St Aubyns Community Field
The Reverend Hooker first established a school in the Vicarage wich expanded to Field House on the High Street in the early 19th Century. St Aubyns School came into being in 1895 under the headship of C.E. F. Stanford. The school’s name may relate to the French saint regarded as the patron for protection from pirate attacks, as the village had previously endured pirate raids.
St Aubyns Preparatory School later gained a reputation as a key feeder school for some of the most famous public schools in England, including Charterhouse, Eton and Harrow. It’s alumni included the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, former MP Nicholas Soames and Sir William Shawcross, former Chair of the Charities Commission.
Many sports took place on the field over the years including football, rugby, cricket and hockey, as well as annual sports days. The school Football Alphabet composed circa 1900 included the lines:Sadly, the school lost 102 boys during the two World Wars and there is a memorial to them in the north-west corner of the field. The field has diminished in size over time. In 1979, scrubland at the southern end was sold to Brighton Corporation for £300.000 to form the Long Stay Car Park. Land adjacent to Marine Drive was sold in 1989 for a similar amount as part of a fundraising drive, resulting in the St Aubyns Mead development.
When the school finally closed in 2013, there was consternation in the village about what would happen to the site and, in particular, the playing field. After protracted negotiations, the site was eventually sold to Fairfax LLP. In the meantime, the Parish Council had worked with the City Council to put together a Planning Brief for the site, suggesting a mix of different sized units of accommodation and emphasising the need for the use of local materials such as flint and red paving to ensure the development was in keeping with its location adjacent to the Conservation Area. It also made the case for retaining some recreational space at the heart of the village, a cause taken up by local campaign group SAFE.
