Watford Observer local history and nostalgia columnist Lesley Dunlop takes a look at the past of a former private school in Oxhey.
In the last 150-plus years there have been many local private schools, but one that particularly caught my eye was Kingsfield in Eastbury Road, Oxhey, formerly New Bushey.
Charles and his wife Mary spent at least 25 years in Kingsfield House before moving to Southampton where Charles passed away in 1911; Mary in 1917. When Ellinor opened Kingsfield in 1910, she provided accommodation within the house for her mother and 33-year-old sister Catherine, who was secretary of the Ladies’ Automobile Club. At the outset, she employed two resident teachers for the 11 boys and girls: Daisy Hodge, a Scot, and Fernande Touillart, a young Frenchman. An Irish brother and sister, Edmund and Bridgette Tremayne, were amongst her early child boarders.
Classes were limited to a maximum of 14 pupils and, according to Ellinor, their classrooms were ‘unsurpassed’. Senior girls left at 17 or 18 and boys at 14. On a site 240 feet above sea level and with views across the valley of the Colne overlooking rural Watford, ‘a healthier situation could not be found’, she proclaimed.In the school’s ‘thoroughly domesticated’ system, dressmaking, ‘plain sewing’ and French formed important features of the girls’ curriculum.
By January 1919, Ellinor’s sister Catherine was diagnosed with ‘disseminated sclerosis’ and required prolonged rest, so Ellinor accompanied her on a month-long sea voyage to New York, leaving her frail mother in the care of a doctor and assistant teachers in charge of her school. On the sisters’ return, Ellinor took up the reins of the school and the care of her mother, who became seriously ill.
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