The Old Parish of Nonington

A lady who had sudden and alarming acts of faith 

or 

How to found a college with no money 

By the late 1920s St Alban’s Court was being rented out to Commander Arthur O’Brien and his wife  Marjorie. Carrying on the tradition of the Hammonds, the couple immediately took an active role in  local life, attending and hosting many events, and sitting on various committees, on Armistice Days  the Commander led the parade in the village to the war Memorial. The couple we noted for their  love of horses and riding, and for breeding German Shepherds and other dogs for which they won  lots of prizes at shows. Some of their dogs and horses were buried behind the house. Their country  idyll was rudely interrupted when, on 30 March 1933, Marjorie returned to the house to discover  jewellery worth about £500 had been stolen. A local newspaper report mentions that £1500 worth  of jewellery had also been stolen from Chilham Castle, so perhaps a specialist thief or gang was  operating in the area. By 15 February 1935 the O’Briens had left St Alban’s Court, and I assume St  Alban’s Court lay empty as Mrs Ina Hammond considered what to do next.  

Meanwhile as Linda showed last week, Gladys Wright appears to have become something of a  gymnastics and dance entrepreneur. In 1923 she had set up the English Scandinavian Summer  School of Physical Education, and held annual vacations at Milner Court, Sturry. In the late 1920s  Milner Court became part of the junior school of The King’s School Canterbury, but I assume the  School was happy to continue renting out its facilities during vacations. The tithe barn at the school  was converted into a modern gymnasium probably on Gladys’s initiative, but who funded this I  cannot tell. A newspaper report of the annual school in August 1934 stated that women of ten  nations took part in a display of gymnastics according to the Bjorksten method, this was followed by  folk dancing, some in national costume, and the event concluded with diving. The newspaper  reported that Gladys’s ethos was “It is not only a brain, not only a body we have to educate, but a  whole human being.” The public displays at these summer schools attracted large audiences, and  some were recorded on film. 

Now Gladys and Stina Kreuger decided to take their ideas to a wider audience. On 5 May 1934 The  Citizen newspaper reported that Gladys had sold every seat, nearly ten thousand, in the Royal Albert  Hall for a display of “recreational gymnastics”. This was during a sell-out tour that had taken in  Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham, Newcastle and Birmingham. Gladys and Stina had put together a team of 32 gymnasts composed of women students from Helsingfors, men from  Stockholm YMCA, and British gymnastic teachers. Gladys and Stina booked the venues, organized  travel and accommodation, and arranged the transport of 2 ½ tons of equipment, no mean feat. A Major General, who had been the senior British medical officer in WW1, spoke at one of their  displays he was clearly impressed by what he had seen. Privately he had been concerned at the poor  physical condition of British Army recruits he had seen during WW1, and thought something needed  to be done about it before another war came along. In 1934 Gladys also founded the English  Gymnastic Society to promote her ideas and to fundraise. At the time she was also probably working  as a lecturer at Chelsea College, located close to her rented accommodation in Gunter Street,  Chelsea. Gladys was running the tour and the annual schools presumably during her vacations, but  clearly preparing for these was a round the year occupation, all this while holding down a lecturing  post, no mean feat. Perhaps it was at this time that Gladys and Stina saw that they could make more  effective use of their time and effort if they had a permanent base for their gymnastics.

Gladys’s pioneering work did not go unnoticed, in 1935 she was awarded the Golden Cross of the  Order of the White Rose of Finland, by the president of the Republic of Finland in recognition of  public service to the cause of gymnastics and Anglo-Finnish relations. 

Meanwhile Ina Hammond had decided the time had come to sell the ancestral home and its large  estate, spelling the end of a 500 year association between the Hammonds and Nonington. In the 16  July 1937 edition of The Dover Express and East Kent News there appeared an advertisement for a  “BEAUTIFUL ELIZABETHAN STYLE RESIDENCE” which was “suitable for gentlemen’s occupation”.  Further advertisements followed including a larger one with photo in Country Life where the price  for St Alban’s Court was given as £8,000 to include 49 acres, a number of farms, cottages and a  further 1000 acres were also available to purchase. Glady and Stina would have been at the summer  school at Milner Court, Sturry when some of these advertisements were published, and it is perfectly  feasible that they took a ride out to Nonington to look at the house and perhaps meet with Ina  Hammond. By this time Gladys and the English Gymnastic Society had been fundraising since 1934  and had £300 in the bank. To establish a college at St Alban’s Court would require the £8,000 purchase price, plus £4,000 for a gymnasium, and further sums for the building conversion, beds,  bedding, office equipment, staff recruitment and salaries, gymnastics equipment, books, and  marketing, perhaps £20,000 in total. The English Gymnastic Society was £19,700 short of this target!  It must therefore have come as a surprise to those in the know when, on 19 November 1937, The  Dover Express and East Kent News reported “it has been possible with that sum in hand [£300], to  sign the contract to buy St Albans Court.” 

So far I have not identified where the remaining money came from, perhaps Gladys negotiated a  lease arrangement with Ina Hammond, or more probably there were wealthy backers in the  background. Of note is the fact that one of the College’s first teachers was Florence de Horne  Bevington a physiotherapist who had run her practice from a desirable address in London. Florence  was the daughter of a wealthy Lloyds underwriter who had died in 1929. Florence had inherited  £20,000 in Great Western Railway shares alone (value in 1930), and on her death in the 1970s had  considerable assets. I imagine that Florence and others were sufficiently impressed by Gladys and  her plans to want to invest in them.  

During the winter and spring of 1937-38 St Alban’s was rapidly converted from country pile to  college with lecture rooms, offices, accommodation, a dining hall, and gymnasium (now a listed  building). The gymnasium was designed by Miss Jocelyn F Adburgham L.R.I.B.A., A.M.T.P.I, and built  by G.H. Dene and Son of Deal in just two months. The gymnasium was designed to last 60 years, and  to be relatively maintenance free there being no painted surfaces to repaint, it was constructed out  of a range of timber including Swedish red pine, western red cedar, and Tasmanian oak. The Dover  Express and East Kent News reported that: 

“The most interesting feature of the college is the new gymnasium, built to the rear of the  house. Costing nearly £4000 to erect, it  is claimed to be the  largest all-timber building in  England, equalled in size only by the famous theatre at Oberammergau.” 

Versions of this short quote landed up in newspapers all over the UK including The Broughty Ferry  Guide & Carnoustie Gazette! In the house the National Association of Teachers of Physical Education  supported by the Hungarian government paid for a Hungarian room furnished in a peasant style.  While Swedish and Danish rooms were also promised. 

Finally on Saturday 23 July 1938 Nonington College of Physical Education was opened by the  Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang, who gave a rousing if not controversial speech, he  concluded with:  

“With very good heart and high hope, I declare St Alban’s Court open, and I invite the  guardian spirits of health  and joy and comradeship to enter and  progress it.” 

There followed a speech by the secretary to the Finnish Legation who highlighted the close links  between Gladys Wright and his country. Then Mr Barclay Baron (closely linked to the YMCA and Toc H) finished by highlighting the impressive work the team from Dene had done on the gymnasium,  and then finished with: 

“Miss Wright, the principal, was a lady who had sudden and alarming acts of faith. Taking St  Alban’s had been one  of these and it had been admirably justified. It was a great power  house from which would go out a band of people  whose powers would be exerted not only  on the muscles but on the  minds and spirits those whom they trained.” 

The ceremony concluded with girls from Brentwood County School giving a gymnastic display. The  local paper noted that the College could accommodate 60 students who would study for three-year  diploma courses, with the first term starting on 29 September 1938. While the summer schools  would also continue, with one already underway with 200 students taking a three-week course. 

The College had now officially open, though its first intake of full-time diploma students had yet to  arrive. By hook or by crook Gladys had achieved her aim of founding a centre for gymnastics.  

In the next installment I will look at the challenges the College faced in its early days, how its  students and staff fitted into local life, and then the turmoil of World War 2 which threatened to  spell the end of Nonington College itself. 

Stephen Burke 

January 2021

Bibliography:

For this installment I relied heavily on the British newspaper archive on the Find my Past website.
Gill Clarke and Ida M. Webb. Gladys Frances Miriam Wright. (Oxford, 2007) available here by
subscription https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/93577.

www.nonington.org.uk This is a tremendous resource for Nonington and the College.

www.ancestry.co.uk

www.findmypast.co.uk

Although the United Kingdom and France both declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, to begin with not a huge amount happened on the western front and the period was dubbed the Phoney War. Gladys and her students must have carried on as normal hopeful that the war would not touch them. To begin with not a lot did change, the Dover Express reported on 10 May that the annual prize-giving of the Nonington (Aylesham) Evening Institute had taken place and that 18 students from the College had passed the First Aid Certificate.  And on Whit Monday 13 May the College held an open day in aid of the District Nursing Association, with a demonstration of gymnastics and dancing, and “the opportunity of seeing the old-world mansion” and gardens, all for 1/-, a cup of tea was 1/- extra. However by this date the Phoney War had turned hot when on 10 May the Germans invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Then just two weeks later Kent went from sleepy backwater to frontline evacuation centre for the troops rescued from Dunkirk. Nonington College was now just 29 miles away from the enemy, albeit with a handy body of water in the way, but within reach of bombers, long range guns and later in the War V1 flying bombs.

There now follows a dark age in the history of the College. The booklet Nonington College 1938 – 1986 A Short History in Photographs devotes just one short paragraph to the College in wartime. Hopefully when the lockdown lifts and Kent Local History Archives become accessible again we will be able to discover more. In the meantime contemporary newspaper reports do provide some insight. What is clear is that Kent became a fortified county, the beaches were mined, pill-boxes built and crocodile teeth deployed, anti-glider obstacles erected, and tens of thousands of Royal Navy, Army and RAF personnel were stationed in the area. People were evacuated from the frontline coastal areas, and strict exclusion zones set up. It was illegal to be found within five miles of the coastline without a permit, as one hapless motorcyclist discovered to his cost when he was fined £1 for being caught in Wingham, this seems a bit mean as the village appears to be seven miles from the nearest sea. The armed forces and the civilian administrations could and did requisition whatever they wanted for the war effort and the College was no exception. On 5 July 1940 it was reported that “it has been found necessary to remove the offices of the council to St Alban’s Court.” The council being Eastry and District Rural District Council which had been based at new offices in Sandwich.  The Council was paying a “reduced rent of £400 a year” for St Alban’s Court, plus paying for the gardening staff. It was noted that the Council officers in St Alban’s were surrounded by portraits of the Hammond family, and some rather fine fixtures and furnishings. Some of the council members moved into the house with their families, and a small cinema was set up for the staff. In September 1940 the Council ordered 350 yards of anti-splinter netting at 9 ½ a yard (to protect against flying glass in the event of a bomb), had paid for new telephone lines to the house, and had purchased a new duplicator at £40.

Other buildings on the College site were also given over to the war effort. The stable block was used by the Army pay officer for the area, while Old St Alban’s Court was taken over by the local YMCA. The YMCA was delivering tea, refreshments and books to the troops based in Dover and other coastal areas throughout the War.  We learn a little more from the 17 Dec 1940 edition of the Mid-Sussex Times which reported that Mr HF Forwood, in charge of the YMCA work in Dover, was looking for a cook for him and Mr HC Freeland his helper to: “cook for we two, and it would be very simple cooking – plain, English home fare. The domestic quarters are not large, and they are extremely comfortable, and the house is set amidst some of the most beautiful scenery in the country”.

A salary was not mentioned. In the 1939 Register Mr Horace Forwood was listed as the local secretary of the YMCA and was running its Dover hostel assisted by Mr Horace Freeland, both were Air Raid Precaution (ARP) wardens.

What had become of Nonington College its students and staff? First an important achievement, on 19 September 1941 the Dover Express reported that the College had been granted official recognition by the University of London, and students would henceforth be trained for the diploma in Physical Education of the University. This was quite an accomplishment for Gladys, Stina and their staff given the College was only two years old. The Express further reported that the College had recently moved from Avoncroft to Grafton Manor, but would continue to use the Worcestershire Education Committee model gymnasia and school teaching practice in the area. Avoncroft College was founded by George Cadbury as an adult education centre for the benefit of agricultural workers. So far I have not found out why Nonington College moved into and then out of Avoncroft so quickly, perhaps it did not have suitable playing fields. Avoncroft became a training centre for Jewish refugees later in the War.

Having left Avoncroft Gladys and her college moved into Grafton Manor, an impressive looking house with an equally impressive history. Today it is a restaurant, hotel and wedding venue. In 1939 Grafton Manor was owned by Alfred Willis, a stockbroker, and his wife Grace Murray Willis. From various newspaper advertisements of the time the Willis family appear to have operated it as a sort of hotel cum upmarket boarding house. All this came to an end when Nonington College descended on them!  No rent is mentioned, so I have no idea what the arrangement was with the Willis family. We get some insights into College life at Grafton from the local newspapers. For example in October 1941 the “principal”, presumably Gladys, advertised her five-seater Morris-Cowley 6 1934 model 14/15 h.p. for sale, it had “small mileage”, and was in “good condition”. There was petrol rationing at this time, and it was probably proving impossible to run the car. In March 1943 the College was recruiting an Under-Matron “capable of supervising maids and daily women in the  household cleaning and able to undertake the nursing of minor ailments of the students” and two maids. Around the same time the College was looking for an experienced groundsman to look after a playing field for winter and summer games. And then in June 1944 an experienced cook was sought to start in September, the person had to be able to cater for 50. This last advertisement gives us some idea of the size of the College at the time, perhaps 30 students, 10 staff, and a further 10 domestic and grounds staff.

On the education front newspapers reported that in 1941 Miss Bennett of Nonington College joined the staff of Donington Grammar School as girls’ gym and games mistress. While in May 1942 Miss E Ewan, who had trained at Nonington, became the new gym instructress of North Shields Youth Centre taking over the girls’ and married women’s sections, she was going to teach country dancing, basketball, gym and summer sports. Miss Ewan had been come from a Social Service work post at Durham. In June 1944 a youth leaders’ course was organised by the County Youth Committee at Grafton Manor which was attended by 14 men and 20 women. The lecturers included Professor Moses Williams, Mr AJ Luss, Mr Bernard de Bunsen (who had a noted career in education both in the UK and abroad), Mr Duncan Jones of the Ministry of Information Films Department, and Mr Mackenzie of the Central Council of Recreative Physical Training. The course was designed to help those working as youth workers and included sessions in music, art drama, dance, crafts and physical training. This course reminds me a little of the summer schools Gladys and Stina had organised, and clearly they must have been involved, so it appears odd they did not get a mention.

By the early spring of 1945 the war in Europe was in its final phases, and it appears that Gladys and Stina decided to hold an event at Grafton Manor to celebrate. According to the 12 May edition of the Evesham Standard Grafton’s gardens would be open on 12 and 13 May, and there would be a demonstration of Greek and National Dancing by the students, all for an admission price of 1/-. How odd then that in the very same edition of the paper this appeared: “In error this garden was stated on hand bills advertising the opening of Worcestershire Gardens in aid of District Nursing as being owned by Nonington College of Physical Education. Mrs Murray Willis wishes it to be understood that she is the owner and that Nonington College are wartime tenants who had to evacuate from Kent”.

No mention of who had ordered the hand bills and made this mistake, did Gladys perhaps toy with the idea of buying the Manor? The Wikipedia entry for Grafton Manor has this to say for its use during World War II “The building was certainly used as a hotel during the war years”, Nonington College has been written out of its history.

With the War in Europe over on 18 May 1945 the Dover Express reported this from a meeting of Eastry Rural District Council: “Subject to the playing field being restored and the YMCA vacating the Lodge the directors of the College were happy to terminate the lease on 1 August 1945”.

The lease being the rental agreement between the Council and the directors of Nonington College. Clearly all was in order as on 6 July 1945 the Express ran an advertisement for an: “experienced gardener, with expert knowledge of playing field upkeep essential, modern house available if wife or daughter can undertake cooking or domestic work in College. Apply …to the Principal, Nonington College, at Grafton Manor

Just one day later Mrs Murray Willis put Grafton Manor up for sale.

After five years in the Midlands Nonington College was about to return to Kent, but things were no longer the same as we will see in the next instalment.