East Quinton School From Early 1973 1975

A Memory of Seaford.

My name is Junior Mayhew and I also went to East Quinton School from early 1973-1975. The boarding school small pupil wise, but had lots of land to play on including two very large fields and an old farming area. The house staff used to take us out in groups for many nice walks on the South Downs often leaving from the back of the school most evenings and shopping at weekends. We often would go up to old barn and play in the old trenches of what we called the Hidden City as it had lots of walkways, old shelters and WWII gun placements etc which were overgrown with bramble and stinging nettles and not so visible when looked at from the town of Seaford. Sadly that has all of that has gone now, but some of the shallow trenches remain. They probably seemed deeper as we were kids, but hey! Health and safety rulings I guess. If we were not going on walks we were out in the school minibus somewhere on the Downs in our free time. We even had a fly-by from Concord while it was in its development stage arranged by British Airways after we were invited for a day trip to Gatwick Airport. We even had a carriage to ourselves with the school name on it. That was a wonderful day. All of the kids were told to go into the play area at 11:00am for a good view and we eagerly awaited Concords arrival. We could hear the sound of Concords engines long before we could see the plane and we were all so very excited and jumping around like kangaroos. She came in low and loud with her windows set in a single red stripe from nose to tail and we were all screaming with delight and waving hoping that who so ever was on-board could see us on the ground. It was one of the first fly-bys done on a school in the UK and we were as proud as punch. It was even in the news papers about the fly-by. Being at East Quinton was the best time of my childhood life and I have the best memories of all of my childhood days and I can recall them as if it were yesterday. All of the staff were lovely and absolutely fantastic with us kids. They even used to read us bedtime stories every night, it was the best and I just did not want to leave there and grown up. Those were my Peter Pan days I guess and life had to move on. I have been back to visit the school long after leaving and everything had changed, including all of the staff and its name to Cuckmere House. I would have liked to have been able to meet and thank the staff while I was there for all of their support and guidance. Sadly I was too late! Maybe one day I hope that I will meet some of them or someone who knows of them and some of the other pupils as well. Sadly the only person I did get to meet and thank was Mr Maskell (RIP) the gardener who often helped when I needed guidance and got me into gardening which I love to this day Recently I was contacted by one of my old school friends from East Quinton School and we talk about the old times often and take trips down memory lane. He also came to my wedding with his family. I visit the South Downs on a regular basis in the hope of meeting old friends and making new ones. So if anyone out there wants to share some good times about East Quinton School and its staff members in Seaford, East Sussex.