Earlsmead School

A Memory of South Harrow.

I wonder if anyone else can remember Earlsmead School, which was housed in the reception rooms of Mrs Bates's home at 13 Corfe Avenue.  I lived across the road at No 14, where I was born in 1942, and I was allowed to begin my education there at the age of three.  Every morning the thirty or so pupils, aged from three to fourteen, had assembly at which we said prayers and sang hymns and the school song:
Scientia potestas est,
'Tis Earlsmead that calls for the best,
Our best in work,
our best in play,
With joyful hearts we start each day.
How different it must have been for me when we moved to Hayes in 1948 and I transferred to Pinkwell School, with 40 children in a class!
In 1996 I went back to Corfe Avenue and met the current owner of our house, who was very welcoming.  I had some photographs with me and she was as interested to see how the area had changed as I was.  No sign of Earlsmead School though!

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