Court Hall Remembered

My mother Joan Barrington worked there from about 15 years old to 17 years old from 1946 to about 1948 . She helped mrs Powell the cook in the kitchen. She also remembers another girl call Evelyn ( she thinks kelly) who also lived on and worked there. Evelyn 's family had a farm about 3 miles away. Also remembers a boy from the village garage called Brian lock.

I googled Court Hall School on a whim and found these contributions! Barkie was my mother, Brenda, and we were there from about 1946, when I was five, until about the middle of the 1950s, I think, when we moved to Somerset. I remember all the things you mentioned and more, of course -- playing in the tangle of rhododendron bushes and threading the flowers on plantain stalks; sitting on the wide windowsills of the top floor, playing endless games of canasta, and, on the churchyard side, frightening ourselves with ghost stories, and, on the Exmoor side, seeing the fires from the gorse burning and wondering if they could reach as far as us.
I remember Mrs Prue's hands, smelling of soap and with little white bits on the nails, as she leant over to check my work. There was Amy Sparks of the sweet shop in the village, where we used to go to spend our pocket money and buy yellow lemon crystals in a paper bag probably for about 3d or less.
I remember Mrs Gough the cook; once when she was in the kitchen plucking a chicken, the bird started flapping about and gave us a great fright.
I remember setting a chimney on fire by, for a dare, throwing a jam jar of paraffin on it, which I was supposed to be carrying up to my grandmother's room.
I have many other memories -- learning to ride a bike round the garden, ponies and the hunt meet in the square, walks in the park, camping on the island, climbing trees, the little nursery tables in the dining room where I counted each baked bean as I ate them and can still remember the taste.
I'm afraid I don't remember your name, Brenda. Were you at Burton Hill or the Priory beforehand, where my mother worked as matron before starting the school at Court Hall?
Miss Hickie's dog was a more hairy thing than a Jack Russell. I have a picture of Puck being held on a lead by me. Nanny Foster did have a daughter, Myra, whom I kept in touch with on and off until she died a good few years back. She was quite a bit older than us.
Martyn and I (do you remember Martyn?) revisited Court Hall a couple of times and we too were sad and shocked to find nothing left but the built-on stump of the house. He and I have kept in close touch, and there are a few others with whom we remain connected, but who you may not remember as they were younger -- John and Annabel Clothier, and Leila and Sheila Naghavi.
I do have a few photos but I am not quite sure how I can share them with you.
Janet Tyrrell (nee Barkway)

Janet how wonderful to hear from you ... I was about 4 or 5 when I first came to Court Hall late 1940s (born in 1942) I remember you being there with your Mum (I loved her) and remember Myra. Doris Wiltshire worked there as a young girl much older than us (in her teens I think) but she stayed in my memory. I learnt to ride at a stables in Barnstable and was blooded on my first hunt riding a pony called Spyder funny the things you remember. My love of history comes from the groundwork Mrs Prue instilled with her huge paper covered history book with colour plates of all the English kings. Yep, the rhododendron bushes round the back gate to the church. I remember Leila and Sheila Navhavi and the lovely sweets they had...remember the name Clothier as well, cannot recall Martyn but an Indian boy called Roger appeared in my last years. I remember Uncle Jeffrey and Aunty Lillian and we would walk through the bluebell woods to their house. I was really happy at Court Hall and have gone all teary and nostalgic reading your "letter". You can email me photos brendamitch@btinternet.com
With the fondest regards Brenda Mitchell (Brenda Wilkins)

My brother and I were boarders at Court Hall from the end of the war to about 1948 or 1949. I found this site as my children wanted t know how we were schooled. I remember Janet Barkway, the ballet dancing and swimming in a cold stream at the bottom of the hill behind the school. And Mrs Barkway playing chess in the garden of an evening. We left to fly (3 days by flyingboat from Southampton) to Tanga in Tanganyika where my parents were stationed.. Glad I found this site. John Mahon

Janet hope you are OK would love any photos xx