RootsChat.Com

I have been trying to trace inmates from Ashford Residential School for years and came across The Rootschat by accident.
I can't help the originator of this enquiry but can confirm that I was there, along with my younger brother from 47 to late 49
(5o in his case)
Yes it was situated at the bottom of Woodthorpe road on a bend. It was, as has been commented, very Dickensian (Victorian). In my day it was a school for children with problems, of all sorts, at home.
I remember a few names 'Quigley' who I had a fight with,
Cedric Budd and his brother. George Warner. About 6 of us won a scholarship and travelled to a Central School in Southfields (a journey of well over an hour in each direction but that's another story. We used to go to Saturday morning pictures in Staines. one or two of us would pay 6old pence to go in, then charge 3old pence as we held the fire exit open for the rest! We had two (typically ex Army types) in charge 'Wally' Hammond and a Mr Walton. Although the discipline was tough (I had to stand facing a wall with my arms stretched out for about two hours just for scrumping) I found them both to be decent men and fair.

Does anyone remember 'The Tunnel' ? well it was a ditch that ran under the railway we used it often as a short cut to go to Staines or to escape if confined to quarters.

I was eventually stretchered out via 'The infimary' with suspected scarlet fever, which, as it turned out was the more serious Rheumatic Fever?!

By the time I left hospital some 10 months later my Mother had found a nice Council house in Kent, so I never returned to Ashford.

I could write a book about experiences there (mostly good ones).