated and overcrowded. In
1909 it was decided to replace them. In 1910 the old
buildings were demolished and the building we have today
was built and opened in the October. The architects were
the Redhill firm of Mssrs T.R. and V. Hooper. The builder
was Crosby and Co. but it is not known where they came
from. The clock from the old tower seen above was put
into the new tower we have today by A. Cooling of
Redhill. In the infants' part of the new school there were four classrooms (there are only three today). The girls' school had a hall and six classrooms (today only three are in use for boys and girls). One classroom was for 60 children, one for 40 and four for 50, so it can be seen that there were 300 children being taught where 90 are taught today. As there were also about 200 infants the playground was either very crowded at times, or separate playtimes were enjoyed - think of the noise outside when others were having lessons - or children were allowed out onto the common. On the right is the Surrey Mirror newspaper report of the opening of the school in 1910. The headline says: 'Palatial New Buildings Opened at Redhill'. Compared to the old they probably were palatial, having gas and electricity, more light and better heating. It is interesting to note that these new buildings are now more than 91 years old - in 1910, when the old buildings were demolished some were 65 years old and some were less than 50 years old. Although showing its age in many ways our 'new' school building has served us well. |
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| For more information about St John's School on this website click on the links below | ||
| St John's in WW2 | This author's boyhood memories of the school | Questions and Answer page |
| If you have information about St John's School of any comments on this website please | ||
| CONTACT AUTHOR | ||
| Since the book on St John's History was
begun in 2001 there have been a number of significant
events, none more significant than the opening of the
boys' WW2 air raid shelter in 2003 and the discovery of
the paintings done on its walls in 1940. In December 2007
St John's School created its own website where
information about the murals and much more can be found. To view visit www.stjohnsschoolredhill.co.uk |
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