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Authority record

St Giles School

  • CB118
  • Corporate body
  • 1925

The school was opened in January 1925 at Winterbourne Roas as a school for Physically Defective Children. About 1928 the school took the name St Giles and on 09 January 1933 was transferred to Featherbed Lane in Addington where an extension for delicate children was opened on 18 Oct 1937.

During WWII the children were evacuated and the building housed New Addington Senior School.

Although a new block was opened in 1952, the rest of the buildings became very dilapidated, was condemned by the Inspectorate and was replaced by new purpose built premises in Pampisford Road in 1977 where it remains open as St Giles Special School, a school for children with physical disabilities from the age of 3 -16. Its catchment area extends beyond the London Borough of Croydon to include neighbouring London Boroughs. The Featherbed Lane buildings are now occupied by the Jehovahs Witnesses.

St Johns Church of England Primary School

  • CB117
  • Corporate body
  • 1834

In 1834 a dame school came into existence in a cottage that was later altered and enlarged to become the present sextons cottage, on the corner of Spring Park and Shurley Church Roads. The school was held on weekdays; on Sundahys a curate from Croydon Parish Church conducted a service there. A Cof E Chapel of Ease was built there in 1836.

The first Dame recorded is Mrs Eliza Pestell. She was married to the coachman of the Revd. Matthew Farrer, who became Perpetual Curate of Shirley in 1841. The Pestells were already living in Shirley, however, in 1838 when their second daughter Anne was buried while still an infant (two later daughters would also die before reaching majority). The Farrers were connected with the Earl of Eldon whose house stood where the grounds of Trinity School are now, so Thomas Pestell, Elizas husband, may earlier have been in the Earls service.

In 1854 the school room was enlarged and on 10 January of that year the Pestells eldest daughter, by then 21, took charge of the Girls and infants, and, apparently, her mother continued to be responsible for the Boys. These met in the Reading Room (presumably the Chapel) but in 1869 moved to a new building between the cottages and the churchyard gate in Spring Park Road. Meanwhile in 1856, the chapel had been replaced with the present church; the new Boys School was adjacent to its graveyard. There is a painting of the first Boys School by W.H.Mills, a former pupil.

Both the previous schools were replaced by a further new building, erected in only three months, which was opened by the Vicar, the Revd W. Wilks on 17 September 1885. This also stood on the Spring Park frontage.

On 09 January 1903 the schools were reorganised and combined under the Headmaster of the Boys School with effect, apparently, from 01 November 1904.

On 09 January 1933 the school was again reorganised. This was to implement the 1931 Education Act but also because numbers had suddenly become unmanageable because of the vast number of houses being built locally. All Seniors were transferred to Davidson Senior Boys and Girls Schools and travelled there by Corporation bus. It was at this time that the name St.Johns School was first used.

At 2.30pm on Wednesday 26 July 1944 a V1 flying bomb fell in the Infant playground and the blast destroyed the school buildings. Twenty four children and three teachers were in a shelter in the playground and, although the shelter filled with fumes and the doors were shattered, no one was injured. The children were evacuated safely to another shelter in the nearby recreation ground until the all clear was sounded.

For the next ten years the school was lodged at nearby Benson Primary School until the current pemises were opened by the Archbishop of Canterbury on 03 June 1954.

St Luke's School

  • CB115
  • Corporate body
  • 1930

Opened June 1930 at Thornton Heath Polytechnic, as a special school for myopic and partially blind children. Moved to Winterborne schools on 9 January 1933 and opened in its own building on that site on 3 September 1937. Evacuated to the Open Air School, Beechy Avenue, Eastbourne, 4 September 1939 and closed 14 June 1940, when invasion seemed imminent. Reopened 29 March 1946 at Fairchildes and returned to Winterbourne in 1954. Closed in July 1981, the pupils being transferred to Oval Junior and Infants School.

St Marys RC Junior School

  • CB114
  • Corporate body
  • 1863 - 2007

St. Marys School was started at 8 Broad Green (the old Presbytery) in 1851, the first Chatelaine of the school arriving from the Convent of the Faithful Virgin (Virgo Fidelis), Norwood, on a cart drawn by a donkey. In the first week it had eight pupils. Shortly, it moved into an adjoining cottage.

The school was entirely voluntary until 1862, in which year it received State recognition; the following year it also received its first State aid.

On 3 July 1864 the school transferred to its present site and from January 1888 passed into the care of the Sisters of Mercy. From 1904, there was a separate Infants Department, perhaps until 1936. In 1939, the school was evacuated to Latcham, Sussex and then after Dunkirk, to Addlestone, Surrey, and later to Withiel, Cornwall. In 1955 pupils over the age of 11 were transferred to a new and separate Secondary School which became ST MARYS (RC) HIGH SCHOOL).

In 1968, the Primary children moved into a new building, separate Infants and Junior Schools being created at that point.

St Michaels School

  • CB113
  • Corporate body
  • 1877

The school was a Church of England School throughout its history. Existed before 1877 probably as Good Shepherd Junior Girls and Infants School. A separate infants school, Good Shepherd Infants School was opened on 24 October 1884. Also on 24 October 1884, it seems that junior boys joined the junior girls to form Good Shepherd Junior Mixed School. On 30 September 1896, the infants and junior schools were reunited to form Good Shepherd Primary School. On 24 August 1908 the school was reorganised for girls, juniors and infants in new buildings in St Jamess Road and the name of the school was changed to form St Michaels Girls and Mixed Primary School. On 3 October 1927, the school was reorganised for senior girls only and became St Michaels Senior Girls School. On 1 September 1930, the school became St Michaels Girls Central School, in a further reorganisation. The school was evacuated to Whitehawk School, Brighton, Sussex on 4 September 1939 and closed circa January 1944, at which time it was located in three different Croydon school buildings. In 1948 the school was revived as St Michaels Infant School and on 3 November 1948 it received the staff, children and records of the closed Tavistock Infants School in Grenaby Road. The school closed in July 1976, because of low numbers and the inadequacy of the site.

St Peters Primary School

  • CB112
  • Corporate body
  • 1858

Founded as St Peters National Infants School in August 1858. Evacuated to Crowborough, Sussex, September 1939, later to Barnstaple. Became St Peters County Primary School in September 1951 and later St Peters Primary School.

St Raphael Club

  • CB020
  • Corporate body
  • 1971 - 1993

The Croydon branch of the St Raphael Club for physically handicapped persons was founded in 1971 by Tom and Celia Podd as part of the St Raphaels Federation. It started in St Marys Church Hall followed by St Augustines Church Hall and latterly the Waylands Centre at Fiveways. It closed in 2002 due to falling membership but the occasion was marked with a commemorative lunch in Fairfield Hall. The donor was Vice Chairman of the Club.

St Saviours School

  • CB111
  • Corporate body
  • 1874

St Saviours Infants and All-Age Girls School existed by 1874. St Saviours Post-Infants Boys School existed by 1884. In 1891 the infants separated from the post-infants girls school to form St Saviours Post-Infant Girls School and St Saviours Infants School, but the two schools were reunited in 1915. The post-infants boys school closed on 27 March 1923 to enable it to absorb 150 pupils from Christ Church School. It reopened on 1 May 1923. In 1930, the senior boys and girls were sent elsewhere and the remaining children formed St Saviours Junior Mixed and Infants School. The school was evacuated to Brighton in September 1939 and reopened in Croydon on 15 April 1940. The school closed in 1948 as it possesed insufficient funds to enlarge the playground or rebuild the school.

St. James' Church

  • CB171
  • Corporate body
  • 1829

The church was consecrated on 30 January 1829 as a Chapel of Ease to the parish of Croydon and became a parish on the 11 March 1853 with the right of soleminisation of marriages. Soon after opening, the church became associated with the East India Company College at Addiscombe and their services were held here; the south aisle was reserved for their use, many were buried and their were several memorials in both the interior and exterior of the church.

A declining congregation from the 1960s onwards eventually led to closure and the final service was held on 27 January 1980. The parish was dissolved and the area merged with St Michael and All Angels. Following a long period of disuse, during which time it was subject to vandalism, the building was acquired in 1985 for sheltered accommodation and, following conversion, opened for that purpose in the early 1990s. It is now known as Speakers Court and consists of 27 flats.

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