ruyton remembers
8
To move house is quite an undertaking. To move a whole school with boarders, day girls, live-in staff and all, must have been something else entirely. Yet this is what Principal Hilda Daniell decided to do in late 1919, when she announced that Ruyton would move across Kew, from its premises in A’Beckett Street, to Tarring in Selbourne Road during 1920.1
In The Ruytonian of April 1928, Hilda Daniell described the appeal of ‘the new Ruyton.’ It was ‘beautifully situated in a quiet, secluded street, close to trams yet protected from their noise. It had a lovely old garden, and plenty of space for tennis courts and playing fields. The old home furnished a large and dignified house for boarders. To Tarring therefore, Ruyton migrated in May, 1920.’ 3
Hilda Daniell may have been anxious about how the School community would respond to the change, given that the A’Beckett Street premises were regarded with great affection. However, she felt that she had no choice but to undergo such a move despite its attendant chaos and upheaval. Student numbers had rapidly built up since 1914, and by 1919 the A’Beckett Street premises (leased from the Bromby family) were full. With sport a growing priority, Hilda Daniell wanted more playing space for her students. When the Hentys’ old family home and nearly four acres of grounds came up for sale on the other side of Kew, Hilda Daniell saw it as an ideal solution to her twin problems.2
Though the new property may have been beautiful, it was not ready when the staff and 170 students arrived. It was still to undergo the changes needed to convert it from a home into a school, and the work would be done during the first three months that the girls and teachers were there. In 1928 Hilda Daniell wrote frankly about this period: ‘The first term was a hideous nightmare. Till the new schoolrooms were finished, classes had to be carried on in the house, both upstairs and down. The noise of the builders made teaching very difficult.’ To make matters worse, the muchwanted extra playing space was inaccessible as it was being levelled.4 The Senior girls didn’t seem to mind – a little upheaval was a small price to pay in exchange for the interesting goings-on of the carpenters and bricklayers, especially those who weren’t restrained in their swearing by the genteel surrounds of a girls’ school.5
the ruyton reporter
