Court Hall Remembered

Court Hall School c1955
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From 1946 until 1949 I was a boarder at Court Hall. At the time I was there Lady Poultimor lived in a cottage in the grounds and kept parrots. There were stables at the rear of the house and a full pack of hounds was kept there along with hunting horses.

The school's head mistress was Mrs Barkway nicknamed Barky she had driven ambulances during the war. She had a daughter named Janet .

The vicar's wife Mrs Prue taught me history her hubby preached in the church alongside the house and we would go to the church on Sundays via a huge wooden iron clad gate set back in the hundreds of rhodedendren bushes which lined the perimeter walls.

The house was beautiful and how sad it was pulled down, it had hand laid parquet floors on the ground floor and a secret stairway which was entered by a green baize covered door up windy stairs to the floor above. There was a massive painting in the entrance hall of a hunting scene in a guilded frame, paintings were hung all over the house portraits of stern elderly women in black, sporting pearls.

Miss Hickey also taught me, she was an elderly lady who wore plaid ankle length skirts and cardigans, she had a Jack Russell dog named Puck - how strange the things you remember ..... Nanny Foster took care of health needs and we were given a spoonful of malt a day from a big brown glass jar (which I liked) and a daily dose of cod liver oil (which I hated) I seem to remember vaguely that Nanny Foster had a daughter staying with her from time to time.

Doris Wiltshire worked at the house, she was in her late teens and I liked her very much I think she worked in the kitchens.

This was the most happy time of my life but when I returned to North Molton the beautiful house had gone and the land was overgrown .... I cried ....

If anyone has any photos of the interior of the house or has any memories around the time I was there I would love to hear from you.

Brenda Mitchell (Nee Wilkins)