Old school memories

“Reading Jan Warren’s letter I felt I must write about my memories of the school - my father was the first caretaker before it opened in 1943 while the war was still on.

“The children were slowly coming back to Bexhill from the evacuation and it was decided by the council to open it for the first time. The school was still unfinished, the ground floor corridor was still basic concrete, the main assembly hall was full of emergency war rations, hundreds of tin foods etc.

“After a few weeks we were back to school, my mother, father, sister Joy and myself were settling in to our new home called The Cottage. We had a Morrison shelter in the front room which we hated. Soon after we were there the doodlebugs started to come.

“In 1945 I left school and started my apprenticeship as a watchmaker, my sister Joy left to get married in 1952. I left in 1962 when I married, my parents stayed on until 1967 when my father retired and handed over to Mr Warren.

“It was so sad to see it being pulled down, as with Jan Warren, we had happy memories of our life there.”