There are some days that stand out vividly and unforgettably in one's mind. One such was at the beginning of the summer holidays in July 1930. I was at Widbrook having just finished the summer term with the little Brunts. On July 25th mother and Eleanor came down in the car from Wimbledon arriving about 4-o’clock. After tea I went into Trowbridge with Eleanor to garage the car. On the way she told me that she and mother had been considering the possibility of our having a school! Quite frankly I was stunned. I realised that if that happened I was tied for the rest of my life. I was forty and although I had not then met anyone whom I had wanted to marry there was still a chance of my doing so but not with the dead weight of a school on my hands.

However, nothing more was said then. We went back to Widbrook and the next morning I fetched the car and drove Eleanor to Trowbridge to catch the 11 o'clock train to Chester where she was booked for a summer course in Craft. Mother and I stayed on over the week-end and on Monday morning we set out about 11.30 and drove through Frome, Shepton Mallett, Ilchester, llminster and Honiton to Ottery St Mary where we stayed for a week. On the way she told me of the discussions she and Eleanor had had about this new project. Winifred Indge who had been Eleanor's colleague on the staff at GGS, Thame and was now on a visit from Canada had been staying with them and thought it a good idea. I must say I was not very enthusiastic but I saw mother's point of view. She had been very lonely since the move to Hunter Road after father died. Owen was married and although Eleanor lived at home she was out every day visiting various schools as Art Mistress, and things had not been too easy. Moreover mother was not at all pleased at my present position as governess to Gwen's children which more often than not was mother’s help to Gwen rather than governess to the children. She thought it would be much more satisfactory for us to have our own school. The next thing to consider was where we should have it and while we were touring Devon and visiting various relatives in Newton Abbot and Exeter we wondered whether we should make a clean break from Surrey and come back to the home of the Joce family in Ashford which father's parents left when they were married in 1858 and went to London. However we felt we would be strangers in a strange land and it might be difficult to get ourselves accepted as one-time West Country.

We made the return journey through Taunton, Langport and Somerton so familiar to me now and stopped for the week-end in Castle Cary at the George Hotel, (where I became acquainted with Parson Woodford's Diary.) On the Saturday we went to Glastonbury and Wells. On Monday we picked up Eleanor at Westbury and returned home through Wincanton, Amesbury, Andover and Basingstoke, places which have become so familiar which were then little more than names. Having decided that there was no point in moving to Devonshire we now began to look nearer home. We decided against Wimbledon having lived there as children and moreover there were schools in plenty in the neighbourhood. We felt drawn to Surrey having explored the lanes and commons in my father's lifetime when we first had the car, and eventually, guided by the fact that our old friends the Snoads lately near neighbours of ours in Cottenham Park were now living in Bookham, we called at. house agents in Leatherhead. We were given names of several houses in that area which we visited and the on September 18th we were taken to see The Spinney in Great Bookham. After lunch with the Snoads we arranged to come again the next day. That evening we rang up Evelyn's cousin who was an architect living in Kent and asked him to come and survey the house which he did on the following Wednesday. On September 30th I went back to Widbrook for the beginning of the Autumn term. On October 6th mother wrote to say that The Spinney had been decided upon. Now that it has completely gone and a road with several houses has been built on the two acres of ground, there are only the photographs to show what an attractive place it was. The house and the two barns were built round three sides of a square. Originally they had all been cow houses belonging to Eastwick Manor but after Mr. Keswick's death (in 1912) the estate was cut up and sold. The house itself with lodge gates and drive and surrounding land was bought by Mr. Fussell who brought his Boys' Preparatory School, Southey Hall, up from Worthing. Bungalows, each with its surrounding garden were built with frontages facing on to the Lower Road from Eastwick Drive as far as the Church. Eastwick Drive, originally the lane with the farm gate across the top, led down to the farm buildings.