"They will pass through stately gateways, cross a playground divided from the gorse-covered common by high railings, enter a porch carved with cherubs and having left their hats and coats in liberally be-pegged lobbies and washed their hands in well-fitted up lavatories, they will reach the magnificent central hall with its charming white and green decoration, flooded with light from scores of windows, and fitted at one end with a babies’ gallery, and at the other with a teacher’s platform.

"Then when they have sung their undenominational hymn, and received instruction in accordance with the Christian faith unadulterated by any sectarian dogma or doctrine, they will be dismissed to the classrooms on either side of the place of assembly, in which comfortable and well-lighted apartments, shut off from the hall by glass partitions, the three R’s and various other things ordained by the board of Education will be imparted to them.

"At playtime they will scamper over a beautifully asphalted yard, and if they are able to spare any time from their gambols, they will perhaps direct their eyes in admiration of the exterior walls, the red-tiled roof, and the splendid crown and crescent weather vane on the belfry.

"When they return to their studies, they will find the atmosphere pure and cool in the summer, and in the cold season they will have no excuse for bad writing on account of chilled hands, for the air will be warmed by the latest approved scientific system.

"In such a building, which is literally a children’s palace, the young generation of Bexhill should be happy as the day is long, and in such healthy and congenial conditions their school life should become so attractive that the post of school attendance officer should become a sinecure."

The new school, initially for girls and infants, was built to meet the pressing needs of the time. Next to the Town Hall, it was reckoned to be the most valuable piece of municipal property in the town.

The Observer noted: "Although the building by no means represents any extravagant notions, thoroughness and good work have been the guiding principles of the enterprise, the important and exacting nature of which has tested and proved the business capabilities of the Education Committee, the members of which are to be warmly congratulated on securing a building so worthy of its objects, and which can be pointed to as in all respects a model of what a school should be..."

There was, of course, a financial bottom-line for the ratepayers of what was then still a small - but fast-growing - town.

"It may be admitted that the provision of the first Council school in Bexhill has proved somewhat expensive.

"The site of one acre cost £1,000 (it was impossible to find any suitable ground for less), and the building has run up to £7,718.

"But it has to be remembered that schools are not built for a day…"

In fact, building costs had been held to within £20 of the contract sum by Messr. R. Cook and Sons of Crawley.

Burke-Downing had faced entries from a large number of the leading architects of the day to win the borough’s competition to design the first school in Bexhill built by the local authority, as opposed to the Church.

The architect was said to be an artist member of the Church Crafts’ League and an examiner in the history of architecture for the Royal Institute of Architects.

The first stage of the school was built to accommodate 200 girls and 200 infants. The design was described as "English traditional" in the spirit with 17^th and 18^th Century influences.

The carved cherubs were the work of "Mr. H.B. Hitch, a young sculptor who had some work exhibited in the Royal Academy last year."

Our thanks to John Dowling, Deputy Editor Bexhill Observer, for this article.