E17 Higham Hill, Upper Walthamstow, Walthamstow
Thoughts on Henry Maynard Schoolby George Robbins |
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Henry Maynard School: A few thoughts on the school and times there. |
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Quite recently, while browsing the ‘Postcode Project’, I came across the article about the Henry Maynard School written by Christine Joerres -18/06/2005. I was rather saddened to think of both it and the Church being burned down. More especially if, as was suggested, it may have been due to arson. |
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Born 6th May 1929 I lived in Gloucester Road, Higham Hill. I think the number was 85. A couple of years after, we moved to No 46 Pembroke Road. While living there I started at the Henry Maynard Infants in 1934. I always remember it being referred to as Maynard Road School. Our next move was to No 93 Maynard Road. |
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Evacuated with my young sister to Kettering at the outbreak of WW II, we were only away for four weeks and then returned to Walthamstow. I started school again on a half-day, part-time basis, which continued for some time. Much of the school and grounds, during the war years, was occupied by First Aid, Civil Defence and Auxiliary Fire Service units. During my time in the Boys’ School there were two rival gangs and it was imperative that you belonged to one or the other. No harm ever came about as a result of this and the leader of one eventually became a pal of mine when we were young men in the forces. |
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After progressing through the schools and eventually sitting the Eleven-Plus I moved on, to the William Morris School in Gainsford Road. |
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In April 1944 my home in Maynard Road, along with others, received a direct hit from a Phosphorous bomb. My maternal Grandmother was killed, while my Mum and Dad were hospitalised for a long period as a result. My sister and I escaped physically unscathed. Unfortunately I never finished my schooling and in consequence received no qualifications. |
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When my Mum and Dad came out of hospital the Council re-housed us in No 35 Brookfield Avenue, where I lived until conscripted into the Royal Navy in 1947. Meanwhile No 93 Maynard Road was rebuilt/patched up and when I was demobbed my family were again living there. |
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Some years later I married and my wife and I lived with my parents for a while. My wife Lilian bore me two boys, who both subsequently attended the Henry Maynard Schools. Later still the four of us moved into No 29b Addison Road overlooking the school. |
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From the south-facing attic window there was a magnificent view across the school and East London where, at that time, the masts of shipping could be seen in the docks. When Concorde and two escorting planes flew along the Thames from East to West for some State occasion, we had a fine grandstand seat. |
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One winter evening as I looked from our living room window I saw what I thought were flames in one of the school classrooms. I went quickly to a near neighbour’s house and phoned the Fire Brigade who arrived promptly. Luckily what I thought were flames, were simply the reflection in a window, of a small bonfire in the garden of a house in Wilson Street. I could not see the bonfire, it being hidden behind a high fence and trees, but as the Fire Chief said, “Better safe than sorry.” |
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Not many yards east of our house there was a brass strip let into a paving stone. It marked the Greenwich meridian. It was on the railway bridge in Shernhall Street. There was a similar one on the railway bridge in Forest Road near the junction of Hale End Road. I wonder if they are still there. |
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In January 1973 we left Walthamstow and came to Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. My wife sadly died in ’94. A Walthamstow girl herself, she at one time lived in Gosport Road and attended Mission Grove School. I think, had she been alive today, she would have been glad to see articles about the old place as she remembered it. |
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