The following is an extract from the story of Shoreham Grammar School, an independent boys school in West Sussex as remembered by P J Stannard.

Despite two World Wars and the division of the school during World War II, the routine of the school had not changed very much since the turn of the century. However when change did come to the school it was considerable.

It is impossible to state with any accuracy what caused the change. Certainly numbers at the school were increasing and they reached 397 at peak. But I think that one incident was the catalyst for the change to the physical appearance of the school.

In 1959 a boy, M. V. C. Taylor, entered a competition sponsored by the 'Junior Express' and won. One of the prizes that he won was a complete set of 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' for the school library.

At that time it was felt by the school that it did not have an adequate library and so a new one had to be provided. It was decided the dayboy's dining room would make a suitable room.

The job of moving the library to its new home and restocking and cataloguing the books fell to Mr. Wright and the result of his hard work was a library any school would be proud of.

To provide a new dining room for the dayboys the boarders' cloakroom was amalgamated with the existing boarders' dining room.

The next alteration was the building of a boarders' cloakroom and this was a new building built on to the side of the senior boys' boot-room. At about this time the front of the school was also changed.

What was the rose garden was ploughed up by bulldozers and the left-hand end of the headmaster's garden as well. This had the effect of opening up the front of the school and making it less grim to look at

Further evidence of the increasing affluence in the country at large was the introduction of cereals, usually corn flakes, at school breakfast. This was a big step forward; for previously we were only given something hot followed by 'steps' of bread, marmalade and tea.

In 1960 the school came to the end of an era with the retirement of two people who had worked so long and so hard for the school; they were Miss A. Watts as matron and Mrs. E. A. Bruder as housekeeper. I know that every Old Boy will remember them with affection and gratitude for what they did.

Another change in school tradition was caused by the fact that domestic staff became harder to find. This resulted in the mealtimes at Shoreham being altered. The major change was that tea was served as a running buffet between 4.00 and 4.30 p.m. and after tea boys were allowed into the town on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Later the rules became relaxed, by common consent between the pupils and the headmaster, to include Wednesday as well.

Prep was 5.30 until 6.50 pm. At 7.00 pm supper for the whole school was served. Second prep started for everyone except the small boys and lasted until 8.30 p.m. In the Summer Term another alteration occurred, instead of second prep those people not taking exams were allowed to go down to the field to work off excess energy.

More free time was given to us and eventually the crocodile walks on a Sunday were phased out. On days that were so wet that sports had to be cancelled a free afternoon was declared.

One other major alteration was the building of a new science block. In Summer Term of 1960 the foundations were laid and by the time we returned from the summer holidays the shell of the building was in place but the fittings had still to arrive.

The building housed two labs, a physics lab and a chemistry lab. Each was purpose built and in those days they were the ultimate in luxury for school labs. The Herculean task of stocking and organising them fell to Mr. J. Petherbridge (physics) and Mr. H. Pocock (chemistry).

Unfortunately Mr. Pocock's health forced him to retire and so he did not see the real use that the labs were put to. It is to Mr. H. Pocock that I would like to record a personal thank-you for all he did for the founding and teaching of chemistry in the school and for me in particular.

Looking back on all these changes one can see that they were a continuation of the policy of teaching us self-discipline, which was so much a characteristic of Mr. E. A. Bruder's headship and in those days was very progressive.

One of the other major changes was that a television had arrived in the school and this we were allowed to watch at the weekends. I believe that a firm favourite was '77 Sunset Strip' and, of course, 'Dr. Who'.

In 1963 the School Chapel celebrated the 50th anniversary of its dedication. Since the Chapel was built several alterations were made to its interior. Several memorial tablets were erected to commemorate the Old Boys who died in the service of their country in the great wars. Stained glass windows were added and also a memorial tablet to Mr. Gregory-Taylor.

In my time at Shoreham several other alterations were made. The Art master, Mr. M. Lewis, painted and hung a mural behind the altar. This mural depicted the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ

Some Old Boys may remember the temperamental organ that had to be blown by hand. This eventually 'gave up the ghost' and was replaced by an electrically blown three manual reed organ.

Mr. Bruder designed a new carpet for the sanctuary. This was blue in colour with a red Maltese cross and yellow fleur-de-lis. The making of this carpet was supervised by Mrs. Bruder and done by the boys, the most industrious being a pupil called Hakim from Iran.