My Early Years Spent At Little Pond House
A Memory of Frensham.
I arrived at Little Pond House just before Chirstmas 1964. My mother had been taken ill and I had to stay at the home until 1968 when I left Tilford Junior School and had to attend a boarding school at Reigate, Surrey. I remember being greeted by Mary and Jack Finch, now deceased. I only met them once after I left Tilford, they were running a home in Margate in Kent but I sent them a Christmas card every year until their passing. I remember children arriving there from all over Europe and owe my rather limited French and German skills to my stay at the home. I remember walks over Hankley Common and watching the trainee Paras jumping out of a Barrage Balloon and walks to Frensham little and big ponds. I owe the home a great deal in keeping me safe in my early years and I always remember Tilford and the surrounding area of outstandind beauty. Thank you Little Pond House and Mary and Jack Finch.
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Comments & Feedback
my father was Vice-Chairman of the International
Help for Children Organisation who ran it, it was
a wonderful place to be in
We were taken there due to problems at home, we both hated it and although we probably only spent a week there, it felt like a year! They made us eat things we hated and we missed home terribly. I remember the sandpit - I was standing in it one day only to find I was standing in an ants nest, great big soldier ants that started crawling up my legs. I screamed & screamed!!
Seems funny now but I was severely traumatised & have hated insects ever since. I was also very protective of my younger brother who kept being sick because they made him eat something he hated, can't recall what now.
I wrote a letter to my mum but they wouldn't let me post it as they read it first & saw I had said it was awful there & wantef to come home so they made me write another one saying I was having a lovely time!!
When mum met us at the station in London after our time there I was in floods of tears and remember saying how we hated every minute, she was very upset too.
I at 5 had a huge responsibility put on me in making sure they didn't take my sister away from me, so they put her on a mattress on the floor next to my bed in the dormitory I was in. I remember waking up one night to find someone standing over me on my bed who then urinated all over me, I was taken by uncle Jack and beaten. Another night I remember being woken and taken from the dormitory by a member of staff, I was taken to an outbuilding on the grounds where a hand was put over my mouth, I couldn't breath, the next thing I remember was waking up in my bed and the sheets had blood on them, my bottom was still bleeding and I just remember the pain and crying, this happened to me many more times during my time there and has affected me my whole life. I hated LPH and the people there. I was there for some time, and I too remember being forced to drink milk which I have never liked and forced to eat cheese, another thing I hated and I used to throw up terribly because of it, but they still forced me to have it. The memories of my time at that place still terrorise me, and I too wanted to escape and run away, but I couldn't leave my sister there alone. I hope those people who ran the place and abused others like they did me rot in hell.