Sutton classmates reunite after Banstead woman's chance encounter

Carole Evans, of Banstead, noticed a posting earlier this year by old classmate June Brown, who now lives in Canada, while researching her local area on a Banstead History website.

The former Sutton West Secondary School for Girls students began talking via email, and soon Mrs Brown had decided to travel back to England this summer to meet her old friend in person.

But the pair decided to expand their reunion to all former members of the school, which operated as both state secondary and grammar before it became Sutton West adult education centre, and put out an appeal for former classmates in the Epsom Guardian.

This week 10 former classmates gathered at the Greyhound Hotel in Carshalton to swap notes on changing fortunes, careers, families and memories of lessons they shared.

Mrs Evans, who was at the school between 1959 and 1964, said: “We gelled instantly. We all recognised each other even though we’ve put on a few inches, it was uncanny.”

Mrs Evans, who went on to work for Australia New Zealand Bank as a typist and then for another building society in Epsom, has two married children and five grandchildren.

She said: “We reminisced about Nitty Nora, who used to check our heads for fleas, and the dentist whose mirror used to stink of disinfectant. There was also the RE teacher who used to spit when talking so you never sat in the front row. We chatted away for hours.”