RIOR TO the opening of the School, Mr Bradshaw had decided
that his pupils would wear plain light grey flannel jackets and
trousers with a distinctive coloured flannel cap with a badge.
This was the traditional school uniform of the day -- relatively
cheap and easily obtained anywhere.
When the School opened in September 1930, most of the older boys were from Uckfield Grammar School which had recently been closed. Several others came from schools in Eastbourne and Brighton. Some of these boys, with parents of slender means, continued to wear their old school uniforms but new boys were expected to conform to the new dress code. An examination of the June 1931 School Photo shows a preponderence of light grey flannel. The ties seem to be quite a mixture -- which is surprising -- they would have been easy to standardise.
Luckily, Peter Walder, who was at School from 1932 to 1936, kept his old school cap as a souvenir and he has lent it to us for examination.
The cap, seen to the right, was quartered in oxford blue and navy blue, with a navy blue peak and lined in black cotton with a white name tag. There is no makers name. The badge, seen left, is a small enamelled and gilded brass badge from Fattorini Ltd of Regent Street, Birmingham. The badge shows Lewes castle and six Sussex martlets in gilt on a deep blue enamelled ground. These badges must have been made to order for the School.
An examination of School photos of the thirties shows a mix of outfits. Presumably Mr Bradshaw had to accommodate to the reality of the Depression years; that many of the boys came from poorer families who were unable to afford the full rig-out. In that period there were many fee-paying establishments, both preparatory schools, private grammar schools and minor public schools, to cater for the better off, where dress codes were rigorously enforced. One can imagine the mixed feeling that NRB must have had when he watched his boys streaming out of the gates at the end of school. They must have looked a motley crew compared with those from, say, the private "Lewes Grammar School". One presumes that he was wise enough to know that quality was not to be judged by external appearances.
On the 1937 School Photo photo quite a large number of pupils are wearing dark single breasted blazers with tapes on the edges, a large embroidered badge and brass buttons. They look quite dashing. Presumably this was the new school uniform to replace the dowdy grey flannel outfit.
Gerry Sutton (36-41) comments:-
"I read the latest update and would like to clarify a
few things regarding school colours. The colours were Oxford and
Cambridge blues, reflecting the universities from which most of
the masters graduated. Oxford predominated because that is where
the head went The caps adopted in 1937 were Oxford blue with
Cambridge blue rings. The blazers were Oxford blue with Cambridge
blue trim, The ties (I still have mine) were Oxford blue with
Cambridge blue diagonal stripes. Similarly the rugger shirts were
alternating dark and light blue stripes. Prefects wore a
different cap [and blazer] - all Cambridge Blue.
There was also an old boys' blazer, a startling affair of
alternating vertical stripes of Oxford and Cambridge blues and
gold. Goodness knows where you would wear it - tennis and cricket
perhaps - but not many old boys bought them and I suppose they
were dropped during the war.
Gerry".
The blazers of 1944, being of "utility" quality due to the war, were not so fetching as those of the pre-war period, having been shorn of the fancy ribbon edging. This ribbon was never reintroduced - perhaps it was seen as an unnecessary expense and a little too gaudy and ostentatious for the sombre post-war period.
Peter Morgan has sent us his blazer badge from the 1963-69 period. Note that the name is still "Lewes County School". Presumably it was thought to be not worth the effort to add the word Grammar which appeared in the name around 1950. Perhaps there was not enough space. Peter thinks there were two qualities of badge; the original Horne Bros. badge and a cheaper copy. He is not sure which this one is but believes that the two badges differ in the castle crenelation.
Peter says :
"Cheaper jackets were of course sold by the outfitters in Friars
Walk in Lewes -- the one with the "horsey" displays in the
window. I was always alarmed by the way the proprietor referred
to boys' short trousers as knickers. The jackets from this shop
seemed to wear very quickly at the elbow and in the end my
parents had to journey into Brighton to get the more expensive
version at Hornes."
Chris
Lonsbrough has now found his old blazer badge from the same
period. He says :
"My Badge is slightly different to that illustrated [Peter
Morgan's], the crenellations and the windows of the castle differ
and the castle is larger within the frame of the Badge. The
background also seems to be a darker (almost Navy) blue. These
differences may just be due to variations between separate
production runs on the embroidery machine, however as it is noted
that there were possibly two versions of the badge I do wonder
whether mine is of the other version. I believe, from distant
memory, that mine is the version from 'Daltons' in Friars Walk in
Lewes. I understand that this shop finally closed only recently !
"
These two badges are certainly different and so, being contemporary, presumably they are from different suppliers. Slight variations in the colours may be due to different scanning and processing of the images for the website.
The design of the
school cap when the new blazer was introduced was probably the
cap with light blue bands on a navy background with a small woven
badge. This was the style of cap worn by your webmaster in 1944.
This later
design of cap was still in use in 1958, by which time caps were
about to go completely out of fashion, together with the short-back-and-sides hair-style. Caps had been
worn with some reluctance by older boys for many years and it was
only the insistence of Mr Bradshaw that kept the cap. In many
cases they were worn only when turning into the School gate just
in case "Plonk" was looking out of his study window! I suspect
that when he retired the wearing of the cap disappeared without
any regrets. No self-respecting teenager in the sixties would
have been seen dead wearing such a thing! Surely?
But Simon Pettitt writes :-
" I was at Lewes from 1961 until 1968. Although we were exempt
from wearing caps in the sixth form they were then worn right up
to the fifth form - long hair and all. I lived in Seaford and the
wearing of caps was carefully controlled by the prefects. The
interesting thing was that the fashion for wearing them changed
as you went up the school. In the first year you would wear it
full on but as you went up the school it travelled further and
further to the back of the head. How we managed to keep them on
in the fifth year I have no idea ! "
" I said long hair and all -- but that was carefully
controlled by the then head, Mr Fanner. He would constantly
remind me to get my hair cut -- I quite often had the longest in
the school. My retort was always that I was growing it for the
school play -- I always had to take a trip to the barbers soon
after the last night ! My parts in the school play were always
chosen so that I might grow my hair long. In the last play I was
in, 'Tiger at the Gates', I played an old man so I had to grey my
hair with starch or some such thing - very effective until Chris
Beal had to hit me around the face - sending clouds of dust into
the air ! "
Peter Morgan (see above) adds
"On the subject of caps, I remember giving a ritual disposal to
mine on the last day on which it had to be worn (I think the 5th
year still). On my way home it was folded up on itself
crecent-shape and spun out of the upstairs window of a number 16
bus heading towards Golden Cross (change there for a 92 to
Hailsham) to a watery grave in the River Ouse as the bus went
over the hump back bridge in Cliffe High Street."
Bill Day (1950-55) has provided us with his
"sporting colours" badge for his performances in the school First
XI Cricket team of 1955. These were worn on the school blazer in
place of the standard school badge showing Lewes castle. These
"colours" badges were highly regarded and conferred a status
similar to that of prefect. It was quite common, especially in
rugby, that the two were seen together -- a colours badge on a
prefects light blue blazer.
As far as I can remember, colours were only awarded for rugby and cricket, they being the only team games played by the school against other schools. Too bad if you were a champion swimmer or athlete -- I don't recall colours being awarded for those.
As one can see, the badges were very colourful showing the original school intials LCS, and various other armorial devices including the words "Floreat Lewesia" on a banner and the Sussex martlets. No distinction was made between cricket and rugby.
Incidently, Bill Day and others have sent in a few Rugby Football Fixtures cards from the middle 50's, which I don't recollect.