Hersham House In The Mid 50s And 60s

A Memory of Hersham.

I was at school here from the time I was about 4 till 11. l remember the classrooms had colour names, the Green Room, the Blue Room and so on. As small children we had naps after lunch when we lay on little wooden tables - it sounds odd now, but this is what l remember. There were very few of us in my class. Rosemary Thoday and Philip Coe and Susan Wilson and just a couple of others. Mrs Hewlett had twins, Ricia and Teddy, who were a little younger than me. Miss Digence taught music, Mrs Turnbull gym. She had a large poodle called Sailor. I remember learning about the United Nations, and playing the triangle (!) and playing on the lawns at the back around the mulberry tree. Our French textbook was La Maison du Madame Souris. We were expected to learn to spell some quite long and difficult words, for which l am still grateful; at one end of term there was a dictionary competition, where we had to find words against the clock somehow. I spent a year in the US when l was 8, and was way ahead with reading. I was happy there, and was always encouraged to read and learn. I think it was a slightly quirky education even then, but in a positive way. Mrs Hewlett was a nice woman and a good headmistress.

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