The Schools

 
Then came Sylvia Gray as Head and immediately revolutionised everything. To my great disappointment she moved me out of my domain and I had to work in the section of the large room previously occupied by the top form.
There was a wash basin in the porch but it was not connected to anything. The school had no running water and so a senior boy brought a large enamel jug with the day's water supply and a bucket was placed under the basin. All the little desks were moved out and modern tables and chairs installed. This was a great improvement as we could move the tables and create space for a variety of activities.
 
One of the boys cut the top off his finger in a door that he was always playing with. I stuck his arm up in the air and marched him over to Mrs Gray. She took him to the doctor, with the arm still held in that position, and I was complimented on my first aid. It was my anger that made me do it, but it meant that even the finger nail grew back again and he later apologised to me. We all laughed because Mrs Gray nearly fainted when we presented her with the piece of finger which had been cut off.
 
Since the school was now judged to be under control, she left to work in much higher circles and became a college lecturer.
 
The Director of Education was Evan Davies whom I met a few times to discover he knew my home and had relations there. They had kept an eye on me and gave me good prospects. They were to be disappointed. I got married and moved to Lodsworth.
 
After dark on 1 September 1939, 32 evacuees from Friar Street School in Southwark arrived in a bus. Celia Poulton of Laurel Cottage, who was then just over 12, helped her father Tom, who was billeting officer. One of the new arrivals said 'Miss, where's the nearest park?' Celia told her about Cowdray Park but then waved her arms around and said 'everywhere'.
 
When Tom Poulton took a woman and her small daughter to be billeted at Oatscroft, Jane Cobden Unwin refused to have them and Tom had to get a policeman to go and force her to accept them. However in time, Mrs Bell became an invaluable housekeeper and friend as Jane eventually became almost bedridden.
 
In 1945, although she was 95, Jane still kept a close interest in politics and felt she could influence ministers. One day she asked Mrs Bell to telephone the Foreign Secretary, Sir Anthony Eden, to give him advice about what he should say on an oversees visit. The telephone was in the same room and Mrs Bell duly appeared to have a long conversation with Eden and she relayed his thanks to Mrs Unwin for her valuable advice. She had however kept her hand firmly on the button all the time.
 
The presence of the children from Southwark was not always sweetness and light and, shortly after they arrived, a number of window panes in the school were smashed by some of the London boys throwing stones at them. Fortunately the panes were the small ones which have now been replaced by much larger, and less attractive, ones.
 
June Ford (now Mrs June Challen of Graffham) has memories of the school in the war years. She started there in 1941 aged 5;
'Mr Fitz-Simon, Rector of St James, Heyshott, used to visit the school, asking questions on Religion. If you answered correctly you were given a threepenny bit.'