This picture of Wrotham School would have been taken in the early 1950's. The school first opened on the 10th January 1949, so it is soon to be the 50th anniversary.   All pictures and text on this page is the work of the late Harry Smith.

Foreword © Harry Smith 1998.

Until the 1944 Education Act was implemented, many pupils in rural areas stayed at the same village school until they were old enough to leave. Certain larger schools were equipped for instruction in woodwork and cookery, and Borough Green School was one such 'centre' where older boys and girls from surrounding villages attended once a week. All other subjects were studied at their own village schools, often in large classes covering several age groups and with a minimum of books and apparatus.

The new Act offered "Secondary Education for all" and a vast number of new schools were planned throughout the country. Situated at the western edge of the Maidstone Division, Wrotham School took its pupils from the neighbouring villages of Borough Green, Ightham and Platt as well as Kingsdown, Ridley, Mereworth and as far afield as Wateringbury and Teston.

Resources for building new schools were scarce in those post-war years, and although a few, such as Wilderness at Sevenoaks were complete, permanent buildings right from their start, improvisation was very much the order of the day in the early stages. In some areas such as at Homewood School, Tenterden, a large country house formed the central building. In others, such as at Snodland, existing 'elementary schools' mostly built in the 1930's, were adapted for their new role.

At Wrotham the new 'school' consisted of three HORSA blocks built by contractors Dudley Coles in the latter part of 1948 on a ten-acre site between Wrotham and Borough Green, together with a small asbestos-clad shed which housed the headmaster and his secretary. The huts had only eight teaching spaces, offering accommodation for Science, Rural Studies (RS), Woodwork, Domestic Science, Needlework, Art, English and Maths. At the start, additional rooms were used in Borough Green Primary School, the church hall in Quarry Hill, Borough Green, and the Masonic Hall in Wrotham.

© Harry Smith 1998
A COLD START

Wrotham County Secondary School started on l0th January, 1949 with pupils in second, third and fourth year groups. First year classes were not to be a part of the school for many years to come. The headmaster was Mr. A. J. N. Fuller who had previously been head of Boughton Monchelsea near Maidstone, and the deputy head was Miss Harding from Swindon. Others in the original staff were as follows:

Miss V. Sedgwick, Needlework,
Miss J. Walsh, Cookery,
Miss S.C.Dale, English and Mathematics
Mrs. Honey, English and Mathematics
Mr. L.R.Hinbest, Woodwork
Mr. A.R.Ellender, Art
Mr. T.Bowles, PT and Games
Mr. R.Dixon, i/c Borough Green detachment
Mr. C.Stapeley, Music, (temporary)
Mr. S.Mc.B.Carson, Rural Studies
Mr. R. Colton, Science
Mr. H.E.Smith, Maths and Science

The first Head Boy and Head Girl were (can anyone remember?)

Wrotham's first school day was its shortest ever. The heating system was not working and the pupils were sent home! Next day a furniture van full of paraffin oil stoves arrived and the school was off to a warmer if smoky start.

The three second-year classes were based at Borough Green: two in the classrooms to the left of the present main entrance and the third in the lofty Victorian church hall beyond the crossroads. Heating here was provided by one huge iron coke stove, which scorched those nearest to it, but offered little comfort to the rest. A strange fish-like odour one morning was traced to a lad near the stove who had put cod-liver oil on his hair to improve his appearance.

Music and physical education classes took place in the afternoons. While the boys exercised themselves in the Masonic Hall in St.Mary’s Road, Wrotham, the girls made the rafters ring in the church hall at Borough Green more than a mile away. At afternoon break they changed places. This walk went on for many months, until an old converted ambulance was hired from Mr. French's Pilgrim Coaches to ferry the footsore folk to and fro. But with all pupils attending the main site for certain lessons, much walking still had to be done. Mercifully there were no notified accidents as a result.

The fine school field was still planted with corn that first winter, so football was played on the water meadow below the school when this was not flooded. Later excavation of a nearby sandpit improved the drainage but by then pupils had watched the last crop cut by a horse-drawn reaper-binder and seen their own field prepared for sowing with grass. A vast amount of stones appeared on the surface each time it rained, and armies of boys with buckets made repeated stooping sweeps to collect them. Extra stone collecting was also a highly practical form of punishment meted out to occasional wrongdoers.

In the early days a fine row of elms lined the road to the north of the school entrance, but these were felled for safety reasons soon after the school started. One of the houses across the road is still called Elmover. Just inside the entrance gate there stands a fine red-barked willow which was planted in 1949. Most of the other trees were planted nine years later.

As Wrotham School's first year drew to a close, plans were made for a great Christmas Concert. With a large number of parents living so far away, and very few having their own cars, it was decided to stage performances in the outlying villages. Lighting and costumes - and even the school piano were loaded into Mr. Woodhams' removal van and taken out to places like the old cinema in Wateringbury, now long-since demolished, to regale the villagers with singing, tumbling and the memorable 'Mrs Wurzle’s Hen'.

Several months after the school started, Mr. W. J. Rush took over as the first full-time music master and soon began building the school's wide reputation for music. A large choir was formed and performances given in hospitals and old folks' homes as well as the Masonic Hall and St. George's Church, Wrotham, where the Christmas Service of Carols was a tradition for many years. The choir even cut their own disc: a 12 inch 78, which has since become a collectors' piece.

Bill Rush was a large, dark, curly-haired Welshman who had taught boxing in. his younger days. A great showman, he was an impressive figure at formal occasions in his white tuxedo, and he was a firm disciplinarian too. He would often take the whole school single-handed for singing practice, and had merely to raise a bushy eyebrow for complete silence to reign. Sadly he was taken seriously ill and died in his fifties. A lectern was dedicated to his memory and his choral version of the Lord's Prayer continued to be sung at the school some thirty years later.

During the Second World War, a hutted camp had been built between Wrotham and Borough Green to house 'European Volunteer Workers'. This continued to be used for that purpose until 1950 when it was taken over as part of the school premises, instead of the rooms at Borough Green.

Extra windows and coke stoves were installed, a playground provided, and 'the Camp' served a useful purpose for the next seven years. Part became a pottery room, music was taught in a long corrugated-iron nissen hut, and in the southernmost hut the newly-arrived Mr. John ickston taught History. He was a diminutive Yorkshireman with a dry sense of humour, a most enthusiastic historian and, though he rarely revealed it, a brilliant astronomer and mathematician.

The school caretaker Mr. Albert Harris lived with his family in the other Nissen hut at the camp, and the old warden's quarters were the home of a succession of Wrotham staff, the writer being the last. His son Simon was born there on l6th July, 1956.

NATIONAL FAME FOR WROTHAM

This country's greatest event in the early fifties was the Festival of Britain, a vast exhibition held on London's South Bank and designed to show all that was British and Best in the post-war world. A New Schools Pavilion was planned and as part of the work to be shown there, it was decided to have a display of project material. A nationwide schools' competition was therefore launched and the new Wrotham Secondary School was among the very large number who entered.

The school decided to adopt the theme: "Kent in 1851" and research was soon well under way at museums and libraries, followed by hours of work on models, maps, charts, drawings and written material. All parts of the school were engaged in the project, which included lifelike, foot-high figures dressed in the fashions of the time and made in the needlework room (which in later years was to become the South Lab). The settings for these were built in woodwork classes, together with models, which included a fine Kentish oast, and a large windmill that survives in the school to this day.

Virtually every pupil and member of staff at Wrotham played a part in the work, but some names deserve a special mention: Michael Toogood and Drummond Chapman worked long and hard on the art side, and their large illustrated map of the county in 1851, measuring some eight feet by twelve was a splendid piece of work and remained on display at the school for many years. All the artwork was inspired by Mr.A.R.Ellender who spent many hours on the various projects himself.

In the needlework department Ann Purdy and Pamela Curd played a leading part in the manufacture and dressing of the model figures. They, together with many others, guided by Miss Sedgwick. Neville Woodhams brought craftsmanship to bear in the woodwork room with --------- ------------ and -----------, under the watchful and practised eye of Mr. L.R.Hinbest, whose previous experience in industry provided a wealth of practical experience.

The material produced at the school was augmented by a number of contemporary objects borrowed from various sources. These included a 'penny farthing' bicycle kindly loaned by a cycle shop (Gilberts) in Maidstone, which attracted much attention. The writer can vouch for the skill needed to ride such a machine, having tried it himself at the time with little success.

This national project competition was sponsored by the Council of Industrial Design and their Col.Rowe commissioned the writer to produce a series of photographs to illustrate the work in progress. Some of these are included in the accompanying illustrations.

Eventually the judging of the final exhibition took place in the Masonic Hall, and Wrotham had the distinction of sharing first place with a school in Doncaster. The old BBC Television Newsreel featured the project in its twice weekly show, and the Crown Film Unit also visited the school to shoot the work in progress for a film to be sent overseas. National daily papers carried accounts of Wrotham's rise to fame, and eventually hundreds of thousands of visitors saw the pupils' work on show in a 'classroom of the future' at the Festival in London.

Wrotham County Secondary School was 'on the map' at last!

A CHANGE OF HEAD

Wrotham's first headmaster, Mr. A.J.N.Fuller was a former pupil of Maidstone Grammar School where his record time for the 220 yards race remained unbroken well into the forties.

In 1951, following the school's national achievement so soon after its start, Mr. Fuller was invited by the education authority to become headmaster of a new school to be established in Maidstone: Oldborough Manor. Three of Wrotham's staff followed Mr. Fuller to Maidstone: Miss Sedgwick who became his deputy head, Mr. Dixon and Mr.Ellender. (In later years Mr. Fuller was to be awarded the O.B.E. for his services to Education and he received his decoration from the Queen at the same investiture as the Beatles, a popular singing group of the time.)

His successor was Mr. A.R.J.Percy who had been a lecturer in a teachers' training college, following war service with the Royal Air Force. Homes were very hard to find in the area then, and Mr.Percy lived for a time with his wife Hilda, daughter Avril and son Michael in a caravan on the school site, before moving into the warden's flat at the camp just down the road.

Mr. A Percy, 1952

Mr. Percy's first appointments to the staff at Wrotham in 1951 were Mr. K.W.Purnell and Mr.A.C.Reynolds who went on to become two of the longest-serving members. Among many innovations Mr.Percy pioneered the Wrotham School Seaside Camp which took place at Sidmouth, Devon in 1955. A large number of boys and girls attended the tented camp, among them Pamela Hood who could throw pebbles farther than any boy, and Robert Lee-Amies, an expert wielder of the axe when chopping wood for the ever-smoking cooking fire!

The writer attended the camp with his wife-to-be, making the memorable journey from Maidstone in a 1930 Austin Seven tourer which lost a wheel one dark night on a foray from the camp. The Percy family took their Siamese cat Sarah whenever they went camping. At Sidmouth she went missing. Long searches by all and sundry revealed no sign of Sarah and finally in desperation the nearest police station, miles away, was visited. No Sarah there, but a cat had befriended the folk in the house next door, the policeman said. Extra cocoa all round, that night!

Mr.Percy was a great supporter of the Young Farmers' Club which was run at the school in connection with the Rural Studies department run by Mr.S.Mc.B.Carson. In those early days this was based in the middle classroom of the northermost HORSA block where the sink is still a reminder of the days when goats' milk was cooled by a 'surface cooler' connected to the mains water supply.

The first school garden was confined to an area adjacent to the hutted school office on the north side of the car park. A wide turf path between borders extended past a large metal-framed greenhouse on a brick base.

This picture taken approximately 1959 is of the greenhouse. It was later moved to a site at the far end of the Science block. On completion of the new Rural Studies Unit the greenhouse was moved yet again to its present location at the south east corner of the unit and its brick base became a coke bunker and more recently a dump for unwanted junk, once the heating of the huts had been converted to oil burning. The site may still be identified today by the water stand-pipe and tap which remains in the rose border beside the path to the present building's main entrance.

The provision of the new and permanent school building was finally achieved by Mr.Percy's efforts. Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools at that time was one Dr.Davey who many years previously had been Arthur Percy's tutor at his training college. On one of his visits he pronounced that the only way in which the school's dire need could be recognised was by having a 'General Inspection'. This was duly arranged and in 1953 a team of Her Majesty's Inspectors descended on the school where they spent many days sitting-in on lessons and studying every aspect of the school and its life. Their final report was confidential but is understood to have contained the necessary strong recommendations required to set matter in motion.

There followed a long period of discussions with County and the architects involved as the plans gradually took shape, and many changes were able to be made as a result of suggestions from staff already on the spot. Early in 1957, a start was made by clearing the topsoil with earth-moving machines, and the first hut -a canteen for the building workers- was erected. The three-storey building has a framework of steel girder construction and its gaunt skeleton grew daily until it was finally clad with bricks and curtain-walling.

The new building included a canteen, fine gymnasium, large assembly hall, offices and many rooms to replace the huts in use at the camp. Unfortunately the HORSA huts remained in service and although erected initially to stand only ten years, they are still in service today for Science, woodwork and some other subjects.

Wrotham County Secondary School's new home was officially opened by Sir Edward Hardy in 1958 at an imposing ceremony where he was presented with a pottery cider set: a large jug and matching mugs, made on the site by art master John Hussey and embossed with the school's badge.

After years of improvisation on makeshift platforms in far-flung halls, lit by bulbs in battered biscuit tins, the new school hall boasted a fine stage equipped with the latest in stage lighting from Strand Electric of London. This was first used at the great inaugural Christmas Concert for the whole school in 1957 when a wealth of talent was assembled from the choir, drama group, gym classes and members of staff.

The first pupil to assist with operation of the new stage lighting was Peter Groves who came with considerable experience as his father managed the lighting in the Platt Memorial Hall. He was followed by Christopher Smith from Fairfield who remained at his post from the first year to his leaving school and went on to become a senior electronics expert at the Ministry of Defence.

 THE PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW

The first livestock to be kept at Wrotham were goats, pigs and poultry. In its first summer the school exhibited at the Kent County Show (then held in Mote Park Maidstone) where the stand received praise from the Minister of Agriculture, the R. Hon. Tom Williams who was the show’s guest of honour. The first school farm buildings formed a motley array of structures but were well-maintained and served a useful purpose.

Rural Studies and gardening were soon provided with an extra range of buildings at the east end of the Science HORSA block. This comprised a potting shed, meal store and toolshed and in later years became a car mechanics workshop and photographic darkroom.

The present RS unit was intended as a prototype for others throughout the county and allowed a great expansion of activities. Mr. Carson left to become an adviser in East Anglia and his place was taken by the art master John Hussey, who moved across from the main building. He was followed by Lester Betts who managed the department for many years before moving on to Longfield school until his retirement.

The nation-wide Junior Stockman Scheme of the Young Farmers' Club was pioneered at Wrotham School. This enabled pupils to care for a group of animals on farms near where they lived, and to be assessed on their proficiency by independent judges before award of badges. The Young Farmers' national. magazine carried an illustrated article, featuring Wrotham pupil Barbara Bowles at work with her calves at Ford Place Farm, arriving at school on one of J. C. Wells' coaches, and studying in the classroom. Barbara's picture also appeared on the front page of the Daily Mail supplement.

In later years, goats gave way to full-sized dairy cows. Sheep and geese ware added, and the veteran gander 'Archie' was still quick to greet strangers after many, many years on the school farm. His reign has seen the comings and goings of many staff incumbents there: Hywel Jones was the school's second great Welshman and came from a farming background in that far-off country. The former Miss Dorothy Bonnett, attending a course at Worcester from Wrotham, met and married him, and they were both on the staff for many years before moving down to Dorset to run the rural side of a residential school at Cannington.

Hywel Jones’s successor was Roy Widgery, a great environmentalist who gained academic honours while teaching at Wrotham and left to become a training college lecturer. The duck pond on the central lawn dates from his time. Mrs.Widgery who taught at nearby Borough Green School was an accomplished cellist.

The present head of rural studies, Stuart Gibbons, came to Wrotham from Canterbury but is a native of Lincolnshire. Under his inspired leadership the department has gone from strength to strength, gained many high awards at County Shows and been featured on television several times in the TVS programme 'Coast to Coast'.

The expansion brought about by the new RS Unit with its fully-equipped milking parlour and dairy, also saw the appointment of a full-time stockman. This was Horace Gosden, the school's first caretaker who had left in the mid-fifties but still lived opposite the school. His reliability and aimiable disposition endeared him to pupils and staff alike, and the school mourned a greatly loved friend and devoted servant when he died after a short illness in the late seventies. He was followed by a succession of stockmen including a former pupil Roddy Layberry. The post has been held for the last few years by another former pupil Andrea Kelly.

AIN'T SCIENCE WONDERFUL!

The first science taught at Wrotham comprised a blend of biology, chemistry and physics popular at the time and known as 'General Science'. A further range of benches ran round the sides, broken at intervals to leave space for radiators. A simple six-foot wide storeroom was provided at the far end, and ran the full width of the room, behind the fixed green wooden blackboard. In front of this stood a boarded rostrum on which was fixed the teacher's demonstration bench.

Approximately 1952

The laboratory was typical of many installed at that time in HORSA huts throughout the country and had ranks of five fixed hardwood benches with cupboards fitted beneath, and equipped with gas taps along their working surface.

Equipment was scarce at first compared with later years but much apparatus was improvised from everyday objects and 'junk' in the fashion of the time. In fact the writer met his wife on a course devoted to such things as making scalpels from penholders and slivers of broken razor blades, and balances from bisected ballcocks. Despite such shortages, a balanced and relevant syllabus was followed, unfettered in early days by public examinations and able to follow lines of enquiry as interests developed and discoveries were made.

Among the many out-of-school activities in science, a school radio club was formed in the sixties and transmitted world-wide signals using the call-sign G3POY. Among the first contacts was one with a former pupil, Tony Fairey, serving with the army in Cyprus. Contact was also made with the radio station at the Science Museum during a visit there by a group of pupils with Mr.Rush. An imposing array of aerials was erected above the science huts and extended across to the main building. Several pupils of that time have since qualified as licensed radio amateurs and regular contacts are still maintained.

The first public examinations taken at Wrotham were those for the certificate of the College of Preceptors around the mid sixties, pupils remaining at school for a voluntary fifth year. This continued until the raising of the school leaving age to sixteen and the introduction of the Certificate of Secondary Education, the CSE. Courses were later extended to prepare candidates for GCE O Level examinations and some good results were gained.

For several years, younger pupils not selected for grammar or technical schools had begun to attend the school at eleven and formed the first year classes, but in the early seventies the Maidstone Division adopted the Thames-side Scheme of education. In this, all pupils moved to their local secondary schools for two years during which a continuous assessment was made of each pupil's progress in a wide range of subjects. On the science side it was decided in the Maidstone Division that in order to achieve some uniform core of experience for those who were to move away to grammar and technical schools at the end of their second year, the schools would adopt the Nuffield scheme of Combined Science. Broadly speaking this was based on the first two years of Nuffield 0 level schemes for biology, chemistry and physics and involved a very great measure of practical work in small groups.

Grants were made by the Nuffield Foundation for the provision of necessary equipment, and a second large room in the South East HORSA block was equipped as a second laboratory. This in turn brought about a milestone in Wrotham science with the appointment of the school's first laboratory technician. This was Mrs.Carol Howat who played a very great part in the management of so much never-before-dreamt-of equipment. Until this time, there had been no preparation room in the department, but now an adjacent boys' toilet was converted for the purpose and equipped with benches, sink and cupboards, as well as extra doors. It became and still is, very much the hub of the science department.

Mrs. Howat was a science graduate, and when the head of department went on detachment to BBC Local Radio in 1975 she took over his teaching timetable (as was then permitted) and continued teaching when she moved with her husband to Lincolnshire on his appointment to a teaching post there. Carol Howat was followed as laboratory technician by Mrs.Vi Roskilly who also rendered invaluable service until her tragic and untimely death.

Her children had been popular pupils at the schools and Mrs.Roskilly was a lunchtime playground supervisor until her appointment as technician. New regulations for the control of chemicals in schools were introduced around this time, and she devised a complete system for their labelling and storage, which is still largely in use today.

Vi Roskilly was followed by Mrs Pat Harmston who maintained the same traditions of enthusiastic service until she followed her husband to Cheshire when his work caused the move to be made.

Mrs. Ann Cannon was appointed to teach biology and has since rendered great service both to the department and in a wider sense as head of the third year. Her two sons have both been pupils at Wrotham and she lives in the nearby village of Ightham. As the department grew, Ken Baines was appointed to teach chemistry and was also much involved with school cricket, breaking new ground by taking teams on foreign tours. A third member of the science team was John Allen who also taught mathematics and founded the school's work in computer studies.

The original science laboratory was completely refitted in 1986 for the teaching of chemistry and the former head of department was delighted to be invited back to perform the opening ceremony. All the old, well-worn fittings had been replaced with the latest in laboratory furniture, designed for the county by David Crump of Kemsing Road, Wrotham and himself a former pupil at the school.

The writer retired from his position as head of science in 1983, having had the great satisfaction of seeing his department grow over the years, thanks to a keen, loyal and devoted staff. His place was taken by Mr. Trevor Ashley.

Staff at Wrotham School, 1980.

 Back to Wrotham School Home Page