Christchurch Infants School in 1935.

The photo was taken by for the "Silver Jubilee Year of Their Majesties the King and Queen" 1910-1935.
Row 3 : 1 ? Jones , 2 Brian Harris , 3
Graham Harris, 4 "Daddy" Baldwin, 5 Bob White , 6 Miss Dunkley.
Row 2 : 1 ? Childs , 2 ? Hughes , 3 Joan
? Hughes , 4 June White , 5 Pat Powell , 6 Donald Laban , 7 ?
Row 1 : 1 ? , 2 Trevor Harris , 3 Mavis
Hughes , 4 Ursula Freeman, 5 Maurice Thomas , 6 Graham Powell , 7 ?
8 ? .
Maurice Thomas remembers the school as "A typical Victorian type
building adjoining the churchyard with outside "bucket" toilets.
The largest room housed top class juniors and had an open fire to the
rear
and a tortoise stove
at the front. You hoped to be seated within range of one or the other
in winter!. It was not unknown for mice to poke their heads from a gap
between floor and wall on the churchyard side. The playground was Forestry
land across the road.
Around this time the teachers were: Miss Dunkley, Lilian Adams (later
Jones), Betty Smith, Iris Hughes, Olive Gwilliam (the Head's wife), Nellie
Ebborn and Thomas Gwilliam (Head)."
Celebrated Forest author Dennis Potter
attended the same school in 1940. He described
it
as "one-storeyed,
ramshackle ..... .with windows too high for a child to look out ....
had a bucket
to catch
the
wet from
the rotting roof. And five more buckets at the bottom of the sloping
yard as toilets" (1)
Like Maurice, Dennis later attended Bells Grammar School, Coleford, in
fact Maurice and Dennis did have the odd pint together.
(1) Dennis Potter, The Authorized Biography, Humphrey Carter 1998, Faber
and Faber.
Derek Yemm of Ruardean, UK added (May 2006)
: " Miss Dunkley who later became Mrs George Jones lived
with us until her death in 1977 . Great aunt always reflected on those
days at Christchurch when
in the depths of winter she would
be on occasions reduced to walking to Christchurch from Ruardean
she also remembered teaching Dennis Potter".
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