Published 18 July 2002

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MUNDELLA School, like several other schools, is often referred to by Memories readers who like to look back occasionally to their childhood and last week I heard from Mrs Jean Hall (nee Hawker) of Wear Bay Road, who sent me a photocopy of the official school programme for the Girls' School prize-giving, in Folkestone Town Hall, on July 11, 1938.

This listed the prizewinners and the entertainment items, such as singing, country dances and a play, but also, on the back, were printed the official words of the School Song, with words by Edna I Milsom who, one assumes, was a schoolteacher.

The song was sung to music written by Richard Austin, the Musical Director of Bournemouth Council.

Jean writes: "I have the original programme as I was a prizewinner for needlework. I started at Mundella School in 1929. My young sister Pat was also a prizewinner. Sadly, she died in 1979."

Pat Hawker will be remembered by many as Miss Folkestone in 1947.

"My father, the late Regimental Sergeant Major Frank Hawker, OBE, MM, was permanent staff instructor at the Drill Hall, in Shellons Street, for a number of years, and also a Recruiting Officer for Southern Command," Jean told me.

"I go to the reunion of the 75th A.A. Regiment Association which is held in Dover every year. Oh what happy memories!" she said. These are the words of the Mundella School Song -
MUNDELLA

Mundella's the name that we all now are singing.

The name of a School near the hills and the sea.

Where we learn of the joys with which young life is ringing.

And aim every day better scholars to be.

Chorus:

We will strive for our School, our Country and King,

And while we're at work in our hearts there will ring,

The name of our School - Mundella!

MunHella - Mundella - Mundella.

Time passes quickly, and soon we'll be leaving

Our School and our friends for the far wider world,

But our friendship and love towards all will be weaving,

A banner that 'fore us will e'er float unfurled.

Chorus,

As the years pass and we all become older.

We shall look back to that School by the hills.

We shall be stronger and wiser and bolder.

But mem'ries of schooldays will still guide our wills.

Chorus.

Folkestone Herald reader Terry Davis was particularly interested in the East Cliff outing group picture of the 1950s featured in Memories on June 27 - and with good reason. He was among those in the picture.

In fact, he says, "the boy with his hands on the shoulders of little Pat Beer (nee Iddenden, now
AUTHOR Alan Taylor tells me he has sent the manuscripts of two new books off to the publishers. One is on Folkestone, with a "then and now" series of photographs, for Tempus Publishing, and the other a second hardback book on Sandgate, for the European Library.

Matching up some pictures of Old Folkestone with the same scene today is a challenging task and took him many months. Alan is chairman of Folkestone & District Local History Society, members of which take a look at "Education in Victorian Folkestone," with Ann Nevill, author of "Dickens in Folkestone" on August 7.
MEMORIES reader Terry Davis, pictured below at the Shepway-Boulogne sports day in Shepway recently, is the young lad with his hands on the shoulders of little Pat Beer on the right of the 1950s' photo above. See story below. His mother Mrs Dorothy Davis, with glasses, is at the back.

living in Canterbury), is me, Terry Davis, and not David Ling who lived next door to me at No. 57.

"My mother, Dorothy Davis, is at the back of the coach with just her head and spectacles showing." Terry adds that he would love to hear from anyone who was in the outing group, which was heading for Battersea. He can be contacted on 01303 840367.

Pat Beer, who lives with husband Keith at St Stephens,

Canterbury, was able to date the picture very precisely — to June 1953 - because, as I recorded in Memories on June 27, her mother,

Dorothy Iddenden, is also in the picture holding in her arms Pat's baby sister Doreen, who was born the previous month!

That baby, now Mrs Wicks, lives in Cheriton.

You may have recognised Terry Davis on another page in the Herald of June 27. Terry, who sent me an e-mail message, writes "The 'Frenchman' (which the photo caption might infer he was) playing petanque - pictured on the centre pages - is me also!"
 

Leas Pavilion welcomed with open arms in town «f QrtO BAD LANGUAGE of children troubled ■L9U& the Mayor a century ago. A surprised resident told of the action said to have been taken by Lord Radnor to keep children of the district off a large part of the green adjoining the grounds of the East Cliff convalescent home. He fenced it off with sharply-pointed iron railings following complaints about children’s language! The writer suggested a simpler ‘cure' would be to dispatch one of the burly, old-style 'Bobbies’ to the scene! To close the open space as a playground certainly seemed high-handed. An attraction on the Leas was one of the Merryweather firm's latest steam powered fire engines, the “Fire King,” which had been involved in Fire Brigade competitions at Margate and was demonstrated in Folkestone. The popular writer '‘Felix" was given a whole page of the Herald to write of his adventure, cycling to Hastings and then returning in more leisurely style on the steamer “Alexandra." He wrote of a 14-mile ride to Ashford on fairly level roads, then 20 miles to Northiam, in Sussex, via Tenterden, describing the sights and interesting people he met, giving a fascinating insight to life a century ago. Exhausting programme for visit of Prince Henry

•« MALTBY’S Motors, of Sandgate Road and I Sandgate, as well as Hythe, offered Morris cars, for which they were early agents, in their own colour schemes, cream and green, primrose and black, and two-tone blues - or whatever colour cellulose finish the customer required. Curiously, they also offered to fit a right-hand gear change to those who ‘preferred’ it. The dedication of a new ‘barrel’-roof took place at the 105th anniversary service of Sandgate parish church, with a large congregation augmented by members of local organisations who went in procession to the church, headed by the band of Folkestone and Sandgate British Legion. The Archdeacon of Canterbury, Canon E.H. Hardcastle, was the preacher. Seventeen officers and 232 soldiers of the 97th Kent Yeomanry Brigade of the Royal Artillery (TA) were under canvas for two weeks at Dibgate Plain, Shorncliffe, battery contingents coming from Ashford, Canterbury, Bromley and Maidstone. The Herald published a photograph the width of this page of the Hythe Town Band which chalked up successes in a contest at Brighton. At Hythe there was an interesting event, the laying of the foundation stone of a house, then valued at £1,000, which was to be built as a prize for a tombola competition. Ambulance service gets update with radio link-up

«| QJ-O CAPTAIN G.D. Walker DSC, was the master of the new cross-Channel ferry “Lord Warden” sailing on the Boulogne route. The Herald published a lengthy feature on the maiden voyage of the vessel. Herald Editor Leslie Jones told how he witnessed the launch of the vessel from the Dumbarton yard of William Denny & Bros, “On the stocks she looked like a giant ensnared in a forest of cranes and timbers, wires, ropes and chains,” he wrote. And at the launch she “broke the water with a swishing roar.” During the maiden trip the vessel cabled a greeting to the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, the then Mr Winston Churchill, the UK’s wartime leader. Leslie described her as a floating garage, with capacity for 120 cars and a thousand passengers. I wonder what he would have made of the jumbo ferries of today! Sadly, in 1952, there was no ramp ready on this side of the Channel - the first (at Dover) wasn't due to open until 1953 — but at Boulogne cars drove on or off the vessel via a 40ft ramp. A Herald reader, writing on the letters page, was calling for a bigger range of floodlighting and illuminations for local attractions, to give the resort a boost. The 6th annual Folkestone Flower Show at West Cliff Gardens attracted 750 entries and other displays.

Good news for jobs as firms move to Park Farm estate A Q77 WITH a hiss of steam and toot of a whistle I I the “The Jubilee Limited" train, with 200 passengers, pulled out of Hythe Station hauled by the “Green Goddess” locomotive on a non-stop trip to Dungeness marking the Golden Jubilee of the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway. A bid was being made to outlaw heavy lorries, carrying shingle extracted from the beaches, from many Romney Marsh roads. It was suggested the traffic could go via a disused railway or be transported by barge. Motor firm Henlys, employers of 70 people in Shepway, underwent a major re-organisation at their site in Bouverie Road West, with further plans for another site at Cheriton. Meanwhile Caffyns announced that its Park Farm Road factory had been bought by Belgian firm Inco-Moi, but ail of the 75 workers would retain their jobs. Golden Arrow train enthusiasts were glad to hear of long-term plans for the restoration and preservation of the old Southern Region's steam express locomotive “City of Wells,” and hoped to see it run again on the Victoria to Folkestone route. It had been “rescued” by the Keighley & Worth Valley Light Railway and was due to work on that five-mile line, from Keighley to the Bronte village of Haworth and Oxenhope, in 1978: Many fascinated visitors watched the ancient game of Bat and Trap for the first time during Folkestone’s International Folklore Festival.