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The Difference between KHS and other schools is partly in the KHS story
At KHS there was no corporal punishment and as far as I could see no bullying
There was an international outlook.
We had no Empire Day
We had a minutes silence in assembly when any hanging took place.
Creativity and the arts were infused into everything.
We were imbued with a deep love and respect for nature ..the environment was not such a big issue then but Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring came out a few years after my grandmother Gertrude Goldsmith died.
We were brought up to be very thoughtful and kind to the "handicapped" who the local authority paid for to attend KHS, with the small classes they could get the attention they needed
There was no religious dogma/formal religion when I was there.
KHS did have a formal time table.
There were high expectations of all the children and a high minded example in Miss Rainford who was loved and respected. Thalia Campbell (Childs)

Leaving dates of some of our family

1948 Thalia
1951 Susan
1954 Julia
1956 Simon
1964 Lynne


Thalia's Wartime Memories

My time at KHS was during/after the war. I remember we spent time in the cellars on a few occassions. Newton Abbot was bombed especially the railway station. I think this was the reason for our stays in the cellars. The cellars were quite large we all went down the wooden stairs into the cobbled space with un barked pine tree trunks at regular intervals holding up the house, a bare light bulb was the only light.
Our mid day meals were of course war time fare. On Mondays we had baked beans, mashed potatoes and grated cheese and for pudding treacle steamed pudding. I remember the smell of meat but we never ate it. Our family were vegetarians but others ate mince mash and peas. We used heavy decorative cutlery, I think silver, Other puddings were rice pudding, tapioca and in summer cherry pies made from the cherries which grew at the side of the lawn where we did our summer out door plays. On our table headed by Miss Rainford we spoke French during our lunch time, we were given French names . I was Therese.

We studied a text book Coquerico. Miss Rainford with her passion about France and French helped us to get a very good accent. As children we learnt easily and were not embarrassed by our efforts...when I went to Paris on an exchange in my teens I remember French people being very surprised that I was not French. I loved our French lessons.. happy days sitting in those varied old wooden desks with the bare floorboards and the large sash windows overlooking the lawn..Thalia

My sister Cary and I were at KHS from 1948-9 to Summer 1951. I was at the Lower School, and the layout pictures on the website brought it back to me quite vividly.

I remember the adjoining rooms of nursery and kindergarten, and the enforced afternoon naps on camp beds in the kindergarten room, when I was never able to go to sleep as instructed. I certainly recall Miss Habgood, Miss Forrest, Miss Emmett and Miss Clifton and of course Miss Rainford, particularly when she used to read Dan Dare out loud to some of us, complete with metallic alien Treen voices, sitting in the playground on benches, which were against the wall of the nursery. There, for no reason except to try it, I punched in the stomach a perfectly inoffensive boy called Paul, a cowardly act which has always stayed with me. The gym, of course with its back door leading out on to the volcanic hill and the other door into the nursery, and its steps leading down to the cloakrooms. Another room I recall was the music room, where there were unsuccessful attempts to teach me the piano. Later I suppose I was in Transition, where I remember writing and drawing mostly, and even eating in there I think. The food was not good, though no worse than most school dinners I expect. The processed peas, and the strange parsnips, swede and carrots marked me for life. The shrubbery was a favourite spot, where we had endless games. There was an odd little building down there, which contained a urinal but also a curious dusty room, where I would be fascinated to watch a sunbeam striking through a hole in the roof and dust particles seemingly trapped in it. My friends were Kevin somebody, Brian ‘Putty’ Putt, Carol Snell (always thought it was ‘Snail’ but I suppose that was just what we called her – she was always bursting into tears), Sally (surname?), whom I adored from afar. Surely there were others whose names I do not remember. Other names I recall were Spencer Childs, Freddie Christopher, Hilary Clifton, Tom Woolner and his sister Sandra (Pootie). Tom I later got to know again when were both at Dartington Hall. From KHS we were removed to Surrey in 1951 when my father found a job near Englefield Green, and I attended two further schools in Surrey before I returned to Devon in 1958 to go to Dartington.
Charles Bazalgette

BRIEF HISTORY
Knowles hill was started in 1941 by Miss Rainford and her sister,
No mean feat at a time when money was hard to come by at the best of times!
Knowles Hill is actually the last extinct volcano in the UK, and we sometimes went
up to the top of the hill where there was a small crater.
After the war, when all of us baby boomers started getting to school age,
Knowles Hill really took off, and it was decided in 1958 to acquire a new
site which was at that time Greylands School, about a mile away on Old Exeter road.
Greylands then became Churchills, and the even bigger property of
Sandford Orleigh was obtained. This then became the senior school,
and Churchill's the junior school.
However, until about 1965, all the sports were held at the Churchill's site as
there was a ready made sports field large enough for rugby and the annual
sports day.
Quite a few of the teachers from Knowles Hill ended up at Sandford Orleigh
including Miss Forest. By this time, Miss Rainford had handed over the running of SO
to the new head master Mr Jack Horner and his wife Doris.

No official religion, Internationalism, emphasis on the Arts and a
deep respect and love of Nature. It was not called the environment in
those days. Also we did not celebrate Empire Day as state and public
schools did and the reverse of that is we held a one minutes silence in
assembly when a hanging took place However it was a structured school
with time tables and subjects..and a very happy school. I think from my
research and memories no bullying. A very positive caring attitude to
the handicapped as they were designated in those days. Thalia

I was looking at your website and was thinking about the reference to a Miss Rainford, a teacher at St John's School in the 1930's! Was she, I wonder, the same Miss Rainford who went on to found Knowles Hill School in Newton Abbot, Devon? Miss Rainford ran the school with two sisters and I believe their father may have been a ship's captain. Miss Rainford 1893 - 1978
The KHS website is hosted by Mike Insall.
Regards from John Oakford. (Added 30th April 2006)

At khs we supported charities , we knitted woollen squares to make blankets for a charity ..can't remember which one and we had a papier mache Barnardos box in the shape of a cottage... it was only years later I found out some of Barnardos work at that time was not very positive in present day terms....they picked up the disasters of the upper classes illegimate babies and often sent them to Australia and the mothers were often incarcerated in mental institutions.. Thalia

Lower School

We would do Music and Movement to a BBC production in the Kindergarten. I remember a Christmas tree with real candles on it in the Transition and we were lucky to survive! There were car tyres to roll around the playground, they were stored in the garage and had to be neatly stacked at the end of playtime. There was a tall holly tree near to the music room and it offered a hiding place inside. There was a square frame made from pipes to swing on in the gym. It was against the South West wall. I chipped my tooth when I fell from it onto the concrete gym floor. There were stone steps down to the garage from the West corner of the gym. There were steps up to a big, bolted, wooden door leading to the field in the East corner of the gym. The North West end of the gym had a door to the Nursery and thence to the Kindergarten and through to the upper path of the upper school. The South corner of the gym had a door to the Transition classroom. In the gym there were ropes from ceiling, a leather horse - legs splayed, a springboard, parallel bars, medicine balls and etc. We had parties in the gym and the lower school had their meals there too. On entering the garage from the lower school playground, tyres could be seen leaning against left-hand wall, there were lavatories through a door on right hand wall. There was a covered stone stairway from the back left of the garage up to the gym. There was an elder bush on the near-to-bottom-left of the number twelve drive and bay trees on the right further up. Looking towards the garage from the lower-school playground, the climbing frame was on the right, set back by the side of the garage, and under the transition's South West window. We had a morning break with milk and rusks.

Upper School

Morning assemblies were held in the dining room. I remember these two often repeated statements in assembly - There's nothing new under the sun said Solomon, and I said true, under the sun there is nothing new - and then a little parable to illustrate the point. All life is one. Miss Rainford's used to do her bird impressions in assembly, she mentioned excitedly once that she had perfected the cry of a blackbird and we were all to listen to it - it was good! There was a big, temperamental, wooden battery radio stored in the dining room and we used to listen to special events on the BBC Home Service there. We would have a rare 16mm movie film session also in the dining room. The music room with a grand piano was visible from lower school car park - a favoured few had music lessons in there. There were two wooden Victorian 3D viewers (one was a better made) and a stack of twin image 3D cards stored in the second-form cupboard - (downstairs front room) - I bet there isn't anyone who can remember a single image from that stack. It would seem that we were free to use such things at playtimes and lunchtimes. At the North West end of the upper path and just round the corner, there was a lovely white and translucent quartz rock embedded in left-side low wall. A winding path led down to the upper-school upper lawn from there. Going North West, half way along that top path, on the left, was the entrance to the cloakroom for classes one to four. It was a square room with coat hooks all around the walls. The hooks were covered with shoe bags, coats, football boots hanging by their laces and etc. It smelled of leather, sweat, plimsoll rubber and dried mud from the football boots. There was also a slight whiff from the nearby lavatories and showers. On the left of that room was a doorway that led to those showers and lavatories and, straight ahead was the staircase leading down to the ground floor. Looking from the top of the stairs, on the right was class three, beyond it was class four and a bit further on and round to the left was Miss Rainford's office. This doubled as the library. Her room had a window facing the front garden. Standing near the top of the stairs and facing them on the left was the Rainford private apartment door. One would enter it in the same direction as one would decend the stairs. If ever it was open, or if ever one was invited in (what on earth had I done on the two occasions?), the smell was of Vecon and nut roast. Now decend the stairs to the ground floor, class two was at the front and class one was at the back. Class two was on the right just at the bottom of the stairs. The conservatory was straight ahead at the bottom of the stairs, and the front door was through it. We all went through the conservatory and down the stone steps to the lawn to observe a solar eclipse with our eye shades and pinholes (it was on Wednesday 30th June 1954 and it lasted from 12:10:47pm until 02:45:26 pm in Newton Abbot so I'm told). Going back into the house beyond class one, you came to the rear dining room, the front dining room and the kitchen. Class one had French windows to the side lawn and a long wooden bench along the class-two-adjoining wall. I remember sitting on this bench as we all sang House that Jack Built. Our first French lessons were held in this room too. The boys would go to Bradley Fields to play football and, at a later time, to a field not far from the railway station and the power station. The girls would have games on the school lawns and would also go to a flat area in the field behind the gym. Some school plays were produced and performed at St Mary's Hall Abbotsbury, others were performed on the upper-school lawns. On a rare Summer afternoon at the end of the year, lessons were abandoned and we would spend an hour or so in the field behind the gym. Puddings included Semolina, Semolina with shell-shaped fleshy things in it, Rhubarb with tapioca "fish-eyes" floating in it - plus custard, yellow pudding and treacle, and, perhaps, Rice Pudding.
Spencer Childs

Click to read other interesting memories from old pupils ( Mike Insall's site ) click to view

My food memories of KHS are mainly the disgusting desert that consisted of a tart covered with jam and topped with cornflakes!!! Yuck Yuck Yuck!
My parents often asked me what I had for lunch, and I always replied "meat and potatoes and stuff".
Of course Miss Rainford was often ahead of the time with some of her thinking. I had to go to her house on Saturday mornings to do extra maths Mike Insall

THALIA'S SCHOOL MEMORIES

The history and ethos as I have been able to discover it so far.
Miss Florence Rainford's father was a captain on the Channel Ferries. She went to School in Folkestone. She was born in 1895?. Where? She was a Theosophist and a vegetarian. She was not a churchwoman and to the left in her beliefs. She was on a local Library Committee. She spent her summers in France with her 'famille'. She lost her Fiancé in the First World War. She had two short/nick names, Jan and Fanny. Miss Rainford had two sisters one who ran the kitchen with the help of a cockney evacuee Mrs Campbell, remembered as dour by some and enthusiastic by others. Mrs Campbell first lived in Newton Abbot and then in school in a room over the front door of the second house. On Mondays for lunch we had potatoes, baked beans and grated cheese followed by steamed treacle pudding. On other days we had semolina and rice pudding. There were cherry trees round the lawn where we did the plays and I think the cherries in the pies we ate in summer were from those trees. Another sister was Mrs Bond a skilled needlewoman who lived in London but spent time during the war in Devon teaching needlework at KHS. Mrs Bond was not a vegetarian and missed her turkey at Christmas whilst staying with her sister. She also made Miss Rainford's clothes, which were predominately in soft blue colours. Miss Rainford taught French at Newton Abbot Grammar School. She was a translator at The League of Nations. This perhaps explained her broad vision. 'All life is one' was part of he philosophy. Her theosophy and vegetarianism led her not to kill so when the grounds at KHS she got the children to collect them in paper bags and release them in the field behind the school. She always said that shouting was useless as no one would listen. In contrast to this quietness she was very realistic with the children sharing with them her intentions to be cremated and her reasons for this. She shared her abhorrence of capital punishment by holding a one minutes silence at the precise time of the hanging of Derek Bentley and another hanging. Miss Rainford was very unassuming and told the staff they were there to open doors for the pupils but that they should remain out of sight behind the doors.

She had her own ideas on teaching and set up her own school. In 1941/2 she bought an existing Dame School, St Catherine's, from a recently retired Miss Peacock in Seymour Road, Knowles Hill. Newton Abbot. She took on some existing pupils and at first ran this school with its black and white school uniform and pupils to the age of 15. Many went on to Mrs Crosby's to learn short hand and typing. There was a school trip with the older pupils to France with Miss Rainford? and Miss Clifton. Before the school was recognised many boys were removed from Miss Rainford's school around the age of eight and sent to local boys public schools. Others were removed because parents wanted them in a single sex schools. One boy described his move from Miss Rainford's school to his single sex public school as like the sun going out.

Staff remember the School as run on a shoe string with her bank manager always encouraging her to put up her fees.

The School became KHS in 1946 after recognition. At a Parent Teachers Meeting, which happened to be all women, one male parent saw this and left. Books and equipment came with the school. At first there were three classes in what was the old billiard room on the bank and the room over the garage. Screens divided the old billiard room. It was also used for assembly as one room. The turret room started off as a classroom and later became Miss Rainford's office.

Jean Schnell now Ashton remembers that Miss Rainford taught her mother French at Newton Abbot Grammar school during the lst world war. She also taught Pamela Hough's Mother. The father of Tony, David and Nicola Hough was drowned in the Atlantic during the War. Mrs Hough their mother taught at the school.

Some of the earliest teachers were Rosa Hibberd who came from St Catherines and soon joined the armed forces. Her older sister called Ayre sent her children to KHS. Mary Tuckett came on from St Catherines was a farmers daughter from Hennock. Another teacher was Miss Seymour who was married to Polish airman. She had dark hair with a widows peak and died during a school holiday from a late pregnancy (an overdose of chloroform?.) Miss Rainford was very upset.

Miss Hudson who lived at Powderham Road was a piano teacher and there was another teacher called Mrs Oldengrove? Some of the 15 older St Catherines pupil's were, Marie Sharp, Della Robbins, Margaret Perryman from Ogwell, ? Buckpitt, Joan Chestnut who had two brothers in the RAF who were killed in the war, Barbara Henderson who lived at Knowles Hill at the junction on the way to Sanford Orleigh. She lived in a big white house on the corner. She used to run home from school when she got upset which was very inconvenient. There was Barbara Heathman who came from a farm near Highweek. There were school visits there to see the milking and harvesting. A cockerel on top of a chicken led to explanations on sexual reproduction. Barbara Worth was another farmers daughter. The many Barbaras changed all their Christian names on their exercise books which Miss Clifton soon sorted out.

Mrs Brunstrom a friend of my grandmothers, also a theosophist, a brilliant water colourist taught Art, water colour painting in not very structured classes, water colours with paint boxes and sketch books not large jam pots of powder colour as was used later on. Mrs Brunstrom also taught at Brixham.

There were evacuees at KHS. Valerie Singer who lived with the Sleemans. Their daughter was at KHS. One of the evacuees was Shirley Hudson. Her father was a cartoonist on a National Paper. She stayed with her family or people she saw as family in Chudleigh. Remembered as a mischievous child sliding down the main banisters at lunch time to arrive on the floor outside the Drawing room just as Miss Rainford was showing a visitor out. She also broke the washbasin in the turret room. One of the few times Miss Rainford was cross.

At one time many pupils and staff had mumps. One girl wanted to see what would happen if a thermometer was held in front of the fire. The mercury came out at the top!! Another occasion when Miss Rainford was cross.

Mrs Knowle who also taught at Ingston Convent taught music. Muriel Webber/Murch from Salcombe taught the six/seven year olds. Another teacher, Monica Honeywell from Bickington had a daughter Maria who came to the school.

Miss Hilda Jaffa who married and became Mrs Zangwell was another teacher. She had a shop in Queen Street, Newton Abbot and sold the Daily Worker. She called staff by their Christian names, which puzzled the Pupils. She moved to London.

The history books we used were illustrated with bright Victorian paintings. We sang from a little pale blue book? a red one and a dark blue one in the morning assemblies, songs about nature. Who published these?

"Look out, look out. Jack frost is about, He's after your fingers and toes and all through the night that gay little sprite is working when nobody knows and All things bright and beautiful a Victorian hymn by Julia?

Miss Rainford taught us bird songs and encouraged us to be observant about the changes in the seasons, weather, plants and animals.

The KHS uniform was grey pleated skirts or grey trousers with sugar bag blue blouses and shirts, ties with horizontal blue and grey stripes and grey socks. We wore blue berets or grey hats with a badge, and the boys had blue and grey caps. We wore blue Blazers. In slimmer I think we wore blue and white gingham dresses with white collars.

Miss Clifton was one of the first teachers to be appointed at KHS. She saw the advertisement in the publication New Education. The pay was not Burnham scale but she remembers the school applying for and receiving government recognition Miss Clifton used to pick up a group of children which she brought to school in her car which she parked by the tall variegated holly tree in the lower part of the playground.. Other teachers were Miss Forrest-music and drama, Miss Joy Habgood now Gulston from Paignton, sister of John Habgood Bishop of Durham, A pupil had vivid memories of Joy and her brother in clerical clothes paddling in the sea at Teignmouth. - Another brother killed in the war? She lived in Newton Abbot during the week and went back home to Paignton at WIEs. Fred Merritt, Miss Pascoe, Mr Smith, Froebel tramed Miss Valerie Emett, now White. Mrs Dyer, Mrs King, Heather Button did a gap year as a pupil teacher in the early days of KHS, as did Thalia and Susan Childs. The staff were encouraged to use their initiative in their teaching and if they could make a good case for their ideas Miss Rainford would back them, for example geography and history field trips and swimming. Within the school day we used public transport, the red double Devon General Buses and the private coaches on the moors where the swallows nested in the rafters of the bus garage. We explored the River Teign and it's tributaries from source below Haytor to mouth on several successive days with a final swim at Teignmouth. We visited Bradley Manor and Exeter Cathedral. The Woolner children from Bradley manor were KHS pupils. As the school expanded Miss Rainford bought the house next door. The children enjoyed a freedom to be adventurous climbing trees and making dens with no accidents here as far as I remember.

There were a few accidents, a chipped tooth in the gym, which had a concrete floor, a cut arm on one of the visits to the cellar, a cut leg in a gardening accident, and a chipped tooth on leaving the school in icy weather. There was not the tendency to use the law and sue for such accidents in those days.

We were all taught to swim at the Penn Inn open-air swimming pool and we went to the indoor seawater baths at Torquay. The school had the use of Madge Mellors, a local catering business's Tennis court for games and the tennis courts in Baker Park. We had access and use of a hilly field behind the school where in summer stories were read to children in the shade of this spreading oak tree were described as magic by many pupils.

Later the school was a primary and nursery school with average class size of 15-20 children. The pupils included children with mental and physical difficulties who benefited from the individual attention in the small classes. The local authority funded these children. Eric Cooke had a stutter but improved with Miss Rainford's help. We had a deaf child, two children who were Autistic? Who could communicate but not with words and another child with calipers on a leg. Geraldine Sleeman's father was blind. He taught music at Court Grange, a school evacuated to the area. KHS children went there for sports days and open days and marvelled at the blind children racing and doing other sports organised by sound not sight. Gillian and Timmy Blake were the Children of the Headmaster of Court Grange.

The children in the Nursery had a rest after lunch on little camp beds. They ate separately in their big room and had plastic cutlery. The older children helped with the washing up. There was a pot kept behind the Piano, a large wooden train and a rocking horse and a painted alphabet frieze. Vegetarian food was provided for some children, at Miss Rainford's table, later raw vegetable salads were served in a separate room. One pupil remembers picking dandelion leaves for Miss Rainford's salad lunch. We were given French names and spoke French with Miss Rainford during lunch. It was part of the curriculum from an early age, our text book was Coquerico. We were taught to read music and were part of a percussion band with recorders, cymbals, drums, triangles and Indian bells. Miss Rainford invited all the pupils who were about to take the 11+ to her room in the turret to make us aware of the seriousness of the tests and to make sure we all had a watch. She sent us out in a serious and confident frame of mind and did not make us too worried. I remember being given brand new freshly sharpened pencils to go to the exam. Miss Rainford was friendly with Miss Evans another primary school head at nearby Decoy School who shared her views.

Later the school expanded and moved to new premises, Churchills and Sanford Orleigh with older pupils and boarders who boarded with Mr and Mrs Hampson who did such a good job that even children from nearby Ashburton wanted to board when they had no need to board. There was a school minibus, which picked up children for school and was used for outings. A swimming pool was built. Mr and Mrs Horner ran Sanford Orleigh. He had been in the RAF. Other teachers were the Hendersons. KHS ethos was mutual respect, creativity with art music and drama, cooperation, love of the environment and internationalism. There was no physical punishment or religious indoctrination. I cannot remember any bullying. We we were taught to be considerate to the children with disabilities.

The pupils of primary age acted Toad of Toad Hall and Shakespeare plays out doors in the grounds or at St Mary's Hall. Jean Snell remembers one of the early summer plays organised by Joyce Clifton was part history, part English as well as drama. The children wrote and made the clothes as well as acting in it. It was about the civil war. Susan Childs remembers doing A Midsummer nights Dream, Susan Burwash later remembers a play Lady Precious Stream.

Leonard and Dorothy Elmhurst of Dartington Hall sent their young nephew or great nephew Christopher to KHS. The school was more structured than the school at Dartington. After the war some children from Holland came to Devon for three months. Miss Rainford encouraged them to come to KHS and helped them with language problems. Joyce Clifton had the Snells and some Dutch children at llsington. They saw her horses and went out to tea

The large cobbled cellars with wooden pillars were used as a shelter when the railway station and Mount Pleasant Road and other places in Newton Abbot were bombed in the war and occasionally as a place for playtime in bad weather.


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