Standon Farm School shooting

By 1926, Standon Farm became a voluntary home for teenage boys, and in 1938, it was certified as an intermediate approved school.

The boys sent to Standon were considered to be in the middle stream of what was called juvenile delinquents.

They were too young or unsuitable to be sent to a borstal.

During the big freeze of 1947, the school was effectively cut off from the surrounding towns and villages until Saturday, February 15th, when every police officer in the vicinity descended on Standon Farm.

The headmaster was led to the bathroom, where he found one of the teachers lying in a pool of his own blood.

21-year-old Peter Fieldhouse was bleeding from wounds to his abdomen and leg.

Before he lost consciousness, he was able to tell Thomas Dawson that he had been shot by one of the boys.

Dawson phoned the village policeman, PC James, and told him to come as fast as he could.