This view of the Memorial Chapel, taken in the year it was
dedicated (see previous
page), was viewed from the grounds of Hodgsonites on
the opposite side of Charterhouse Road. Hodgsonites and Weekites,
the four storey building below the chapel with the distinctive
chimneys, were both boarding houses where the Charterhouse
School boy boarders lived during term-time. Lockites, another
school house, is visible through the trees on the right of
Weekites.
Weekites was named after the Church of England clergyman
and schoolmaster Charles Hampton Weekes who had been a vicar
in Lindfield[1] before
joining the staff of Charterhouse. He was at the school by
1878[2] and the 1881
census shows his boarding house as being on Sandy Lane[3].
It wasn't until the 1891 census that the Enumerator gave a slightly
fuller address; the house was then named "Rev. C. H. Weekes",
and the pupils living there would have been Weekites[4].
Weekes was one of the sons of Richard and Mary Weekes of Hurstpierpoint
in Sussex and was christened there on 25th January 1840. He
married has wife Laura (nee Smith) in the same church on 2nd
February 1864; she had also been christened at Hurst[5].
When they celebrated their diamond wedding in 1924 they received
a congratulatory message from the king. At the time of their
65th wedding anniversary in 1929 Charles Weekes was quoted
as saying that the recipe for their happy marriage had been
“put up with everything that comes along and look for the brighter
side of everything in life"[6].
Charles Weekes was clearly not without a sense of humour as
he recounted a tale of a visit to the Ascot races with Rev.
Gerald S. Davies when they were both masters at Charterhouse.
The girl collecting their tickets commented that
she didn't know they allowed parsons! Both Weekes and Davies
were strongly opposed to gambling and "had never had a
farthing on a horse" although apparently Rev. Davies had "a
wonderful way of spotting a winner"[6].
By 1911 Rev. Weekes, then 71, was no longer a schoolmaster
and he and his wife were living in the 21 roomed mansion called
Woodmancourt on Mark Way with several of their children[7].
Charles Weekes, still "of Woodmancourt", died on
14 April 1932, aged 92. His wife Laura continued to live at
the house until her death on 5 Jan 1936, aged 96. Woodmancourt
remained the home of the couple's son, Lawrence Car[e]y Hampton
Weekes, who died in September 1953, and his sister Edith H
Weekes. Miss Weekes passed away in 1964, but by then was living
on Priorsfield Road.[8] Their
family home was eventually demolished by Bovis Homes.
Six members of the Wekkes family are buried in the Nightingale
Cemetery on Deanery Road[9].
Charterhouse School sold Weekites
and Lockites to developers a few years later and both buildings
were demolished. Six masters' houses had already been sold
on Frith Hill. The flats of Chapelfields were built on the
land and another parcel of land known as The Orchard that was
between the two. The house names remain, but the boys are now
housed are now in more modern - if not as attractive - school
accommodation off Hurtmore Road.
Other Charterhouse "outhouses" built in the 19th
century
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