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Banking on an Education?
This lovely Whitstable school photo was kindly
provided by Jock Harnett.... but where and when was it
taken?
Photo supplied by Jock Harnett
Right... I'll leave you with that poser and come back with
some answers in a mo'. In the meantime, we have some other
fascinating contributions to discuss... and a few more questions
for you.
Clare House
School
Recently, Stewart Tilley kindly forwarded a
lovely description of Clare House School by Sidney Walker who
attended the establishment nearly 80 years ago. Sidney has very
kindly given permission for it to be used on the Simply
Whitstable Schools Section.
Clare House is no longer in existence but it is a
name that we have come across before and one that we have
discussed in past Chat Columns. The article throws
considerable light on the subject but it also raises some
interesting questions. I will pose these in a moment. For
now, I'll let Sidney take you on a nostalgic trip back to the
1930s....
© Sidney Walker
First, let me thank Sidney for allowing us to
use his account and Stewart for passing it on to us.
So, we now know that all or part of Clare House
was based at All Saints Church in the 1930s.... but where have we
come across the name before? Well, it cropped up a
year ago in our Chat Column for w/c 27/10/07 while we were
discussing a school that local people referred to as "The
Horley School". At some stage (dates unknown), this
establishment operated at 81 High Street, Whitstable.
The address is now a shop but it has a large building at the rear
that once operated as a classroom.
Prompted by the discussion, Brian Eames very
kindly did some checking for us and made some interesting
discoveries in local street indexes. It seems that 81 High
Street had quite a long history in education! One entry recorded the premises as the Prep. School of a
Miss G Phipps in 1911 and 1912. Even more significantly, Brian discovered that a
Mrs. Dorothy Horley ran a girls Prep. School at "Clare
House, 81A High Street".... as confirmed by directory
entries from 1922 to 1936. However, there is no record of it after
that.
It seems highly likely that the number "81A"
and the name "Clare House" referred to the
school building at the rear. However, we now need to know if it
had any connection with the Clare House School attended by Sidney
at All Saints Church.
There are of course a number of possibilities. The
word "Clare" has been used around town for other reasons
(eg the naming of Clare Road") and it may be pure coincidence
that the schools had similar names. Another possibility is that
the All Saints school may have relocated from the High Street as a
result of expanding beyond the scope of a Girls Prep under new
ownership. Finally, it could be that the two schools were linked
and that Mrs Horley taught youngsters before they progressed to
the senior school at the church.
Over to you for some help!!!!
Reaction on Clare House &
Bank Articles
We have received a welcome email from Sid's
brother in Canada.....
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Clare
House
I have just come across the memories of school days at
Clare House by my brother, Sid Walker, and I find his
memories very similar t mine, so I don't need to repeat
them.
The mention of the cane to the back of the egs was a
favourite trick of Mr. Sargeant's. He would have us
around the blackboard and he would stand behind us.
If we didn't give the correct answer to a question he wuld
give us a quick clip behind our bare knees. My last
memory of Mr. Sargeant was when he was about to retire. He
had us all stand around his desk and he cut his cane into
small pieces and gave us all a piece to throw in the
stove. That was the end of the cane!
Mr. Sargeant often told us about his adventures in Borneo,
where he lived as a young man.
Shirley
Harnett
In the Chat page, I saw reference to Shirley Harnett.
I was in the Sea Scouts with him and I last knew him when he
worked for Arthur Collar, builders' merchants, in High
Street.
In about 1935 I went to work at Skinner's
menwear shop on the corner of Skinner's Alley and I left
Whitstable in 1938. I have had some wonderful visits
back since then, the most recent in May, 2008.
Christopher
Walker
Georgetown
Ontario
Canada |
| Our Reply:
Thanks, Christopher. I will be adding your comments to
a permanent article on Clare House shortly.
Shirley Harnett continued with the Sea Scouts for many
years and helped to keep them going during some tough times.
There must be hundreds of local youngsters who were taught
seamanship and band instruments by him. He had a great sense
of humour too.
Of course, you will, also remember Ken Treliving who
served as Scoutmaster for many years. He was
also in the menswear trade... at Daveys. |
Endowed School
As you may know, our schools section does include
a small feature on the Endowed. However, it a relatively small
item for a school that was founded back in the mid 1840s and is
now the oldest surviving educational establishment in the town.
Eventually, we hope to put this right! In the meantime, I will
leave you with a picture that Brian Smith constructed some time
ago. It shows the school building behind St Alphege Church in the
High Street before the area was fully developed.
© Brian Smith
The Bank Photo
Well did you sort out that photo of children on
the that bank? No? Let's take
another look....
It is actually the St Alphege Infants in their old
school building - down the alleyway close to the Oxford Street
railway bridge. The children are populating the railway embankment
which, by the look of it, may have been used as a small garden.
Jock's dad, Shirley Harnett, was one of the
pupils. As a result, we can date it as "sometime around
the early 1920s".
At the moment we don't have a lot of information
on the school but I am sure that we will eventually collect
enough material to add it to the schools section of Simply
Whitstable.
More on Schools
I must apologise for a hold up in producing items
for our Schools Section. Very soon, we hope to add articles on a
range of establishments such as the Soderberg School, Duenlem
School and Tankerton College. If you would like to visit our full Schools
Menu, click
here.
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