Clare House Preparatory School History Page

Norfolk House Downham Market  Norfolk United Kingdom

Click here to see what gave me the idea of writing a brief history of Clare House School.

Much of what I have written here is based on the memories of Clare House's long-serving former Headmaster, Mr John Hodges, who kindly agreed to talk to me one day in June 2001 about his experiences at the School. The business of the closure of the School obviously has many painful memories for him. Nevertheless, John Hodges is now a bright and healthy 90+year old, enjoying his retirement in a beautiful part of rural Kent.

Please bear in mind when reading this history that it is largely based on personal experiences and memories: I would like to continue to improve the factual accuracy of the text. As there seems to be very little published information about Clare House School in existence, I would like to appeal to anybody who has had any connection with Clare House Preparatory School in the past, however tenuous, to contact me, please. Thank you.

I am grateful to Mr John Hodges for allowing me to use the copies of the photographs of Clare House that I have used on this page.

James Alcock, whose brother, Martin, was a close friend of mine when I was at Clare House, has kindly produced a plan of the School.

In the latter years of the nineteenth century there was a school called Merton House School at the junction of Oakwood Avenue with Overbury Avenue in Beckenham, Kent, in the United Kingdom. The school was founded in 1892 and was run by an Oxford don from Merton College.

George Philbrick lived in the Headmaster's house. This was the part of the School buildings at the extreme left of the frontage, as viewed from the Oakwood Avenue. In the photograph above, the Headmaster's accommodation is on the extreme right. George had a large family, so he had an extra storey built onto the Headmaster's wing for them. This did not seem to have been very well planned, as the occupants of the upper rooms had little or no water pressure with which to fill their basins!

The School acquired a reputation as being a suitable place for officers of the Royal Navy to send their sons. Apparently, the standard of education required for a son to follow his father into the Navy at that time may not always have been particularly demanding academically, and the youngsters soon learnt all they needed to know about naval life from the education they later received from the Navy.

After George Philbrick died, the School was run by a consortium of former pupils and a group of businessmen in Beckenham. One of these was appointed as the Senior Master and a period of gradual decline for Clare House School began as the difficulties of running a school became apparent to the management team. It seems as if the school had a ready source of Navy personnel who were happy to pay to have their sons attend the "right" school, but so significant were the problems for those running the school that it nearly went into liquidation.

In 1936, a Mr A W E (John) Hodges was appointed Assistant Master at the School and effectively it was he who was then running the School.

At that time, the facilities were still rather basic: there was a large Nissen hut between the main buildings of the School and the gymnasium building. In the front part of this hut, Sixth Form lessons were taught, while at the back, carpentry classes were conducted. It is evident from this that by the late 1930's, the School was flourishing again, thanks to many years of hard work put in by Cyril Crump and his team.

The School was now so popular that it was full. Indeed, it needed to employ two cooks - these ladies were sisters from the Newcastle area.

 

The Second World War

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In 1939 the Second World War started. Mr Gladstone, who had now become publicly known as the owner of the School, chartered a train to take all the Abbey and Clare House staff and pupils who wanted to go with him to Woolacombe, in Devon, to avoid the German bombs. Robin Gladstone, Cyril Crump along with some of the Abbey and Clare House boys went to Devon. Those who did not go included Mr John Hodges, who was now left running Clare House School with some Abbey School and some Clare House staff. The pupils now consisted of some Abbey boys and some Clare House boys, all aged from about 9 or 10 to 13, and some girls aged up to 16 from St. Christopher's School, which was in Oakhill Road, Beckenham.

The staff and pupils returned from Woolacombe after less than a year, but more permanent arrangements for evacuation were soon made, as Clare House School closed in 1940 and the staff and pupils of both the Abbey and Clare House Schools went to East Grinstead, in Sussex. They went to Ashurst Wood, the home of  Sir Abe Bailey (Note 1), the South African millionaire and cricketer, who had the cricket field constructed there, reputedly used by the first South African touring team to visit the UK.

The School only had a few pupils now, so these were financially difficult times, but it soon settled down in the comfortable surroundings of the estate there.

In the meantime, Clare House in Beckenham had closed at Christmas 1940. Mr Hodges and his staff cleared the school buildings of furniture and stored some of it in Munns and Ridgewell's furniture repository. This repository was bombed during the War, so after the War, Mr Hodges and his staff had to rescue as much of the furniture as could still be used from the remains of the basement by digging it out of the rubble.

Having closed the Beckenham premises, Mr Hodges joined the Army as an Adjutant in the Churchill IXth Heavy Tank Battalion. The Churchill tanks were manufactured by Vauxhall and were not particularly reliable at that time. The Battalion managed to get about six out of the first hundred tanks into working order.

Eventually, as part of a fighting tank unit, John Hodges was one of the first Allied troops to enter Germany.

In the meantime, the buildings of Clare House School in Beckenham, had been requisitioned for War work by the Army and later the Ministry of Works. When Major Hodges returned, there were over two hundred Irish workmen billeted in the school buildings while the work of re-building Beckenham was going on. It was clear that unless some action was taken to have the workmen moved elsewhere, Clare House School would not re-open.

By all accounts, Robin Gladstone by now was not in good health, spending much of his time in nursing care, and so was unable to do much in a practical way to assist the Headmaster in getting the School functioning again. So Martin and Carnaby, Estate Agents of Dulwich, in south-east London were employed to negotiate with the Ministry for the return and restoration of the buildings. The negotiations seemed to have been forced into rounds of bargaining, rather than being true negotiations.

 Unfortunately, the senior partner of Martin and Carnaby died before negotiations with the Ministry of Works were complete, and although agreement had been reached for the Ministry to vacate the School buildings, the terms for full compensation had not been agreed. Nevertheless, one day four or five months later, Major and Mrs Hodges were informed by the post lady that the Ministry was moving out.

The Ministry did leave in 1946 and left a terrible mess behind. The playing field had to be cleared of temporary buildings, concrete and builders' materials. It was restored by a gang of twenty-five itinerant Polish workers, who were living at that time somewhere near Bromley Common and Major Hodges hired a horse and a reaping machine from a farm near Sevenoaks, in Kent to get the football pitches cleared and cut.

In 1947, Major Hodges re-opened Clare House School in Beckenham, with just two classes running. Times were hard and it took many more years to get the compensation through from the Ministry. This was paid directly to the School's management, the Abbey and Clare House Company Limited, which was based at the Abbey School in East Grinstead, in Sussex.

A Junior Classroom (later, Form '1' Classroom)	The Large Schoolroom (always known as "The Big")
Pictures by courtesy of Mr John Hodges © 2001

Throughout the 1950's gradual improvements through hard work were being made to the premises of Clare House, although management at the Abbey School seemed to be quite profligate with, at one time, the company supporting three Headmasters there, each in his own residence! In Beckenham, the Clare House School was becoming well established again, and reached its capacity of 140 pupils. At this time, there were no boarding pupils, so, at a pinch, an absolute maximum of 160 boys could be accommodated at Clare House.

Despite its continuing success in Beckenham, the Abbey and Clare House Company was not being careful about how its money was being managed in East Grinstead. In 1969, a financial crisis hit the Abbey School, and it was closed. It was hoped at this time that the successful Clare House School would be able to survive on its own, but the Abbey and Clare House Company had already suffered the financial damage. The decision was taken early in 1970 that Clare House would be closed in July of that year. This must have been a bitter blow to the Headmaster and his staff who had improved the School so much over so many years, only to find that mismanagement elsewhere in the company meant that there was no future for Clare House.

Much of the School's memorabilia was sold by auction in the gymnasium to anybody who was interested. Items such as School cups, furniture and fittings all went under the auctioneer's hammer. The site was sold and the buildings were demolished. Except for a few small items, none of the School's records or papers was preserved.

If you would like to add to or comment on anything I have written, please contact me, using my on-line e-mail form. Thank you.

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