CONVENT SCHOOL

1932 - 1940

By Yvonne Bingham (nee Zanetti)

I started school at the age of 5 in 1932 at the Convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Church Hill, Newhaven.  Boys could attend the school until the age of 7. It was also a boarding school and the 'mother convent' was in France.  Our school uniform consisted of a gymslip with a white blouse and tie for the summer, and a blazer and Panama hat for the winter, navy blue overcoat or Trench mac and a velour hat. We were not allowed to go to school without a hat and when we were older we had to wear black stockings.

We had to say prayers in the Chapel before school and prayers before going home to lunch and before the end of the school day. We had a hard tennis court in the grounds and played netball there also. In the summer we walked in crocodile through the grounds, along Nun's Walk to the grass tennis courts (now houses in First Avenue stand there). Before playing tennis we had to say a prayer in the grotto at the end of Nun's Walk. There was a statue to 'Our Lady of Lourdes'.  The bungalows in Neills Close are built on the Convent fields. We had a few cows to provide milk for the Convent. The nuns also grew vegetables and employed a Cowman and Gardener. They also kept a laundry and were quite self-sufficient. Mr Howell in Chapel Street used to make shoes for the Nuns. At mid-morning we could have hot or cold milk or cocoa. In the summer there was a school fete and the children danced around the Maypole, our school efforts were also shown off. There was also a procession of children through the town to the Church in Fort Road, called Corpus Christie.  At the end of the year each class put on a play for parents and this was held in Meeching Rise. I was the Fairy Queen in Sleeping Beauty.

We were evacuated to Billingshurst early in 1940 and during that year the Convent was bombed along with other buildings in Newhaven. A Nun was killed, and the Nun's never returned to Newhaven as they had a successful school in Billingshurst. This continued until the Nun's retired.

When I left school I went to secretarial college.  When I look back at my school days, it was a strict environment and we had to follow the rules, but I remember happy days.