Memories of Stanmore - The Sacree Family - 1935 to 1959
By Nigel Sacree - 06 December 2019
The Sacree family lived at 25 Stuart Crescent, Stanmore, from about 1936, and that was ‘home’ until Mum and Dad (Cecil and Joyce) passed away in 1982.
Naturally, all the children attended Stanmore Infant/Junior School, until they went on to secondary education (Peter Symonds – then a grammar school for boys, the County High School – the grammar school for girls, and Danemark/Winchester County Secondary Modern School).
Sacree siblings; Brian, Barbara, Trevor, Tony and Nigel, owe a great deal to their formative time at Stanmore School, spanning a period of about 24 years! (c1935 to 1959). Their teachers had a lot to contend with! The Junior School Headmaster in the early days was Mr F P Freeman. In my time, Mr King was responsible for the Juniors and Miss Edmonds for the Infants.
Celebration at the end of World War II (possibly VE Day) - with fancy dress at Stanmore School (my sister Barbara is in there with a white scarf on her head and lace at her neck)
This social and educational foundation inevitably contributed to our later pursuits and careers: aircraft nuclear defence and aircraft antenna technology (Brian Sacree), games teacher and athletics coach (Barbara Sacree (Payne)), the Hampshire Constabulary (Trevor Sacree), electrician (Tony Sacree), local government administration and PR (Nigel Sacree).
I was drawn to the School website when I happened on a photo of the School Choir in 1957 – I am in the back row. It is amazing that whoever contributed the photo should have remembered so many names – a test I would have failed miserably. A big thankyou for this reminder.
Music is important to me (it is also a family thing). David Waldin (not Waldren as printed) was an encouraging music teacher – he taught us tonic sol-fa (a technique for teaching sight-singing). I remember he was involved in music at St Cross Chapel. John Wright also taught us music and music appreciation at Stanmore. He features in another teacher group photo on the school website. John was also the man behind Winchester male voice choir, ‘Caer Gwent’ (he was Welsh). I am sure the Stanmore Choir was recorded for a BBC broadcast, but have failed to trace any further information.
Mr King, my Head Teacher, comes to mind principally for two things, apart from the fact that he was a good and kind man: he had Elgar’s orchestral music playing at the start of school assembly (we should be exposing today’s children at school to the beauty of ‘proper’ music – it almost certainly won’t happen at home); when I failed the 11+ exam he attempted to reassure me that it would be better for me to be in the top set at the Winchester County Secondary Modern Boys School than an ‘also ran’ at Peter Symonds Grammar School. Some argue that the 11+ was socially and educationally divisive; for my part, it did little to bolster my self-confidence. Schools on the other side of town were known to be coaching their pupils to pass the exam – but that wasn’t on offer at Stanmore.
The Stanmore Parade in Stuart Crescent before arriving at Stanmore School
I remember a number of Stanmore’s teachers, including Mrs Cooper, and Miss Glover, who feature on the website. Mrs Cooper was known as ‘scooper’ – children eager to answer a question shot a hand up and shouted ‘scooper’ (at least that’s the way ‘Mrs Cooper’ came out). Miss Glover read beautifully and with expression – even 60+ years on I can still remember the thrill of listening to ‘Moonfleet’ (for the uninitiated – a tale of smuggling, treasure and shipwreck set in 18th century England, written by J Meade Falkner). One less fond memory was Miss Glover’s habit, at the end of the school day, of having us stand on our chairs answering maths questions – if you answered correctly you sat down – I was usually one of the last standing!
This may have been Frances’ come back for us making an ice slide in the depths of winter, across the tarmac play-ground, starting at the bottom of the steps to her timber clad classroom. Miss Glover unwittingly gave this obstacle a test run, sliding along it on her bottom (not too many marks for style, but high marks for speed and fairly loud exclamations of shock!).
Her classroom was one of two in a block, the other occupied by Mr Harrison (an un-named teacher in the group photo including John Wright). This block was separated from the main school brick building by a narrow passageway. In these pre-Health and Safety days the boys played ‘King’ which was essentially flinging a tennis ball at each other – or aimlessly into the passageway, the ricochet making a ‘hit’ almost certain, whether another pupil or a teacher!
Both Molly and Frances were deacons at Winchester Baptist Church, which we attended as a family. Rev Joe Tweedley, also on the Stanmore website, was a Liverpudlian, an Everton supporter and not only Chair Of School Governors, but the Minister of Winchester Baptist Church – he conducted a number of our family dedications, baptisms, weddings and funerals in his 30+ years there.
I also remember from my time at Stanmore School: Mr Kent (he once ‘measured’ the palm of my hand with a ruler – and I deserved it!) – he is also un-named in the teacher group photo; Miss Brown; Miss Percival; Mrs Blake (she had us learning times tables by rote – that should be a requirement today); my sister-in-law to be, Dorothy Whone, taught at Stanmore for a spell, and (I think) she is also an un-named in the teacher group photo. Other teaching names spring to mind: Valerie Barton and Miss Cavell, but I’m not sure whether my memory is playing tricks.
Some more of my disjointed memories of Stanmore School:
nature trips to St Cross meadows, when we did pond dipping and brought all kinds of swimming or crawling creatures back to school in jam jars;
swimming trips to Bull Drove (off Garnier Road, St Cross) when we endured bathing in cold river water (off the Itchen) and the equally basic and exposed changing facilities;
sports days (I was the fastest at 100 yds in my year until Keith Harfield arrived – and he later got to Peter Symonds as well!!) – the three-legged and sack races were always good for a laugh, at others and ourselves;
rounders matches out the front of School were an opportunity to get the hard ball rocketing into Stanmore Lane!;
home inter-school football matches at Stanmore Recreation Ground (I was usually right back). Handily this large open space was at the bottom of our garden in Stuart Crescent;
the School outside toilets freezing in the winter - a new block was built later for the girls, as I remember;
also in the winter, the pupils’ daily bottles of milk would freeze, the cream pushing out of the top with the silver lid as a hat – the cream survived so long as the blue tits didn’t get there first – and oh, the honour of being chosen as class milk monitor!;
school concerts (brilliant, particularly the Christmas ones, with ‘proper carols’), I once got to sing Schubert’s ‘The Trout’ to the gathered audience including parents and relations – don’t know how that would go down in the X Factor generation;
at one concert the Clark brothers (twins I think) played a piano duet, which left an indelible memory;
a very late apology to Susan Ames, who presented me with a toy car, which ended up in the boys’ toilet cistern! – how, I don’t remember, and it may be disingenuous to suggest my school mates had a hand in this, out of jealousy. The contractors who pulled down the toilet block years later would have made an unusual discovery.
in the infants, we boys would run round the play-ground shouting (something like) “Illy ally oos playing cowboys and indians – no girals”;
the wartime bomb shelters were quite a significant feature in the school landscape, and while they were supposed to be out of bounds, I am sure that did not deter some of us! – our play was still heavily influenced by what had been experienced just a handful of years before we were born;
this was the Cold War, and I guess this was a reason not to remove the shelters - we occasionally heard the haunting wail of the air raid sirens on the Stanmore estate being tested.
In the days of the school ‘cook-house’ being over towards the railway line, the teachers’ lunch was transported in tins on a wheeled trolley, through the school to the staff room on the other side of school. Selected children were responsible for the delivery – nothing happened to the food on the way (honestly!), but after lunch the leftovers were further ‘reduced’ by we hungry kids in transit – recycling at its best! The waste food was consigned to pig bins, collected daily by the local pig farmer.
This last memory brought back a rhyme from the Stanmore playground “Say what you will, school dinners make you ill, and Davy Crockett died of shepherds pie: our school din dins come from pig bins, out of town.” I can still sing the tune, which I think was based on a popular song of the time (Max Bygraves – ask your grandparents).
Taken at the end of World War II - the children of Stanmore taken at the back of the school. These were Stanmore pupils; the older ones were former pupils. My three brothers are in the front and back row.
Barbara Payne (neé Sacree) has provided the following names – anyone with corrections/ideas, please feel free to shout (apologies if the spelling is wrong – but, this is from her memory and reaches back over 70 years!). Barbara is missing from the photo as she was unwell on the day.
?
Brian Sacree
Hazel West
Jean Bayley
Josephine Kotch
Valerie Barton
Ann Carter
Jean Mills
Valerie Cooper
?
Tony Carter
Elizabeth ?
?
Tony Putnam
David Ellis
Jimmy Waldin
Roger Haddock
David Jordan
Blanche Evans
Dorothy ? Perry
Gwen Rees
John Lay
Peter Alcock
Brenda Curl
?
Wendy Stone
Rosemary Thomas
Brenda Rolfe
Mary Bayley
? Putnam
Wendy Putnam
?
Gwyneth Ellis
Sylvia Perry
Joan Ellerby
?
Anne Carter
Shirley Cooper
John Rice
Ron Duffin
Allen Carter
Originally thought to be David Waldin, but likely to be Howard Waldin
?
Trevor Sacree
Tony Sacree
Isabel Haddock
Joy ? Verley
Alan Backhouse
?
John Bayley
Jenny Rolfe
Rosemary Rolfe
Memories of Stanmore - living through the air raids
I started attending Stanmore School in 1937 aged 4. I loved every minute of my school life there.
Unfortunately in 1939 World War 2 was declared! Gradually as air raids started we were taught to listen when there was a siren sounding because our teacher would blow a whistle. At the sound of that we had to put everything on top of our desk inside the desk & picked up our gas mask by the string around the box. We then had to stand QUIETLY in line until our teacher gave us the order to MARCH (not run) up the playground until we reaches the shelters.
One day we were in class and a german plane dropped bombs on an army camp behind the school. There was no air raid warning so we were in great danger, our teacher told us to get under the desks. I was very frightened but so grateful to my teacher who looked after me so well.
Five of my six children also attended Stanmore School. (Hazel Lane formally West)