If you have and are willing to provide news or photographs which would enhance this history page, please contact (Pelaram@aol.com) with your suggestions.

Mr. Ned Danby, of West Lane, wrote the "Hayling Islander" newspaper to say: "Originally, early in the 19th century, this school was organized by one of the London Borough Councils to cater for children suffering from tubercular type illnesses due to poor living conditions in the city areas.  The nurses and supervisors were to be seen walking with groups of children along the seafront to benefit from the curative effects of clean air and sunshine." Mrs. Gwen Best wrote the Hayling Islander from St Leonard's Rest Home on Hayling to tell her memories.  She said: "When I lived in Wales, I was in need of a job.  I found an advert in the paper "Nurses wanted", so I wrote to the matron and was accepted.  I left my family, all feeling very sad.  I'm going back seventy years  I was 19".  "It was then known as St Andrew's Home, later Suntrap School.  However, the war came and sadly Suntrap was taken over by the Royal Marines." Mrs. K Marshall (nee Crasweller) wrote the newspaper from her home in Elm Park Road in Havant to say that she knew the Suntrap School in the days when she worked for a fruit shop.  She wrote "We served the school with fruit, vegetables, etc and the bills and things were sent to Tottenham Education Service in London.  The children who could get out, spent a lot of hours on the common opposite." The Hayling Islander library reveals that the Suntrap building had stood vacant for a time and was badly damaged by fire in the 1990's, before being rebuilt in its present form.

A little of Suntrap's  History

In earlier days, some people have referred to the school as "St Andrew's Home" when it was a home for children who were in poor health.  So far no-one seems to have been able to tell us the date when it was built, although it is clear that later it became the Suntrap Residential School.  Anne Burgess (Hayling resident) refers to it as the Suntrap Open Air School.

The above article is the copyright of the Hayling Islander newspaper.  Any use of pictures or articles is forbidden without the consent of the newsgroup.  Many thanks to Pat Holt, Editor and to everyone for their contributions.

In 1994, the main house was badly damaged by fire and the roof destroyed as shown below.

Right:  By the summer of 1996, the restoration of the building was well under way.  The foundations of a modern block of flats, Roundhouse Court (as it's now known) can be seen taking shape in the foreground.  Roundhouse Court was built on the site of the old hexagonal building, the Roundhouse, which once stood in the grounds of Suntrap School.  The nearby Sunshine Avenue estate was built on another part of the school grounds.

Historical picture of St Andrew's Home, showing an even older view of the surrounding area.

Today ( 2001), the view has changed and the school has become Suntrap Gardens (shown below)  The complete school grounds have given way to new streets and residential housing.  The last remaining look of the old school, is the external shell of the main house for which we all remember as being the first view we witnessed upon arrival.

Suntrap Residential School

If you have and are willing to provide news or photographs which would enhance this history page, please contact (Pelaram@aol.com) with your suggestions.

Suntrap or should we say St Andrew's?