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Schooldays in Haslemere

Between the 1940s and 1960s, Haslemere had a variety of different schools. Private schools included St Ives, which at this time was a school ran by the Parents’ National Educational Union and as such emphasised the teaching of nature studies and the arts. The Haslemere School on Chestnut Avenue was opened on 22nd April 1900. It was originally designed for some 220 pupils and built by public subscription. There were also smaller schools such as Hillside School, situated for a time on the Petworth Road and run by the formidable Miss Welland, and Shottermill School in Lion Lane. Woolmer Hill, today the only secondary school in Haslemere, was built in the 1950s to satisfy requirements of 1944 Education Act.

Track 4 Nature Walk

Credit line: Audrey Bayliss talks about the nature walks she went on at St Ives School.

Transcription:

Interviewee: We had a nature walk from St Ives every week unless it was very wet or snowy or something and we’d go as far as across the Recreation Ground and down Steadlands and that was quite a long way and then we’d go down the fields at Imbhams and that direction. I suppose it was an hour out of school. We walked and collected things and we were taught so well – we didn’t just grab them and make bunches of them but we really studied them. It was a very, very good time that.

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