Eastwick Primary School, Great Bookham, Surrey, in the 1960s

Eastwick Badge   Hello Everybody –  Welcome to these Eastwick County Primary School pages. I was a pupil there from 1960 to ’66. This page is available as a home for photos and memories of those years.  For example :


(This was not my badge by the way)

Some of the photos here, and others, can also be found at :

https://www.leatherheadlocalhistory.org.uk/bookhamhistory/indexeastwickjs.html

Many thanks to the LLH for hosting this material, and to Ali Kelman who collected it in the first place and arranged for it to be transferred when the School web site no longer had a space for it.

If you have any photos or other material from Eastwick in the 1960s I would be happy to receive copies and post them here.

I would especially like to see any photos you may have from the photo project that was conducted in the first half of 1966 ( I think) by Mrs Harrowell, a part time teacher, as I recall, possibly incorrectly. 

Any comments you may have (as well as photos!) would be very welcome.

Kevan.

 

News !

May 2023 – Eastwick Schools May Fair

Linda, Joy and I met up at Eastwick at the Spring Fair (Vasu came along with me as official photographer).  Unlike our last visit, we were not able to get inside – we could only peer through the windows.  We couldn’t even obtain access to the old playground.  The whole school is now surrounded by steel fencing and padlocked gates – to keep the children in I presume.  The Wall from the top of the field to the corner of the playground has gone, replaced by a curiously tall mesh fence.  The wall along the bottom of the playground remains, though reduced to half height.  It also sports a fine mural rather than painted wickets and circular targets.  The great redwood tree around which we once played remains, as you can see.  Joy and I recalled how we once concocted ‘perfume’ and ‘itching powder’ below it or in the crevices of its softly fissured bark.  I recalled that I once climbed to the top of it – when there was no one about to stop me.

Kevan
 
 
 

Hi everyone,

A few of us made it to the Fair [i.e. the Eastwick May fair 2018] and despite it raining from the moment we arrived it was an interesting visit.  We managed to have a look around inside and spent some time remembering classes and teachers.  We were pleased to see that the House names remain the same – although sadly the brick wall along the side of the field has gone and the playground has been built on – but I don’t expect they are allowed to play Kiss Chase now anyway!

All the best,

Joy xx

Eastwick 1 May 2018.jpg

Eastwick 2 May 2018.jpg

Eastwick 3 May 2018.jpg

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Hi Everyone

Sorry I missed it, unavoidable, but see you next time. Very sad that ‘The Wall’ has gone. (Speaking of which, who knew that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd was born in Great Bookham – a bit before our time, in 1943?).

I’ve always been intrigued by the remnants of ‘the big house’ which existed before the school and found this pic:

C:\Users\Kevan\AppData\Local\Temp\image002.jpg

Wikipedia says “Eastwick Park, a beautiful manor in the village, was lost in 1958. The house stood within the area of roads now known as the ‘Eastwick area’, and its very large private estate included Great Bookham Commons, which were saved by the village and given to the National Trust. Since being used as a private house, the manor was used by Canadian military in the second world war, and was also a school called Southey Hall, before being demolished for redevelopment. The original gates to the house stand just west of Eastwick Park Avenue on Lower Road.” I recall my dad saying how the Canadian army used the school as a training ground and how they trashed the house so badly it had to be demolished.

Another page says “Eastwick Park was built by the French Huguenot architect Nicholas Dubois (c. 1665–1735) between 1726 and 1728 for Sir Conyers Darcy and his wife,[1] Elizabeth, daughter of John Rotherham of Much Waltham, Essex and the recent widow of Thomas Howard, 6th Lord Howard of Effingham.[2] In 1801 James Lawrell bought Eastwick Park from Richard Howard, the 4th and last Earl of Effingham (of the first creation). Eastwick Park then passed through a number of different owners before housing Southey Hall Boys Preparatory School from 1924 until 1954 (during World War II the boys were evacuated to Devon and Eastwick Park was turned into accommodation for Canadian soldiers). The house was empty from 1954 until 1958 when was demolished to make way for housing and Eastwick County Primary School (which has since been renamed Eastwick Junior School).

In our time I remember a couple of boys found live-round bullets and a few years earlier someone found a live hand-grenade. Who remembers the black timber shed on the way to the old farmer’s place? Apart from the wall, I think all that remains of the original park estate is the brick stable block (used to be our sports changing rooms, horrid and cold) and any exotic trees that still survive.

Cheers

Bob

*

A 1966 class reunion was held on the 16th September 2017 at the Windsor Castle pub in Little Bookham.  Joy Spencer/Taylor, Linda Davies/Scrase,  Martin Claytor, Bob Medland, Chris Scriven,  Ian White and Kevan Bundell attended.  Jessica Perkins couldn’t make it, but sent her greetings.

Miss Bayley, and others, were fondly remembered.  Photos were perused and people identified (see below).  The contents of Kevan’s and Bob’s News Books were amusingly shared.   We all had a jolly good time.

We vowed to gather again at the next Eastwick School Fête/Fair in 2018.  We also agreed to track down other classmates and invite them to join us there.  If you are one of them, do send me an e-mail.  We would all love to see you again.

Kevan  –  kbundell@yahoo.co.uk

 

1965/6

Netball team - 1965-66 - f. Suzanne Weston, Hazel Smoulders, Jackie Russell-Bates, Linda Davies; b. Elisabeth Daulgense, Joanna Woods, Mrs Cole, Leslie Rice
The Netball Team
Front : Suzanne Western, Hazel Smulders, Jaquie Russell-Bates, Linda Davies
Back :  Elizabeth Dalgairns, Joanna Woods, Mrs Cole (Coach and School Secretary), Lesley Rice

Gardening - l to r :  Kevan Bundell, Ian White, Roger Doswell, Martin Claytor, Gregory Able, Robbie Medland
Gardening
l to r :  Kevan Bundell, Ian White, Roger Doswell, Martin Claytor,
Gregory Able, Robbie Medland

Maths lesson - Maths lesson f. Alan Baker, Roger Doswell  m.  Mary Samms, Nicholas Golby, Martin Skinner, Simon Mitchell b. Suzanne Western (with back towards camera), Kevan Bundell, Martin Claytor
Maths lesson
f. Alan Baker, Roger Doswell  m.  Mary Samms, Nicholas Golby, Martin Skinner,
Simon Mitchell b. Suzanne Western (with back towards camera), Kevan Bundell, Martin Claytor

Eastwick football team 1965 - Football Team 1965 - b. -Christopher Glaum, Robert Muirhead,  ? m. - Ian white, Martin Claytor, Gregory Able, Paul Hiscutt, Kevan Bundell f. - Ian Cook ,  Alan Baker.

Football Team 1965 – b. -Christopher Glaum, Robert Muirhead,  ?
m. – Ian White, Martin Claytor, Gregory Able, Paul Hiscutt, Kevan Bundell
f. – Ian Cook ,  Alan Baker.

Dinner in the school hall - School dinner - featuring Nicky Carter (with the fork) and Avril Bundell (with the Alice Band), both aged 5. Yvonne Tomlins and Hazel Smoulders are in charge of the table behind.
School dinner – featuring Nicky Carter (with the fork) and Avril Bundell (with the Alice Band), both aged 5.
Yvonne Tomlins and Hazel Smoulders are in charge of the table behind.

Card swopping - Swopping cards - with a fine display of Eastwick blazers (and badge), raincoats and caps.  And the playground wall.  Left to right : Ivor Bundell, Kyle Ingram? (short hair), Bill Sheldon, Ian Beasley, Johnnie Aldous, David Jones.
Swopping cards – with a fine display of Eastwick blazers (and badge), raincoats and caps.  And the playground wall.  Left to right : Ivor Bundell, Kyle Ingram? (short hair), Bill Sheldon, Ian Beasley, Johnnie Aldous, David Jones.

Class Play  - Clare Milne,  ?  , Tony Stanton, unidentified legs . . .
Class Play – Clare Milne,  ?  , Tony Stanton, unidentified legs . . .

Tony’s family moved to Australia in the late 60s.  The persons that bought their house told me (in ’73) that they had heard that Tony may have died in an accident.  I can believe it.  He was a dare-devil.  Nonetheless, I would happy to hear from anyone that it wasn’t true.

Here’s a photo from Diana n. Baxter :

From the left and going clockwise :  Yvonne, Joanna, Diana, Elizabeth, Jackie, Linda, Joy and Hazel.

 

1962 ?

(Photo from Bob Medland)

eastwick-school - b.  Avril Derbyshire, Janice Ashby, Linda Davies, Arthur Evans, Jessica Perkins, Alan Baker, Charles Richardson,  Nicholas Golby, Simon Mitchell m.  ?   Joy Spencer, Ian White,  Phillip Barnes, Julia Heath, Hazel Smulders, Diana Baxter, Elizabeth Dalgairns, Michael Baker, Christopher Scriven, Robert Muirhead, Rona Stockwell. f.  Linda Bannister, Marion Taylor, Amanda Webber, Roger Doswell, Robbie Medland,  ?  ,   ?  ,  ? ,  ? , Jonathan Stevens.Click on this photo to make it bigger and then tell me who you/they are !

b.  Avril Derbyshire, Janice Ashby, Linda Davies, Arthur Evans, Jessica Perkins, Alan Baker, Charles Richardson,  Nicholas Golby, Simon Mitchell
m.  ?   Joy Spencer, Ian White,  Phillip Barnes, Julia Heath, Hazel Smulders, Diana Baxter, Elizabeth Dalgairns, Michael Baker, Christopher Scriven, Robert Muirhead, Rona Stockwell.
f.  Linda Bannister, Marion Taylor, Amanda Webber, Roger Doswell, Robbie Medland,  ?  ,   ?  ,  ? ,  ? , Jonathan Stevens.

Note that Elizabeth has seen something shocking going on behind the photographer.  Diana has noticed it too and shut her eyes – quite properly.  Jessica, meanwhile, has seen it and is still looking !

1965/66

(Photo from Martin Claytor)

Miss Bayley's Class

b. – Mr Taylor, Robbie Medland, Roger Doswell, Hazel Smulders, Joanna Woods, Elizabeth Dalgairns, Avril Derbyshire, Yvonne Tomlins, Diana Baxter, Jennifer Mountain.
m. – Ian White, Paul Hiscott, Mark White, Laurence Robinson, Kevan Bundell, Alan Baker, Gregory Abel, Martin Claytor, Michael Baker, Miss Bayley
f. – Julie Dowden, Julia Heath, Jessica Perkins, Julia Gardner, Mary Samms,  Joy Spencer, Hilary Capeling, Linda Davies, Jackie Russell-Bates, Mary Sturgeon, Lynne Parkinson, Suzanne Weston, Carolyn Taylor.


Miss Lorna Bayley

Miss Bayley joined the staff of Eastwick Primary School, I calculate, sometime in 1963/4. I remember her arrival. Suddenly things began to change in our morning school assembly. There were new ideas, new components, creative changes.

She taught my older brother Arnold in his last year at Eastwick in ‘63/4. She became my class teacher in September ’64, and remained so for two years until I left in July 1966.

She had a one-eyed Song Thrush in her garden called Nelson.

She introduced a maths-teaching tool called Colour Factor which was very modern but which I totally failed to comprehend.

It was the time of the Tokyo Olympics. She set maths questions on the board and a race to answer them, awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze stars to the winners . . . I remained starless.

However, she also got us boys gardening (photo above – the girls were busy dressmaking I think) – and she put up a bird table outside the classroom window. This was pioneering stuff. At this time feeding the birds mostly meant throwing crusts of bread out in the back garden or hanging up bacon-rind. She bought proper bird feed. She put up large RSPB bird identification charts on the classroom wall and Robbie Medland and I competed to identify each bird (Robbie always won). We thereby came to know birds which we had never actually seen – and many which I have still not seen.

Miss Bayley also encouraged my artistic leanings – drawing and painting animals and birds. She even set me up with a one-boy show of my work on the corridor wall.

She paid for me to join the RSPB, and continued to pay my subscription for some years after I had left Eastwick and moved away. We corresponded during that time, until I grew into a teenager and probably just stopped writing any more.

I did meet her once during those few years, at an Eastwick School fete in 1968 or ’69. By this time I had been growing for a couple or so years. I towered above her.  As the photo above shows, she was really very short, only I hadn’t noticed when I was short too. Now I was an awkward teenager. I don’t know what I said to her. I hope I thanked her for being so very good to me.

*

The Tumbling Team, 1960 :

tumbling-team-c1960

Back row: David Pody, Trevor Storey, Richard Bryan, Mr Taylor, Robert Francis, Paul Guttridge, Anthony Rowley
Front row: Mary Scoble, me, Geraldine Scoble  (Names supplied by Maureen Argyle nee McConnell).
 

the-tumbling-team-c1960 
I think that must be the great sycamore in the background.

I didn’t know any of the 1960 Tumbling Team, I only remember that from the time I joined Eastwick (in 1960) I watched each year’s team perform at the school’s Summer Fete and yearned to be part of their fantastic gymnastics.  What I loved most was their quick-fire sliding across dining tables in alternate directions routine.   Mr Taylor was the coach.  The team members were selected from the top class only.  I finally reached the top class – in September 1965.  Mr Taylor asked for volunteers.  I volunteered.  We had our first  session in the school hall.

Tragically, that first session turned out also to be our last.

I was (still am !) devastated.

Perhaps Mr Taylor was by then too busy being Headmaster to find the time for training a Tumbling Team.  (I also recall that, by then, he no longer entertained us with the occasional Brer Rabbit story in morning Assembly).  Who knows ?

I could probably have been an Olympic gymnast if only there had been an Eastwick Tumbling Team in 1965/6.

 *

Bob Medland sent me some pages from his Autograph book of 1966.  You may have to turn upside down to read some of them :

1965

Daily Mail (June’65) :   Jackie Russel-Bates, Linda Davies, ? ,  ? , Paul Hiscutt ? , Michael Baker, Martin Claytor, Diana Baxter ? , Laurence Robinson.

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Cubs and Scouts (1964 ?)

A number of us were members of the 2nd Bookham Cubs and Scouts, together with others from Bookham Primary School :

Row 1 (top) :  ? , Harold Franklin, ? , ‘Akela’ Mr Fournier, ‘Chip’ Bob Mills.
Row 2 :  4.  ‘Bagera’ Mrs Bellet, 6. Mr Bellet ? , 8. GSM Mr Tarrington (‘Tarry’) , 9.  Mr Keeble, 10. ‘Skip’ Jim Bundell, 11.  David Stockwell ?
Row 3 :  3.  Geoffrey Weiss ?
Row 4 :  4.  Andy Franklin, 5.  Simon Mitchell, 6. Kevan Bundell, 8. Alan Baker
Row 5 : 1. Graham Smith, 3.  Christopher Glaum, 6.  Martin George, 7.  Stephen Taylor, 8. Ivor Bundell

Thanks to Graham Smith for sending me this photo.

Please name more names !

*

Eastwick News – 1965

Featuring contributions – poems, fiction, reports – from : Ivor Bundell, Susanne Westacott, Rona Stockwell, Alan Baker, Jean Harrowell, Louise Berry, Ian White, Simon Wright, Alan Buckland, Hazel Smulders, Anne Hart,Sheila Roddon, Jessica Perkins, Kevin Stedeford, Louise Berry, Roger Doswell and Linda Davies.

I rather think it may have been the first of only one . . .

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The photos below, from the late 50s/early 60s, were sent to me by Peter Bayfield, who writes :

We moved to Bookham when I was 5 years old in 1956. Initially I went to Bookham Primary School. Then when Eastwick was opened I was moved there, so probably around 1957/8. That first picture was taken in those very early days probably about 1958/9. No uniform yet. I am front row third from the left maybe aged about 7 or 8. I think that’s before the main school building was built and you can see the wooden classroom building in the background. I remember many classes with Mrs Teague in the old wooden hut that you can just see in the right of the picture.

The second picture (I’m back row last on the right) would have been when I was about 11, so probably 1962. That’s the year Mrs Teague staged the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta “The Mikado” Nearly all of those in the picture had a role in the performance. I played Nanki Poo the wandering minstrel. Mrs Teague was a member of the Doyly Carte Opera Company, played piano  and had a fantastic singing voice.

The third picture must have been a fancy dress competition. I’m the cowboy.

Maureen Argyle (nee McConnell), who was at Eastwick from from Jan 59 to Jul 61, sent me these :

Back row: Anthony Rowley, Trevor Storey, ?, me, MT, Geraline Tucker, Julia Thorne, David Pody, ?
Front row: Isabel Finch, Alison Woods, Marilyn Underwood, Rosemary Hammett, Vera Bundy, Janet Hornby,  Janet Goodwin.

The Pirates of Penzance, with Mrs Teague in the middle.

Laurence Robinson – 1960-66 – sent me this :

The Swimming Team c. 1964

Mr Taylor, ? ? Graham Forbes ? ?, Gareth Moon, Laurence Robinson, Mrs Forbes, ? Joanna Woods, Elizabeth Dalgairns, Jaquie Russell-Bates, ? ?

13 thoughts on “Eastwick Primary School, Great Bookham, Surrey, in the 1960s

  1. Laurence ! Great to hear fom you. You have often been remembered when we meet up at Eastwick, as we (Linda, Joy and I) did the other week. I’m sure we’d all be interested to hear something about how you’ve got on in Australia. How long have you been there, etc ? And photos would be very welcome.

    • Hello Kevan, also Hello to Linda and Joy. I have lived in Australia since 1974 a long time. Recently I made a return trip to England with my brother and we visited Eastwick but we couldn’t go in because of the security gate and fence. I found your page the day before we left otherwise we could have met up. I would love to hear about you too so please don’t hesitate. I am looking through my old school photos. More later. Laurence

  2. Hi Kevan, My name is Laurence Robinson. I have just found your page. I may have a few photos
    I recognise many of the names here. Recently I was in England and visited Bookham. I now live in Australia. Hope to hear from you.

  3. I was at Eastwick from 1958 – 1965 when I left aged 11. My older brother Michael left two years before me. My father helped with the design and building of the swimming pool – assisted by many other fathers and multiple fund-raising events. I would be most interested to hear of any contemporaries and see any more photos from that time.

  4. Hi Melanie, Good to hear from you. The wall was not entirely gone the last time I visited. Something remained to remind me of the happy days I played along, beside and behind it. I suspect the lizards you found at its foot were in fact young newts. We found them too and thought they were lizards until our teacher, Miss Bayley, put us right. If and when we next arrange a visit to the school I will let you know. All the best to you and your brothers.
    Kevan

  5. Hello, I have just discovered this page. I was Melanie Burt and was at Eastwick from 1966 until 1969. My younger brothers Andrew and Martin also attended. So many happy memories. Sad to hear that the wall has gone. We used to find lots of small lizards and frogs beside the wall. In fact, I think my brother Andrew put a frog in Mrs Howarth’s desk drawer, which surprised her when she took out the register! I’d love to visit the school, maybe at a fete or something.

  6. Hello Lindsey B,
    I think you must have been in the year below me. I remember your name, and some of the others you mention. I’m afraid I’ve not heard from any of those you list, but I suspect Ian Cook and possibly Graham Smith – from whom I have heard – may have been in your year.
    Thanks for ‘commenting’ !
    Kevan

  7. I have only just seen this website today!
    I was at Eastwick for only a year or two before moving to secondary school.
    i definately remember Lesley Rice and thought she was in my class. There are some other names that sound familiar, but there are names I remember that aren’t here.
    Kingsley Setter
    Margaret Jeffries
    Kevin Kirby
    Alan Buckland
    Julie Hedges

    Are any of those people reading here?

  8. Games
    Peep behind the curtain
    What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?
    Grandmother’s footsteps
    Tram lines
    Jacks

    You crossed your fingers and said packsies or something similar to excuse yourself in a game
    Photo 1963 is much earlier I think, faces I recognise……

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