Reference
AU10/84/1
Title
Letter from Edith Page at St.Leonards-on-Sea [Sussex] to Andrew Underwood about Ampthill National School:
- 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
Date free text
5 Jun 1956
Production date
From: 1870 To: 1956
Level of description
item