Old pic of the original Eastbourne HHS!

Some time ago, Jay Simson sent me this photo of the school which has to be from the original Beaulieu days, as I don't recognise the scene at all! Jay's Father is E.C.L.Simson, fourth from the right, back row! The photographer from Eastbourne is signal as well!

My apologies for being so tardy, Jay, I 'lost' the pic until a 'flashback' occurred just now, and I remembered it all! Senior moments sometimes work in reverse!

I guess that as this is from 1917, these fathers and grandfathers will have long departed now, but at least we have a proven record of the old place! I think GB would have been very pleased!

Ed Halsted (1960-1963)...

Edward Halsted has been in touch, and we've had several chats online recently!

A click on the link below shows an impressive career in theatre, film and TV, and there are too many recognisable titles to write here! The link at the bottom can be cut 'n pasted for everything!

Ed says that he's unable to get to Sedlescombe in a couple of weeks time, but of course the invitation is still open to anyone coming along to the Queens!

Hi Mike 

I've just come upon your old boy blog so thought I'd say hello. We must have been at the school at the same time - I was there from 1960 to 1963 I think. It was good to scroll through the posts and photos; a few faces and rather more names were familiar. 

I came back for a reunion a year or two after leaving and, then, stopped off in 1975(?) when I was working locally to find the place deserted. The doors were open so I walked round the house and grounds and met a few ghosts. 

I haven't met any contemporaries since apart from a chap called Davis who came up to say hello after a show I was in. (Have been an actor after university and drama school since 1974.) I won't wait another 58 years to google the school. 

Thanks for putting up the site - Hope you are keeping well while the plague is with us. 

Yours Edward Halsted 

edward.halsted@gmail.com 

Spotlight Link:http://www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/1933-9053-8506

(I got back to him, then...)

Hello again - Many thanks for your speedy reply. 

Touched by your memories of me and my immortality via the army station! In fact, I think I had rather a low profile due to the combination of Brodribb's enthusiasm for sports and my hopelessness at all of them. 

Even my job as scorer for the cricket 1st 11 was unglorious - Seem to remember never getting the numbers to add up! I did go on to Bryanston (how did you work that out?) but no one from Hydneye came too. Had a very good time there. Then law and Sociology at Exeter meaning to become a barrister. Sadly, half way through the first law lecture I realised my mistake!

Don't have any photos to add to the site's collection. Do feel free to put my letter up if that would be suitable.

Best wishes. I live in London. Perhaps we can meet some time....

Ed

(Ed, I've left off your phone numbers, but can put them up if you want - Mike)!

ps, the link will have to be a cut and paste - the swap from the email somehow wouldn't let me copy it as a proper link! Apols too, for the formatting, it's been a bit of a b****r to transpose, hence the rather attractive type...

Next reunion...

Another lunch in Sedlescombe, just North of Hastings, is planned for Wednesday 26th January, 2022.

So far we have a party of four, all HHS men from the late fifties/early sixties, but of course, anyone is welcome and I will bring the magazine collection from whatever year HHS inmates can remember!

Reunion of Three...

Yesterday, I met with two old friends from my days at HHS - Paddy Langdon and Tim Masterman. We met at a superb pub in Sedlescombe, 

https://www.thequeensheadsedlescombe.com/ 

...and spent a very pleasant couple of hours chatting over the school mags I'd taken along (they're all scanned and here now), and the goodwill flowed!

So it's inevitable that we'll do this again, and so we were wondering if there are any other OBs who might like to join us one day? We seem to have lost touch with nearly all the local names, so it might be a bridge too far for most people, but the idea's there for anyone who might want to make the pilgrimage one day, or, if you're coming this way anyway, I can easily get back to Tim and Paddy and we can meet up!

My email's at the top of the page!

James Davidson...

James Davidson has just been in touch, and here is his message - self explanatory of course!

Dear Mike Armitage,

 

I have just had the pleasure of viewing your BlogSpot site. We lived in Battle and I was a pupil at Hydneye for four terms, Spring 1957 to Summer 1958. It seems that we failed to overlap by just one term.

 

The Hydneye Magazine of 1957 in particular is a revelation of familiar names and doings. I note my own scrawl appearing at the bottom of the signature page. Among the teachers mentioned (as well as Gerald B., of course) I vividly remember Mr Morrish, Miss Plaxton,  Com. Job, and Mr Jordan (our scoutmaster, smashing bloke). Various fellow-pupils’ names also ring bells, such as J Slade, S Fry, J A G Badenoch, P R D Davidson (no relation) and the Fancy brothers. (In those distant times the rule was surnames only, Christian names were taboo for some reason.)  I also see (1961 Magazine page 28) that I attended an old boys’ reunion along with my brother Adrian.

 

I have dug out my childhood photo album and scanned those snaps that I possess relating to  Hydneye, with captions transcribed. Summer half-term tea for parents on the lawn looks like fun. Also, various chums beside the famous pond. The one of me on the lawn also featuring someone’s knees was, I guess, supposed to suggest a spectacular contortion.

 

After leaving Hydneye I moved to Westminster School, which fact I suppose ought to be recorded on page 9 of the 1969 Magazine but unaccountably isn’t.  Ah, well! You are most welcome to post any of this material that you wish on your page. I also attach Gerald Brodribb’s Times obituary from 1999, in case this is of interest.

 

With best wishes

James Davidson

Now as he said, I missed being at HHS with him back in 1958, but I knew his brother, Adrian very well, and we were firm chums! Sadly Adrian died eighteen months ago, but I remember him as a great friend, and was a popular chap to anyone, especially if you liked lizards!

Here are the pictures James sent me: -

S. Fry.

Half term tea on the lawn.

James!

Another fabulous pic of the old place!

James also sent me a copy of GB's obit, but as it's a PDF, I can't seem to be able to copy it here, but I did publish it a while back...

Those other schools...

During term time, we regularly see school buses - mainly small, private people-carriers, picking up and delivering children to schools around here.

It got me thinking about all the schools we used to visit for rugby, cricket and football, so I checked where they are now!

I've got this far...

First is Glengorse, which I thought had been pulled down, but has been in the news recently as becoming another school soon! The link is here!

https://www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk/education/new-private-school-on-outskirts-of-battle-planned-3216989

Now, I cannot remember ever going there, but many people will recall the link with HHS, so this may be some sort of surprise!

The others are: -

• Westerleigh - now derelict, but still there.
• Hurst Court - now a block of flats
• Seafield - closed
• Boarzell - not really sure, but seems to be a college of sorts
• Vinehall (did we ever play them?), is now a thriving school near Battle
• Bethany (ditto) still running very well
• Summerfields - now a police HQ and new hotel
• Dulwich Prep - not sure if we ever got that far
• and finally, Claremont! It's still where we used to play many games, just a few yards down from the road bridge along from HHS! I remember Barbour getting a hooker's boot in the mouth during one game of rugby there - he was scrum-half, well, for some of the match anyway! The school has grown considerably, and also took over a local failing school, Bodiam Manor, as a sixth form college, and we see their buses most days! The Royal Blue uniform hasn't changed!

Here in Hawkhurst, we still have St Ronan's School, and Marlborough House which both seem to be doing very well. Many years ago, there were many more, some with just a couple of dozen pupils, but they were demolished and are now housing estates!

Have I left anyone out in the list?

Sister - Jane Ellis...

Through Richard Ellis, Jane's nephew, we are all still in regular contact, and here is a recent photo of the lovely lady who looked after us all back in the late fifties!

Jane now lives in Tasmania - and has lived down-under since the '60s. She married soon after arriving there, had two daughters and now has two great-grandchildren! 

What takes me back, are so many memories of her little room opposite the bathroom, where Sister Jane would sit behind the table, possibly with Matron - Miss Reynolds - close by, and there would be neat stacks of boy's records, crepe bandages drying by the fire, verucca plasters, (which she made by cutting a tiny diagonal hole in the middle of a piece the size of a postage stamp), and of course, the 'poo-book'!

Jane remembers so many of us, so we have to be pretty careful on any comments, but when you think that some of us were still only about nine years old or thereabouts, we really needed the kindness and care which was always found in that little room! It was a haven for new boys, and I still have vivid recall of making any excuse to go and say a few words, and receive so much love, care and affection!

Almost everyone will have fond memories of Jane's time at HHS, and she regularly reads all these posts! Of course, she has several mentions in the earlier mags, and her signature is on a couple as well!