‘Oh! What can sanctify the joys of home?’ – Lord Byron, 1814 While the concept of ‘home’ as a residence has been extant since the 13th century, the idea of home as a place of safety, joy, and affection with family first arose during late 18th and early 19th centuries. Home was becoming a special place. In the 17th century, home was a space of work. Working from home was normative, and it involved the entire family. Each family member contributed to family work, to the extent which they were able. The Industrial Revolution, conversely, introduced working away from home for the first time in a significant way. The home, therefore, became a separate space, often disconnected from work. Home became a symbolic emblem of safety and love. Within this new framework, home became a safe-haven from the chaotic world of work. Thus, from the 18th century, home was a space for the pleasures of family, unsullied by the world. The term ‘homesick’ first entered common parlance during the late 18th century. It was first deployed in 1748 within a religious hymnbook and denoted a spiritual feeling of ‘homesickness’. These ideas expanded beyond the spiritual realm, encompassing a growing sentimentalism for the family home as it changed from the locus of a family’s business & residence to something more. To be ‘homesick’ mourned more than the distance from the safe space of home, however. Its popularity in the 18th century came to represent not only a longing for the space of home, but also for its people. Froebel Demonstration School pupils – and their families – learned the difficulties of navigating these powerful feelings during the Second World War as they were separated from their childhood homes and families. When the Second World War erupted in 1939, myriads of school pupils were relocated. A report published in 1938 indicated that children might need to be evacuated from large cities, if the anticipated war in Europe inaugurated. This plan proceeded two days before Britain declared war on Germany (on 3 September 1939). On 1 September, Operation Pied Piper was initiated. This Operation oversaw the evacuation of 800,000 children from urban targets, including London. Pupils from Froebel Demonstration School were among these masses. In 1939 the Headmistress – Barbara Priestman – began house hunting for a temporary home, which was as close to London ‘as seem[ed] compatible with safety’. A house which would provide a safe haven for these children was prioritised. Priestman was delighted to locate one house in Hertfordshire which fulfilled these requirements. This so-called Dennison House ‘was entirely renovated by an American who understands the need for warmth and light.’ Within a few months of the new academic year, pupils from Froebel Demonstration School had moved to this Dennison House in Hertfordshire – their new home for the next few years. Such a move was an adjustment for these pupils and their families. Children and their families were suddenly separated. Their daily attendance at the ‘Froebel Day School’ was supplanted by residence at a temporary ‘Froebel Boarding School’. Parents and children were induced to exchange letters with one another. Whilst the distance was significant, these communications offered a temporary replacement for natural exchanges which might have occurred in the family home. Robbed of these opportunities by a gruesome war, pupils and their parents tried to remedy feelings of homesickness by sharing a glimpse of their quotidian lives. The School Archives include letters between parents and their son Michael (aged 6-10) whilst he resided at Dennison House. In October 1943 or 1944, Michael sent the following to his father, sharing his progress at school and eagerly anticipating ‘Parents’ Day’. The signature – replete with ‘x’s and ‘o’s demonstrates his strong feelings for his distant parent. ‘Dear Daddy, I can do my tie now. I have finished Book IV in Reading. Miss Duncan says I am getting on very well. We have made a village and I will show it to you on Parents’ Day with love from Michael. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooo’ Homesickness was not the sole remit of children at Little Gaddesden. Parents also expressed concern about the distance between themselves and their children owing to war-time evacuation. A letter written by Barbara Priestman to a parent illustrates this difficult transition. After speaking to the parent on the telephone, Priestman reassured the parent that her son was coping well, noted as a testament to his upbringing. Whilst the parents wished to imminently visit her son in person, Priestman advises her to wait a little bit longer. ‘Dear Mrs G, I felt I Was horribly unsatisfactory on the telephone, but if you could only see Anthony & the way he has settled in you would be proud of yourself as well as of him. I don’t wonder you miss him horribly. It says a tremendous lot for the way you have brought him up that he is able to be happy without you… If you can give him a fortnight to grow a few roots here before you come to see him I think he won’t feel so sad after your visit; but if you really do want to see him before that do come & risk the rest & I will try to arrange that the other children don’t know too much about it.’ This brand of ‘homesickness’ which was facilitated by distant family communications was a perennial issue in this episode of School history. Although teachers made every effort to perpetuate ‘normal life’ for their pupils at Dennison House, children – and their families – expressed relief when the war ended in 1945. In 1946, the ‘Froebel Boarding School’ inhabiting Dennison House relocated to Ibstock Place House, bringing pupils back home, in more ways than one.
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