How pupils kept their cool

The reason for its disuse had been the difficulty of winding it and the need of some maintenance. These difficulties were overcome by some tender loving care administered by the same company that made the clock in 1861.

The installation of a modern electric winding motor and a device that corrected the clock daily in response to a radio signal from Frankfurt in Germany has ensured that it has since given excellent service to the school and the community.

Now the clock is to receive further attention, this time the refurbishment of its two faces by a company that is involved in a larger project renovating the roof of the school.

Many people will have noticed what look like grilles in the tower alongside the clock. These were part of a system designed to ventilate the building below.

In hot weather teachers would open classroom windows and then take the children out for a walk around the playground.

The ventilation fans would be switched on and, drawing air from outside, blow it down through ceiling vents in the main hall.

All classroom doors had grilles so the air would pass though them and out of the windows. By the time the children returned the air in the whole of the building, including their classrooms, would have been refreshed.

Whether the benefits of the system were as great as they were imagined in 1910 when the system was installed in the then new building is unclear, for the electric motors that drove the fans have long since been removed and the system made defunct.

Classroom doors have been replaced and there no longer appears to be a need for a change of air.

Were summers really that hot years ago? Perhaps current climate trends will make future staff and children wish the system still worked.

Article by Alan Moore, author of A History of Redhill Volumes 1 and 2. History website www.redhill-reigate-history.co.uk