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I attach my memories of Tunstall School.  I have written this as a word document, which means that technically!! you can adjust, amend, delete etc. as you wish.  Please feel free to edit as appropriate.  I wish you every success in 'Sittingbourne Heritage'.  I am afraid that I cannot help you much as I now live in Essex and have no real contact with the town.  I lived in Sittingbourne until I left home in 1963, although I had friends and family there for many years afterwards. If you feel that there is anything I might be able to further contribute, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Yours,

Margaret Lock  

Borden Grammar - John Butler

1942 - 1956 - Bob Eaton

Tunstall pre-war - Hugh Farrington

Tunstall in wartime - Richard Kite

I have just read with great interest ‘Childhood in Tunstall’.  I too, went to Tunstall School, and I was amazed by the similarity of this account with my own memories – mainly because I attended from 1949 – 1955.  Very little seemed to have changed!  The system of schooling was the same, with two classes – infants and juniors.  Miss Holness was still the headmistress and the infants’ teacher was Miss Ketley.  Nurse Holmes was still in residence, - not with Miss Holness, but with her mother and they shared the accommodation at the other side of the classrooms.  The toilets appear to be unchanged – I remember them freezing during the winter, making them unusable!  There was also a pump outside the back entrance to the classrooms, which also froze in winter.  The air raid shelter was still in existence, but used as a storeroom –I always found this a very scary, dark place.  The two playgrounds were used for infants and juniors, rather than boys and girls.  We still did gardening during the summer, and worked small plots in pairs and I, too, have memories of sitting sewing on the front lawn (boys and girls) during the summer term. 

I was part of ‘the Bulge’ and there were twelve of us in my age group – an unheard of number, making the school very full with 48 pupils in total.  We all took the dreaded 11+ and I went on to Sittingbourne Grammar School.  Others in my age group who failed the 11+  went to Westlands, which was the new secondary modern school at the time, although there were still some children who stayed at Tunstall until they were 14 and left full time education.

We all had a third of a pint of milk mid-morning.  This was delivered by the milkman early in the morning, so in winter it froze which meant that the silver top sat on an inch of frozen cream above the top of the bottle.  The bottles were all stood along the mantelpiece above the open fire so that the milk had thawed enough for us to drink with straws during the morning.

We also had hot school dinners.  These were cooked off the premises and arrived by van in large insulated tins.  We had our dinners in the Village Hall opposite, and had to help with the laying of the tables and the dismantling of the trestles and forms after dinner.

Every Wednesday morning during Lent we had to walk in pairs in a crocodile to the church for a short service.  Miss Holness would play the organ, and the rector at that time was Mr. Graham.  We had to sit in silence and woe betide us if we misbehaved!  Outside Lent, the rector came to the school once a week for Bible lessons.

The big innovation in our time was the start of schools broadcasts on the radio, and we were made to feel very privileged when we were supplied with a much coveted radio – my favourite programme was ‘How things began’ which was a weekly programme, as was ‘Singing together’

During my time, the big event was the Coronation.  We spent many hours learning the music to be played, the form of service, and what all the royal regalia represented.  We made papier-mache crowns, orbs and sceptres.  Following the Coronation we traced the Queen’s royal tours around the Commonwealth, making scrap books from news cuttings which resulted in us having a far better knowledge of world geography than many children of the same age today.

Every week we had to recite our tables – up to 12x12=144, 12 inches = 1ft.,16 ozs = 1lb. etc. etc.  There were also spellings to be learned and reading aloud, with corporal punishment on occasion – measures frowned on these days, but we could all read and write adequately when we left school and had a good grounding for further education.

We were all encouraged to buy National Savings stamps and these were bought on Monday mornings – 6d each when we paid our dinner money – 1s a week, I think.  When we had 30 stamps in our savings book, these were then exchanged for a National Savings certificate (15s - 75p) – and we thought we were millionaires!! 

Country dancing still featured and we had a ‘band’ – most of us playing school-made ‘recorders’ – hollow 1” diameter bamboo canes about 12” long with a cork fitted in one end to make a mouth piece and holes drilled down the front.  In retrospect the sound must have been excruciating!

In summer time we went once a week to ‘the Field’ for games.  This was situated opposite the Coffin Pond and here we played cricket.  Unfortunately, we shared the field with a very frisky cow, which took exception to having a cricket ball hit in its direction!  It was not unknown for it to chase us to the corners of the field – avoiding the cowpats if possible - and I still have a fear of cows!

These were happy days for all of us despite, or perhaps because of, the discipline and the strict routines.

Volunteers

We are always looking for volunteers to act as guides and to help out in the museum when it is open. Any members willing to help for a couple of hours should contact the secretary, Peter Morgan.