The photo above is from 1933, supplied by teacher Miss MList, who taught at the school from 1933 until 1937. This is the top class,aged 8 to 14.The headteacher, Miss Bat up, is in the back row on the right. From the left in the back row is John Neale, then ?, then Peter spice and Geoffrey Fordham. Middle row:?, Betty Spice, ?, ?, Grace Mitchell, ?Mitchell, ?, ? Mitchell, and ?. Front row are: Raymond Mills, ?, ?, Peggy Dean,?, ?, Gerald Dean, and ?
It’s funny what different things I remember from my days at Tunstall School now thatI am writing this. The room the pupils moved into when they reached a certain age (possibly 10yrs old) was in the front of the building. At each end of the room there was an open fire with a guard in front. In the winter we would huddle round these to keep warm. On one wall at the side there was a glass-fronted cupboard which housed a collection of books for us to read. Either side of the fire place atone end were more Cupboards,one contained various writing books, paper, blotting paper etc, materials for sewing. I am not sure what was in the ones on the other side of the fireplace, possibly text books, but I know that the bottom one was filled with a selection of things which we could use on a Friday afternoon in what we called our optional lesson. One thing I particularly remember is something like binoculars, whereby at one end postcards were slotted, then you held the other end to your eyes and looked through. The pictures were enlarged and it felt as though you were actually in them.
As I said before, I am just writing things down as I remember them. It is difficult for me to recall what we actually did for art. I do know that I wished we still had those lovely boxes of paints we used then. Just a small range of colours, probably the primary ones, but the colours were so pure and sharp,used straight from the box with little or no water. The colours went on with no paper showing through. My main recollection is of making designs using cardboard milk tops which were round and had a push out piece in the middle for putting a straw through to drink the milk. Sometimes we would cut them in halves or quarters for different designs.
Another memory is of bottling fruit which us older girls, helped by Mss Holness, did over in the Village Hall where there was an oven in the kitchen. Children used to walk to school, which was quite safe then as very few people had cars. I can remember walking to school on cold frosty days, stopping at the pond opposite the cottages appropriately called ‘Pond Cottages’, standing on the edge of the water trying to break the ice which covered the pond. One day it was thinner than I thought and my feet went through it, fortunately the pond was only shallow at the edge.Further on we passed the Coffin Pond. This was half walled and (to us children), shaped like as coffin. I believe that to this day it is still know as the coffin pond. The walk to school took us through the churchyard. Just inside the gates there was a large tree with a divided trunk which had a little dip in the middle. My friend and I called this our secret fairy tree for leaving notes. I am note sure if we every did leave any.
Opposite the school, before the present houses were built, we older pupils had an allotment during the war years. During the winter months the school could be very cold and as I have described earlier, each room had an open fire. Because in those days most homes were poorly heated I don’t suppose we noticed the coldness as much as today's children would.