Take a look and use the link on each photo to mail us if you can tell us more about the photo - thank you.

I came across your site while looking for genealogical info for my family.

I was delighted to see pictures of Mr.Cutchee who was my grandfather (Pop as I knew him). I smiled at Martin Lisk's memories of being invited into my grandfather's lighthouse for reprimand: I never had the pleasure of seeing the 'lighthouse' obviously, but experienced a few reprimands from him all the same.

I was also very familiar with the Hiawatha poems as he used to recite them often at home too. I remember being woken up by him bringing me tea in the morning with the words "Awake! For morning in the bowl of night..."a quote from the Rubyyat of Omar Khayyam.

He loved poetry and I still have a copy of Palgrave's Golden Treasury which he gave to me for a birthday, inscribed with his beautiful copper plate handwriting.

I fear I was something of a disappointment to him on at least one occasion when I preferred to ride my bike rather than learn how to play chess! I know he loved learning and teaching, and being with children. It was his passion and joy to share his knowledge and love of beauty. My grandmother, his wife, had been a pupil at the Village school in the early 1900s. She had apparently enjoyed the quirk of fate that enabled her to attend functions at her old school as the headmaster's wife!

My grandfather found it hard to give up teaching altogether as he used to have little maths books full of sums ready for my sister and me when we visited. We eventually managed to persuade him to play other games with us (he was adept at finding ju-jubes behind our ears) and the maths books disappeared into a drawer...relief! However the teaching genes must be strong as all his grandchildren (3 girls and a boy) have become teachers.

Many thanks for your interesting site.
I hope my reminiscences from a slightly different perspective may be useful
Mary Cutchee (October 2009)

May 2009 - Pat Winslett nee Phillips says "Two particular memories that came to mind when looking at the green corrugated hut/hall between the Infants and Junior schools.  One was that it was the meeting place for the Brownies. The other was queuing up with large tins to receive free dried milk and chocolate powder - I suppose it was not long after the end of the war when we were still rationed!"

June 2009 - Martin Lisk says "

Form 1b 1958 Mrs Luckman's class.

Do you recognise yourself or others? If so, please mail the BHRG webmaster

13.

Ian says "I had been meaning to send the pictures for some time, but for some reason never got around to it. I do remember some of the children in the class so will do my best to list as many as possible. If I was at home in England I could have looked up my school reports which would have given the actual dates but presently away working. My late wife also attended the village school so I think she had similar photographs for her years which I will look up on my return. She was four years younger than me. I guess as we get older we often look back and think how quickly time has gone by and often wonder what happened to many of those I attended school with my late brother also attended the Banstead village school. He was three years older than myself and passed the 11+ and went to the Glyn Grammar school. I failed the 11+ and went to Piquet’s Way Secondary School.

My wife and I moved from Banstead when we married and moved to the outskirts of Bristol where our children grew up. My home is now in the Cotswolds.

Many thanks for your work which has brought many memories back.

Your gratefully

Ian Morris

Form III 1956 (1957?) Mr Gould's class.
Do you recognise yourself or others? If so, please mail the BHRG webmaster

Peter Wells writes: Having attended Banstead Village School I think I might recognise several pupils shown on the photograph contributed by Ian Morris.

However after 60 odd years I am not even sure that is me (Peter Wells) in the back row no.2. Others could be Alan Wicher b/r 7, John Hopkins b/r 9, Kathleen Davies m/r 9, Sidney Davis f/r 3, David Garmen f/r 4, and David Ship f/r 6. Surnames escape me with Margret? m/r 1, Terry? f/r 2.

Other pupils from my year include David Ship, who came from Belmont on the bus each day with, Patricia Stratford and Judith Patterson. Rosemary Phillips, Pamela Bowers, Brenda Hill and Wendy Penn came from my end of the village. Christine Harris, Brian Knowles, Dawn?, Clive? and Colin? also spring to mind.

From Mr. Gould’s class we went on to Mr. Jones class. I hope my memories evoke further memories of those who were in our class to identify and fill in some of the missing names.

Peter Wells (March 2018)

Note: The original photo was badly creased across the front row of children. The digital repair is reasonable but not perfect and some faces look slightly distorted.

Robert Hines says "I believe this to be around 1952/53 & 4th from right on the top row is my late brother, John Hines."

Note from webmaster - The date Cyril suggests is well off the date we thought this photo was taken. Can anyone else add any information?

Brian Melton writes:

I think it is likely to be either ‘47/48 or ‘48/49.
The top two classes (one Mr Loveday’s ?) was heavily oversubscribed with slightly more academic pupils! so class 2B was formed to take the overspill which set up a characterful ragamuffin bunch of lads. This form was run by Mr Fenton.

Top row No’s 9 & !0 Billy Crozier & myself Brian Melton – we were Headmaster’s (Mr Cutchee) monitors and also the Milk Monitors for the whole school, taking 1/3rd pint bottles of milk to pupils in all classes. Mr Cutchee had a bell installed in our classrom and Billy & myself used to take it in turns to run errands for the headmaster – when the bell rang we had to run up the Victorian spiral staircase into his Ivory Tower, we hardly got any work done.

Some of the ‘? ‘ I can’t quite put names to so maybe help can come from other quarters.

One year after the Summer holidays Mr Fenton arrived with lots of truly beautiful framed paintings of birds he had produced in the school holidays and he hung them around our classroom, I was in awe of his wonderful art and to this day I have never forgotten them and he inspired and helped me pursue a love of art which possibly steered me in an art direction,

From Banstead Primary School I went on to Banstead Secondary School and when 15 yrs of age I passed the National Junior Art Award to gain entrance to Epsom College of Art, this until National Service intervened where I became a Tactical Sketcher creating war maps. On demob I worked for advertising agencies and design groups in London eventually going freelance in the 1960’s and then forming my own creative graphics group in London. I then set up up galleries in the
English Lake District and then on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. I am now freelance again but now only working in fine art in my octogenarian years, which I still enjoy.
I have a website if anyone is interested www.waxfineart.com

Sincerely,

Brian Melton.

Jenny Fowle did just that in Feb 2011 but we still have a few names missing.

Christine contacted us in May 2012

I reconnected with Jenny Fowle last year after she found me in this photo! She and I lived in the same road, we were friends. Later she moved to Jersey, is still there and we’ve met up again in the last year, this is all very good, it’s lovely!
Janice Dickson and I were absolutely best pals, went to Nonsuch High School for Girls after Banstead. I haven’t had contact with ‘Jan’ for a long time; last time I knew, she was in Henley, married with family.
I’m Christine Fooks (now Hayward-Fooks) and I live in Winchester with husband Brian. We have been running a specialist guitar shop for the last twelve years.

Tributes paid to former Lion's president

A ONE-OFF: Stan Hogman

A FAMILY man who helped to raise thousands of pounds for charity has died.
Stan Hogman was an active member of the East Grinstead and District Lions Club since 1975. He also volunteered at Queen Victoria Hospital and the National Trust at Standen, before he died suddenly on 8 June 2010, aged 72.
During his 35 years with the club he held several offices, including president three times. Current president John Noble said: "I took over as president from Stan, who was an impossible act to follow. He was a one-off. "He was a great help to me, and my job would have been much more difficult without him being there. He was irreplaceable."
The community-minded individual joined the Lions in Horley in 1971, before transferring to the East Grinstead branch when he moved to the town a few years later.
A club statement said he would be remembered for his "humour and quick wit". It added: "He will also be remembered for his musical hall repartee as MC at the annual senior citizens party and at the Lion's annual May fair."
Stan found time to regularly play golf at the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club and he was a lifelong Arsenal supporter.
He last held the position of Lions president in the club's 40th year and he was "in his element" at the charter, leading members in their usual routine of YMCA. "His speech at the 40th anniversary was out of this world," said Mr Noble. "He was always chirpy and always full of jokes and it's his sparkling attitude that will be missed the most. He was the life and soul of the party."
Stan is survived by his wife, Angela, son Gary, daughter Anita and grandchildren Charlotte, Georgina, Eliza, Millie and Charlie.
The club statement said: "Our sympathies and thoughts are with them and their sad and untimely loss."

The school had two playgrounds. The school entrance through the back playground was along Avenue Road. That's where we came into school in the morning. We played games such as hopscotch and oranges and lemons here! There was a large grey metal climbing frame next to the school building which we were never allowed to play on. I spent many hours looking for 'diamonds' in the gravelled playground. I think someone must have started a rumour that there were diamonds in the gravel but I never found any!! The front playground overlooked the high street and there was a painted line on the ground which we were never allowed to cross, next to the high chain link fence. This stopped us getting too near strangers passing by. The school playing field was another great place for us to run around and play hide and seek in. There were a couple of large trees which had swings attached made out of old car tyres. You wouldn't have that today. It would be deemed too dangerous!

Sports days were held on the playing field. There were egg and spoon, two legged races, running and sack races. My memories of these days were of bright sunshine and looking out to see if my Mum had arrived.

The inside of the school was made up of, what seemed to me at the time, large Victorian classrooms, one or two halls and a library. The library must have been newly decorated at the time as it was the only room that I remember had carpet. It had thick cream carpet and we were only allowed to go in there a couple at a time. The other rooms in the school had polished floors. I can picture the polished flight of dark steps leading up to Mrs Bates office. This was off the hall near the main entrance. I think I only went in there once and I can't for the life of me think what for! There was a ceramic or plastic parrot on its perch sitting outside her door. The hall at the front of the school was where we had PE and maybe assembly (I can't remember). I do remember harvest festival in there - the sight of fruit, vegetables, tins, bunches of flowers etc all displayed on the stage while we sang 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter …'.

Although we must have had the normal set lessons the only ones I really recall with great detail are pottery afternoons. We were given great chunks of clay to play with and I made an ash tray made from the outline of a horse chestnut tree leaf, and a yellow sausage like man. These were fired in the kiln, we painted them and then they were fired again. A few years ago when my brothers and I were sorting out our late parents house, my older brother found my yellow man. I have my 'shepherd' sitting on my dressing table. It has 'Tina' scribbled into the clay underneath.

One place I tried not to go to if I could help it was the school toilets! I think there were two lots of toilets but if we were playing outside we had to use the loos nearest to the playground. These were brick built. Inside they were smelly, damp and you were lucky if you found a toilet that wasn't blocked with loo paper. The walls were whitewashed, green with algae and I was very frightened of the wood lice and spiders crawling about!

When I first started school I went home for midday dinner. After a while I stayed for school lunch. In those days very few children had packed lunch. Dinners were served in a large corrugated 'hut' next to the school. We lined up around the inside of the 'hut' to wait our turn for dinner. Some meals were really nice and others disgusting! I loved butterscotch tart but there was never enough for seconds. Another time I was kept in all dinnertime by one dinner lady. I had some kind of stew for dinner that day and she was keen to make me eat every last mouthful. Even a thick piece of fat which she tried to conceal amongst some mash potato. There was NO WAY I was going to eat that and she eventually had to let me go to my next lot of lessons!

One afternoon we were playing in the back playground when to our amazement a couple of clowns on stilts came walking by the school gate. They were advertising the circus which was to be in the field at the end of De Burgh Park. They stood there and scattered handfuls of free tickets into the playground. What a wonderful sight that was! In fact we all went to the circus not long after and had a great afternoon watching the acts in the big tent.

At this time my Mum enrolled me for ballet classes at the ballet school in Woodmansterne Lane (near the well). I think it used to be an old barn. I went there straight from school and enjoyed the dressing up in the ballet outfit as much as the dancing itself. One day I arrived and was so tired from school that, even though I was all kitted out in my ballet outfit, I wouldn't go in. Mum had to take me home and I refused to go again!

After the Infant School I went on to attend Banstead Middle School and later Nork Park, but that's another story!

Tina L Claydon (nee Watson)
July 2005