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Gerald Blunt, Springfield Park headmaster, and his
successors
Gerald Blunt was a member of that illustrious family
which could name Crabbett Park at Worth, Newbuildings
at Shipley and Horsham's Springfield Park among its
properties. The Blunt family tree could also boast,
inter alia, the first Lord Leconfield, Wilfred Scawen
Blunt, diplomat, explorer and poet, and his wife Lady
Anne Blunt, 'first lady of Arabia', granddaughter of
Lord Byron and the woman responsible for rescuing the
Arab thoroughbred from near extinction. Earl
Bulwer-Lytton was another, and today's Lord Lytton
still lives at Newbuildings, while Crabbet Park is now
much developed (although the house remains intact) and
Springfield Park has been converted, with some style,
into apartments.
Samuel Blunt built Springfield Park around 1758, and
this fine house remained in the family's possession
until the twentieth century. It was tenanted for much
of the previous one hundred years (a retired
accountant named Pelham, for example, was there with
his three daughters in 1881), and then became a
school, known as Horsham College, the principal of
which was William Lydgate FRGS, 'with a staff of
competent masters', who was advertising in early April
1887. The local competition at the time was not
strong. Miss Smart, at 21 Richmond Terrace, 'receives
a limited number of pupils, to whom she offers the
advantage of a thoroughly intelligent and refined
education, combined with careful training and sound
religious teaching', and Beatrice Matthews at Stanway
House provided boys' preparatory classes and private
lessons 'by a Parisienne diplomee'. Her brother Sidney
ran an upper school for boarders, known in 1882 as
Stanway College – 40 guineas per annum. But on the
other hand William Lydgate could claim that Horsham
College 'stood detached in its extensive and
picturesque grounds of 40 acres', and was 'amply
provided with the most approved educational, sanitary
and recreative appliances'.
Lydgate was still running his school in 1895, but was
not there four years later, when the house was let to
Lieutenant Colonel Henry John Thomas, and by 1902 the
name Horsham College had been taken over by Sydney
Matthews from a base in London Road.
After the departure of Thomas, Gerald Blunt moved into
Springfield Park in 1904, and from 1925 it was run by
the Veyseys. Following the death of William Veysey in
1953, Ian Begg and then CP Selwyn took over for a
while. Then Leonard and Margaret Warwick-James managed
the school from 1957 until 1976, at which point the
headship was transferred to Mary and Thomas Belton,
and Springfield Park saw its last days as a school in
1988, when it finally closed for business.
It is a house that I know well, and for which I hold
much affection. Many family memories are tied up
there, and the Warwick-James's, both parents and
children, were friends. My mother was at Springfield
Park from 1960-78, latterly as its deputy head, and I
am sure many of the girls – those who might still live
locally and perhaps get the chance to read this – will
remember her. So let us trace a little of the
educational history of this most elegant of school
houses.
Gerald Blunt MA, JP was the eldest son of Rev Abel
Gerald Wilson Blunt, rector of Chelsea. He was born at
Lilleshall, Shropshire, in 1854 and was educated at
Haileybury College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. In
his early years he had a Scottish base, and in 1882
established St Salvador's School at St Andrews. He had
also been a JP for Fife, and his interest in education
led him to sit on the St Andrews University committee
for the training of teachers. Through his marriage in
1882 he also established another of those interesting
Blunt family connections: his bride was Augusta
Louisa, the daughter of General Sir Henry Gordon, who
held the post of commissary-general, and neice of his
younger brother, the ill-starred General Charles
'Chinese' Gordon, later – and finally - of Khartoum.
The couple had four sons (Gordon, the eldest, Monty,
Henry – who taught at Springfield Park for five years
– and David, the youngest, and two daughters, Daisy
and Rose – who also helped with the management of the
school. Rose went on to run a ladies' hairdressing
business named Blondel at 45 London Road, and lived
above the shop. Their brother Henry had a son, Gerald,
who in turn had two daughters, Janine and Lisanne, and
they attended the school that their great grandfather
founded, as did other children in the family.
So in 1904 Blunt had come south, and set himself up in
the old family home as principal of Springfield Park
Preparatory School. From then onwards he played an
active part in Horsham's affairs, and was said 'to be
well known in Sussex educational circles'. He also
returned to the Bench as a local JP in 1914. He rented
the house from his cousin Wilfred Scawen Blunt, then
at Newbuildings, and ran the school until 1925. He was
proud of his old pupils, a number of whom went on the
achieve distinction. Among them were a couple of
generals and Vice-Admiral Sir Basil Brooke, and the
school fostered much sporting talent as well,
including several international standard golfers and
footballers and a captain of the Scottish rugby team.
Blunt himself was an active supporter of Horsham
Football Club and the town's Miniature Rifle Club, and
was also a keen gardener; Springfield Park was famous
for the annual Horsham Horticultural Shows that were
held in the grounds, and the event on 1 September 1904
featured – as well as many competitive classes - a
display of hives and honey, dancing and grand
illuminations in the evening together with the music
of Dorking Town Band.
When Blunt retired he went to live in Worthing, but
returned to Horsham in 1933. He died in a nursing home
on 13 May 1935, aged 80, and was buried alongside his
wife (who had died in 1911) at Lower Beeding's church
in the Forest.
William Burdett Veysey had joined Gerald Blunt at
Springfield Park in 1924, and took over from him on
his retirement. He became the owner of the school as
well as its head, and saw its numbers grow from a
modest 17 pupils to a more respectable 70. He was born
in Devon, the son of a vicar, and went to school at St
John's, Leatherhead, following which he won an open
scholarship to Queen's College, Cambridge. He came to
Horsham shortly after his marriage, and in the
well-established tradition of boys' private schools,
Mrs Veysey ('Fanny'), a woman of some physical
presence, also played a key role in the management of
Springfield Park's affairs; she was very much the
shepherd of her flock and one Horsham resident still
remember Veysey's pupils proceeding in an orderly
fashion down North Parade - all, of course, sporting
their grey school caps.
The school was divided into four houses, Normans,
Saxons, Britons and Danes, and at its second annual
sports day one Saturday afternoon in mid-June 1933,
Normans was all-conquering, with poor old Danes
lagging at the rear. A report of the event stated that
'great keenness was taken in the house placings' and
the winning house's secret weapon appeared to be
Radcliffe, 'a plucky hurdler' who despite crashing at
the first jump picked himself up and went on the win -
which doesn't say a lot for the opposition. Young
Allen (who was to lose his life in World War II) won
the under-12 long jump and broke the school record,
and Mrs Veysey did her bit and entertained 120
visitors to tea. The sporty Allen family claimed
another event when Mrs Allen won the dreaded mother's
race, and after an excellent day all round Mr
Pentecost the head gardener was given a big hand for
helping to make it all happen.
William Veysey died sudddenly at Springfield Park on 3
April 1953, aged only 68, and was given a fine
testimonial from the father of a past pupil, who said
that 'as a man he was quiet and unassuming, and of
unswerving integrity, with a kind heart and a keen
sense of humour'. Mrs Veysey moved to Newlands Road,
where she remained until the early 1960s, and she is
remembered as taking an active part in local
Conservative politics. After William Veysey's death
Ian Begg took over the school for a short while, and
he was followed by CP Selwyn, a Cambridge graduate
(who was headmaster in 1955). Selwyn is remembered,
not entirely fondly, as the man who sold off much of
the Springfield Park grounds, including the lake, to
developers Davis Estates. Then in the autumn of 1957
Springfield Park re-opened as a day and boarding
school for girls up to 17, with preparatory and
kindergarten classes for both boys and girls.
The new owners were Leonard and Margaret
Warwick-James, who came to Horsham with much
experience of private education. During the 1930s both
had been teachers at a prep school, but were unhappy
with the system then in operation. So they went their
own way and eventually ran North Bridge House School
in St John's Wood, a preparatory co-educational school
for 180 pupils, and also at one time a school in
Keswick, and the idea now was to manage North Bridge
House and Springfield Park in tandem, with some of the
older London pupils transferring to Horsham. Leonard
would take care of North Bridge House (although its
long term future was in doubt because of demolition
plans), while Margaret would head up Springfield Park.
There was also a scheme to integrate most of the
pupils from the Munro Higgs' Causeway School, now at
New Place, Guildford Road, together with its teachers,
and during the spring and summer of 1957 extensive
work was done on Springfield Park to bring it up to
scratch. So the couple had plenty on their hands.
The Warwick-James family presided over Springfield
Park for nearly twenty years, and during that time it
developed a sound reputation as a girls's school, with
pupils attending from many parts of the world. In
February 1973 it was established as an educational
trust, but three years later the couple decided that
it was time to retire, and they were pleased to
announce in a letter to parents and pupils that Mary
and Thomas Belton were to take over (Mary Belton had
taught at the school). They retired to Cornwall, but
made visits back for special occasions, such as the
school's 25th anniversary on 27 May 1982, when they
were guests of honour at a pagent put on by the pupils
to celebrate its history.
But the economics of running an establishment like
Springfield Park became increasingly difficult, and on
9 December 1988 the school was finally forced to
close. It was not alone; think of Heron's Ghyll,
Parkfield and St John's College, for example – just
three other local schools that spring to mind which
are no longer with us. The level of overheads for a
building large enough to house a private school was
constant and massive, and if pupil numbers and revenue
slipped away, too much red ink was the result. And so
it was with Springfield Park. In late 1988 rumours had
been circulating locally that heavy financial losses
had taken it to the brink of insolvency, and it was
announced on 25 November that it was to close. The
school roll had fallen from 216 in 1975 to 103 that
year, and that was explanation enough. It was also
said that not enough had been done over the years to
market the school, but it was too late to complain
now.
The building then went through an unhappy phase. The
site was owned by the Warwick-James family trust,
which had leased it to the school for a peppercorn
rent. By this time Leonard Warwick-James had died, and
at least two of his three children, Warwick and Jolyon,
were in Australia. The governors' decision to close
had been accelerated by the belief that the trust's
beneficiaries would not have renewed the lease when it
was due to expire in 1998, and another problem had
been the need to replace the listed building's old,
leaking roof – which the Council insisted would have
to be done with nothing less than highly expensive
Horsham stone.
And so the old house remained empty for some time, and
a sad sight it looked as well. Inevitably it started
to degenerate, despite the ugly cladding that helped
protect it from the elements, and there was a bad fire
in 1990. But in due course, and under the management
of Berkeley Homes, the property was regenerated, and
converted into apartments, with additional homes built
in the grounds. The work was done to a high standard,
and a new Springfield Park was reborn in 2000. It is
not the house I remember, but it is the best possible
outcome for the property, which is once more a credit
to Horsham.
I am most grateful to Josephine Ferguson, great
granddaughter of General Sir Henry Gordon, who has
supplied me with much useful information on the Blunt
family.
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