Pixies Hill (Camp School) Hemel Hempstead

From: Raymond John West (November 24, 2004)
Pamber Heath, Tadley, Hampshire
Email: raymond@pamberheatharchives.org.uk
MEMORIES OF PIXIES HILL (CAMP) SCHOOL

My family moved from Muswell Hill, London to 32 Pudding lane, Gadebridge in 1958 when I was about 9 years old. I attended the Pixies Hill (camp) School, presumably

because the Rossgate school at Gadebridge was under construction. I would walk to Gadebridge Road with my brother Vincent to catch the double-decker bus to Pixies Hill School. Several children were at that bus stop each morning. The bus would stop at various points along the route to pick up other children.

I am sending you a photograph of my class at Pixies Hill School around 1959, different from the two you already have. The photograph shows me and my brother with our classmates. I am second from the teacher in the back row of boys and my brother Vincent is fifth from the teacher in the same row. Perhaps someone can name the teacher and some of the children shown. I don't remember anything about this class or even the teacher but do recall some things about the school in general.

The school had two sections. One part was for the Roman Catholic children and the other (my part) for the others, the two being separated by a grassed area about the size of a football pitch. They were on the left as you faced the canal and we were on the right. We were not allowed to mix but did see the Roman Catholic children at dinner times as they had a room off the main dining room. The dining hall was down the hill a bit from the classrooms and I recall the lovely Christmas parties we had there when we all brought food in. I remember there being a small library in there stocked with `Janet and John' books.

There was an area where we practised sports down by the canal bridge and a sand pit there for the long jump and high jump. We would watch the canal boats as they ambled along and see the trains as they steamed along the railway line. There was an inter-school sports day and I remember winning the high jump competition for the small schools contest and only a reserve but called on to compete. I recall the school's sporting achievements being mentioned in an assembly, which was held in a large building on the Pixies Hill site. I assume we had regular assemblies but that's the only one I remember.

I recall the long rows of old wash basins in the toilet hut and always seemed over the top for the amount of children in there at any one time.

Can anyone locate precisely where the school was in relation to what is there today? My memory is that it was generally on the hill that slopes down to the canal but I did not have time to visit the area while in Hemel Hempstead recently. From an aerial photograph, it seems the area is now playing fields or was the school north of Chaulden Lane, where the new Pixies Hill School is now situated?

I left the school in July, 1960 to attend the Warners End Secondary School from September that year. My family moved back to London in early 1963, so ending my days at Hemel Hempstead.

Raymond West

Below are the original question that from January 2004 and other subsequent memories of the School

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Question

My name is Anthony Wright, age 56 and I so well remember going to Chaulden School in the mid 1950s with my brother John. We went to a former army barracks we called Pixies Hill school before we left the UK in 1957. Our family members all survive and live in the USA. I have been back to the UK several times and visited Pixies Hill in 1983 but only one building remained. I could not get my bearings as to the layout I was only ten when I left. I had no trouble finding Chaulden School and everything looked about the same as it did then. So many things I liked at Pixies Hill and I remember a teacher named Mrs. Fisher who drove a Ford Zephyr and I remember gazing across the fields to see the trains and wanting to drive one one day and Mrs. Fisher constantly telling me to pay attention to the lessons. The headmaster was a Mr. Postlewaite or some similar spelling and we learned the three Rs well. I made my First Communion at St. Mar'ys Catholic Church in Boxmoor when we went to the convent. We went to Chaulden and then to Pixies Hill as there were too many kids for the one school. We actually liked Pixies Hill better. The school/convent I remember well. .Does anyone remember Pixies Hill School and any of the teachers there? Any idea as to when it was torn down or are there any pictures of the old place? Is the lone building still standing? We didn't get out to Pixies Hill in '02 but we promised ourselves we will next time, hopefully 2004. Needless to say, I have a love of history and like to stay in touch with Hemel via the website!  Also, I was taken pleasantly aback by the closing off of the old Marlowes but otherwise things seemed so very much the same! We ate in a café by the bus station there and took the train back to Victoria!

Answer:

Steve Bugster contacted us with the picture above of Mr Morris’ class in 1958/59.
He was a pupil there until the new Rossgate School was built.
The picture shows the huts – does anyone anyone recognise any of the youngsters?
Do drop us a line at Website, HeraldExpress, 39 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead HP1 1LH or contact us through the website at www.hemelonline.co.uk.
Another reader, Janet, contacted us and told us: “Just to answer some of what I remeber of Pixies Hill School, I was there from 1955 – 1958, then I attended Micklem School when it was built on the new estate of Warners End. The head master was Mr Postlewaite and he came with us to Micklem, also Mrs Robinson and Mrs Morgan were teachers at Pixies Hill. I remeber the huts were built on stilts and you could climb underneath. Some even had veranders. There was an air raid shelter in the playground, it was built like a grassy hill with steps down to a door, there was a similiar air raid shelter near the park, that was called Aeroplane Meadow..

March 8:

My family moved to Hemel Hempstead in March 1957 (I was 7 years old at the
time).  After the war there was a real shortage of housing in London, and my
parents, three sisters and grandmother had all been living in a small flat.
Our new, four-bedroom house in Warners End seemed like had moved into a
palace.
I started in Mrs Morgan's class in Pixies Hill and have sent you a
photograph (different to the one you already have) of my next year with Mr
Lax.  As David Bell has said, the wooden huts were heated with paraffin
heaters.  They were woefully inadequate in the winter, and on snowy days I
can remember we would all sit in the classroom dressed in scarves and
overcoats.  Every twenty minutes we would all stand up and walk around
stamping our feet and clapping our hands to warm them up again.  Most days I
used to catch the Bream bus from Stoneycroft to Long Chaulden shops.  The
fare was 1 ½  old pence.  In the summer though I preferred to walk home and
spend the money on 5 “Gob Stoppers” bought from the sweet shop in Long
Chaulden.
When my wife and I moved to our present house in Boxmoor in 1976, I was
amazed to find my close neighbour was Mrs Morgan, who had been my first
teacher at Pixies Hill, I showed her my class photograph and she was able to
name nearly all the members of the class. Foolishly I did not write them
down at the time, and Mrs Morgan sadly died not very long afterwards.
When Martindale School was built many of the pupils and the headteacher, Mr
Postlethwaite, moved there.  He remained head of Micklem school for many
years.  Shortly afterward Martindale School was completed and I moved there
while in Mr Lax's class.  The headteacher was Mr Burgess.

Ian Burton

Address supplied, not for publication

Feb 29, 2004: Other readers have contacted us with memories:

Susan Conyers (nee Mee) from Denbigh, North Wales, says she is in the 1958/59 picture in the back row, fourth from the left.
She went on to Micklem School. She says she would love to be re-united with some of her old school friends.

Paul Bruley from Deveon tells us he is the handsome one, front row, second from the left in the dark jumper. He went on to Halsey School, then joined the merchant navy and now runs his own business, Dartington Steel Design
All he can really remember about Pixies Hill is the long walk he had every day from Cherry Orchard in Gadebridge to school, and back. He adds:"When I think about it, it's a bloody long-way for a seven year old. I would be very interested to know where they all are today, especially the girls.
David Bell from Luton was a pupil at Pixies Hill until Micklem School was built - his father was a teacher at Micklem.
He remembers at Pixies Hill how the children would climb underneath the huts which were heated with parafin heaters. Mrs Hunt's hut was painted pink inside (she was the art teacher) Mr Hanson and Mr Sutton are other teachers' names he remembers.
If you're an 'old Pixies Hill' and would like to get in touch with the other old pupils do contact us with your email address and we'll include it here.

To contact us with details, just click here