HOCKEY

Hockey

Email from Cathie Rowntree, 2022

At first glance, I thought I knew your Hockey picture, but when I searched it out, I realised the difference, in that mine says Clapham Common. I think I might have purchased it from Ron Elam and on the reverse is written in biro (not printed) 1909 — 1914. They are very similar in terms of longer skirts, long plaits etc. but on your one there is what might be the Three Island Pond in the background and on mine the buildings to the right are taller.

The Clapham County building in Broomwood Road was opened in 1909, with girls who had originally come from Battersea Polytechnic, but in the interim they were accommodated in two of the larger houses on Clapham Common Northside — Clarence House from 1904 and Woodlands from 1906 — as numbers on roll increased. It would have been logical to play games on Clapham Common. Both houses have now been demolished.

When the Broomwood building opened, the land between the school & Alfriston Road was empty and it had been hoped that this land could be acquired for a sports field. However, funds were not available & hockey continued on one or other of the commons. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of sports in action, but plenty of the teams being posed, such as these from 1928/9. By this time the gym slips were considerably shorter, but legs were still carefully covered. There was plenty of room in the playground to the rear of the building for netball and tennis courts to be marked out, as in my time (1958-65) We still went up to Clapham Common for hockey (sometimes with an audience of undesirables — the teacher had been known to chase them off) and when older we walked to the tennis courts on Wandsworth Common. Before the war, these courts had also been used by Honeywell Girls when they attended up to the age of 14. CCS had a playing field at The Maples, Clapham Common Southside until 1958, when the land was taken for the building of Marianne Thornton School.

This is no doubt more than you asked for, and as I just thought I'd lost it all, I'd better close now.

Goodnight

Cathy