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MY name is Carole Anne Freeman (nee:
MILES) and I would like to let you know how thrilled
and delighted I was to come across the Royal Windsor Web Site.
I was particularly interested in the CLEWER
ST. STEPHENS PRIMARY SCHOOL article by Rosie Burnett. I also
attended St. Stephen's in the 60's and remember my time spent
there as if it was yesterday.
While reading this article I too remember teachers
such as Mr. Byard, who I liked very much! and Miss Hawkins who
I too feared. When Miss Hawkins got mad she would turn red in
the face, take her watch of her wrist and would
put boys over her knee. The girls she would slap on the side
of the upper leg. I'm afraid I spent a time or two out in the
corridor standing in the corner when I was in her class!
I also remember Mrs. Baker, Miss Michael, Mrs. Blackley,
Miss Warren, who was an angel (she had a limp due to Polio),
Miss Field, who was the Headmistress. Miss Field once rapped
a ruler across my knuckles because she had tried to make me write
with my right hand and I kept writing my letters backwards because I
was left-handed (and still am!) and last but not least,
Mrs. Soapa (I do not remember how to spell her name), who was
my first teach at St. Stephen's.
Mrs. Soapa (sic) was kind and gentle and at
the age of 41/2 - 5 cast me in my first play as Judy in 'Punch
and Judy'. Punch, I remember was played by Nigel Douglas. That
was 40 years ago!!! Unfortunately, I remember when Mrs. Soapa
passed away. I was in Miss Michael's class at the time and she
had to explain to the class that she had died.
Our school uniforms were in the school colours of
yellow and green. The girls wore straw "Boaters"
with green and yellow ribbons in the summer and green blazers,
ties and green felt berets in the winter time.
I remember Victor Barker who was in my class with
Miss Hawkins' class and how he left St. Stephen's to attend Eton
College and later became a well known barrister. I remember my
good friends, Christine Henley, Gillian, Jill, Tina, Debbie,
two Susans, Lynette, Jeanette Heath, Fiona Rimmer, Jane, Helen,
Pattie, Sheila, Colin, Nigel Douglas, David Hawkins, Paul, John and
the Langleys ... I remember that in 'juniors' the boys
were separated from the girls at 'Play Time'. I remember the
field across the road next to the Grammar School [Now Windsor Boys School: Ed. 2003]
where we used to play in the summer.
I also remember the Princess Margaret Rose school down Vansittart
Road. [Later moved
to Bourne Avenue and subsequently closed for a time, then taken
over by Trevelyan School (boys and girls) in 2002: Ed. 2003]
Not only did my sister
Lesley and I attend St. Stephen's but a few years earlier so
did my older cousin, Stephanie Nightingale (her brother, Clifford,
attended the Grammar School across the road) . My auntie Christine
MILES, my dad's youngest sister, also attended St. Stephen's
even earlier.
I remember taking the Brown bus home [Run by A A Moore's: Ed.] with my sister, Lesley, getting on it at the bus
stop just around the corner from the school on the same side
as the Mitre Public House. There was a 'Tuck' shop near the bus
stop and my sister seemed to always spend her bus fare on chocolate
eclairs or cream cornets. When the bus driver, 'Harry' picked
us up she would always tell him she had lost her bus money, but
even though she had cream around her mouth, he would smile and
let her onboard!!!
We would take the Brown Bus when we lived at 223
Maidenhead Rd., across from Windsor Racecourse, a couple of doors
down from close friends of our family Jack and Nell Raleigh and
their daughter Lin. They owned the corner shop. [Since closed and changed back
to a house in the 1990s: Ed.]
When I was seven years of age, my parents, Ted and
Josephine MILES, moved to 38 Pierson Rd. This was a newly
built house with a large field at the back of the garden. Living
in the field were 'gypsies' and I remember a boy from their camp
giving us rides on a small pony.
Once we started living in our 'new" house I
started to take the red double decker buses home from school.
[Almost certainly
the 51b service operated by Thames Valley Buses: Ed.] One day while going to catch the red bus, I walked
along with a friend called Gillian who lived on a street on the
way. There on her street we met Norman Wisdom who was filming
a picture about a milkman. [The
Early Bird, filmed in Bexley Street: Ed.] If
you watch this movie, you can see Gillian's house.
My mother, Josephine MILES, worked with Mrs.Thorne
who owned the Antiques shop in Church Street, near the castle.
It was called 'Nell Gwynn's'. It was said that it had
a secret tunnel that was built by King Charles II for his mistress,
Nell Gwynn. It ran from the cellar of what was her home and came
out in the King's bedroom fireplace. Whether this is true or
just rumour I cannot say.
While working at this famous antique shop my mother
met many stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Marilyn
Monroe, Ryan O'Neil, Terry Thomas and many more... but she
did mention that the most handsome man she had ever met was Gary
Cooper!!!! My mother passed away in 1995 but my father still mentions
with a little jealousy, my mother's comment about Gary Cooper!
Other things I remember were: The Thames freezing
over, [The
Great Freeze of '63], ABC Minors (Saturday morning cinema,
'the pictures'), Brownies, Crusaders and May Day, and Guy
Fawkes Night, (November 5th) just to name a few.
On November 26th, 1966 just as Rosie Burnett
has mentioned, and prior to taking my 11 plus exams, I moved
with my mother, father and sister to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
My sister, Lesley and I often talk about Windsor
and how we still feel 'home sick', even though we have both married
Canadians and have children and have had a good life in Canada,
our hearts belong in Windsor and in England.
I would love to hear from anyone who remembers
the MILES family, Edward, Josephine and their daughters, Carole
and Lesley. I am also related to the Sharpington's, Shipp's,
Bawtree's and Nightingales from Windsor.
If you would like to contact me, I can be reached at: gollygilly@gmail.com
St Stephens Church, Vansittart
Road, with the school beyond
More photographs
of St Stephens School are included in the original article.
Read
the original article
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