Coleridge County School, Cambridge

History of Coleridge School

1937 11 05
Coleridge Senior School in Radegund Road was opened by the Mayor. It was not yet completely equipped – only half the gymnasium fittings were fixed and although they had a dining hall and kitchen the cooking arrangements were not complete. But the halls were fitted with cinema projection rooms, there were showers for pupils, and rooms for teaching cookery, laundry, housewifery and woodwork. The spread of population to the outlying parts of Cambridge had made it possible to provide new schools with plenty of land for playing fields. 37 11 05a
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

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1940 08 09
More Farmers’ Boys. A party of 32 lads from the Central School Melbourne Place, Cambridge, arrived in the village (Melbourn) last Saturday, and on Monday commenced farm and orchard work where required. The lads are accompanied by the Headmaster, Mr. J. D. Livingstone, and take the place of the 30 lads from the Coleridge School, who returned home on Saturday after a fortnight’s work in the orchards. After a fortnight in the village, the Central lads will leave, and their place will be taken by another party. The boys sleep in the infants’ room of the Council School, and have their meals in the Church Room. # c.45.7 # c.36.5
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

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Joan Robertson attended Coleridge school in the early days of World War Two. In 2016 she related some memories of that time:

Pamela Knights shared in 2016 some vivid memories of Coleridge school, in particular the distance to the air raid shelters:

She met many evacuees at Coleridge and remembers how unhappy many of them were:

Because there were so many children, retired teachers were forced to come back to work. This was sometimes resented:

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1958 10 08
Coleridge Girls’ School celebrated its 21st anniversary; the girls were now much more lively, efficient and adaptable than those of 21 years ago headmistress Miss D.M. Howlett said. Then there had been no playing field and the school children had worn far too many clothes. Boredom was the main cause of juvenile crime so they had instituted leisure time work for the girls evacuated from Islington during the war years. The idea had been that children in modern schools were only intelligent enough to read picture books but in both academic and practical work Coleridge was achieving good results. 58 10 08a
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

1985 03 27
Back in the 1950s when Freddie Kingdon announced plans to take a party of Coleridge Boys to the Lake District on their first ever school trip, his colleagues thought he was mad. They stayed in wooden huts and took bales of straw with them in the bus to make pillows or straw mattresses to sleep on. Each day boys walked miles over the Fells, sometimes being left to find their way to destinations using their survival skills. “We were so well equipped that we could have spent the night out in the snow, and my biggest regret is that we never did”, he said. After his retirement in 1966 Mr Kingdon continued taking parties there for another five years. 85 03 27a
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.

1990 03 12
W.P. (Freddie) Kingdon, who was headmaster at Coleridge Boys School from 1947 to 1966 still attends school regularly – only now as a pupil at art classes. He joined as a teacher of PE in 1936 before becoming head in 1947. During the war he was put in charge of the ‘Ringleaders’ – the naughtiest boys. This was made easier as corporal punishment was still in use and he always allowed the boy to decide how many times they were caned. Later he organised courses for pupils who had to stay an extra year when leaving age was raised from 15 to 16 in 1966. He ran courses on drugs, drink and addiction and organised the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme – 90 03 12b
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Cherryhinton Road Area Scrapbook 1897–1990.