Battle From Hastings

 Occasionally, this blog takes a diversion from any series of posts which is currently running.  As regular readers already appreciate we are steadily working our way along the south side of Hatfield Road, but the previous post gave us a rare opportunity to explore a newly discovered turnpike mile post.  It came about through an exploration of what would, in the 1920s and 30s, have been a small rural school along Watford Road which was under threat of closure.  After that closure had taken place shortly before World War Two, the children having transferred to the new Mount Pleasant School, Bricket Wood, the building seems to have re-opened again in 1940.

A weekend camp by children from Hastings Grammar Boys' School while in Hertfordshire
during 1942.
COPYRIGHT UNKNOWN

St Albans played host to two groups of schools (and at least one college) for at least part of the duration of the war.  The first group arrived with the Pied Piper evacuation in September 1939 with schools from Camden, among them Princess Road, Haverstock Hill, Rhyll and New End.  The following year a second wave of evacuations arrived from the Hastings area, including the town's grammar schools. No definitive list of all schools who moved has been located, nor their host schools in the receiving areas, in our case St Albans.  So when a new school is discovered it is a cause for celebration, partly because it still triggers personal memories, and partly because it is part of the story for both host and evacuated schools and their towns.

Children from St Mary-at-the-Castle School, Hastings enjoying a meal at St Stephen's
Parish Hall in November 1940.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

In November 1940 the Herts Advertiser published a photograph of children and staff of St Mary-in-the-Castle School, Hastings.  They are seen enjoying a meal sitting in St Stephen's Parish Hall.  So far we do not know to which local school they were attached, but it is possible that the parish hall and St Stephen's closed school could  have been sufficient to accommodate them; St Mary's was not a large establishment.  From the above photograph it is clear that at least some of the children were of junior age, and as with many schools at the time St Mary's was an elementary School with all three departments, infant, junior and senior located in very old and outdated buildings in the cramped centre of Hastings.

We know the name of three adults from the caption: J W Brittain was the Head who accompanied the children, along with member of teaching staff Miss F A Poole.  Mrs Foster was the cook, who may have been local, or an adult – perhaps a parent – who came with the school.

The red roofed building in the centre, the former St Mary-in-the Castle School, still stands
in the centre of Hastings, but a current school with this name no longer exists, no doubt
having been subsumed into one or more larger establishments during the post-war period.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

Some south coast schools returned to their home towns in 1942 when the bombing threats had subsided and it is assumed St Mary's did likewise. Before the school moved to St Albans the Sussex local authority had been planning a re-organisation of its schools and buildings.  When that process resumed after the war the original intention of retaining the original St Mary building came to nothing owing to its poor condition, and under new names and sites this and other schools became part of the Ore reorganisation in the 1950s.

Nevertheless, the people of St Albans were no doubt pleased to have hosted St Mary's-in-the-Castle School during its wartime evacuation. Equally, it is to be hoped the St Mary's children and their teachers enjoyed their time with us.  We know that many former evacuee children, as well as their hosts, remain in contact with each other via bespoke organisations, some with their own regular newsletters.  It may yet be possible to recover some memories of the connection between St Mary-in-the-Castle, Hastings, and St Albans.