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Click on the coat of arms to read about its origin |
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Document Archive - documents and news clippings about the school |
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The school was founded in 1936 by the principal H.P.Hopkins at 10 Stanley
Park Road Wallington. It is believed that Mr Hopkins and his wife originally
opened it as a commercial college but it soon became a boys school. Mr
Hopkins' wife died very early in the life of the school around 1951/2 and their daughter became
a partner. In the 1950's there were about 110 boys at the school it later provided for
up to 300 boys in the age range 11-18.
Mr Hopkins continued as Headmaster and Proprietor of the school until it closed
"suddenly" on 13th July 1972. The reason for the closure was unclear but
although Mr Hopkins owned the freehold of the site, it had been designated for
local government purposes soon after the war. The council needed the site for an
old people's home and bought the freehold from Mr Hopkins for an undisclosed
sum. The building was demolished in February 1975.
source: Archive and Local studies, London Borough of Sutton
Stanley (Blue), *
Dymock (Green),
Carew (Red),
Gaynsford (Yellow)
As I recall these were
introduced quite late on in my time there, maybe around 1960, though I think
there had been "houses" in earlier times -
there is a difference of opinion about the name of the blue house, some say Haig
some say Stanley, cerainly it appears to have been called Stanley by the late
60's..
Mr Alan Wilkins has confirmed that Blue house was
definitely Stanley - apparently Haig was considered but rejected in favour of
Stanley.
Jon Mabey a pupil from the late forties / early 50's remembers that the houses were originally - St.George, St.Andrew, St.David and St.Patrick - this found in a programme from the sports days in the 1950's
All I know at the moment is that the school stayed open throughout the war and presumably survived serious damage. Mr Wilkins recalls that the school was evacuated to somewhere near Birmingham during the early part of the war.
Does anyone have any other history or recollections of the wartime years?
I am continuing to research the history of the school and feel sure that some ex-pupils will have kept other material and, above all, "memories" that will help me build something a little more complete. If you have any information which might assist me please e-mail the webmaster or you can use the on-line submission form. If you are being shown this and don't have access to the web at home please click here to go to the contacts page for my address and phone number
Lastly if anyone else is prepared to undertake some local research for me and/or assist in writing material to include here I would be most grateful.
