Hazelgrove JMI School

By Christine Martindale

Hazelgrove School opened in 1954 to serve the growing population of South Hatfield.  By 2004 with empty school places and the risk on numbers continuing to fall plans were proposed to merge the school with Five Oaks School in Travellers Lane.  The buildings of Five Oaks were remodelled and refurbished.  The new school was to  reopened in Sept 2004 and renamed de Havilland Primary School.

 

 

 

 

see also https://www.ourhatfield.org.uk/content/topics/schools_education/hatfield_schools_today/de_havilland_primary_school

This page was added on 08/12/2014.

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  • Anyone fancy meeting up for a reunion I went to Hazelgrove school when Mr Paige was headmaster

    By Kevin Richardson (13/01/2024)
  • I went to Hazel Grove school in the 1970s I knew Ian Cunningham Ian Turnball Andrew Mogerage I also remember the deputy head Mr Morgan and head master Mr lord also the music teacher Mrs walker. The teachers that I remember were Miss Putlie and Mrs Richie.

    By Kevin Richardson (08/01/2022)
  • I remember Brett Sheriff and Frances Manktelow she moved to Canada when she was 11 or 12, used to live in the Downs with her nan for a while. Was Mr Standard our headmaster?

    By Sue Harvey (Susan hollis then) (05/02/2021)
  • I was there from 1961 to 1968 was in HMS Pinafore the year I left, loved the school felt quite lost when I went to WGC Grammar which changed it’s name to Stanborough School.

    By Sue Harvey (Susan Hollis then) (18/01/2021)
  • I was a pupil at Hazelgrove from May 1956 until July 1962. In 1962, I sang the part of the Mayor in Mr Perry’s first production, which was a Cantata of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. The following year I was invited back to sing the part of Frederick in The Pirates of Penzance. During 1962-1963, a group of ex students used to meet in Mr Perry’s house (in Gorse Close) to rehearse together and we entered at least one music festival as a choir under the name of Music Makers. I still have the tie with our MM logo.

    By David Garn (19/10/2020)
  • Further to my last comment about Mr Perry, a bit of on-line research revealed the following:
    K.R.Perry – Date of birth 22 March 1938
    Date of death: December 1980 (but could be during the period Oct – Dec 1980)
    (General Register Office index : Vol.10, p.2304, District of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.)

    This would suggest that Mr Perry and his family had relocated from the Scilly Isles back to Suffolk before his death.

    By Steve Dumpleton (13/07/2020)
  • Replying to Anne Piggott-Brown’s (nee Bramwell) message dated 12/05/2019…

    Hello Anne,
    Yes I remember you from all those years ago!

    “I remember you in the Gilbert and Sullivan Productions Steven Dumpleton – didn’t you have a leading role?”
    Yes, I was the Major General in the Pirates of Penzance, and Ko-ko in the Mikado.

    “Mr Perry was marvellous, inspirational and charismatic. I was fortunate enough to have private piano lessons with him and was so sad when he left”.

    Ann you asked “I would very much like to contact Mr Perry. Does anyone know his whereabouts please? Can anyone remember his christian name(s) or Initials please?”

    Mr Perry’s forenames were Keith Roger, although he always preferred to be known as Roger. After he left Hazelgrove he went to teach in Moulton primary school near Newmarket in Suffolk. He and his second wife, Jenny, lived there for a few years before he went to be headteacher or deputy head (not sure which) at a village school in the Scilly Islands, (can’t remember which island, possibly St Martin’s?) in the 1970s, I think.

    Sadly, Mr Perry committed suicide sometime around the late 1970s or 1980s. I’m unsure of the year and sorry, I don’t know any more, other than I think Jenny and their children moved back to Suffolk sometime afterwards.

    By Steve Dumpleton (11/02/2020)
  • How inspiring to read everyone’s comments.
    I was there from 1958 – 1964. I remember you in the Gilbert and Sullivan Productions Steven Dumpleton – didn’t you have a leading role.

    Mr Perry was marvellous, inspirational and charismatic. I was fortunate enough to have
    private piano lessons with him and was so sad when he left.

    In later years I used often, to see Mr Morgan and Mr Anthony in The Baron of Beef pub in Welwyn.

    I knew at school why Mr Morgan ate a lot of polos. He used to go to the Hilltop at lunchtime. Mr Anthony subsequently moved into my road.
    He was a JP and nominated me to become one. I did not take up the offer.

    I remember Mr Stanford as being kindly. As a child I had a thought about the scary Mrs Stanford. I had never seen such a huge bosom, and while she was rushing around handing out
    dinners, I wondered why she didn’t balance
    another dinner on said bosom.

    I would very much like to contact Mr Perry.
    Does anyone know his whereabouts please? Can anyone remember his christian name(s) or
    Initials please?

    Anne (nee) Bramwell

    By Anne Piggott-Brown (12/05/2019)
  • I was at Hazelgrove from 1962 to 1968 and was extremely happy there. Now, in adulthood, I realise just HOW good a school it was at the time. I took my husband back to South Hatfield in 2017 to see the house I grew up in (in Willow Way and still there), the Lane I used to walk to school every day (still there), the bluebell wood on Hazelgrove that I adored (still there) and the school – which had been replaced by housing sadly. I stood and looked at where the school and its wonderful large playground and huge playing field had been and remembered so many good times.

    Mr Perry, remembered and mentioned by many past students, was dedicated, talented and inspirational for us all. We enjoyed singing “Over the Sea to Skye” in a School Choirs’ competition, playing home-made maracas and singing “Carry Me Ackee go a Linstead Market” to experience world Music, and performing a massive production (it seemed) of “HMS Pinafore” with brilliant scenery and inventive costumes. It’s only when you are older that you fully realise just how good Mr Perry was.

    Mr Morgan, the Maths teacher, ate a lot of polo mints and seemed to dole out a fair bit of corporal punishment mostly to the boys, with slipper and ruler, while Miss Ritchie, who taught us History, Geography and Needlework, was gentle and mild-mannered but very effective and encouraging. I can picture sitting cross-legged on the floor listening, enthralled, to BBC school radio broadcasts about Alexander the Great and Hannibal, and learning embroidery and making a treasured kapok-filled felt crocodile!

    I think I remember a Miss Broadbent and my mum, almost 92, reminded me this week of Mr Priestley too! Mr H G Stanford was a very good, fair and kind Headmaster.

    I remember reading tests and the 11 Plus preparation and exam but also, in my last year, all of us learning to speak French out in the sunshine with a delightful young lady teacher. Was that innovative for that time? I imagine so.

    Names fade sadly but I can remember a few of my class mates and a few others – nobody would forget Vanda Vincent! There was Robin Band, Brett Sherriff, Janice Brown, Frances Walker and Frances Manktelow, Paul Matson and Paula Garn, Laurence Boulter, Gaynor Richards and Eileen Warren.

    I remember the playtimes with Tag and Handstands and Cat’s Cradle, and Marbles and rougher Tag for the boys, a brilliant climbing frame, and grass banks to roll down! The compulsory daily third of a pint of free milk (in glass bottles then in waxed cartons I think) got a mixed reception with trading and tipping out into the flower beds going on but I now have good, strong bones as a result of that, all the exercise and no doubt lucky genes too.

    Aaah! Happy memories!

    By Sue Walker (Susan then) (04/03/2019)
  • I was there from 1970-1975 roughly. I remember Mr page taking over the school and transforming it into a wonderful place to be. He encouraged the very best from all pupils no matter what their background. Does anyone know if there is a Facebook or tribute page where people can share memories/photos etc?

    By Louise (01/07/2017)
  • I was at Hazelgrove from 1957 to 1963 and was very happy there throughout the infants and juniors. The teachers who stand out in my memories are Mr Morgan, Mr Anthony (both Welsh) and above all Mr Perry who was our class teacher in the top year Juniors. Mr Perry was young and hugely inspiring especially in music.

    Our entire class was a good choir which Mr Perry led and accompanied on the piano. We regularly entered local music festivals (and won prizes). He also masterminded and produced performances of ‘The Pied Piper’, ‘Pirates of Penzance’ and ‘The Mikado’ all of which involved much of the upper school classes. Goodness knows how we found time for academic work too, but we did, and mostly did well too.

    Mr Anthony must also be credited for persuading me to learn the recorder, which I came to love playing and still do, even though with Mr Perry’s enthusiasm backing me up I took up the clarinet too – both of these happy occurrences shaped my subsequent career which I still pursue to this day, now in my sixties!

    By Steve Dumpleton (01/07/2017)
  • I was one of the first pupils at Hazelgrove. We used to have to walk to what is now Hatfield University for our schooling, where the council rented a couple of classrooms, before our new school was built. I have very fond memories of my time at Hazelgrove, with Mr Morgan, Mr and Mrs Stanford, Miss Fawkley, Mr Humphreys. They were all strict but fair, lovely teachers, and I still remember them with great affection, after over 60 years.

    By Rita Philbey (05/06/2017)
  • I went to Hazelgrove from 1965-1971. Mr Stanford along with his wife was headmaster. I remember he was a heavy smoker and she was terrifying! Happy days as it was a great school and I made many friends there. Mrs Gilmour, Miss Bailey, Miss Ritchie, Mr Morgan, Miss Waters, Miss Collins. We did some great plays including “Oliver” over the years. I remember the playing fields were next to the abattoir! We were lucky to have the lovely Mr Page as headmaster start before the Stanfords left!

    By Liz Walters (28/12/2016)
  • I was at Hazelgrove from late 77/early 1978 to ?1981 under the Headship of Mr Page and only discovered recently when I took my husband on a tour of my old neighbourhood that the school had been demolished and built on – a bit of a shock.  I joined the infants in Miss Allcroft’s class – my memory of her is of bright red plastic earrings and beads and lipstick – and of her sending me to stand in the corner after stamping my feet to get rid of pins and needles in my feet.  Miss Putnam (?) really encouraged our reading and artwork, though I remember she did not take kindly to someone putting a drawing pin upended on her chair and kept us all in at playtime until someone confessed… Music features a lot in my memories and it was at Hazelgrove I learned to read music and play the recorder – something I have taken up again recently in my forties! Although we moved away from Hatfield when I was 8, I look back at my time at Hazelgrove with great fondness. 

    By Joanne Metcalf nee Read (15/05/2016)