September 1939: Everything Changes
When war was declared in September 1939, Robin Gladstone made a bold decision. As owner of both the Abbey School and Clare House, he chartered a train to evacuate staff and pupils who wished to escape the expected German bombing of London and the South East.
The destination was Woolacombe, Devon – as far from the anticipated danger as one could get while remaining in England. Gladstone and Cyril Crump traveled with Abbey and Clare House boys who chose to go.
But not everyone left. John Hodges remained in Beckenham, now running Clare House with a mixed cohort: some Abbey boys, some Clare House boys (aged roughly 9-13), and even some girls from St. Christopher’s School in Oakhill Road (up to age 16).
The Woolacombe evacuation lasted less than a year. By early 1940, it was clear that more permanent arrangements were needed.
Ashurst Wood: A New Home
The solution was extraordinary. The schools moved to Ashurst Wood, near East Grinstead, Sussex – to the former country estate of Sir Abe Bailey, the South African mining millionaire and cricketer.
The imposing three-storey house sat on high ground overlooking Forest Row, with distant views across the valley to the escarpment of Ashdown Forest. It was built in late Victorian or Edwardian times and had been designed for elegant country living on a grand scale.
The estate included:
- Twenty-four bedrooms for owners, guests, and staff
- Extensive ground floor rooms: dining hall, library, vast drawing room with French windows facing south
- Wine cellars and fuel stores below ground
- A Lodge complex with garages, storerooms, boiler house, and workers’ accommodation
- A chapel, squash court, and gymnasium
- Kitchen gardens and glasshouses
- A cricket field (reportedly used by the first South African touring team to visit the UK)
- Tennis lawns, croquet lawn, rose gardens
- A swimming pool with diving boards, filled each May from a natural spring
- Around forty acres of sloping woodland and meadowland
Transformation to a School
The grand rooms were adapted for education. The library and the enormous drawing room – now called the “big schoolroom” – became classrooms. A semi-subterranean office adjacent to the wine cellars also served as teaching space. Dormitories occupied the upper floors, with some accommodation carved out for staff.
At Christmas 1940, Clare House in Beckenham officially closed. John Hodges and his staff cleared the buildings of furniture, storing what they could at Munns and Ridgewell’s furniture repository. Tragically, the repository was bombed during the war. After the conflict ended, Hodges and his team would have to dig furniture out of the rubble in the basement, salvaging what could still be used.
The Beckenham buildings were soon requisitioned – first by the Army, then by the Ministry of Works. Over two hundred Irish workmen would eventually be billeted there while rebuilding work went on in bomb-damaged Beckenham.
Hodges Goes to War
John Hodges didn’t remain at Ashurst Wood. He joined the Army as an Adjutant in the Churchill IXth Heavy Tank Battalion. The Churchill tanks, manufactured by Vauxhall, were notoriously unreliable in their early iterations – the Battalion managed to get only about six of the first hundred tanks into working order.
Nevertheless, Hodges served with distinction as part of a fighting tank unit. He was among the first “A” Squadron troops to enter Germany.
Life at Ashurst Wood
Meanwhile, at Ashurst Wood, school life continued under difficult circumstances. Pupil numbers were low – financially challenging times – but the school settled into the comfortable surroundings of the Bailey estate.
The boys swam in the pool under Robin Gladstone’s strict supervision (he kept meticulous records of who was in the water at any given time). They played cricket on Sir Abe Bailey’s legendary field. They explored the woods and meadows. Despite rationing and wartime restrictions, they were remarkably well fed, thanks to the productive kitchen gardens.
And they learned. Latin from age seven. Mathematics. History. The classics. Preparation for the Common Entrance to public schools continued even as bombs fell on London and battles raged across Europe.
The Fight to Return
As the war drew to a close, a new battle began: reclaiming Clare House in Beckenham.
When Major Hodges returned from military service, he found over two hundred Irish workmen billeted in the Oakwood Avenue buildings. The Ministry of Works showed no inclination to leave. Unless action was taken, Clare House School would never reopen.
Robin Gladstone was by now in poor health, spending much time in nursing care, unable to offer much practical assistance. So Hodges enlisted Martin and Carnaby, Estate Agents of Dulwich, to negotiate with the Ministry for the return and restoration of the buildings.
The negotiations dragged on, becoming less negotiation and more forced bargaining. The senior partner at Martin and Carnaby died before reaching full agreement on compensation terms, though the Ministry had at least agreed to vacate.
Then, months later, the postwoman brought unexpected news: the Ministry was moving out.
The Aftermath
In 1946, the Ministry finally left. They left chaos behind.
The playing field was covered with Nissen huts, concrete, and builders’ rubble. Major and Mrs. Hodges, living in the Clare House Annexe on Perth Road (which backed onto the school property), could see the devastation from their garden.
The task ahead was daunting. Twenty-five itinerant Polish workers were hired to clear the field. Major Hodges obtained a horse and reaping machine from a farm near Sevenoaks to cut the football pitches.
The buildings themselves needed extensive work. The compensation from the Ministry – when it finally came – went directly to the Abbey and Clare House Company at East Grinstead, not to the school itself.
But John Hodges was determined. Clare House would rise again.
Next Up: The Golden Years (1947-1969)