From Church School to Academy; the early years of secondary education in Paddock Wood

The original school, adjacent to St Andrew’s Church

The first “real” school in Paddock Wood, opened in 1859, was a church school located next to the original St Andrew’s Church in Church Road.  Following the 1870 Education Act children between 5 and 13 were expected to go to school and in 1880 the running of the school, which was for boys and girls, was taken over by the Brenchley School Board.

Paddock Wood School, Old Kent Road. Copyright HPW

A boy’s school was built in Old Kent Road in about 1908 for 200 pupils.  The girls and the infants stayed in Church Road until 1930 when they moved to this school as well.  Post War, a secondary department was created by the addition of three prefabricated buildings.  The infants moved to the Parochial Church hall in Commercial Road. 

Jack Stead, a teacher appointed in 1955, described the Old Kent Road school as follows: “All the buildings were made from prefabricated concrete.  Classrooms formed three sides of a square, the fourth side being the buildings of the primary school. The centre of the square was a grassed area, with a low parapet wall and flower beds running around.  This was used as the playground and for PE. There was no hall as such but one building standing alone outside of the square was used for morning assemblies, music lessons or PE on wet days.  The same building was also the school canteen with lunches cooked on the premises.  The playing fields and rural science area were at the rear of the building.”

By the end of the 1940s Kent Education Committee (K.E.C.) was proposing to extend the grounds of Paddock Wood Secondary School by purchasing part of the allotments owned by Brenchley Parish Council. The Council was not prepared to sell the land in question which was rented to local allotment holders. However, despite this at the January 1950 Parish Council meeting the Clerk reported that an offer of £80 had been made for the ground in question.  It had also been made clear to him that K.E.C. could use compulsory purchase powers.

What happened next is unclear.  But a decision was obviously made to build a new school on Gedges Hill, using a 33 acre site on the outskirts of Paddock Wood. Close by was Mascalls, a building known as the birthplace of D Day planner Sir Frederick Morgan, which had originally been settled by the Mascalle family in the 14th Century.

Paddock Wood Secondary Modern School opened on 19 September 1956. The formal opening took place on 17th November by Mr Richard Hornby the local MP and was also dedicated by the Assistant Bishop of Rochester, the Reverend Mann.

The new building consisted of five classrooms and rooms for art, woodwork, metalwork and a hall used for PE and school lunches which were still being prepared and transported from Old Kent Road. Accommodation was limited and both staff and students had to travel between the two sites for some lessons. The intake of pupils had also been dropped from 12 years to 11 which meant a large increase in the roll. 

During the next two years, building work was in progress all around what became known as East Building. The playing fields were not complete and according to one of the teachers, Jack Stead, the whole campus appeared to be a sea of mud.  Being built was a second block (known as West Building) with an assembly hall, a smaller hall for dining, a library, more classrooms, practical rooms for science, art, needlework and domestic science as well as a kitchen. In September 1958 West Building was completed, the playing fields were partially completed and at about this time the Old Kent Road school was taken over by the County Primary School.

According to the Kent and Sussex Courier the total cost of the project was about £200000.  But accommodation was still short and a new prefabricated building had to be installed between the East and West buildings.  

Mr H G Miles, the headmaster in 1959 wrote in the Summer edition of Pegasus the school magazine:

“the occupation of the west building last September provided us in the three buildings sufficient accommodation for the 660 pupils but next term with 730 pupils on roll we must work closer together in more ways than one.”

Paddock Wood Secondary School. Copyright HPW

At some point in the mid 1960s the school seems to have become known as Mascalls secondary school. It became a comprehensive school in 1978, a grant maintained school in 1993, an Academy in 2011 and then joined the Leigh Academies Trust in 2015.  

With thanks to “Beginnings and Bygones of Old Paddock Wood” by Jack Walker,

Pictures Copyright Heritage Paddock Wood,

Kent and Sussex Courier,

Mascalls Millennium Book,

Paddock Wood Patchwork Then and Now Volume Two.