Kirsty Warren
Lindfield history pages
Lindfield history pages

Lindfield schools history

Lindfield School in the 20th century

School drill, 1906

By Richard Bryant and Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

This article looks at Lindfield School between 1900 and 2000. The 20th century saw many changes in the school’s management, structure, composition, name, location and, not least, significant developments in the approach to educating children. Since formation in 1881 it had been managed by the Lindfield School Board controlled by central Government. Two years into the new century responsibility for elementary education passed from government to East Sussex County Council, beginning a long period of local government control. Throughout all the changes the schools DNA continued to reflect the founding principles.

An early change arising from the County Council taking control was that drilling of school children should be done by the teaching staff and not a military drill instructor. The school said goodbye to Sgt James who had been drilling the boys for ten years; during which time it was reported that ‘it was not an uncommon thing to see the lads slouching along before Sgt James took them in hand, but now they were quite smart in appearance and in their movement’.

Life in the village school continued largely unchanged until the coming of the Great War in 1914. With teachers volunteering or being conscripted, including the headmaster, staffing became a problem necessitating the return of married women. Sadly, two teachers died in action. Pupils were expected to contribute to the war effort in a number of ways. The boys were taught gardening as part of their syllabus and maintained a thriving school garden, winning the County’s Challenge Spade in 1917 for best school garden. Their skills were put to use tending gardens of men away on military service, providing their families with potatoes and vegetables. Girls put their sewing skills to use darning and sewing for wounded soldiers at the Red Cross Hospital. The War Office supported a scheme to collect donated new-laid eggs for every wounded soldier and sailor in hospital. A national Children’s Week’s collection in 1916 received 183 eggs from pupils. Near the war’s end, in June 1918 the structure of the school changed with the amalgamation of the Boys’ and Girls’ School creating Lindfield Mixed School; the Infant School remained separate.

Without its own sports field, good use was made of the Common for sports that were becoming an increasing feature of school life. The first major success came in 1921, winning the East Sussex and Lewes Schools Football League final against Turners Hill School. The match, held at Ardingly Recreation Ground, was attended by over a 1,000 spectators; the Mid Sussex Times reported ‘practically all the inhabitants of Lindfield’ seemed to have attended. The thrilling match ended with Lindfield winning 3-0. On their return, the Ardingly Scouts Band led captain Les Wood, holding the trophy high, and the team down a cheering High Street.

The Mixed and Infant Schools merged into a single entity in 1933, providing education to all children aged five to 14. Further changes occurred in 1938 with pupils aged over 11 being transferred to the newly built Haywards Heath Senior School (now Oathall) at Scrase Bridge. At this time a new kitchen and dining hall opened in the main building, replacing the Reading Room which had been rented for this purpose since 1929. Perhaps more surprisingly, it was not until 1939 that electric lighting was installed into the Lewes Road buildings to replace the old gas lights.

Peace was again shattered when World War II was declared. Immediately schoolchildren from areas deemed vulnerable to enemy bombing were evacuated to the countryside. Lindfield received the Henry Fawcett School from Kennington, London, with 200 pupils on its roll, doubling the number of children to be educated in Lindfield. The schools were taught separately by their own teachers but shared facilities using the school buildings, Reading Room and King Edward Hall at various times of the day. With invasion imminent, 70 more evacuees from Romney Marsh schools arrived in August 1940. Gradually as enemy bombing eased many of the children, with their teachers, returned home. Those that remained were merged into Lindfield School.

From 1940 instructions required children to be kept in their classrooms and only proceed to the air raid shelters in the playground if danger appeared imminent. When flying bombs necessitated rapid evacuation, these shelters were abandoned and instead children were instructed to take shelter under their desks on the command ‘Rabbits’. To help fund the war effort the Government encouraged everyone to save in the National Savings Schemes. The school formed a Saving Association so that each week children could save a few pennies collecting a total of £2,321.10s.6d. Immediately after the war, a new canteen was built; and, following the passing of another Education Act, the school was renamed Lindfield County Primary School. This heralded the start of a period of stability.

Arising from a meeting of parents and teachers called by headmaster Mr McQueen, in the autumn of 1954 a Parent Teacher Association was formed, which has made significant contributions to the school ever since. A major contribution in June 1967, was to donate a prefabricated outdoor swimming pool that was positioned close to the Reading Room.

The County Council in 1958 purchased the Reading Room (aka the Social Centre), finally uniting what, in the past century, had been the National schoolroom with the current school to provide much needed additional space.

A major change occurred in January 1968 when the infant classes transferred to a new school built in the grounds of Beckworth House creating Lindfield County Infants School. This was the first time since 1883 that the schools operated from different sites. The Junior School continued at Lewes Road in its aged and increasingly unsuitable facilities. Four years later three teachers and their classes transferred from the Junior School to the newly opened Blackthorns School. By the late 1980s the Junior School buildings were deemed no longer suitable for current educational needs. A working party was established to find a way forward, with the option being to redevelop the Lewes Road site and build a new replacement Junior School either off Newton Road [today the Limes site] or at Beckworth. The latter was chosen and plans prepared for a two storey Junior School to be built in front of the Infant School. This was scheduled for 1992/93 but for various reasons the scheme did not go ahead.

It was 1998 before revised proposals were developed and approved, to replace the Junior School with new accommodation next to the Infant School, amalgamating the two schools to provide a single ‘all-through’ primary education for four to 11 year olds. This required building eight new classrooms, changes to the existing building, remodelling the grounds and the demolition of Beckworth House. Work was swiftly commenced and ready for occupation in 2000.

At the end of Summer Term 2000, Lindfield Junior School and Lindfield Infants closed. They reopened in their new state-of-the-art facilities as Lindfield Primary School; ushering in a new era for education in Lindfield to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136.

The beginning of Lindfield School

By Richard Bryant and Janet Bishop, Lindfield History Project Group

A question has recently been received asking why the main hall in the Lindfield Primary Academy is named William Allen Hall. The answer lies 200 years ago and in the early history of education in Lindfield.

Although Lindfield School was established in 1881, its lineage can be traced back to William Allen in 1825. At the start of the 1800s William Allen, a Quaker philanthropist, was involved in the creation of the British and Foreign School Society to provide education for working class children from non-conformist families. Until this Society was established there was no nationally organised school system; at this time the Government was not involved in education.

William Allen was deeply concerned about the rural poor and tested his ideas in Lindfield. He realised education was one route out of poverty. In 1825, with help from John Smith MP and land provided on Black Hill by the Earl of Chichester, he established the Lindfield Industrial Schools. ‘Schools’ because it had separate boys, girls and infants classrooms each with their own teacher. The aim was to provide children from the labouring classes with a sound basic education and vocational training. To enable the school to continue after his death in 1843, it was transferred to the control of the British and Foreign School Society and supported by donations principally from the Congregational Chapel. At around this time a National School, supported by the Church of England, was opened and for a time Lindfield had two competing schools. Relations between them were not harmonious. The National School on the Common did not thrive and eventually closed, while the British Schools on Black Hill continued to flourish.

The 1867 Post Office Directory described the British Schools as providing ‘a sound and scriptural education to the children of Lindfield and its vicinity’. It further noted it was ‘open to all denominations, about one half now in attendance belong to the Established Church, the other half being dissenters. The number of children now attending is 223; the schools are sustained by voluntary offerings’. The Government began to realise that across the country education was not structured to meet the increasing demands of the Victorian age. The passing of the Elementary Education Act 1870 provided for the establishment of elementary schools, where school provision from other sources was insufficient. The aim was to make a basic education available to every child between five and ten years. An 1880 Act made school attendance to the age of ten compulsory.

By 1880 the Lindfield British Schools was facing financial problems, and in March 1881 the Management Committee decided insufficient funds were available to successfully carry on the education of Lindfield and the school should close. A Lindfield School Board was duly constituted and, not without controversy, in May the five Board Members were duly elected. On 24th June 1881 the British Schools passed into the hands of the Board and the next day the Board School opened and Lindfield School was born with Alfred Larter as the School Master in charge. This important day is recorded in the school log with the words ‘Yesterday a long and honoured name was dropped and the history and maintenance of the Schools is under a new name and order ‘The Lindfield Board School’, but it may be on the same working principle and practice’.

On handing the school over, subscribers to the British Schools voted the sum of £200, given as legacies in memory of William Allen, should be transferred to the Lindfield School Board in perpetuity. The interest to be applied annually for prizes in proficiency in scripture knowledge. The sound principles established by William Allen provided the new school with solid foundations for the future: the name William Allen is remembered to this day, as evidenced by the school hall’s name.

Government funding of Board Schools was based on achievement measured against a national curriculum and standards, together with levels of attendance. Additionally they were required to keep a daily log. Schooling was not free, and the local Board set a scale of fees based on age with different amounts charged for boys, girls and infants depending on the occupational class of the parent. The weekly fees ranged from 6d for the older boys of Master Tradesmen and Farmers down to 1d for infants from the labouring classes. The fees had to be paid in advance, with a deduction of 1d per week per boy or girl who during the previous week had attended regularly with satisfactory conduct. For the poorest family even a few ‘school pence’ a week for their children presented difficulties and often resulted in absences.

The most pressing issue was a new home for the school as the existing premises were not a long term option. Finding a suitable site proved a problem until the Earl of Chichester offered land in Lewes Road on the Common to the eastern side of the old National schoolroom. Brighton architect Thomas Simpson designed the school and master’s house. The building contract was awarded to Beard and Foster of East Grinstead at a tender price of £3,351. The buildings represented the latest in Victorian school design, providing space for 120 boys, 100 girls and 100 infants in large, light and airy classrooms with windows place high. Some rooms had tiered desking. The Mid Sussex Times described the red brick buildings as quite ornate and a ‘feature of the town, and Lindfield is to be congratulated on its latest institutional acquisition’.

The school moved into the new premises in September 1883, with Mr A Larter in charge of the boys and assisted by an assistant teacher, Miss M Woolgar, and Mrs H Stevens in charge of the girls and infants helped by pupil teachers. The Inspector of Schools’ visit in 1884 praised the new buildings and facilities, and reported favourably on the standards being achieved by pupils but was less complimentary about attendance levels. Achieving a good level of attendance was a perennial problem, with almost every event being a reason for absence, such as haymaking, harvesting, fruit picking, collecting acorns and a range of social events. Ill health and infectious diseases was also a major cause of absence.

A high level of absence was recorded in January 1882 following an outbreak of smallpox in the village as parents would not allow their children to pass the dwellings where cases existed. Eventually the school was forced to close for two weeks, and when reopened it was necessary for the Mid Sussex Times to publish a notice from village worthies, including the Vicar and village doctor, Dr Porter, confirming the risk of infection had ceased. Another smallpox outbreak in 1885 again forced the school to close. History has repeated itself with Covid-19!

The 1891 Free Schooling Act making elementary schooling free improved absence due to poverty, but this worsened again with the school leaving age being raised to 11 and 12 in 1893 and 1899. Nevertheless good academic standards continued to be achieved as the school moved into the new century.

Contact Lindfield History Project Group via https://lindfieldhistoryproject.group/ or 01444 482136

Discovering Lindfield’s West Common

Map of West Common area in 1829 with current roads overlaid in white

By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Today nothing exists of the West Common and you would be forgiven for thinking the area completely lacks historical interest. Less than two hundred years ago the unfenced common extended from Sunte Avenue down to the stream that runs close to Blackthorns and from Hickmans Lane south to Summerhill Lane and then east along Scrase Stream. The southern part belonged to the Manor of Ditching with the remainder by South Malling Lindfield and Framfield Manors. The land is mainly flat and in parts sloping with good well drained soil. In early medieval times, could this land have been the ‘west field’ of the Lindfield cultivated in strips by villagers in the open field system? Perhaps we will never know. 

What we do know is that in the 1820s the land was largely unenclosed and contained only a few dwellings. In the north western corner, at the junction called Pickesgreen Cross, was a small old farmstead dating from at least 1600, part of Framfield Manor, called Wigsel’s Watering, that extended into the area now Oakfield Close. This was replaced by the Bricklayers Arms, now the Witch Inn. In the 1870s the Bricklayers became a popular venue for ‘bean feasts’; annual works outings travelling by train from as far afield as London and Brighton. Following the arrival of the railway, the road running along the western edge was made up and named Station Road (Sunte Avenue) as it was the most direct route from Lindfield to the station. The first housing built was Albert Cottages, typical small Victorian houses with shared wells and privies at the bottom of the garden. 

Towards the southern end, near Oakbank, stood two cottages known as Golden Nob. The 1851 Census listed four families, the Beard, Bish, Gorrange and Miles families, totalling 19 men, women and children living in the cottages. All the adult men were agricultural labourers. The Golden Nob cottages were demolished around 1860, when Summer Hill was built by Charles Catt, a brewer and son of William Catt of the Bishopstone Tide Mills. The Catt family lived in the house for many years and farmed nearby land. From the late 1940s it became a school. 

In 1835 three acres of unenclosed land held by the Manor of South Malling Lindfield was sold for £56 5s 0d to John Elliott, a Lindfield blacksmith. John Elliott operated the forge in the middle of the High Street (mentioned in last month’s article) and built the forge at Spongs in Brushes Lane. Perhaps with an eye for a quick profit, John Elliott sold the land to Edward Humphreys in October 1838 for £153. In today’s terms this is the land of Chestnut Close across to the west side of Summerhill Drive and north to Hickmans Lane. 

For a couple of years Humphreys rented the newly enclosed land to James Harding of Burnt House Farm, before taking back the land on which he built a house in 1844. The Poor Rate Valuations in the late 1840s record this house as Westfield Lodge, owned and occupied by Edward Humphreys; no connection with the baker of that name. It was approached by a long diagonal drive, and when Summer Hill was constructed the drive was extended to this house and entrance lodges built. 

By the mid 1850s Humphreys was living at Pear Tree House (junction of High Street and Lewes Road), another fine house he built along with St Annes. Westfield Lodge was rented to tenants before being acquired by William Copeland in c1870 when the property was renamed The Chestnuts. 

The Mid Sussex Times in May 1877 carried an advertisement for the letting ‘unfurnished, a well-built detached villa residence, most pleasantly situated, approached by a carriage drive from the high road, and within 15 minutes walk of Haywards Heath Station, and known as The Chestnuts. There is a large drawing room and dining room, two other sitting rooms, six bedrooms, and a dressing room, kitchen, scullery, cellars etc, also a capital garden with greenhouse and vinery’. Even in those days easy access to the station was a desirable feature and evidence of Lindfield becoming attractive to commuters. 

During the 1880s, The Chestnuts was taken by a Mr Hartland and then by Mrs Gertrude Lysons, the widow of Rev Canon Samuel Lysons, rural dean of Gloucester, a noted antiquarian and an early proponent of British Israelism. This was the belief that British people are ‘genetically, racially and linguistically the direct descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel’. 

The Chestnuts was sold in 1895 for £2,000 and subsequently described as being ‘brick built and cement faced’, with grounds containing a good lean-to vinery, stables, detached coach house with loft and a small cowshed. A substantial property but unfortunately we have no photographs of the house and grounds. (If any readers have a photograph, please do make contact). The new owner was Charles Catt of adjacent Summer Hill. 

Following a succession of tenants, in 1909 William Lancelot Knowles J.P., a member of the Stock Exchange, and his wife took up residence, having previously lived at Pear Tree House. A county cricketer, he had played for Kent, Sussex and Gentlemen of England and in 37 first class appearances as a right-handed batsman scored 1439 runs with a highest innings of 127. He was unstinting in his community service being involved with many clubs and organisations in Lindfield, Cuckfield and Haywards Heath. 

In 1933, The Chestnuts became the new home for the Parents’ National Educational Union School (PNEU) started 12 months earlier at Plumpton by Mrs Seymour and Mrs Morgan. Called the Summerhill PNEU School it was the twentieth such school in Sussex and one of a family of about 800 scattered around the world. All the schools worked to a common ethos and curriculum. A notable local example, with its roots in the PNEU system, is Burgess Hill Girls School which continues to thrive today. 

After two years it ceased being a PNEU school and changed its name to Lindfield Preparatory School under the headship of Miss Arnold. Education was provided on the ‘Froebel and other modern methods’ for children aged 6 to 12 years, with a kindergarten for younger children. It advertised ‘Bright, colourful classrooms, Small Classes, Individual attention’ and ‘All general subjects taught’ with a large garden for games, tennis and cricket. A limited number of places were available for boarders. The school was short lived and closed in about 1937, the building reverting to a private residence. There was no connection between this school and the school later established at Summer Hill. The house continued to be occupied as a private residence until being demolished in about 1960 and shortly after replaced by Nos. 1 – 8 The Chestnuts. 

Lindfield Prep School Kindergarten Room. Photo: J Potter

Returning to the 19th century, the Common was divided by a section of the New Chapel to Brighton turnpike road, now West Common. By the 1840s, the Common on both sides of this road had been enclosed with fields, except for an area around Appledore Gardens but this soon became enclosed. In 1852, at the Red Lion, four acres were auctioned as four building plots fetching £138, £145, £82 and £82. The first two lots restricted the building of any dwelling of less value than £200. None of the plots were built upon at that time. 

It was not until the interwar years that the area started to be developed with the building of Haywards Heath Senior School and housing at Oakbank and along West Common and Sunte Avenue plus the creation of a market garden, French Gardens. Houses started to appear along Summerhill Drive, and although Chestnut Close was constructed by 1937 houses were not built until a few years later. The remainder of the houses on West Common land are predominantly post war. 

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