The School Houses
Malcolm Staight asked: Does anyone have any ideas about how the House names came about? I remember my dad telling me that he was a member of Wood House during his time at Mayfield. He started at the school when it first opened so the Houses; Brook, Field, Park and Wood, must have been in place from day one.
When I was at the girls school (1961/66) I remember we had four Houses. I think they were Park, Grove, Bridge and Hainault. I was in Hainault and we always did very well.
Pam Jones (nee Wilkinson)
I remember being in Bridge House (red). I was never very good at sport, except rounders where you didn’t have to do much. I was later diagnosed with Asthma. No wonder I couldn’t run. If anyone remembers me would love to hear from them. I really enjoy the website.
Brenda Cornhill (nee Allen)
In the corridor that wrapped around the library there were four framed charts. Each chart had a coloured house crest with a matrix of year by year sporting achievements for the four houses. The record revealed that my house, Brook, had never won the rugby tournament. This stuck in my mind and bothered me throughout my time at the school.
I started playing rugby for the school team in my second year. At that time the game was strongly supported throughout the school by the teachers. By the time I reached the fifth year little rugby was being played at the school. Some of the teachers had moved on, and those who were left were more interested in soccer. Howard Barnes, a former pupil, returned to the school to do some of his teacher training and tried to reverse this but it was only temporary. Those of us who were still keen to play rugby joined the youth centre team, which was largely composed of much older former Mayfield pupils. It had a typical rugby club social life and drinking culture, an added benefit that had not been available to the school team.
At the beginning of each year House Meetings were held to elect captains for each sport. At the beginning of the fifth year I duly attended the Brook House meeting. A close friend and member of Park House, Martin Mason, had little interest in sport and decided to tag along with me rather than attend his own house meeting. Now I’m not the captain type and have an aversion to volunteering for anything, so I was taken aback when he proposed me for rugby captain. The majority of Brook House members had no idea who I was but they voted me in.
1966 was a significant year in the sporting annals of Brook House. To the best of my memory the senior seven aside rugby team comprised, David Spillman, Mark Tate, Dave Sexton, Norman Brown, Eddie Gordon, Ian Mortimer and me. We lost our first match to Field House 9-3. There were 3 points for a try in those days and no conversions as the school playing field had no posts. The second match was against Park House, who quickly scored an easy try. I could see we had a problem in defence and dropped deeper to cover the weakness, trying to urge the team on as much as possible by example. We were level 3-3 at half time. During the second half Eddie Gordon was injured, but gallantly stayed on the field. We continued to press forward and eventually, in the closing moments of the game, Eddie received the ball. Despite being in a lot of pain he spotted a gap in Park’s defence and scored the winning try. The match was refereed by Glyn Summers who commented that it had been the best house match he had seen during his time at the school. Eddie was dispatched to Mr. Cutting who diagnosed a sprained wrist. Later in the day a broken wrist was confirmed. Eddie Gordon! Star or what?
The final match was against Wood House, which we won comfortably 12-0. However, this was not enough to secure the trophy as Field House senior team had won all their matches. Fortunately, the competition was decided by the aggregate performance of the senior and the junior teams. The Brook junior team, led by a natural rugby player called Russel, had won all their matches conclusively. This resulted in Brook winning the trophy on aggregate points difference, thanks to the prolific Russel. Star or what?
Message for John. Sorry to say I scored a couple of the tries for Field house in the 9-3 win. You have a great memory. We were blessed with a number of really good sportsmen in Field house which helped us in most of the sports to win the trophies, ie Football.
I remember in our 4th year, the Field House 4th and 5th year swimming relay team was so good that I couldn’t make the team despite being a member of Ilford Swimming Club and a member of the county junior water polo team. We had boys like George Baines who was an outstanding swimmer, football player and alround sportsman, Dave Thomas and a lad called Pitt whose first name I should remember but can’t.
For Brook House I well remember what a good rugby player Ian Mortimore was. Like John I remember the house charts and always remember that boxing appeared on the list of sports but seemed to have stopped in the late 1950s. The only time I can remember boxing being done at the school was to settle scores between lads who had problems with each other. I watched one of these rare boxing fights in the gym refereed by Mr. Frankland
I think one was Ian Mortimore’s older brothers and it was rather one sided. The other lad was not a very athletic person a he went right up in my estimation as I had always seen him as a bit of a swot and timid lad. For him to have been prepared to enter the ring knowing he was going to get hurt was a real eye opener. Shows you cant always judge a book by its cover. I would certainly have bottled it.
Malcolm Staight
Hello Everyone. Reading these posts have brought back so many great memories of great school days friends and all the sporting competitions we enjoyed back in those days. I remember especially playing the Rugby and Cricket for Brook house and the names you have listed bring back faces and memories of boyhood times. I do remember the odd boxing match in the Gym but more often or not the arguments were usually settled outside school over at Goodmayes park or other out of the way places. I have been living in Vancouver WA USA since 1976 and have just found Mayfield memories and really enjoy the postings. Hope you are all well and are enjoying life.
Norman Brown
Looking through the Mayfield Memories site, Ian Mortimer is a name I remember. It’s just great to bring back all these memories. I was in Park House at Girls school. I think I remember sitting in assembly and somehow being told what house we were going to be in. Not sure though. I don’t think Park House ever did well. I wasn’t at all sporty anyway.