Chrishall School 1862 to 1973
Chrishall has had a school for village children to attend since 1862 and until 1973 it was housed in the purpose built red brick school building that has now been converted into houses in the centre of the village. Backing on to Jigney’s Meadow and with a large playground in front there was plenty of room for the children to work off their energy before attending lessons in one of the two school rooms. The school house was to the north of the building and was inhabited for many years by the head of the school. We have photographs in the archive of the well tended front garden and the house continued to be inhabited right up until the mid-1960s. Visits to the outdoor toilets and the large A-frame climbing frame on the hard tarmac playground are now fondly remembered by past students!
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Halloween celebrations at Chrishall Primary school in the 1970s
Being in school any later in the day than is necessary, isn’t the desire of many children. However, turn back the clock fifty years to the 1970s; Chrishall Primary school, on October 31st, after 5pm was the place to be. Earlier in the week, Sheila and Colin Nelson would encourage their pupils to create flying…
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Dancing round the Maypole
I hope you were out at the crack of dawn this morning to wash in the morning dew to preserve your youth and dancing round your maypoles! I remember dancing round the maypole in Chrishall old school playground, although how the pole was held up I can’t remember. I think there may have been some…
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School Christmas Party 1963
Held in the same school rooms as yesterday’s School concert, today we have a Christmas Party from 1963 when Mr and Mrs Nelson were head teachers at Chrishall School. Mr Nelson was trying the ‘new technology’ of film so there is no sound on this clip, although you can work out that the children are…
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The Schools postcard
A clear picture of Chrishall old school on this postcard, interestingly titled as ‘The Schools’. This was presumably because there were two classes held in the school at the time. The school mistress or master would have lived in the school house to the right of the picture and this was the case from the…
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1894 January 6
Chrishall school makes some improvements as can be seen from this article from the Essex Newsman of 1894 (32 years after the school was built). The Essex Newsman was a weekly paper first published in 1870, according to the Canvey Island Community site here who have some nice little articles from the paper. CHRISHALL. NATIONAL…
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Halloween 1971
1971 and the very last years spent at the old Chrishall school. Outdoor toilets and a huge A-frame climbing frame in the playground where a careless tumble sent you crashing onto the tarmac playground. All fun times! And some of the best bits were the school parties that were run by Mr and Mrs Nelson,…
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Chrishall School Teachers
We are hoping to put together a list of all the school teachers from the old Chrishall School here. If you remember any we don’t please let us know! 1862: School opens 1870: Miss Elizabeth Dant 1891: 13th April to 10th October 1900 Mr Bixby 1901: Head: James French and wife Ellen also a teacher…
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Cussel College
In the 1980’s Irene Cranwell wrote a series of articles for the Village Magazine under the ‘disguise’ of one of the village pumps. These articles told elements of the village history and were often written to reflect the broad Essex dialect that used to be heard locally and that Mrs Cranwell loved. Here the Crawley…
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Chrishall School 1969 casual outdoor photo
This more casual photograph looks like it might have been taken by one of the teachers. Certainly everyone looks rather relaxed and not in the usual formal organised rows as in some of the other official year photographs. Those in the photograph as follows: Back row: Ruth Macadam, Elizabeth King, Simon Chandler, Jonathan Kemp, Andrew…
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Chrishall School December 1969
This photograph was taken in the old school against the dividing wall between the two classrooms. It is thought the dividing wall originally could have been folded back to make one big room but by the time this photograph was taken in 1969 it had had so many coats of paint it was definitely staying…
