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Educational History of an Unusual School Building

Introduction

    

It's a bit strange for us to write a "schools" article that focuses on a building rather than a school establishment! However, this is an exception because we believe that despite being a High Street shop in modern times, the building had quite a history in education. In fact, at different times, it was home to at least three quite separate schools. It may also have had a connection with another school that operated on the either side of town. 

   

How did it all arise?

  

Our enquiries started when, back in 2006, Ivan Knowles kindly forwarded this school photo from his family photo album...

   

  

It is believed to have been taken at the rear of No. 81 High Street - premises that many of our readers will remember as Webb's Newsagents of the 1950s.

Thee property had a "side access" path that lead to a backyard containing a separate brick annex. That annex was once used as a classroom and it backs on to an alleyway that runs from Gladstone Road to the playground of the nearby Endowed Church of England School.

  

 Early History.... The Phipps School  of 1911

   

Brian Eames has very kindly made some enquiries for us and discovered a Street Index entry that shows 81 High Street as the Prep. School of a Miss G Phipps.... in 1911/1912! It is not clear whether the school was located in the main building or the annex.

Brain's information not only set us on our way... it may also have solved a longstanding issue for Ian Johnson....

  

Hi Dave,

That's a fascinating article on the premises at 81A High Street and it also offers a possible answer to a query I posed some while back on the site.

My Dad went to Miss Phipps' school in 1919, when he was six  - see postcard below. 

   

  

We had no idea where the school was located. Thanks to Brian Eames, I think we now know.

Ian Johnson
Huddersfield
W. Yorks

  

Provided that Miss Phipps didn't relocate between 1912 and 1919, it seems likely that Ian's dad did indeed attend school at 81 High Street. 

I love the post card! Schools were supposed to be tough places in the early part of the twentieth century and, yet, here we have a school sending a very kind message to a pupil. Perhaps, this was one of the defining features of the many small private schools that grew up in small premises around town in the early 20th century. Maybe, they were less harsh or less impersonal than large State Schools and thereby appealed to caring parents or families with more sensitive children.  

It is also interesting to note the makers name - "Boots Cash Chemists"! I presume Boots had an outlet in Whitstable at that time

    

The Horley School & Clare House (1922-1936)

   

Whilst Miss Phipps was still teaching in 1919, it seems that, by the early 1920s, she had relinquished the High Street school premises. Brian Eames search of Street Directory entries has revealed that a Mrs. Dorothy Horley ran a girls Prep. School there between 1922 and at least 1936.

The entries for Dorothy may also give us our first documentary evidence of the Annex building as the school address is given as "81A (rather than 81) High Street.  Not only did the building have a separate number, it was also recorded as having a name.... Clare House.

In small town Whitstable, Dorothy's establishment became quite well known and a number of regular readers and contributors have mentioned the title "The Horley School" in the Visitors Book. Clare House School is also a name that has cropped up from time to time. ... but this poses some extra problems. As I will explain later, there was another Clare House School elsewhere in Whitstable..

  

A Dance School (1950s)

  

Whilst we know that the Horley School continued until 1936, we don't know if it continued much beyond that time or whether it survived World War II. However, a number of our readers have mentioned that the Annex was used by a School of Dance from the mid-1940s (and possibly earlier) to the mid-1950s....

  

My Mum's cousin remembers that there were dancing classes held in a room at the back of what used to be Webb's the newsagents

My aunt, Elsie Ible (née Beer) remembers going to dancing classes there.

So these premises, which I don't think I have ever seen, seem to have quite a few connections with various members of my family!

Ian Johnson
Huddersfield
West Yorks

    

It also seems that there was a clear connection between the dance classes in the Annex and the shop at 81 High Street... 

  

Hi Dave,

I can confirm that there was a dance school operated in a room at the back of Webbs newsagents by Joyce Webb - certainly in the mid nineteen forties to sometime in the fifties when Joyce's health problems led to its demise.

The Webb family are relations from my mother's side of the family and my memory of the dance classes is of being nearly roped in to join when, in fact, I was there to buy some Walls Ice Cream.

In those days, Webbs were the only people to sell Walls and there was always a long queue outside ,on as I recall, a Sunday morning. Here the family tie meant I could go up the side alley to the back door.

Does Ivan's photo ring any bells? Well, I don't see Joyce in the photo but it looks awfully like the area outside the back door.

Cheers,

Bill Dancer
British Columbia
Canada

   

Of course, if, as seems likely, the Dance Classes were scheduled outside of school hours, it doesn't preclude the possibility that the building was also used as a normal school during the day. 

  

An Endowed School Connection? (1950s)

   

During the 1950s, it is possible that the Horley/Clare House classroom was eyed up by one of the town's major schools..... the nearby Endowed C of E Girls Junior. Ian Johnson explains.....

   

My sister Jenny thinks it was used by the Endowed School as an annex during the time she was a pupil there (1957-1961) and was Mrs Christie's classroom, she thinks.

Ian Johnson
Huddersfield
West Yorks

   

This would be quite a logical progression. The major schools had expanded quite rapidly in the aftermath of World War II. This was  partly due to the raising of the school leaving age to fifteen in 1947. In fact, in order to cope with an age range of 7-15, the Endowed had acquired a number of HORSA classrooms several hundred yards away at the Oxford Street premises of the Whitstable Boys School. (HORSAs were those distinctive white pre-fabs of the 1950s and their name was an acronym of "Hutted Operations for Raising School Age"). 

The situation improved in 1952/53 when the town gained its purpose built Secondary School at Bellevue Road (ie The Sir William Nottidge). At that point, the Endowed became a junior school with a pupil age range of 7-11. However, by then, the establishment was probably also feeling the effects of the post-war baby boom. In some ways, the annex at 81A High Street would have been a very attractive option for expanison. After all, it was just a few yards along the back alley leading to Gladstone Road.

  

Remaining Issue No. 1... Ivan's Photo

   

Of course, we have yet to explain how  Ivan Knowles photo fits into the history related above.....

    

  

As it is taken in the backyard of 81 High Street, it could be the Horley School or the Dance Class.

There are certainly  number of factors that support the idea that it is the Horley School. The young lady standing in front of the teacher is Ivan's aunt. Ivan tells me that she was born in 1920 and that would date the photo some time around 1930. and place it well within the documented life span of Dorothy Horley's establishment.

However, there are some problems. The Horley School is recorded as a Girls Prep School whereas the photo shows three boys and contains pupils that are well outside the age range for preparatory education.

In some ways, the Dance School fits more readily. It would certainly be consistent with the mixed sex and mixed age range. It might also explain the clothing - particularly the short skirt of the tall girl on the right and the fact that the boys are not wearing socks. However, we have no evidence to suggest that a School of Dance existed prior to the mid-1940s.

The only way we will be able to solve the mystery is if one of our readers can provide some names and dates. So, it's over to you!

 

Remaining Issue No. 2... Clare House

 

Until recently, we had always associated the name Clare House with 81A High Street. However the name has now cropped up with regard to another private school located at All Saints Church in the early 1930s. The story is told by Sidney and Christopher Walker in another of our school articles (click here to view).

Was there a link between the small girls prep school at Clare House in the High Street and the All Saints establishment with its much wider age range? At the moment, we have found no evidence to suggest that there was.... unless someone knows different!

 

Our Thanks To...

 

I would to thank Ivan Knowles, Brian Eames, Ian Johnson and Bill Dancer for making this article possible.