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  1. Home
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  4. Ashtead Primary School

Ashtead Primary School

A Memory of Ashtead.

I spent my childhood in Ashtead in the 1950s and 60s and I went to Ashtead Primary School in Barnett Wood Lane. One of the teachers was a lovely lady called Miss Portlock and she used to bring her dog to school with her.

There was no canteen at the school, so at lunchtime we children were marched about half a mile over the railway bridge to a canteen near Ashtead railway station and close to the top of Links Road. It was a single storey wooden building near the entrance to what appeared to be a disused fairground. There was a helter-skelter behind the canteen. There was also a derelict building to the right of the entrance. There was a rumour (so the boys said) that someone had been murdered there and the house was haunted (so the boys said)! The rumour scared us kids. Subsequently, I and a friend found our way through the fence in Links Road and discovered sheds belonging to the fairground which contained carousels and rides, all covered in dust. The fairground is a bit of a mystery as I have only found one reference to the helter-skelter on the Net. Does anyone know anything about its history? I stopped having school dinners after I discovered a live caterpillar in my salad one day!

Opposite Ashtead Primary School there was a small parade of shops which included a sweet shop. After school we would buy sweets there, but I don't think the shopkeeper liked us children and we were a bit afraid of him. The sweets were loose in wooden trays. There was a penny tray and a halfpenny tray. I liked the honeycomb sweets and the sherbet dabs but not the liquorice laces.

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Added 20 February 2021

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Comments & Feedback

I just asked my brother if he remembered having to do this walk and then found your comment. We must have been at school a similar time? Memories of fatty meat and boiled cabbage and not being allowed to throw any food away. The teachers dog wasn't the one run over outside the school one day, was it? It happened just as we were leaving to walk down to lunch and nobody felt like eating having seen this squashed dead dog in the road. The sweet shop was called Fares or Fairs. He didn't like children for sure. Miserable old bugger.
Terry Huson
By Terry Huson on Thu Feb 13th 2025, at 3:34 pm
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Hi Terry. I have only just picked up your message as it went to junk mail. I don't remember your name, so perhaps we were not contemporaries. I recall a few names - Michael Goaler, Michael Hall (I think), Helen Kirkwood, David Green who always had a runny nose and John Chalker. He was a chatterbox and got the cane on one occasion. My surname was Hambly by the way. In assembly we always had to produce a hanky and I never seemed to have one!! I remember having to say our times tables standing on chairs and sitting down when we got one wrong.

I don't remember any dog getting run over, so perhaps it wasn't Miss Portlock's.

Thanks for remembering the name of the sweet shop. Goodness alone knows why the owner wanted a sweet shop when he couldn't stand children.

I recall that the outside loos were awful. Also we had to go outside at playtimes, even if the weather was bad and I remember standing around in freezing conditions. I missed a lot of school as I was always ill.

That's about all.

Carole
By Carole Barwood on Sat Feb 22nd 2025, at 7:19 pm
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Hi Carole,
I may be a lot older than you! I was there 1953'ish. We had moved to Ashtead that year but I only spent about 18 months at the primary school before moving up to Kingston road. My brother, Keith Huson, was there for longer. I don't recall any of those names you mention but he may. I'll ask. I had a girlfriend while there, Janice Henderson. Know her? She lived down Woodfield somewhere. Unfortunately forgotten once I moved schools. My time at Ashtead primary was spent in the new building at the side so I don't remember much about the main building other than the embarrassing medical with the head mistress looking on. Obviously liked little boys!
Do you still live in Ashtead? We drive through occasionally and it hasn't changed much.
By Terry Huson on Thu Mar 6th 2025, at 4:39 pm
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I just remembered one name from back then, the school bully. His name was Brogan but not sure of his first name (it may have been Terry). I failed the initiation rites on my first day at the school by beating him in a race up and down the playground so was challenged to a fight in the field behind the school. I won, only because my grandfather once said to me, if you ever get into a fight hit your opponent on the nose as a bloody nose frightens even a bully. I took his advice and after thar become good friends with the bully. Oddly, many years later, I read that he became an amateur boxer and even represented England.
By Terry Huson on Thu Mar 6th 2025, at 4:51 pm
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Hi Terry. We were obviously not at the school at the same time. I don't recognise your brother's name nor the other names you mentioned. I moved away from Ashtead a long time ago and haven't been back for many years so have lost all connections, other than a friend from grammar school. It's been good to hear your recollections and I wish you all the best.
Carole
By Carole Barwood on Sat Mar 8th 2025, at 8:56 pm
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