History of St Peter’s C of E School, Tandridge (Written in late 1990’s / early 2000)
The school and school house were built at a cost of £1,070 in 1870, the year of the Forster’s Education Act which initiated universal elementary education and the ‘Schools’ comprising both an Infants and a Mixed school began in 1871. Land was made available by the Hampden-Thurner family, who were patrons of the church living, and the architect was Mr Basil Champneys of Bloomsbury.
Until the building of separate schools at Beadles Lane, Oxted and Church Lane, Godstone, elementary education in all three villages from 1820 had been catered for by a National School at Tandridge crossroads, ‘National’ being a sensible abbreviation for ‘the National Society for the promoting the education of the poor in the principles of the established church throughout England and Wales’. The syllabus included spelling books 1 and 2 and instructive talks from Mrs Timmer. The two wings of this school, where the boys and girls were taught separately, have disappeared, but the centre part remains as a private house.
Such demarcation of the sexes did not survive in the new school in Tandridge Lane, except in the playgrounds or ‘yards’ and the basic accommodation was much as in 1993.
The school-house, rented to the Head Teacher for £12.00 p.m. had no bathroom until 1932, and the early occupants had to use a pail closet adjoining the school. The house was struck by lightning in 1920. The school building consisted of two rooms, a small one for infants, and the schoolroom for all other children who ranged to 14 years of age.
It was to accommodate 102 children from a wide surrounding district and on roll in 1905 were 35 boys, 30 girls and 30 infants. Those who know the building will marvel at the use of space and the skills of the teachers in managing to contain this number.
The schoolroom had a painted dado, distempered walls and a whitewashed ceiling, rarely decorated, and two open fires without fireguards and only two ventilated windows. The infant’s room fared worse with only one tiny window until a new dormer window as put in in 1923. Until then, the inspector reported, ‘the room is rather dark at times and space confined for marching’!!! Apparently this room also had an immense gallery, taken down after 1903 as being considered dangerous.
Conditions in the school much have been quite hard by today’s standards, but it was the sanitation that seems most alarming. The Inspectors reported in 1904 that there was no water on the premises and recommended suitable lavatory accommodation for the boys [the provision consisted of 1 pail closet for the boys, 3 for the girls, emptied once a week by a man paid the princely sum of 5/- [25p] a quarter]. The boys’ urinals didn’t flush and were reported dirty, with effluent draining into the fields. Drainage from cottages in the village also discharged into an open ditch which ran alongside the west side of the playground, but after 1907 the premises were connected to a new drainage system.
Lest you think conditions remained indescribable, the Sanitary Inspector from the Rural District Council found the installations to be clean and in order in 1924. Even so, a physical training session in the playground in the 1930’s had to be abandoned ‘because of the offensive smell from the sewage works’.
Much respect must be afforded to the successive Head Teachers who have reigned over St Peter’s. From the early records it seems they did more than just teach, and the Inspector in 1904 recorded that ‘suitable provision must be made for sweeping and cleaning the school – at present it is done by the teachers’. An early Head was Mr Stanley, assisted by his wife and daughter, from circa 1887 until 1913 and they and their successors coped with some 100 children [aged 5-14] and taught in the mixed class of over 60 children, in Standards I-VII, Reading, Writing, Dictation, Arithmetic, History, Geography, Drawing for the boys, Needlework for the girls, Singing, Recitation and Physical Drill.
Not only did they manage all this, but had to deal with a stream of visitors. It seems as if there was at least one every week; often the Vicar, but regularly it was a Diocesan Inspection or Government Inspectors, the School Attendance officer, or the Managers, and respected titled people who came particularly at Christmas and in July.
The school years were long, with only a few days for Christmas and Easter and the odd half-day, but with a longer holiday beginning at the end of August and the children returning in October, subject to the success of the harvest and hop-picking, which was the purpose of the break. Gradually holidays changed and lengthened to become much as they are today.
Although Mr Stanley claimed a marked improvement in discipline when Mrs Standley assisted him, discipline was recorded as good on the whole apart from odd instances of truancy. Indeed, attendance seemed to pre-occupy the Head Teachers greatly, and is constantly mention n the Log Books. Even so there were several occasions when children were absent without permission – at Godstone Fair, the Oxted Agricultural Fair, and even the Flower Show in the parkland immediately opposite the school.
What was noticeable was how many children came and went in the 1900’s and so roll numbers went up and down. Significantly, as the century advanced the rolls became much small, and in 1932 several people and a News Chronicle reporter came to the school to ‘ascertain the numbers of children of agricultural labourers who had attended in the past 30-50 years, and to find some reason for the decrease’.
The greatest effect on attendance in the late 1800s and early 1900s was the weather, and Long Book quotes were numerous :
- the continual wet weather has lowered the attendance this week
- there was a heavy fall of snow
- heavy rain during the night and early morning in flooding the road below Brook Farm, the water being too deep for the children to cross
It needs to be borne in mind that children had to travel great distances on foot, and Mr Arthur Crowhurst has mentioned how children as young as five walked five mils a day in all kinds of weather.
An equal threat to attendance was illness. In the same early decades there were periods of very low attendance due to epidemics of whooping cough, measles and mumps, and even in the later times mumps and chicken pox used to spread quickly through the school. There were cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria, when the whole school had to be disinfected and once two cases of smallpox, when all the children were vaccinated.
Children’s health became monitored more closely, with regular inspections by a visiting school nurse examining children and excluding cases such as ringworm, impetigo and infestation. The local Care Committee undertook in 1928 to provide cod liver oil and malt to a number of children, and with improvement in health the school began to receive frequent congratulations on 100% attendance.
Miss Dudley, who became Head Teacher in 1913, assisted by her sister, had to oversee the school through troubled times and inevitably the 1914 War affected ‘this little country school’. History lessons were suspended to follow the event of the war and children were taken to see the march-past of the troops at the crossroads in 1915, led on horseback by Major Hampden-Turner. Sadly, he was killed in action shortly after, and there is a memorial to him in the chancel of the church.
The Misses Dudley experienced war-time shortages and, after the war, the outbreak of Spanish ’flu and the effects of the General Strike when coal supplies were cut; but there were happy times and successes, with day-long outings to places like Hastings, and parties at Christmas at Tandridge Hall and in the Institute. The school was congratulated in 1926 on excellent work.
- the children in this somewhat isolated little country school are trained to good habits of orderliness and endeavour
Miss Jolly’s headship commenced in 1926, and was distinguished by the sporting activities begun for the children including the football matches against Oxted School, which for many years resulted in a drawn game. He introduced a team system of Normans, Saxons, Romans and Britons and there were outings to London. The children went swimming, boys and girls separately, of course, and the girls travelled to Oxted Practical Centre for cookery, and the boys to Bletchingley’s Handicraft Centre. For the first time the children wore hats and caps in navy and pale blue, distinguished by the ‘crossed keys’. The school garden, used for gardening lessons, had to have its fencing improved, because rabbits and birds had destroyed the crops several times. A more material improvement was the installation of central heating in 1929 and Smith’s Charity arranged for the supply of hot Horlicks during the winter months.
Miss Palmer arrived in 1932 to carry on Miss Jolly’s good work and she had to steer the school through the Second World War. Before it started there were more happy times with numerous outings and educational slide and film shows in the Institute [Village Hall]. The war-time, however, must have been most taxing. Initially, it involved despatching woollies to the armed forces, but in 1940 the school began to be seriously disturbed by air raids and warnings. Children’s sleep, it was noted, suffered not only from night air raids but also by the light nights of double summer time. Surprisingly, interruptions were greatest in 1944, towards the end of the war during the period of flying bombs and a voluntary evacuation took place when Miss Langford accompanied eighteen children to Neath. Another war-time incident was when one of the boys punched Miss Palmer, broke her cane, tore up an arithmetic text-book and used band language in front of the children.
After the war, normality returned, the playing field was created, prize giving was organised and Christmas entertainments and carol services became features every year. Children visited the area from London to see cows being milked and to look at turkeys, chickens and pigs.
Miss Palmer left in 1963 and Mr Hopkirk who succeeded her until 1967, wrote that his stay Tandridge had been the happiest in his life. Under the next Head, Mr Stear, the school took part in musical festivals and concerts and the whole village was involved with raising funds, by fete and whist drives etc. for a new classroom. A new medical and staff room was also set up. There were 11+ exams, open evenings and activities funded by the Friends of St Peters; and further activity and fund-raising took place when the new village hall was built to replace the Institute.
The Head was also involved with parents from Chathill on the lack of transport and he himself was at one time ferrying children back and forth in his car.
A crisis occurred when the school lost the older children and became limited to 5 – 8+. There was some opposition and concern from parents and the school was in danger of closure. At this point Mr Stear had to resign after illness and was succeeded in 1976 by Mrs Pullar Strecker under whose leadership the school flourished greatly in reputation and became over-subscribed. Under Mrs. Pullar Strecker’s headship the school acquired some second hand ‘mobile’ classrooms and the Governors bought a portakabin for the head’s office and the school secretary. The ‘sanitation’ arrangements still remained a hot topic, as in the absence of staff facilities within the school buildings the new village hall kindly provided the facilities.
In 1992 Mrs Dalziel became head and again faced new challenges with the reduction in age group from 5-8 to 5-7. This was a worrying time loosing a whole class of 8 year olds. The school facilities had to be improved since the ‘mobile’ classrooms were becoming well past their sell by date so an ambitious building programme was undertaken with the Diocese and Local Authority. The local community and the Friends of the School raised £60.000 from many functions and generous donations to pay towards the schools share of the costs. Phase 1 , saw one classroom built one year and Phase 2, one more classroom and the Hall were completed a few years later. More recently a group room was added and just before Mrs. Dalziel retired the staff cloakroom was upgraded!
Addendum: Mrs Johnson became headteacher of St Peter’s in 2012 before handing the baton to our current headteacher, Miss Greenaway, in 2014. Further significant building works were undertaken in 2019 to join the “old” and “new” buildings together making for a single, united building to house our thriving, wonderful school.