Before Ridgemede (pre-1969)

The bulk of the text on this page is copied from a handwritten history found in a school topic box.  It is not clear whether this was, in turn, copied from another source, or compiled by a member of staff at the school with a knowledge of local history.

I have quoted other sources more directly.  My thanks to Peter Watkins for allowing me to quote from his book ‘Bishop’s Waltham: Parish, Town and Church’.

Other Schools in Bishop's Waltham

The first school in Bishop’s Waltham was situated in St Peter’s church.  It was started in the Priest’s Vestry and within a few years was moved to the room below which is now called the Choir Vestry.

There were also many ‘Dames’ schools two of which were situated in Basingwell Street.

Hope House in St Peter’s Street was, in about 1811, a Ladies School run by Madam Jones.  It is said that young ladies were sent there in the hope that they would learn how to behave.  Perhaps that is how the school got its name.  One of the French Officer prisoners is said to have fallen in love with one lady attending the school and threw a note over the wall, hoping she would find it.  A servant found it and delivered it.  Unfortunately, Madam Jones found out.  The servant was dismissed and the young lady was sent home in disgrace.  When people heard about this scandal, the young ladies were taken home and the school was forced to close down.

There was also a very good school in the building known as “Lithend” in Free Street.  The upper floor of the Market House, which stood in St George’s Square, was also used as a school.

The best school of all was the old Grammar School at the corner of Portland Place where the car park is now situated.

Two small schools were built near St Peter’s Church.  The first one closed when the National School was built.  The National School is now the library and this was closed as a school in 1961.

The ‘School on the Hill’ was built in 1865 and opened 4th June 1866.  It was built for 200 children.  In 1894/5, it was extended to cater for 300 children.  This school was used until the building of Bishop’s Waltham Infant School.

“The school on the Hill at Newtown, class group 1927.  The British School on the hill was built in 1865 with provision for 200 children and a master’s residence for the cost of £1,400.  It was enlarged in 1894 and 1895 to take 300 pupils.  Originally it was a mixed school, the infants attending the Old National School near the church but with the opening of another school near the churchyard in 1896, this eventually became the infants and girls school.  Though many school groups exist, including some very early ones, this picture has been selected as it shows the pupils in the classroom.  The mistress at the back is Miss Savage.

(Photograph and text taken from “Bishop’s Waltham in Old Picture Postcards” by John Bosworth).

There were so many schools in Bishop’s Waltham that at one time it was thought to be a ‘veritable university’.

The Ridgemede Estate  

“Charles Gunner bought land behind Free Street in Bishop’s Waltham and in 1897 built Ridgemede, where the Hambledon Hunt, with which he and other members of the family hunted, met several times a year (p112).

“Ridgemede stood in 18 ½ acres of ground.” (P113)

“The Jubilee of King George V in May 1935 and two years later the Coronation of King George VI on 12th May 1937 were both marked appropriately.  Jubilee celebrations began with sports and tea for the children held at Ridgemede followed by a carnival procession from Free Street to School Hill where there was a ‘confetti  battle’, bonfire and fireworks followed by dancing in the streets from 10.30 until 1am.” (p211)

“When his father died in 1924, Robin Gunner and his family were living at West Hoe House.  Ridgemede was placed on the marked but it did not sell.  Houses of this size were no longer desirable properties.  Families were smaller, servants were now an endangered species and the fuel needed to heat a large house was expensive.  Robin Gunner decided to move into Ridgemede with his family and they remained there until the 1950s when they moved to Mount House in Little Shore Lane.   Ridgemede House then became a rest home.  In addition to the house the Ridgemede Estate totalled 44 acres, bordering Hoe Road, Rareridge Lane and Free Street.  This now became available for development and it is on this land that the Ridgemede housing estate, Ridgemede primary school and Bishop’s Waltham infant school were built.” (p118)

(All text taken from 'Bishop's Waltham: Parish, Town and Church' by Peter R. Watkins, published by Swanmore Books, 2007).

"The Hambledon Hounds meet at Ridgemede House, Rareridge Lane, about 1905.  This house was the home of the Gunner family, local solicitors and bankers.  The name Ridgemede was apparently derived from the connection between the Gunners and the Ridge family, Squires of Kilmiston and the name has now been passed on to the new junior school built nearby and the adjacent large council housing estate.  The house has been used for some years now as a nursing home for the elderly.”

(Photograph and text taken from “Bishop’s Waltham in Old Picture Postcards” by John Bosworth).

“The increase in population needed larger buildings.  Swanmore School had been opened, and 1969 saw the skeleton of the new junior school rise at the western end of the Ridgemede estate.”

(Photograph and text taken from “Bishop’s Waltham & Newtown: 25 Years of Change” by John Bosworth, published by the Bishop’s Waltham Society, 1986).

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