This little Victorian, Church of England-sponsored village school was known as Uphill Primary when l first walked through its gates nearly 70 years ago.
What memories were stirred walking past it yesterday – on a visit to my home town of Weston-super-Mare.
The building was designed to include a home for the headmistress – Miss Packer – at one end. Some of us children, l remember, spent time digging her garden. Little Joey Fullerton spiked his foot with a fork!
I didn’t bother anyone to go in. There was a field behind the school where we were taken on nature walks and – nearby – the village hall we went to daily for lunch and also lessons in country dancing – via the radio service for children. Didn’t l once play a wizard in a school play performed in that hall? I only had one line and was terrified l would forget it! Something like, ‘At last l have got you!’
I had helped carry crates of frozen mini milk bottles in to thaw alongside a coke stove, and remember sitting my ll plus exam in the main classroom. Victorian schools were designed with high windows so children would not be distracted by the view outside.
I could go on, but l won’t bore you. We – my sister and l – walked to and from school from our home a mile and a half away. I still remember the hailstones hurting on the backs of my short-trousered legs and getting drenched in a storm – and grazed knees when l finally got a bike!
Where have the years gone? Miss Packer, Mrs Bell, Mr Atkinson and Mr Mayo. I carry your memory with me.
How lovely; I remember my first school with great affection too – St Luke’s, at Odd Down (now St Philip’s). I also remember those 1/3rd of a pint milk bottles – as you say, often frozen solid in winter and warm in summer. They were still handing them out when I left secondary school in 1970! Happy days.
I too was a pupil at Uphill Primary School from 1951-52 and well remember Miss Packer and her high desk she stood behind.
I remember her putting the radio on to hear that King George VI had died. Happy memories. (Mary Capp)
My village school had a huge fireplace. Headmistress Miss Wright took 3 years at the same time as there were only 2 classrooms. She would lean on the fireguard, chainsmokng while she did it. Maybe geography, reading and percussion ! One thing we dreaded on a freezing winter’s day would be being ordered to go out to the log store to get more wood for the fire. Yes and those little bottles of full cream milk would birst their tops in the frost. Miss Wright’s harriden sister (we called her Miss Wrong) would stand over you until you had downed every ice cold drop. I used to feel sick for the next 30 minutes.