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St Michael's School, Knoyle Road

A throwback to the end of the previous century

by Martin Nimmo

Even in 1951, when I joined the school at the age of just 4, St Michael's in Knoyle Road was a throwback to the end of the previous century! With just 60 pupils (all boys) aged between 4 and 10, the Headmistress was Miss Dorothy H Willis, already well advanced in years by that stage (no, not just my youthful imagination).

The staff
Her supporting staff included Miss Keywood, a spinster lady who lived in Harrington Road and who taught me to read, and Miss Anderson, who lived in Preston Village and chiefly taught Art and Nature. There were no man teachers apart from Mr Hodge who came in to take games, and Miss Keywood and Miss Anderson both wore hats when teaching!

Lunches cost 1/6d a day!
The uniform was grey and light blue (grey shorts and jumper, grey socks topped with blue rings, and a grey cap with a blue and grey badge). The school was initially held at the Knoyle Hall (St John's Church), with junior classes held in the main hall (downstairs) and various other rooms used for the more senior forms (numbered from Form 4 - the infants - to Form 1). Miss Willis had an office on the First Floor, outside which stood her piano - the large upstairs room was used for morning assembly and for lunch. Looking back on the accounts sent to my father, lunches cost 1/6d a day: for such delicacies as rock salmon and chocolate blancmange!

Our lessons
Lessons were very formal, but largely enjoyable. We learned to read from the Beacon Readers series, and by the time we were seven, we were learning French (from books called "Madame Souris" and "Madame Lapin") and Latin (Hillard and Botting). In the top form we were allowed to use dip pens for writing our Latin exercises and for writing out the poems (from Palgrave's "Golden Treasury") that we had to learn each weekend - ("Sir Galahad" - My good blade carves the casques of men..)! My favourite lesson was handicrafts, with Miss Ramsden (from Worthing) who taught us to make raffia mats, woven sewing kits and other items suitable for doting (female) relatives!

Moved premises in 1954
After lunch each day everyone went down to the big hall and lay down on grey blankets for a supervised rest. The Crowhurst Hall (behind the Knoyle Hall) was used for "exercises" (PE, that is), and we went by the 15B bus to Patcham Place for football and cricket practice. Some lucky boy got the salmon pink penny halfpenny bus tickets to keep each time! The school moved to a large house at the bottom of Harrington Road in about 1954, and by the mid-1960's had gone, amalgamated with another private school based in Preston Park Avenue.

Remembering old boys
In such a small school, it is remarkable that two boys of my era, John Bowis (once an MP, now a Tory MEP) and Keith Best (once an MP, now Chief Executive of the Immigration Advisory Service) achieved some fame. Other boys I remember include David Griffiths, Darryl Taylor, John Tarling, Andrew Mallin-Jones, Michael Willis, Richard Savage, Roger de Courcy, Roger Knight, John Kennard, Roger Horlock and Peter Beard. I last saw Miss Willis in about 1962, when she must have been at least 80 years old, supervising boys onto homeward-bound buses at Harrington Road bus stop. By that time I had gone on to Brighton College, but I always treasured my happy memories of the unusual small school which set me off on the track to academic achievement.

sent to website by e-mail 4/9/2002

This page was added on 22/03/2006.

Comments about this page

I remember it well. The smell of cooking as you left the main hall and climbed down the stairs to the basement dining room, mainly cabbage! The congealing rice pudding. The boxing lessons in the attic.The religious painting on the wall of the headmistress' office. Changing into football gear in the garage. The sound of 'there is a green hill far away' - Miss Willis' signature tune. It seemed such a big house then, yet when I walk past it now I can't imagine how 60 boys could all fit in. Where are they now? Ballin, Shakeshaft, Horlocks, Buxton Brothers. Half a century passes and memories fade.

By Peter Beard (09/09/2005)

Good to hear from Peter Beard after half a century! I forgot to mention the gigantic box of Cumberland pencils Miss Willis kept - all colours, but with black leads (HB)!

By Martin Nimmo (10/02/2006)

I too walked by the house on Harrington Road a few weeks back and wondered how 60 boys were taught there. I was at St Michaels from around 1953 to 1956. My memories include grace before AND after lunch and football matches against Ardingly, Eastbourne and Brighton colleges. We inevitably lost, except I believe for one victory. Of the names you mention, John Tarling is the only one which I recall.

By Rohan Alce (08/07/2008)

My year group was the very last at St Michael's. The school had long been at the Victorian Villa in Harrington Road by then and pupil numbers were in decline. Such idyllic memories, though. Lessons in rooms that had clearly been living-rooms, still with mouldings and cornices and fireplaces; playtime in the garden, with its lawns, its pond, its woodpile (always felt like a scene from Beatrix Potter); lunch at a single long table. Basic literacy for the first year and then onto Miss Willis's distinctly unorthodox curriculum: even in the mid-1960s, as modernity assailed the worm-eaten fabric of British life, we still learned poems by Wordsworth, Latin nouns, the geography of the Tigris and the Euphrates, St Paul's itinerary through the Holy Land. We sat exams, played cricket -- though there were barely enough of us to form two teams, sang hymns and listened to Miss Willis read each morning from a Bible on onion-skin paper with gilt edges. And yes, we still rested on grey blankets after lunch. My favourite memories? Miss Willis inscribing my name and the year (1965) on Kennedy's Latin Primer, a copy that followed me around for decades. The cook who came in each day and would prepare our favourite dishes for us (mine was gooseberry tart). A raw winter morning when it was suddenly decided that every child should have hot milk and Lincoln biscuits to fortify them. If I remember correctly, the school moved to Preston Park Avenue briefly. Then in the summer, on the last day of term, the teachers were selling off the fittings: parents took away infant desks and chairs, children acquired tantalising packets of coloured chalks that had languished in cupboards for years. The spell was broken. In recent years, I thought about revisiting the house in Harrington Raod, but it is now divided into flats and there is probably little trace of the school.

By Paul O (24/07/2011)

I still have a desk complete with inkwell and chair, plus a smaller chair that the younger ones used. I was with Paul - Oldfield - and remember things so well. The best thing that Miss Willis taught us was the value of good manners. The move over to Preston Park Avenue, Mrs Dennis whom I adored - the quality of the teachers was second to none. I go past Harrington Road frequently and I always look up at the school building. I have a couple of photographs which I treasure - one is of the whole school (pupils only though) around 1965 and another a group of us crossing Knoll Road (to go to the hall for PE?). Visiting nearby Preston Manor and you get the feel of St. Michael's. Paul O - where are you?

By Paul Samrah (27/08/2011)

How fascinating to read Martin's comments and those of fellow pupils and to rekindle many happy memories of my time at St Michael's. Yes I remember the large pencil box and also the pencil sharpener with the winding handle. Broken leads were frowned upon and I recall having to hold a broken lead into the pencil once for fear of incurring the wrath of Miss Willis. I can still recite William Wordsworth's 'Upon Westminster Bridge' and Thomas Grey's ode 'On a favourite cat drowned in a tub of goldfishes', sing the words to Jerusalem and recite Philippians 4 verses 4-8. I also still have my 'Swallows and Amazons' reading prize and the M B Synge 'The story of the World' history books. Occasionally I can still hear Miss Willis shouting 'SHOOT' from the touchline.

By David Griffiths (17/11/2011)

I remember in the first form (the forms were numbered "back to front", the first being the highest - for nine year olds) on Monday mornings having to write out the poem we'd learned over the weekend, in ink, using a dip pen, before lunch. Dip pens and ink wells were also used for writing out Latin work (from "Hillard and Botting").

By Martin Nimmo (09/05/2012)