Hove in the Past: Mansfield House School, 47 Cromwell Road, Hove.

30 April 2022

Mansfield House School, 47 Cromwell Road, Hove.

Judy Middleton 2022

The school was located at this address for a period of forty years – from 1918 to 1958. It was a unique establishment because it catered specifically for Jewish girls, and in fact it was the only Jewish School for Girls in the whole of England.

It is interesting to note a coincidence in the name of Cromwell Road, which might seem somewhat at odds with an area of up-market residences because Cromwell’s signature was one of those on the death warrant of King Charles I. But it seems that the name was especially chosen by the prominent Jewish Goldsmid family to honour Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) who, when he was in charge of the country, invited Jews to settle in England once more, having been banished in 1290. It will be remembered that it was Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid who purchased the Wick Estate in Hove.

However, the school was not founded at Hove but in Maida Vale in the late 1890s by Miss Maude Levy, and it bore the cumbersome title of Mansfield House College of Music and School for Girls. An advertisement of 1898 proclaimed the establishment as providing ‘a thorough education in all branches … Highly qualified governesses for foreign languages and for vocal and instrumental music, drawing and painting.’ Moreover, French and German ladies were employed so that girls would speak with the correct accent. Also on the curriculum were Swedish drill and callisthenics. Miss Rose Sherwood came on a Tuesday afternoon to teach dancing.

At this stage non-Jewish girls were admitted but this soon changed when Miss Levy introduced Hebrew and religious instruction to the lessons.

From 1918 until the late 1930s, Hove's Mansfield House included both these Cromwell Road properties at numbers 47 and 48 as the school’s premises

Mansfield Houses did not stay for long at Maida Vale and by 1904 was to be found at 23 Harold Road, Margate. This location too was short-lived and in 1918 the school moved to 47 Cromwell Road and remained there, apart from the war years, until its closure in 1958.

Perhaps the 1930s were the golden years of the school. In 1930 there was a change of ownership. Before that, it had been run by Mrs Poole (born Blanche Isaacson) who initially ran the boarding establishment but gradually took over the whole enterprise from Miss Levy. But by 1930 she wanted to retire and placed an advertisement in the Jewish Chronicle (25 April 1930) that ran ‘Mrs Poole seeks a partner for her old-established boarding school Mansfield House, Hove.’

There are two stories as to how the Simmons sisters came to own Mansfield College. One goes that such a step was recommended by the stalwart but tiny nanny of the Simmons family, Louie Mercer. The other story suggests it was the family grape-vine that was behind the move because the sisters’ brother-in-law Frank Isaacson knew about the school. There were five siblings in the Simmons family – four girls and one boy. The sisters all pursued their own careers, and by the time of the purchase Nancie and Enid were married ladies with Nancie having a son and Enid a daughter. Owning a school seemed a sensible next step because they had enjoyed their careers, and managed to accrue enough capital to be able to purchase the school outright.

Nancie attended the Charing Cross Medical School, which was then the only institution in England where a woman could study medicine, and she became a pathologist. She was known at the school as Dr Hart. She threw herself into her new profession with enthusiasm and became a member of the Royal Society of Teachers, developing a lasting interest in Freudian psychology. The Simmons were Liberal Jews but Nancie had to learn Hebrew so that she could recite the Friday prayers correctly. The school also had a strict Orthodox diet.

Enid used to spend her summer holidays in Normandy, and was thus bi-lingual, which was useful for her teaching career. She also loved dancing, and had opened a successful dancing school in London. Then she had the great good fortune, with excellent advice, to invest in two London productions that enjoyed a huge success; they were No, No Nanette and The Girl Friend. The girls at Mansfield House had the benefit of Enid’s experience because she also taught dancing, including ballroom dancing; her married name was Mrs Alfandary.

The girls were encouraged to have a social conscience, and make charitable contributions, or put on concerts to raise money for their chosen cause. Of course they were aware of what was happening to their fellow Jews in Nazi Germany, and wanted to help where they could. They also had their own Girl Guides pack – the 9^th Hove (Mansfield House) Company.

copyright © D. Sharp
The Middle Street Synagogue is a Grade II* listed building
and said to be Brighton’s second most important interior
after the Royal Pavilion and among the most beautiful
synagogues in Europe.
According to Dr. Sharman Kadish of Jewish Heritage UK,
“Nothing prepares the visitor for the sumptuousness of Middle Street’s
interior. It is basilican in plan and a riot of marble, brass, mosaic,
stencilling, gilding and stained glass, much of it donated by the
Sassoon family of Hove, the synagogue’s chief patrons”

On Saturdays the girls all attended the Middle Street Synagogue in Brighton where they sat upstairs, as all Orthodox females were obliged to do. But they did not mind because they had a good view of the young Jewish boys downstairs. Rabbi Fabricant took the service. On the Day of Atonement the girls had to walk to the synagogue without having eaten breakfast, and their noses were assailed by delicious scents of baking bread on the way. This was doubly difficult for them because many did not enjoy the food that was on offer at school anyhow, especially porridge. The girls wore white lawn dresses with a white coat and a black straw hat – a most impractical uniform. But then the girls did not have to bother their heads about washing or ironing the pleats because that was the domain of the school maids.

Mansfield House was quite a sporty school with tennis and netball, while hockey was played on the County Ground during the winter. Then there were the visits to the Hove Baths with their costumes rolled up in a towel under their arms, and afterwards the long walk home, possibly with damp clothes.

Nancie liked to ensure that the girls could speak in public with ease, and there were ‘Spontaneous Talks’ in which a girl must talk fluently on a given subject. Some girls enjoyed this, but others preferred a general knowledge test or a mathematical quiz.

In the summer there was an influx of foreign girls eager to learn English as quickly as possible. But everything changed with the war.

Like other schools in Hove, the prospect of an imminent German invasion meant that the school de-camped to Pentrevoelas in North Wales for the duration; one pupil became friendly with a local female, and they kept up a correspondence for many years afterwards although the Jewish girl moved to the United States.

Old Girls of Mansfield House look back at their time in the school with mixed feelings. But many have clear memories of horrible food, and the bitter cold in winter when they heaped on clothes before climbing into an icy bed, while the two headmistresses enjoyed the comfort of a paraffin stove in their cosy sitting room. Some concluded that the lauded education was also not up to scratch either.

Nancie was remembered as a beautiful woman, but others thought she was a bully. However, when the school was closing, she invited girls to choose books to take away with them and these were treasured over the years as mementoes of times past. Enid was thought to be especially kind to the younger girls, and apparently was a first-class bridge player.

Sources

Information kindly supplied by Jane Manaster

Brighton's Middle Street Synagogue

Dr. Sharman Kadish, Director of Jewish Heritage UK.

The Jewish Chronicle

See also the Sassoon family of King's Gardens, Hove

Copyright © J.Middleton 2022
page layout and by D.Sharp