being a patient at st vincents open air school sussex

[deirdre_naylor]

[quoted]
sammylan wrote:
You might like to look at these rather sad photos

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/sho ... t=Hastings

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/sho ... t=Hastings

There were taken by "urban explorers" quite recently.
[/quoted]

These are amazingly evocative. I have goosepimples all down my arms and across my shoulders. I don't remember itl looking quite so much like a fortress! Many thanks for these.

[linda_hopkins]

[quoted]
Brenda Brownhill wrote:
does anyone have any information or pictures they would like to share ,looking forward to hearing from you.
[/quoted]

linda hopkins was hall when i was at the school in1958 to 1961 . the happiest times of my life. sister margaret was sister superier .sister louise was my teacher,sister vincent used to teach the younger girls.sister gertrude came later and it was her that introduced the unifom and it was her that made it.she also made the dormatory more homely putting bright covers on the beds .iwas a prefect and later head girl.
we used to have exercises twice a week,films from the variaty club once a month dancing every week apart from the usual school work .we used to get a day off on feast days and green icecream on st patricks day i could go on as there is so much i could say

[lyndartimberlake]

i was there from 1963 to 1974 i think it was, sister ita was in charge of the seniors, sister catherine did the home economics classes, the juniors used to live in the east wing and have a dormitory that opened up to the roof. cant remember where the middles went but the seniors had a large sitting room on the ground floor next to the chapel. on sunday nights we were allowed boys in from the local area and thats how i met my ex husband. its such a shame to see a lovely building ruined like that. i remember some very happy times there. we used to have to take part in the girl guide parade walking along teh sea front and we performed in the white rock pavilion many times. the royal variety club used to come once a month and we turned the dining room into a cinema with the film being shown on the stage backdrop. i could go on forever but dont want to bore you all lol

[linda_hopkins]

linda hopkins was hall. i found the pictures very upsetting,to think it being demolished. we used to sit around the fire in the winter telling stories,which was in the senior playroom.there wasnt much else i could reicognise inside apart from the chaple corridor ,kitchen and staircases.i wonder what happened to everyone who was a pupil at the school.does anyone remember kathrine ablson and her sister or pauline smith and pauline bennet.what happened to the nuns.sister louise used to take care of me and when i left she gave me a relic of st catherine.i loved being at the school ,cut off from the outside world.when i was there we were not aloud to talk to any boys,sister vincent would always vet what we could watch on tv.she stopped a film once because there was a kissing scene in it. i did find it hard when i left and had to start work.

[deirdre_naylor]

[quoted]
linda hopkins wrote:
linda hopkins was hall. i found the pictures very upsetting,to think it being demolished. we used to sit around the fire in the winter telling stories,which was in the senior playroom.there wasnt much else i could reicognise inside apart from the chaple corridor ,kitchen and staircases.i wonder what happened to everyone who was a pupil at the school.does anyone remember kathrine ablson and her sister or pauline smith and pauline bennet.what happened to the nuns.sister louise used to take care of me and when i left she gave me a relic of st catherine.i loved being at the school ,cut off from the outside world.when i was there we were not aloud to talk to any boys,sister vincent would always vet what we could watch on tv.she stopped a film once because there was a kissing scene in it. i did find it hard when i left and had to start work.
[/quoted]


Hi Linda
So you had the pleasure of Sister Vincent too! When were you there?

[linda_hopkins]

hi deidre,
i was at st vincents 1958~1961. I still cant get over what has happened to the school. my mother might have some idea.one she met one of the nuns who was on a visit to her church.sister vincent was a strange one,she was always eating sweets but wouldnt let us.i always wondered why the nuns had better food than us.we used to have marge and they would have butter.thier menu was so much better than ours .we used to wait for their food to come down in the lift from their dinning room and we used to help ourselves tothe cakes and puddings that were left over.do you remember breakfast,one day cereal,nextday a banana,next a rasher of bacon on sunday it was always a sausage.

[sammylan]

If you would like to see some slightly earlier photos of the buildings, check out

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1913692@N2 ... 942102821/

These photos were taken when the buildings were in use by Hastings College.

[lyndartimberlake]

Im devastated at what they have done to our school, the chapel is now a stage??? I always wanted to go back and see what it was like now but unfortunately Im not well enough to travel that far - i live near newcastle upon tyne now - but these pictures have shown me. I had such happy memories of being at St Vincents, i was there from 1963 to about '73, I even went to work from there and boarded for about a year after finishing school. I was there with Christine Ceponkus, vernonica gelstone, georgina clutterbuck all names not forgetten easily. The girls came from all over the country with all having chest problems there was about 52 of us all together. On friday nights i used to sit in the parlour near the front door and listen for the phone ringing so the nuns could have a night offand had to race up the big stair case to answer it.
from the pictures they have butchered the place, the building to the side of the long covered path wasnt there, there was a path down the side gate on the road near the rail station. I met my ex husband at the school disco on a sunday night for the seniors and i was allowed to go out with him as long as i had a chaperone, katrina saunders was a couple of years older then me and after finishing school she worked there as well, she was my friend and my chaperone. happy days !!!!

[linda_hopkins]

i have just seen the new photos and its hard to make out some of the rooms .ihavnt seen any photos of the dormatories.seeing the entrance to the kithen reminded me of the tramps that used to call and sister gabriel used to give them piles of jam sandwiches and tea in a tin mug.we were never aloud to go near them. you had life alot easier than when i was there.we were not aloud to talk to any men,not even the gardener.we had dancing but never with boys.i to use to sit at the bottom of the stairs waiting for aphonecall. i was one of the lucky ones .i had calls once a fortnight and visits ever three weeks but there was a lot of girles that didnt even get a letter.we used to go home 3 times a year.1week at easter 2weeks for the summer and 1 week for christmas ,some girls never went home.sister mary and sister gertrude used to take us all by train going from west st leonards to chariring cross where we were met by our parents. most of the children came from up north.at the time i lived in london.i am now in the isle of wight.

[lynda_rann]

ive had to change my user name on here as couldnt get it on my old one ggrrr. anyway im lynda timberlake lol. i remember sister giving the tramps tea and sandwiches from the kitchen, we had country dancing on friday nights with mrs kaley, and when we had our discos on the sunday night we always had to do some country dancing in with it. we used to have two weeks christmas and easter and six weeks i think in summer. when all the girls had gone home in the summer and i was left on my own, the nuns used to come and have retreat there. the times i did go home we used to go to charing cross to meet who ever was there for us. we had sister catherine in the kitchen if i remember rightly, sister louise used to teach english and re, sister ita looked after the seniors and thats all i can remember really about the nuns except sister angela who looked after me from my first day there in the infants, she became good friends with my nan until sister angela died. alot of the girls came from up north one as far as newcastle but mostly midlands. we used to do girl guides wether we wanted to or not lol, we used to do the marches from st leonards thru to hastings white rock then do camp fires songs on the stage there. we were never allowed to do the real thing tho cos of our chests. I also went to Lourdes when i was 14, every year 4 girls were chosen to go, you had to be catholic tho, i wasnt but as i had been there for so long i was allowed to go and it was magical. i went to st vincents when i was 5 and left when i was nearly 17 so i have some really good memories of the place.