Pupils from Hornsey County School, Mattison Road

Comment by StephenBln on April 19, 2009 at 8:23

I like this photo.
Any idea what the uniform of the two larger boys is? I don't think it is scouts -or is it? Presumably the young woman in white is a field worker and is that perhaps the land owner or the school teacher behind her? We'll probably never know.

Comment by Flower on September 11, 2009 at 12:41

Stephen .. I'm assured by an ex pupil of Hornsey County Grammar/ex resident of Beresford Road/ex Scout that the above uniform is definitely the Scouts. The lad with two white stripes on his left pocket is a Patrol Leader and the one who has only one is a 2ic.

Comment by Liz on September 11, 2009 at 13:40

Flower, thanks for that info. I'll add a link to this picture to this post about scouting/guiding in Harringay

Comment by Pennie Limming on April 30, 2020 at 16:40

Liz, Are you certain this is WW1? I only ask because I know that Hornsey County School was evacuated to Wisbech in 1939 and I am wondering if this was because of a previous link to the area?

Comment by Liz on April 30, 2020 at 18:37

I can’t recall what the source of this picture was now but looking at the outfits, I’d say so. Knowing me, the caption is also likely to be the same as where I sourced it from.

Comment by susan evans on June 29, 2020 at 0:08

My grandfather taught @ Hornsey County & yes the school was evacuated to Wisbech in 1940 according to my late mum, - my grandmother was a billeting officer - hope this is useful.

Comment by Liz on July 16, 2020 at 14:26

So I chased up the source for this picture kindly provided by curator Deborah Hedgecock at Bruce Castle Museum, and it's from the book Haringey At War by Deborah Hedgecock and Robert Waite - a collection of photos of Haringey during wartime from the collections of Bruce Castle Museum and Archive.

Deborah tells me that the time is indeed World War One and that the caption from it was a quote from a staff member at the school talking about the children's physical tiredness after the work. I'd imagine that that kind of work would have been quite taxing for city kids who may not have been getting the benefits of good food and exercise!

She was unable to tell me of any links with the area at this stage but is going to have a little dig around to see if there was a reason why kids from around here went to Cambridgeshire (could just be that is was easy to reach on the train).

Haringey At War - Tempus, 2004 available from all good local booksellers (and also the not so good Amazon)

Comment by susan evans on November 13, 2020 at 21:14

I've been listening to Dotun Adebayo on 5 Live & he went to Stationer's, as did my 70 year old partner. Alumnus Barry Took was evacuated to Wisbech, from which he ran away, so there does appear to be a  Liverpool Street connection? Thanks for the book - will source from a local seller!

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