‘DO you think Eastbourne School should really be demolished?” asked the very polite voice behind me as I queued for my lunchtime soup.
It is a debate Darlington needs to have rapidly as the school is due to be knocked down after the end of term.
“It must deserve a better fate than that,” declared former pupil Stephen Alderson, from Hurworth, in a letter, and former mayor Ian Haszeldine has suggested the “iconic building” be saved for sports facilities.
The 1,100-place school was officially opened on Monday, September 28, 1936, by Oliver Stanley, the President of the Board of Education, having been built at a cost of £24,000.
The Northern Echo described it as “second to none in the country”, which would allow “full scope for up-to-date teaching methods”.
“Such methods are required for boys and girls, who will leave school not to go to a university or further education, but immediately to face life.”
It had an oak-panelled hall, with seats for 500 and a cinema. For the boys there were science, woodwork and metalwork rooms.
For the girls there was “the domestic instruction block”.
“Adjoining this block is a model flat, consisting of sitting room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and other offices. Here the girls put into practice what they learn in domestic classes,” said The Echo.
While the boys were learning the art of precision metalwork with their lathes, the girls were learning about vacuuming and cleaning windows with vinegar, lemon and newspaper.
The first headmaster was George Welford, a strict disciplinarian, who retired in 1959.
But the most-remembered teacher was Nora Fenby, head of the girls’ school from 1939 to 1963. In early 2003, Echo Memories asked of her: “Harridan headmistress or fair disciplinarian?” The replies suggested she was more of the former than the latter. But should her school be saved, and if yes, what would you do with it?
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