Enid Blyton’s time at The Quay.

Enid Blyton was brought up attending Elm Road Baptist Church, Beckenham, Kent where she was baptised, in 1910, at the age of 13.

After finishing school in 1915 as head girl, she moved out of the family home to live with her friend Mary Attenborough, before going to stay with George and Emily Hunt, who lived in part of Seckford Hall near Woodbridge in Suffolk with their daughters Marjory and Ida. She was waiting to take up a place at the Guildhall School of Music. Seckford Hall, with its allegedly haunted room and secret passageway provided inspiration for her later writing.

George and Emily Hunt had become members of Quay Congregational Church on 27 April 1886. Blyton was taken to church by the Hunts and assisted Ida, who was a teacher at Ipswich High School, with her Sunday School class at The Quay. Ida was impressed with the way the class responded to her and suggested that she train as a teacher. It seems that Enid took this advice and changed direction, enrolling in a National Froebel Union teacher training course at the Ipswich High School in September 1916.

Finishing her course in December 1918 she moved to Bickley, Kent. She began writing in 1920.