From the Editorial by G. J. Larcombe: This has been a memorable year! On later pages you will read of the outstanding success of the Mayfield Swimming Team. We can say without fear of contradiction that our school has the finest under 15 swimming team in the England. (Click HERE to see photo)

From the Headmaster’s Review by C. F. W. Hicks: At the end of the current session Howard Barnes who has been our Head Boy for two years, will be leaving us to enter Chester College for a three years course to train as a teacher. We wish him well in the future and thank him for the undoubted contribution he has made to the school in the past.

Contribution List – Click on items shown as links to jump to the entry

Brown’s Farm, Goodmayes by J.P.
Waiting by B. MacLennan
Venusian Landscape by R. Moakes
The School Journey To Switzerland by D. Harmer
A Narrow Escape by P. Vincent
A Paratrooper’s Adventure by J. Thomas
An Exciting Day by D. Selwood
Tilbury Fort by J. Vincent
The Hunter And The Hunted by M. Anderson
The Wreck Of The “Stanhope” by G. Holt
Fate Decreed It So by P. Tring

Brown’s Farm, Goodmayes by J.P.
My earliest recollections of Brown’s Farm are rather hazy, being a kaleidoscope of an art called ‘Scrumping’, with the attendant stomach aches caused by eating the spoils (usually small green apples and raw rhubarb), getting a smack round the head from ‘Old Brown’ when caught fishing for tiddlers in his pond (though how anything could live in that water is one of nature’s mysteries), skidding on bikes down his sandy lane which was just made for skidding bikes down, with the ever present hazard of a slimy ditch to add a spice of danger.
There was a certain code for youngsters too. Old Farmer Brown never told parents, and when you were caught, you took your smack on the head and never complained. Brown’s Farm came in useful for all kinds of experiment – smoking ones first cigarette in the rhubarb field – climbing the many trees over there. One nameless boy got stuck in the top of the old hollow tree and yelled for hours. But seriously, the farm was an oasis in suburban Goodmayes and yielded an astonishing variety of animal and bird life.
And talking of birds, Brown’s Farm was also a favourite haunt for all those young things in need of solitude, and no doubt if it were still there, the farm could tell a tale or two. It was always so convenient – right opposite the Church Hall, one could go to Scouts or Youth Fellowship Guides, and afterwards what better than a saunter over Brown’s Farm with one’s current beloved – with the added spice of a possible thick ear from the Old Chap, who recognised neither age nor sex, but sloshed out indiscriminately at all comers. Yes, Brown’s Farm was an institution with the young people, and it’s passing has removed one more oasis of green from the cluster of bricks and mortar. – J.P.

This article was written by an old resident of Goodmayes. It refers to the nineteen twenties. Since Mayfield School is built on what used to be farm land – Brown’s Farm – I have included it in the Mayfield Magazine so that the present generation can learn what Goodmayes was like not so long ago. Editor.

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Venusian Landscape by R. Moakes

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