|
A Brief History
Eastling School celebrated 100 years
in its Kettle Hill Road premises in 1981. During that
time, there had been only seven head teachers and a total
of around 3,000 pupils.
The first Head was Bessie Higham who
opened the school on February 7 1881 with 80 children.
For the 36 years from 1889, Mr Fred
Pincott was Head. Remarkably, he twice saved the school
from burning down - in 1905, when a scuttle of hot coals
was left on the floor by a cleaner, and in 1914, when
a lamp fell from its support, damaging the floor, two
desks and some books.
During the Second World War, overhead
air battles often forced the children to take refuge in
air-raid shelters. The Eastling Home Guard regularly met
in the Infants Room.
The original village school was in Newnham
Lane. The building then served as a church hall for a
time and, today, is a private residence. Research in 1976
by the late Miss Dorothy Neale suggested that the Old
School House had been built by a Reverend Lushington on
Glebe Land, sometime prior to 1842. He died in 1842 and
was succeeded by the Reverend Reynardson. It had operated
as school until 1880.
For a more detailed history
of the school on the school's own website, click
here .
|
