Ladycross School

Ladycross was a Catholic preparatory school based in Seaford, East Sussex, overlooking the downs with trenches which led up to the cliffs. Founded in 1891, more than 2,000 pupils attended it before its closure in 1977.

History

In 1941 the school was temporarily evacuated to Salperton Park, Gloucestershire. After the sale of the school by the Ropers (the founding family) in the 1950s, the school was owned by a Birmingham stockbroker and classicist called Michael Feeny, who continued to run the school in exemplary fashion for the next twenty-five years, with very many long-serving members of staff. Peter 'Piggy' Lawson (senior Master), 'Daddy' Fillingham (member of the Magic Circle and later Senior Master and Maths), Mrs Fillingham (mummy), Miss Dock 'dockie'(Matron), Sister Eady (all matters clinical), Peter 'beaky' Holmes (Art and languages), Miss Marion (honeybugs) Harnett (zoo), Miss Elsey (Whipsnade), 'Chiefy' Chief Petty Officer Caldwell (P.E and games), fathers Cox and McReady.

Eventually wanting to retire and having earned a well-deserved pension, instead of selling up to developers and walking away with a fortune as most of the other Head Masters of the privately owned Prep Schools in Seaford had been doing for years, Mr. Feeny, wanting the best for his school, tried to find a suitable buyer to carry on the tradition. He was unable to find anyone to buy him out so he made the enormous mistake of setting up a trust to take the school over. He handed over the school and all his assets to the trust, which under its new governors allowed the school to become increasingly run down (Feeny was left destitute and in considerable financial difficulties in his later years, he died a very embittered man.) He certainly did not cause or deserve the sad demise of his once proud school, probably for many years under his Headmastership the best R.C. prep school in England, as was claimed in an earlier Wikipedia entry.

The Trust had tried to make a financial turn out of the mid-1970s property boom by selling the site and buying a cheaper one inland. However, the deal went sour, leaving the school with insurmountable debts. For the last two years, the stewardship of the school was passed onto John Wardale and his wife Maureen (and their Doberman Pinscher named Cadbury) overseen by a board of governors. The financial issues escalated making the sale of the site to a property developer and the closure of the school inevitable, despite a last-minute desperate attempt to raise funds from old boys. In 1978, the school buildings were razed to make way for a housing estate.

Pupils

Among the pupils was David Auldjo Jamieson, who won the Victoria Cross.^[1] The children of the actor Richard Harris attended the school, so did Charles Sturridge (film dir/prod). Also pupils were members of the Dutch Brenninkmeijer family, founders of the C&A retail empire; children of the Wates family, owners of the construction company Wates Group; Simon, Dominick and Richard Elwes; John Addington-Sidmouth; Tremayne Rodd-Rennell; Michael Reid, son of Pat Reid the author of "The Colditz Story"; Peter Acton; James MacEwen; Jonathan Vernon-Hunt, William and Edward Fitzgerald QC, the Monckton family; the Dormeuil family; Filipino boys from the prominent Soriano and Zobel families; half-brothers Nick Crean and Bill Keeling, who later became proprietors of the chocolate company Prestat; Baron Ernest-Antoine Seillière and the Montalembert family from France. The last headboy was James Courtney.

School life

The school motto was "Vox vocis sonat, vox exempli tonat" (also a rather good school anthem which roughly translates as "The voice of the voice sounds, the voice of example thunders", a convoluted way of saying 'Lead by example'). A yearbook called The Red Book provided a very concise summary of annual sports and academic achievements, photos, stories and news, from and for parents and old boys.

About 150 pupils were divided into four "houses" for termly competition purposes (academic and sports): Athenians (red), Spartans (green), Ropers (yellow) and Herberts (blue).The winning House each term had a House feast much to the envy of the rest of the school. The smaller boys of 8 years old and under were housed at the Whipsnade, a separate building on the grounds. The boys would move on to the Middle School or "Zoo" (overseen for the last quarter century by Miss Harnett, a strict but extremely kind and quite remarkable teacher of Irish extraction who had her favourites, many of whom were French boys because they weren't English) and then on to the 'Jungle' or Upper School. Among Ladycross's schoolmasters, although likely temporary, was children's book author George Mills (writer), who taught during the summer of 1956.

Boys were provided a pupil number on admission, perhaps as a way of identifying laundry with name/number tags sewn into every item of clothing. Pupils were referred to by teachers and other pupils alike by their surnames with siblings being identified by age through the suffix ma and mi (ma, mi, min for three siblings; max, ma, mi, min for four siblings; or for the five Vasquez, (1963), and five Keeling brothers and cousins (1975) max, ma, mag, mi and min).

Specific language terms developed in the school around hygiene; boys asked permission to 'go through' (to urinate) or to 'go through properly' (to defecate).

Beatings were conducted by Mr Feeny using a split billiard cue (very occasionally) (this contributor on the other hand remembers the split billiard cue being generally used, one to five strokes depending on the fault committed, the age of the boy or how hardened he was), or a 'Whacker/blip/tolley' leather strap occasionally in the presence of his secretary Mrs Parker who would continue with her typing. The recipient of the beating would be informed how many strokes were to be administered and whether the strokes would be received 'trousers-up' or on a bare backside. After being beaten the recipient was expected to shake the headmaster's hand and thank him for his punishment. The long-term gym-master, Chief Petty Officer Caldwell, used two canes which he named Persuader Major and Persuader Minor (this part of the entry is not verified by this contributor who never remembers 'Chief' administering any beatings) (this contributor acknowledges the point, but has heard the account of two boys in the mid-sixties being kicked in the parts by Chief, in the presence of a matron, for running on the benches in the changing room, the first boy being kicked by surprise but the second having to "face" the kick). The senior master would beat boys if the headmaster was away for some reason. Mr Fillingham when assuming this role used a soft gym shoe. John Wardale had a glass eye which affected the accuracy of his beatings.

A system of conduct marks and daily morning cold showers (scalding hot in the evenings, overseen by school matron Sister Brice (Miss Dock earlier) who would administer a Vim-scrub to boys she considered too dirty) were in application. Chief Caldwell would oversee morning cold showers with simple calls 'In' and 'Out'. The last in line would get double time 'In'.

Daily mass in a small but charming Chapel, was optional but spiritual cleanliness was upheld by substituting morning mass for cold showers (a wake-up call for mass preceded general wake-up by 15 minutes). The chapel choir was very good and envied.

Bullying was occasional, not widespread, and never exposed. Boys won colours (a special tie, and in the summer, a striped blazer) at football, rugby and cricket. The uniform in winter was brown tweed and in summer became a combination of tan shorts and airtex shirt for daily wear and for formal weekend wear a bright red blazer, white shirt and red tie, with grey flannel shorts. Prefects were allowed to wear long trousers. The cap was red with the school badge embossed in front (heraldic description of the badge is 'a field argent bearing a cross moline within a border of gules'). The school outfitter was Rowes of Bond Street from 1937 to 1969, and Peter Jones of Sloane Square after that.

Bold and unruly boys would go out on 'dares' such as running off to the downs at night, exploring the closed down buildings and grounds of the next door prep school Tittenhanger, smoking in the Dell, and midnight feasts. Dares carried the penalty of five strokes pants-down, which would leave brown stripes for weeks, for all to see (during cold showers for example), or in extreme cases expulsion.

The approach to health and hygiene was somewhat arcane. Shampoo was dispensed sparingly on special days. Boys were lined up to go to the lavatory each morning, given four squares of paper, no more, and were required to report 'plus' or 'minus' to a prefect or teacher depending on whether they had passed a stool or not. The names of those who reported 'minus' were noted and might be disallowed their weekly allocation of sweets and given a dose of rubbarb and soda. Verucas were habitually dug out by an attending matron with a kitchen knife.(N.B. Not in the late fifties/early sixties under Sister Eady, Miss Dock and the French matrons!)

The food was conspicuously bad consisting of stews produced by the cook, a one-time Mrs Burchet-Paice and her Spanish and Maltese attendants. Bread was thinly spread with margarine, with awful jam on Wednesdays and weekends but butter in portions the size of a small matchbox was made available once a week for Sunday breakfast with a hot roll and a spoon of honey.

There was a wonderful choice of activities, including a wonderful Art or hobby room, occasional sunday feature films (300 Spartans, The Cruel Sea, The Colditz story, Genevieve, Great Expectations) regular educational films on Saturday night for the older boys, archery and rifle shooting (in the Dell, a woody depression complete with disused air raid shelter, thought incorrectly to be a bomb crater, using army surplus .22s procured by Chief Caldwell), gardening and photography, judo and handicraft, theatre, pantomime and carpentry (with "Smithy" the school carpenter who made toasts in a carpentry shed filled with boys and sawdust - a fire hazard if any), swimming and diving contests, billiards, tennis on two pristine grass courts, roller skating and cops and robbers with dinky toys on the rink, all in addition to the classic association football, rugger and cricket games.

Boxing used to be compulsory, taught by the unswerving Chief Caldwell (vaguely reminiscent of Harry Andrews as RSM Wilson in 'The Hill'). He enjoyed selecting cousins or same nationality foreign boys to fight each other. A boxing contest before Easter holidays confronted the fittest in aggressive pit-fights in a makeshift ring. Noses and lips bled; boxing was eventually abandoned for judo.

Close-order drills were conducted on the skating rink or on the field. Boys were taught to fall-in, to quick-march and mark-time with arms extended horizontally, about-turn, and dismiss.

There was always a small number of foreign pupils who took the boat train a day early at the end of term, with a regular flow of French boys, a few Spanish, Dutch, Belgians, Filipinos, Nigerians (John Adeleke of the Athenians winning the annual Victor Ludorum sports prize in 1975) and the occasional American. The Continental boys were accompanied to and from Paris by Major Mearns or Colonel Hulton, or Mr Holmes in earlier days via the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry, a sea-sickening four-hour crossing.

Many boys earned common entrances and scholarships to public schools such as Downside, Worth, Ampleforth, Stonyhurst or The Oratory.

During the Feeny years the school was run on strict disciplinarian lines, three exeats per term, either midday till 6 pm Saturday, or after mass (approx 11 am) till 6 pm Sunday. Letters from home read out loud in class until the senior school. No phone calls allowed, no television until 1968 approx. Birthday cakes to be allowed at tea time but to be cut up and shared between the birthday pupil and his 'friends' including senior boys who managed to cajole or threaten their inclusion onto the lucky beneficiaries list.

References