Cressie's School or "Lyndon Lodge School" - Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset
compiled by Chris Newman (contact: cje.newman@gmail.com)

Lyndon Lodge School, known as Cressie's, was founded and run by Miss Gladys A. Creswell. The school was housed in Lyndon Lodge, a converted dwelling house at the end of Allandale Road in Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, England. The school was located near the western end and on the northern side of Allandale Road, there being just one property between it and the sand-dunes forming the edge of the Bristol Channel (see map below).

At present I know nothing about its origins, but the school was active in the early 1950s and closed when Miss Creswell retired around 1960. I myself attended the school from mid-1951 (when aged 5) until April 1954 when I transferred to Hill Brow Boy's Preparatory School in the nearby village of Brent Knoll. It may have been that Cressies acted as a feeder-school for Hill Brow, since many of its male pupils went to Hill Brow (and many others to St Dunstan's which was even closer-by in Burnham).

The school offered three classes starting with a kindergarten under Miss Cresswell and Forms 1b and 1a for older children under the tutelage of a Miss Winifred (W.A.) Keirle. The school took in both boys and girls from local middle class families. It offered no boarding facilities.

Lyndon Lodge was (and remains) a two-story brick house, the upper floor of which formed Miss Cresswell's living quarters, with the entire lower floor used by the school. This consisted of two classrooms: Miss Creswell's junior class facing south towards the road, and Miss Keirle's senior class facing north. In addition, children ate lunch in a separate dining room on the northern side adjoining a small kitchen area.

Both Miss Creswell ("Cressie") and Miss Keirle were spinsters, Cressie being in late-middle-age in the 1950s and Miss Keirle a little younger. Cressie looked after the smaller children (ages around 4 to 5 years) while Miss Keirle taught the older ones aged 6 and 7. For a shy child, new to school regimen, Cressie’s class offered a comforting introduction to the ways of schooling. Miss Keirle on the other hand, could appear quite terrifying in her demands and strictness, however below the surface she was a kindly soul and she was an especially gifted teacher.

I attended the school with my sister (Daphne) who was two years senior to me. Some days we were driven to school by our mother or (more rarely) father, but most days we went by bus. During our time at Cressie's we lived at Churchland Farm in Bason Bridge, just over 5 miles from the school, and catching the bus meant a ¼ mile walk along the railway track to the Bason Bridge railway station and thence to the Bason Bridge garage (fuel station and repair shop) where a green Bristol Tramways No 160 double-decker would stop to pick us up. After a 15 or 20 minutes journey we would disembark at its terminus at the end of the Burnham Esplanade, from where we would have a further ¼ mile along the sand beach to the steps that led up to the end of Allandale Road.

Returning home after school - probably around 3:30 or 4:00pm (I don't recall having to walk along the beach in the dark on winter evenings) - we would walk back along the beach and wait for the bus, sometimes for 20 or even 30 minutes, allowing time to play in the sand. On one occasion when on my own (after my sister had left Cressie's) I played too long and missed the bus. Quite unperturbed, I put on my satchel and walked home, all the way through Highbridge and across the A38 trunk road before my mother drove up in a woirred state and drove me the last mile or so back home. I couldn't understand what she was worried about because I was quite content walking home. How times have changed!

There was an alternative bus service from the Esplanade bus terminal - the No. 201 bus which Miss Keirle caught back to her home in Puriton each afternoon. Like the 160, it went to Bridgwater and perhaps beyond, however the 201 took the more direct route along the A38 while the 160 took the B3141 through East Huntspill and Woolavington. Thus in the event that we missed the 160 service, we had the option of catching the 201 and getting off at Highbridge and walking the two miles home from there. I recall one frightening occasion when I took the 201 and found myself jammed in by standing passengers and unable to ring the bell for the bus to stop. Some kindly passenger must have seen my tears and stopped the bus for me, but how I got home after that, I don't recall.

During each morning break, pupils were allowed half and hour playtime. Most mornings this involved the short walk to the beach where we were allowed to play as we pleased – building sand castles or whatever. I don’t think the idea of going into the water ever crossed our minds. At any rate, I don’t recall any paranoia about it – though no doubt there were warnings about the dangers of quick-sands (an ever present danger on a beach with a very high tidal range). I recall lengthy walks along the beach which were more controlled and therefore much less fun, and suspect that these took place in the afternoons. How we avoided getting ourselves covered in mud, I don’t recall, but perhaps the beach was cleaner in those days than in later years.

Cressie's was a happy school that offered a very good grounding for children going on to "preparatory schools". I left in April 1954 to begin my own "preparatory school" educaton at Hill Brow School in the summer term of that year. A reunion event was held around 1960 to mark the retirement of Cressie and the closure of the school. A photo taken of that even appears below one copy showing with the names of those attending as recalled by my sister Daphne.