Hove in the Past: Hove College

Judy Middleton

Published originally in Tales of the Old Hove Schools (1991) revised 2022

This postcard shows the south end of Hove Street as it was 100 years ago. On the right is the Ship Inn (before it was rebuilt) and on the left is Hove College (Cliff House).

The school claimed a foundation date of 1796 but the name of the founder does not appear to have been recorded. The official oak plaque, which used to hang in the school hall, started with the name of Alexander Tate who became head in 1833. It is known that Mrs Elizabeth Norton was head in 1805 and her daughter helped her in later years. It seems probable that Mrs Norton founded the establishment but as it was a school for the sons of gentlemen, perhaps the fact of a female founder proved embarrassing enough to be quietly dropped. Alternatively, she could have been the widow of a possible founder. But if that were the case, surely his name would have been recorded.

It is fascinating that also in 1796 a Mrs Susannah Norton opened a seminary for young ladies in Brighton called Preston House. It is tempting to see a family connection between these two Mrs Nortons and their educational establishments.

Susannah Norton’s husband had met a violent death at Southwick the year before she embarked upon her enterprise. He was a Collector of His Majesty’s Customs at Shoreham and he was returning home in October 1795, when he was set upon in a field. John Young was apprehended and charged with robbery because there was insufficient evidence to lay a murder charge against him. He was convicted of stealing a cotton handkerchief, a knife and several keys and received a sentence of seven years’ transportation.

Susannah Norton ran an exclusive establishment for young ladies above the age of ten. Parents had to pay 22 guineas per annum for their daughter’s education (including French and geography) board and washing. But if the young ladies required their muslin frocks, caps or tippets to be washed as well, there would be an extra charge.

When Alexander Tate arrived at Cliff House (Hove College’s former name) in 1833 to take over the reins from Mrs Norton, he had already been principal of an academy for young gentlemen at 2 Dorset Gardens, Brighton, for eleven years. He stayed at Cliff House for seventeen years before handing over to Robert Parish in 1850.

The next headmaster, William Grix, also gained experience locally by being head of a prep school at 12 Marlborough Place, Brighton, in 1843 and he moved the school to Kemp Town in 1848. The 1861 census records that William Grix, with the help of one assistant master, taught nineteen boys (three of whom were born in France) at the Hove school. Grix remained for thirteen years.

Mr WJ Jones became head in 1890. His wife had the special care of delicate and backward boys and an advertisement of 1899 states she made ‘the comfort of the pupils her constant study’. The school was still known as Cliff House School but when their son AG Jones became head in 1904 he changed the name to Hove College. However, in old photographs the legend ‘Cliff House’ can still be discerned high up on the building at the south-west corner of Hove Street and both names continued to be used for some time. Perhaps Mr Jones was hoping to attract more custom for the 1891 census recorded only twelve boarders. But he only stayed until 1906.

The older boys were allowed the use of their own rowing and sailing boats, which were kept moored on the beach in front of the playing field. Apparently, it was quicker to take a trip to Brighton by rowing boat rather than by horse-drawn transport. The favoured landing place was at the bottom of West Street. Gordon Sherry who started at the school at the age of six in the 1890s, used to accompany Mrs Jones on shopping expeditions to Brighton by boat - ‘one of those stout clinker-built craft’.

One great event Sherry recalled was the funeral cortege of Charles Stewart Parnell, the great Irish leader, passing along Hove sea-front in 1891. Parnell was only aged 45 when he died on 6^th October 1891 at Walsingham Terrace in nearby Aldrington. Parnell’s love affair with Mrs ‘Kitty’ O’Shea was one of the great scandals of the Victorian age. At last they managed to marry one another at Steyning but just four months later he was dead.

When Gordon Sherry grew up he became a writer and a play of his entitled The Bare Idea was produced in April 1940 at the Theatre Royal, Brighton.

The curriculum was varied and included scripture, reading, writing, arithmetic, algebra, Euclid, history, geography, grammar, analysis, Latin, composition, literature, drawing and science. Other subjects that could also to be studied (at extra cost naturally) were violin, piano, French, Greek, shorthand, drill, swimming, riding and games.

In the 19^th century Hove Street was nothing more than a village street with farm buildings, a few houses and a pub. There was also the elegant Hove Manor House owned by the Vallance family. But Cliff House was not the only school in Hove Street. Mr Livesay ran Seafield House and one of his daughters married the young John Olliver Vallance, much to his mother’s chagrin. There was also Hove Lodge where Dr White had his academy. He sported a cap and flowing gown and was often to be seen visiting Mrs Knight’s shop. But the unfortunate man hanged himself at Hove Lodge. His memorial tablet has the not very flattering description ‘he was pious without enthusiasm’. Old Mrs Knight who ran a small general store dubbed the Tuck Shop by the Cliff House boys, was convinced she saw the ghost of dear Dr White now and again. The Knight family were striking figures in their own right. There were three daughters of exceptional height and the schoolboys labelled Mr Knight ‘JC’ because of his uncanny resemblance to the figure in Holman Hunt’s celebrated painting The Light of the World’.

The school’s playing field was on the sea-front and there was another near by (on the site now occupied by the King Alfred belonging to Hove House School, which they later came to use as well. Passers-by used to enjoy leaning their arms on the low wall to watch the boys play cricket. Especially, one imagines the weary drover coming from the direction of Portslade, pausing to watch the cricket before drinking a welcome pint in the Traveller’s Joy Inn. The boys were not the only ones playing cricket close to the sea because the County Cricket Ground was situated a little further along the coast road and remained there until 1872 when it moved to its present site.

Although Hove College continued to own the playing field until the Cliff House site was sold, it became customary to hold large sports events elsewhere. For instance, in 1918 the annual Sports Day was held at West Blatchington and the prize giving took place in the barn attached to the windmill. During the 1930s the annual Athletic Sports were held at the Goldstone Ground and in latter years at Withdean Stadium. Another important fixture was the Father’s Cricket Match, which took place at the County Ground from 1953 to 1978.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
1909 advert for Hove College in Hove Street, Hove (Not Brighton as shown on the advert)

Unusually for a long-established boys’ school in this area, there was only one clerical headmaster and he was the Revd AC Atkins, head from 1907 until 1912. News seeped through the grapevine that Mr Atkins was thinking of disposing of Hove College and Ernest Cecil Jackson was very pleased to hear about it because he had long dreamed of running a select school for the sons of gentlemen. He started off his career by opening Selwyn House, a junior school in Rutland Gardens, Hove, and now felt ready to move on. He jumped at the chance of acquiring Hove College. But the one stumbling block was that £200 was required straight away. Providentially, his grandmother had just died and left him £500.

There were also negotiations to be undergone with the Vallance Estate, which owned the lease. One of the Vallances had attended Hove College and there was a Vallance Cup for sport. Mr Jackson then moved into Hove College with his wife Violet, two sons and three boarders. The staff consisted of the head, his brother Bertie Jackson and Francis Peters who had been with Mr Jackson at Selwyn House. Mr Peters provided the boys with some unintentional amusement because he was very tall and thin and when he spoke it sounded as though his nose was permanently blocked up. He was also very pious and gave the boys religious talks on Sunday evenings.

Although the school had pretensions of being a high-class establishment, conditions at Hove College in 1913 were fairly basic with outside privies set in the stone courtyard. There was one bathroom and lavatory inside the house but boarders had to make do with the standard jug of cold water and basin in their dormitories; they went to bed by candlelight. When they got up on winter mornings, they often found ice had formed inside their water jugs. The kitchen was cavernous while the scullery looked out on to the courtyard; hissing gas mantles illuminated the rooms downstairs. But the three-storey building had at least six rooms that were spacious with large windows overlooking the sea.

copyright © Mrs Roberta Jackson
Hove College Old Boys at Sports Day in 1927. Back row, left to right, B Cushman, J Cobley, CWA Cushman, L Cowley, Phillips, Bloom I, RLC Jackson, R Jackes, R Valesco, E Yolland, R Gibson. Seated, B Fisher, R Bloomfield, I Watson, Walker, R Hall, C Dennis, EC Jackson, Palmer, Bloom II, L Lister, GH Cobley, McKercher.

The boys rose at 7am and took it in turns to sweep out the school-rooms, fill the ink-wells and light the coal fires. Often, against the rules, the boys would sneak out to a flooded gravel pit, which replaced Hove House’s playing field, and float their home-made rafts. There were soon 50 boys on the register.

copyright © Mrs Roberta Jackson
Hove College’s football team was photographed in 1934. RLC Jackson stands on the left sporting a splendid pair of plus fours while his obedient dog Peter sits on the right. The first XI played fourteen matches, won thirteen and drew one.

When the Jacksons first moved into Hove College, their son Alan was six and Raymond was five. It was Raymond Jackson who took over from his father as headmaster in 1934. He shared the headship with his lifelong friend John Dickson. The school colours were changed to claret and grey and the three houses previously called Kingsway, Cliff and School, were renamed Tate, Parish and Grix after earlier headmasters.

However, the greatest change was the decision to leave Cliff House after nearly 140 years and move to Langton House on the Kingsway not far from the old site. A London syndicate was prepared to pay a good price for a valuable corner site. The news was announced in the Lancing and Shoreham Times (19^th October 1934) as follows ‘The London Syndicate who have acquired the site are to build a magnificent block of flats, in a style in keeping with the quiet dignity of Hove residences, a project which will give employment to many unemployed workmen’. Viceroy Lodge was built and it has to be admitted the flats have proved more durable than many erected in the 1960s.

copyright © J.Middleton
Langton House was situated on Kingsway and this photograph dates from 1909. It became home to Hove College in 1935.

The school moved in January 1935 and the old building was demolished. One part of Cliff House was saved and that was the original front door, which was installed at Langton House. Apparently, there were ‘several other replicas dear to the schoolboys’ heart’ that were saved from Cliff House but annoyingly the newspaper failed to give further details. Mr Jackson took his camera along to record the melancholy progress of destruction. It is an unhappy coincidence that Cliff House and Hove Manor, which were probably built at around the same time, plus the Well House in St Ann’s Well Gardens were demolished in the 1930s. In 1935 boys from Hove College’s gymnasium class displayed their skills for the last time at the Manor House Fete in aid of the Blind.

copyright © Mrs Roberta Jackson
The hall of Langton House was taken after Hove College had moved in. On the right of the door there is a panel listing past headmasters.

Langton House had been built 32 years previously and thus was a youngster when compared with the venerable Cliff House. Mr Jackson cheerfully expected the school to ‘thrive in an atmosphere of Edwardian splendour and nobility’. The Drawing Room was decorated in a lavish Versailles style while the Library was located in the former Billiard Room and had large plate-glass windows, reputed to be replicas of those installed in the Billiard Room of Windsor Castle. The Dining Room too was rather splendid with panelling on the walls and the original carved fireplace, decorated with green glazed tiles. Mr WM Caddy of Waterloo Street, Hove was responsible for crafting the refectory tables and benches.

By 1938 the number of pupils had risen to 100. A new wing was added containing a recreation hall, a workshop, a reading room and a junior library. Just when everything was going so smoothly, international events intervened and the building was requisitioned when World War II broke out. Canadian and South African officers, plus 2897 Squadron RAF Regiment (formed in February 1942) moved in. The RAF remained at least until November 1944. Meanwhile, the school moved down to Wedmore in Somerset for the duration.

Fortunately, when the school was ready to return to Hove, it was found that Langton House had not been badly damaged and Hove College was able to resume residence. Mrs Jackson decided to leave the initials carved by the men in the red stone by the porch as a historic memento.

Rodney Mann was a pupil at Hove College in the 1950s and today he lives in Australia. Before he joined the school, a famous conversation took place between his mother and Mr John Dickson, one of the joint headmasters at the time, which would make his parents chuckle years afterwards. Mrs Mann commented on how smart she thought the school colours of maroon and grey were and Mr Dickson replied 'Claret and silver please Mrs Mann'. Mr Dickson was associated with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and Rodney Mann particularly remembers his sleek MG saloon car.

Raymond Jackson died on 14^th May 1976 and the school carried on under the headship of his former partner, John Dickson. In 1979 news leaked out that Hove College was to be sold. Mrs Jackson and Mr Dickson were getting on in years and they tried to sell it as a going concern. In 1979 the sale price was put at around £250,000 while the rates for 1979-1980 came to £2,669. By August 1980 the price had dropped to £200,000 but the actual sale price in October 1981 was £150,000.

A group of parents also endeavoured to save the school without success. The purchaser was Canadian Dr Lingaray Bahinipaty who said he was going to convert it into a nursing home. It was said the renovations cost in the region of £500,000 and the exterior certainly looked very fine but on 21^stDecember 1981 the building was gutted by fire and it was demolished in August 1983. Hove Council gave permission for a new private hospital to be built on the site. It was named the Kingsway Nursing Home and opened in March 1986 with the promise that private patients would be able to enjoy all sorts of luxury food. The charges were around £130 a day. Less than a month later the place was empty and there was no sign of the doctor either. In November 1989 the building was officially reopened as the Princes Marine Hotel.

Mr Dickson died in 2004 and Mrs Roberta Jackson died on 4 December 2008.

1805-1833 Mrs Elizabeth Norton

1833-1850 Alexander Tate

1850-1859 Robert Parish

1859-1872 William Grix

1873-1889 Richard Avery

1890-1904 WJ Jones

1904-1906 AG Jones

1907-1912 Revd AC Atkins

1913-1934 EC Jackson

1934-1976 RLC Jackson

1934-1980 John Dickson

School Colours – Claret and silver

Famous Old Boys

Frederick William Aldock Cushman (1871-1958) Mayor of Hove and Honorary Freeman of Hove

Frederick George Miles (1903-1976) aircraft designer

George Herbert Miles (1911-1999) aircraft designer

13 May 2022

Hove College