The original St Joseph's Church was built circa 1860-61 and the school was at the foot of the hilly part of Chapel Road.

The church was small, barely visible behind trees. The school was probably just one room. Note the original reading arch on the left in the picture above.

When rebuilt around 1897 the site changed dramatically. St Joseph's Church and Presbytery, shown below in the 1970s, faced on to the High Street and the infant school moved further up the hill.

Classrooms were in a building with stone steps up to the front door, and in later years there was a pine clad hut across the yard that was also a classroom.

Two metal dustbins stood by the steps and children used to heat Plasticine on the lids on warm days to soften it up.

School uniform was navy blue with a red blouse for the girls and a white shirt with a red tie for the boys.

The very young infants' classrooms were on the ground floor, those for older infants were on the first floor. There were probably about four classes in total.

A teacher remembered by pupils in the 1960s was Sister Bernadette, tall and thin, with little black rimmed glasses.

All the buildings have been demolished and the site is now occupied by Bridge Gate House.

The church seen in the background of both pictures is the congregational church, itself now the site of flats.

l Article by Alan Moore, author of A History of Redhill volumes 1 and 2