St. Mary's High School
A Memory of Romford.
I'm wondering if anyone remembers St. Mary's High School in Western Road. I attended the school when I was very young in 1946-9, before my family emigrated first to Canada, then to the USA. My best friends were Zena O'Shea, Rebecca Brown and Valerie Dunbar - and I can still remember clearly most things about the school - not least, Sister Bernard, the formidable headmistress, Miss Hogg, who terrified us all (but who I'm sure meant well) and Miss Dennis the piano teacher whose strictness I have to thank for the fact that I can still play my scales!
The school was run by the Sisters of Mercy. Our winter uniform was a navy blue gymslip tied around the middle by a 'girdle', its colour indicating our House (mine was 'Red'), and our odd looking little hats were round and brimless with the sides pinched together by little epaulettes which allowed them to be altered to fit. (We called them 'sick bowls', quite understandable if you could see them). In summer we wore panama hats and blue and white striped dresses, and in good weather we were allowed out to go 'down the garden' as there was no playground as such, just a very large garden with a lawn at the end. The school was housed in a large early 19th century house which had big rooms where classes were held (some interconnecting, which was not always convenient when you had to 'leave the room', i.e. go to the john) and I remember a wonderful wide polished wood bannister on the staircase, which had screws placed at intervals along its surface - presumably to stop anyone trying to slide down it! Until 25 years ago I had a school photo taken at St. Mary's (a huge print which rolled up into a tube) which sadly went missing in a house move. Nevertheless, there I can still see myself standing next to Zena, who you can just see is wearing my prized St. Christopher medal, which I'd lent her for the day. To get to school in the mornings, we used to walk through Mercury Gardens - then a narrow path through a nursery Garden with a small row of workers' cottages on one side. I find it tragic that so much of the fabric of the old market town has been destroyed, along with it all of Romford's considerable character. (Although I guess that has happened to most small towns). The worst damage being during the early 1960s, when 'heritage' was not something that people valued, nor were any laws in place to stop the developers flattening everything. They even knocked down the medieval houses opposite Romford's War Memorial - one of which housed the old public library (with its badly laid blue lino on the floor, which had large 'bubbles' great fun to jump on).
Enough!
This web site is absolutely great, and it's heartening that there are others with their precious memories of Romford who have taken the trouble to share them here.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading mine!
#231833
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We used to cut through a kind of nursery garden further up Western Road - always a rush to get back to school in time - most often with a definite scent of "farmyard"!!! I went back to view the School in the late 60's - it looked so small from the memories I had of it. I visited again in the 70's and was so sad
to see that the area was quite unrecognisable.
My name is Eileen Watts (nee Reeder) eewatts@shaw.ca.
My name is Hilary Mares (nee Lawson) my cousin Stella Wilgress (nee Duggan)
The things people have already written bring back so many memories for me, it seems like only yesterday! But when I look at the photos on Google Earth, as it is now, it seems quite distant. I can remember there were far more trees in the foreground, which looks now as though it might be a car park.
The descriptions of the school by other people are exactly as I remember it. The area of grass behind the school was where we played hockey (which I hated). The nun who played with us was Sister Angela, who was young and happy-go-lucky. She had her black skirt and train pinned up behind her. I remember she had red hair, because a few wisps escaped from her wimple when she was rushing up and down the field.
I wasn't sufficiently academic to be in Sister Bernard's class, so I took the Commercial class with Sister Pascal. She seemed to me to be quite elderly and she was small, with a sweet nature. Our typing lessons were in the room which was like a large conservatory with, I believe, a glass roof. I think it was also used as the school dining room.
I remember a piano being upstairs and my friend and I were once there after school hours, thumping out the latest tunes, when Sister Bernard came up and gave us a good telling off!
I remember one of the infants quite well for some reason. His name was Bryn and he was a charming little boy.
I was in Sister Xavier's class. She had quite a strong Irish accent and she was also quite strict, or so it seemed to me. I don't remember her being very understanding of teenage girls. She seemed to be quite an attractive, youngish woman from the little I could see of her - but looking back I have the impression that she was not very happy.
I also remember Sister Juliana, but never really came into contact with her.
And then of course there was Sister Bernard. Who could forget Sister Bernard? We all seem to have exactly the same impression of her - much swishing of skirts and rattling of rosaries and keys. A very formidable woman indeed. If we knew she was about to enter the classroom, a pupil always had to jump up and open the door.
The kitchen was off our Commercial classroom, where we learnt book-keeping and shorthand typing. Sometimes we could peep in and see the working Sisters preparing meals.
Overall I have to say I was happy while I was there, and it was an experience I'm glad I had.
Enid Smith
Millicent Martin was in
I remember well the school dinners, and the chapel becoming the art room. When I was there the garden had been partly paved as a playground and the other area was grass. On parents’ day we would dance and do gym on the playground and it ended with a military style March, woe betide anyone who was out of step, to the Dambusters music.
Some of the girls I remember were Lesley Bell, Rosslynn Ansell, Pauline Baker, Adrienne Woollard, Ann Bennett, Judith ?,Julia Roberts,, Sandra Nye, whose Dad was a vet who would come to the farm where we lived to tend to the animals. I remember the Christmas concerts and end of year plays, I believe we did Alice in Wonderland one year, held at the YMCA across the road.
Sadly when I left I was sent to St. Angela’s in Forest Gate where I knew nobody.
Well I enjoyed reading the previous posts and as the last one was in 2021 maybe this site is gone by now! Take care everyone who might be reading this!🙏🏻🙂