The earliest plan that I have been able to find for the building of a school, in Hooe, is dated October 10th 1846. It shows a single–room building, having a 31ft frontage (facing the Pevensey to Ninfield road) and a width of 17ft. having a normal pitched roof with gabled ends There is a small porch (probably used as a cloakroom), 20ft by 3 1/2 ft built onto the rear having a single entry. For some reason, that I have been unable to discover, this porch leads to two doors, close to each other and both entering into the same main room. No division of this main room is included in the plan though two dotted lines run, in parallel, from between the two front windows across the room and then, strangely, curves to the left–hand, inside wall of the porch. It looks as though some addition or modification was suggested but the curvature of the line and the way it passes through the doorway and on into the porch doesn′t make any sense. Before the Act of 1871, which required two rooms – one for infants and one for the older children, this single room would have been acceptable.
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This is the 1846 plan, which wasn't used. |
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This later plan is the one actually used in the building of the school. |
Click on one of the pictures to see a larger image of the plan. [JWN]
This proposed school, however, was, almost certainly, never built because there is a later plan showing a much larger building which is, obviously, the original of the one still standing today but is now a private dwelling.
Well, here I will add what my grandfather had to say, regarding the building of a school: –
"There was a trust deed of Hooe School in 1845. Of this a copy was made in August, 1846, which was submitted to the Board of Education for amendment in January, 1903. By the deed, the trustees are the Archdeacon of Lewes, the incumbent and the two churchwardens; the religious instruction is to be consonant with the principles of the National Society through whose grants the building was erected."
The plan shows the front that faces the road having three lattice windows and a door at one end with, on the roof, a small bell tower and chimney, close together, in the centre. Inside there are two rooms, the smaller of the two is marked "classroom" and the other, "school room".
The shape of the area of land, on the plan, looks to be the same as that on which the "school rooms" were actually built and on which the building is still standing. In the corner of the "playground" is a small out–building marked "boys" and "girls" so was obviously an outside toilet.
In 1894, from various sources, there were plans to carry out enlargements and alterations to the school and I believe that the school plans drawing I haven′t found any information as to what these plans encompassed. Whatever they were, the plans were completed on April 25th,, approved on May 9th, and the work carried out, later that same year, between 27th July and 8th October.
It is no longer a school nor does it belong to the parish as it was closed in 1963, converted into a dwelling house and sold in 1966; the sale particulars are dated August 1965 – May 1966.
