Reference
AU10/84/1
Title
Letter from Edith Page at St.Leonards-on-Sea [Sussex] to Andrew Underwood about Ampthill National School
Date free text
5 Jun 1956
Production date
From: 1870 To: 1956
Scope and Content
- she remembered AU as a "nice dark eyed little boy, in a very clean collar";
- Charles Searle was born in England but his mother was Swiss a friend of Mrs.Kennard's mother who was also Swiss from the same canton;
- Charles Searle had died of cancer in Ampthill a few years after his retirement; during his headship the school became noted for painting and handiwork and fostering artistic talent;
- Charles Searle was a pioneer of teaching geography; on Empire Day children would dress up in national costumes and bring produce they had made in handicraft classes to Britannia, played by Emily, Lady Ampthill who provided a tea afterwards;
- education at the time (late C19) was developing as child psychology became better understood; speech training, story telling and writing took the place of dictation and education through play for younger children became the norm;
- after George Andrew Ferraby retired the National Schools were amalgamated from boys and girls into a junior mixed with separate infants;
- [John Harling] Jones was a vigorous master, his wife [Martha] was head of the Infants department; Jones had side whiskers and a moustache like the writer's father, at the time (when she was nine) away in USA;
- Jones was succeeded by [Charles Frederick] Golding, "a fussy little man" who was succeeded by Willetts, a much younger man and he in turn by Charles Searle;
- she thought Charles Searle became headmaster around 1920, he came from Putney [Surrey] with his mother and an aged housekeeper; he taught painting and drawing as special subjects on the curriculum and excelled in handiwork; he owned two large cats, he told the writer that his ambition was to own a St.Bernard dog and a cuckoo clock; he was a keen gardener, growing hydrangeas;
- Charles Searle produced operas both for adults and children, his first, for adults, being "The Prince & the Pedlar", the prince being Herbert Woods and the pedlar Henry Ashman with the writer as the spirit of the woods; next came Gilbert & Sullivan's "Grand Duke" , success being attributed largely to the orchestra under Herbert Woods with Newby Stanbridge on piano T.Bates on violin - Henry Ashman as the Grand Duke, Elsie Stanbridge the Grand Duchess, Frank Peck the notary and the writer a French soubrette; with the children he produced "Robin Hood", "The Mandarin", Pepin the Pipin", "Princess Ju Ju" and others;
- Searle designed and painted the scenery; a supper and dance followed the last performance; others taking part in performances were Henry Freeman, James Stevens, Miss Arnold, Thomas Arnold, Mrs.T.Bates, Miss F.Robinson, Bessie Stanbridge, Walter Crawley, Sidney Minney and William Peer;
- Charles Searle was also keen on ballet and on one occasion he and the writer were trying out a Chinese dance for the children involving hopping and jumping when the School Inspector walked in, causing the writer to run out;
- when the writer first came to Ampthill Miss Cowper kept a private school on The Sands and Miss Wildman had a private school in Dunstable Street;
- pupil teachers at the schools included Effie, Elsie, Bessie, Dick and Harry Stanbridge, Charles Dillingham, Northwood, Minnie Henman and Miss F.Cheeseman as well as the writer
Language
English
Level of description
item