From nannies to flats on seafront

In 1876, aged only 26, she opened the Norland Place School for infants in Kensington at numbers 9 and 10 Norland Place in Kensington.

She helped teach children at the Notting Hill High School, more specifically the smaller children, and suggested to the headmistress that a better atmosphere could be created for children in a kindergarten.

She borrowed money from her grandmother and started Norland Place in 1876 with five pupils.

Over a period she began to question whether it was a satisfactory practise that a nursemaid was selected from the house servants, which was not uncommon in Victorian households.

By 1892, she opened her training school for children's nurses alongside her infant school.

This became known as the Norland Institute and was so successful she moved to larger premises twice over a short period of time.

In 1880, Emily came to Bognor to convalesce after an illness, and thus thought of Bognor when wanting to set up somewhere for children and their nannies to go to convalesce.

By the mid 1890s, her name began to appear on plans and paperwork as having bought property. First she acquired parts of the Strathmore Estate in the area of Gloucester Road, Campbell Road and the Esplanade.

In 1895, she built a house for her husband and herself '“ she had married Walter Ward in 1891. This was the Dutch House in Campbell Road which was demolished in 1988 to make way for a block of flats '“ Sovereign Court.

From then on, she acquired more houses in the area until in 1904 she acquired Field Row and in 1908 began building Field House.

Field House was built in stages over a number of years, the first stage in 1908 butted onto Belvoir House which had been built three years earlier for Mrs Lane on the corner of Gloucester Road and the Esplanade.

In 1911 an adjoining section was built facing the sea with a court yard in front.

Later she acquired Belvoir House and the final section was built in 1926 '“ a three-story block facing Gloucester Road, which is why it looked like a jumble of buildings.

Field Row had originally been purchased for children from the Norland Nurseries, but had been expanded to take other people who employed Norland nurses.

Field House was a block of flats with a resident housekeeper and cook in charge.

All the separate parts of Field House had access to a central kitchen.

Now she was able to accept elderly couples and semi invalids.

She offered many types of service as a 1911 advertisement displayed.

Seasonal rents for furnished or unfurnished flats, additional services of meals provided or an average amount of attendance.

The advertisement shows that some maintenance, washing of household linen, boot cleaning or a kitchen fire could be provided with coal fuel costing 9d per scuttle.

There were some famous people who stayed in Field House. These included Princess Marina, aged six and her two older sisters in 1910 for 16 weeks with their nanny Nurse Katie Fox.

The children of Emily Williams also stayed and in 1938 the two children of Herr Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador also stayed.

Mary died at Sudley Lodge (bought around 1920) of a stroke at the age of 79. A memorial service was held at St John's Church, London Road, on June 18 prior to a cremation at Woking.

There was already a stained glass memorial window in St John's to her husband Walter, and Emily's name was added to it. With the demolition of the church in 1972 there is no longer a lasting memorial to Emily Ward in Bognor Regis. Later it was learnt that the window was rededicated in the chapel of Norland College, near Hungerford.

Field House continued with the work of Emily Ward until 1939, when the fees were recorded as 3.15s per week. It was then sold by the directors, having been left in her will to the Norland Institute and Nurseries Ltd.

During the period from 1939 to recent years, the houses on the corner of Gloucester Road and the Esplanade have attracted various comments as the area seems to have fallen into disrepair. The buildings were commandeered by the RAF and when the Fleet Air Arm left after the war, it was sold for residential use. Many of the buildings have been purchased or rented out as flats to locals or staff from Butlin's over the years.

Finally, in October 1995, demolition took place and the mixture of buildings was removed from the corner.

It was not long before hoardings were placed around the site, and an artist's impression of the new buildings arrived, shown totally insitu, with the roads, traffic and adjoining buildings.

Work started and it soon became apparent that the building was not going to be to everyone's taste. Interestingly, in 1909, Emily Ward had to reassure Bognor residents that her flats were not for 'infectious children'. This seems to imply that her work courted some controversy.

In 1900, when Emily Ward was the owner of the Strathmore Park Estate, there was a report in a town council meeting where she wrote to object to the noise from the singers at the east end of the front, night after night, for three hours. I wonder what Emily Ward would have made of the noise created at the corner today, by the traffic, and the use by Butlin's of the site opposite Compass Point?

Now Compass Point is almost complete, some people have moved into this new construction on our seafront where there are "24 contemporary apartments overlooking the sea".

The advertising also boasts that each apartment will be able to enjoy the best of Bognor's sunshine.

Thus when the seafront office was opened recently to allow visitors to view plans of the apartments, I went along. I took the opportunity to look out from the glass tower on the corner. Yes, there is an excellent view from Butlin's to Selsey where you will be able to view everything and everyone.

Like so much of what is occurring in the town at the moment, we will be judged in the future when we look back at what has been constructed, or demolished, as we do today about the work that was carried out in the 1960s.

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