St Johns School Merrow Street

A Memory of Merrow.

I remember this well as I started here in 1953. It was in Merrow Street (on the site of the new school) had a solid flint fascia and the main curved archway at the front of the school which boasted 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'. This was almost scary on the first day at school!
At the front door was a small cloakroom for coats and wellingtons on wet days,. Next came the kitchen and I remember the little 'elderly' lady with white hair, white apron and a beautiful smile who would keep giving 'seconds' or more if it was available. On one occasion I had 3 dishes of stewed apples and custard!
Then Miss Chaplin's (or the babies) class - the large windows on the right - which followed through to Miss Baker's class which had a huge 'blacklead' stove, where in winter they used to stand the crates of milk to thaw them. Then another 'cloakroom' then the door through to the 'big' class run by Miss Payne, where there was a piano used by Mr Baker for singing lessons once a week, then through another door to Miss Aston's class. The headmaster's (Mr Morgan's) house was next door. The playground ran from outside the babies class to the back of the big class and we used to play games at 'milk time'. Mainly running/tag/statues kind of games. The school was surrounded by a flint wall, which overlooked fields for miles - this is now Merrow Park - and there was a small orchard where we used to have sports and summer fairs. The toilets were all outside and cold and scary with spiders in winter.