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Sportspace - Hemel Hempstead
 
 
Friday, 3rd September 2010

 
CORNER HALL SCHOOL

THE CORNER HALL SCHOOL
The name Corner Hall goes back a long way in local history, and is mentioned as early as the rentals of 1523. A new school was built in Corner Hall to cope with the increasing need for secondary education in Hemel. It was opened in May 1937 It was at this time that it was created with separate departments for girls and boys. During the evacuation the premises were used as one of the area’s dispersal stations, and a double shift system was required to teach the influx of evacuees from London. The buildings were eventually demolished and the pupils transferred to Mountbatten School.
The folloeing memories of his days there as a pupil were received from Barry Bruce who lives in Adeyfield, Hemel Hempstead.

HERITAGE has received the following memories (and pictures) of schooldays at the Corner Hall School in Hemel Hempstead from Barry Bruce who now lives in Adeyfield
The recent Heritage Extra of March 13 jogged my memory back to my school days at Corner Hall Boys’ School in Crabtree Lane. The article was about Mountbatten School and the memories of two ladies who attended the establishment. In the text one of them referred to a Mr Jones (Spike) who was the deputy head.
Mountbatten School effectively superseded Corner Hall School and in the late 1950s, Spike was our form master at Corner Hall. I say ‘our’ because I enclose not only a photo of him, but one of his form of ‘59 with him seated in the middle.

BARRY AND OLD FRIENDS
All the ‘boys’ in this picture will now be fast approaching 60 years of age and I am still in regular contact with over half of them. Incidentally, I am in the back row and second from the left. People tell me I have hardly changed in appearance since the picture was taken, but if this is true, why does hair washing now only take a few seconds and is dry by the time I’ve walked from the bathroom to the bedroom?
‘Spike’ Jones was a Welshman with a wonderful tenor voice, he could be heard above the rest of the school every morning in assembly. At one time he decided to form a school choir and we were all herded into the hall for an audition. After a few minutes practice he decided that someone was ruining proceedings with a voice, “Like two rusty baked bean tins being rubbed together.” We had to continue singing whilst he marched up and down the rows in search of the culprit. He eventually arrived in front of me and I was immediately ejected never to sing in his choir again. To this day I do not know if he thought I was making this noise on purpose.

SPIKE
The truth is, I was really trying my best, and I have never sung in public (or private) since, not even at funerals. Despite the psychological damage he inflicted on me, I have very fond memories of him from those days.
The other four photographs were taken by me shortly before the school was pulled down to make way for housing. You will see that it was quite an austere building that opened in 1939. Rumour has it that the architect was a designer of prisons, thus the school nick-name Prison-on-the-Hill. I don’t think he changed any of his plans for this building. You will notice that the building generally has two floors. The ground floor was the girls’ school and the first floor was the boys’ school. The girls’ entrance was at the lower left of the building, whilst the boys’ entrance was at the upper right when viewed from the road. The central main entrance was for members of staff and VIPs only.
When I first arrived at the school the headmaster was Richard ‘Dickie’ Barnard, but he retired during my time there and was replaced by a Mr Church. Richard Barnard is remembered by having a nearby road named after him.
One of the features of the school being on the side of a hill was the separate boys’ and girls’ playgrounds behind the building being constructed on two levels. There was a good six-foot drop from the boys down to the girls, with only a simple bar railing to stop you being cast to the girls like live bait - a threat to terrify you in your first year, but relish in your final year!’
 
 

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