CLASS OF '52

This picture was taken at the Meeching Junior School ( the old Girls School ) in South Road. I will add 1952 class 2 which was taken on the same day in the same place !

Second row from the front. 2nd from the right is my mum (Carol Morris nee Waller). She claims she can name most of the class still, I'll post again when I have names!

This is actually from Meeching Infants (across School Lane from the Junior School). I am in the centre of the back row. The entrance was through the old air-raid shelter on School Lane and, as the tallest pupil at the time, a mark was made on the shelter wall where the tops of my up-stretched fingers reached. I can remember some names too.

Think your memory could be playing tricks Brian, as this picture was taken in the playground next to Dacre Road in the Junior School with the same slate board used for the next classes up in 1952 with the front row pupils sitting on the same mats ! Also I think you will find Class 1 was the first year in the Meeching Junior School. 

John - Editor

You had me going for a brief second, John, but my memory is fine! This pic was, I'm pretty sure, taken in the Summer Term 1952 which was my last term in the Infants' School. If you compare the building in this pic with the one in Meeching Infants c1950 you will see the walls, windows and drainpipes are all the same, also the teacher in the c1950 pic is Miss Tedham, long serving Infants' School teacher. I have no record of how the classes were numbered but can only assume they did not follow the expected pattern. My Junior School Reports, however, show the classes there included letters, hence I was in 1A and so on. The c1950 pic is either 1954 or 55 ~ I will have to check with my sisters as to which of them is in that pic. Other teachers I remember were Mrs Greenfield, Mrs? Dashenay, Miss Thompson (who later became Mrs Coleman) and Miss Bland.

Thank you for your comments Brian, you may well be right, looks like I need to go back to school !

John - Editor

Thanks John. One thing I did get wrong in my original comment was the name of the lane between the schools. It was, of course, South Lane, not School Lane. My memory is not perfect either! (Mind you, I can't help thinking there was a School Lane ~ was it the one between the Junior School and its playground in which the "panorama" pic was taken?)

Yes you may be right again Brian I think the little lane that lead up from Chapel Street was possibly called School Lane, with the low level flint wall running alongside of it. Thanks again for correcting my mistake.

John - Editor