Box Schools: After the War Various Contributors April 2018
Arthur Adams seen back row left. Can you help with additional names please? (Photo courtesy Eileen Bradbury)
After the death of HA Druett as Headmaster in 1944, it was urgent to fill the position in the middle of the Second World War when many potential candidates were serving in the forces. Box School wasn't a particularly prestigious position and it was advertised as Scale II of the Burnham grading scale at a salary of £478 per annum plus the School House for the headmaster for which there was a deduction for rent of £26 per annum. The number of children in the senior school had declined to 151 in 1945, 60 boys and 91 girls and there were shortages of staff.
Val Harris Wrote
The teachers I remember in 1944 included Miss Paine, who stuck sticky plaster over my lips as a punishment for talking too much, Miss Herd, Mrs Jones, Miss Jurowski, Mr Mortimer, Mr Dear and Bert Swan.
There were few teaching aids after the war and improvisation was needed in 1946: An existing cabinet gramophone has been converted into a radiogram and a series of wireless lessons introduced into the curriculum. As no facilities existed in Box School, senior children went to Hawthorn Centre for woodwork classes and for domestic science lessons. Eleven and twelve year-olds went to Corsham Council School and thirteen and fourteen year-olds to Corsham Regis. It wasn't until the baby boom had kicked in after 1951 that numbers increased to over 200 children.
Arthur Adams, Headmaster 1944 - 1966
Arthur Adams had previously worked at St Michael's Church of England School, Aldbourne, Marlborough. The school decided to adopt an aided status at the close of the war, meaning that the Parochial Church Council took responsibility for education there and this may not have suited Mr Adams' desire for the more professional control of the County Council.
The schoolchildren in the years immediately after the Second World War had been hardened by the horrors of the conflict and were treated in a more disciplined way by the staff. After the war, Wiltshire County Council used Kingsmoor House in the Ley as a Children's Home and assessment centre, which resulted in the increase of numbers on the infant roll, including many deprived children needing individual attention. In 1952 the School Managers wrote to the Director of Education complaining about overcrowding: 37 children in a room which can only hold 24 infants and Class IV with 49 children and an unusually high proportion of children requiring special attention.[1] These were difficult years with conflict in society between those wishing to preserve discipline and respect for authority, which had existed in wartime, and older children, seeking freedom and challenging the austerity of post-war Britain, who expressed themselves as Teddy Boys and Teddy Girls.
There were many changes evolving in the organisation of Box School. Plans to extend the premises by acquiring 2.8 acres to build more classrooms at the rear of the school had not progressed and in 1953 Bert Swan was teaching 21 pupils (17 boys and
4 girls) in the Methodist School. There were various building issues, including the inadequacy of the old electric lighting where some lights did not work at all and others were not sufficient to illuminate the whole room in 1955.
Another solution to the problems was to restrict the ages of children taught in Box. As early as June 1938 the Council had proposed to the Managers that Box Schools should transfer senior children aged over 11 years for education away from the village.[2] Plans were shelved during the Second World War and in September 1954 they were revived. With insufficient space in Corsham, the vicar Rev Lendon Bell saying that the Managers proposed to make public that Box children are to be excluded from the new Secondary Modern School and denied the opportunity of senior education.[3] In the event the problem was resolved when senior pupils were transferred to Melksham Shurnhold Secondary Modern School in 1954 and to the Corsham Secondary Modern School after it opened in 1955. Henceforth Box became a Primary School for children until they took the Eleven Plus exams and went either to the Grammar School in Chippenham or to a Secondary Modern School. The roll of children on Box's register reduced to 170 including juniors and infants. Such a low number threatened the viability of the school and brought obvious questions about staffing numbers.
Wiltshire Council were against the employment of husband and wife at the same school but, with the shortage of teachers that existed in the 1950s, they agreed to a temporary position for Mrs Adams. In 1958 Mr and Mrs Adams and their family relinquished their tenancy of the School House, which was put up for rent.
The teachers I remember in 1944 included Miss Paine, who stuck sticky plaster over my lips as a punishment for talking too much, Miss Herd, Mrs Jones, Miss Jurowski, Mr Mortimer, Mr Dear and Bert Swan.
There were few teaching aids after the war and improvisation was needed in 1946: An existing cabinet gramophone has been converted into a radiogram and a series of wireless lessons introduced into the curriculum. As no facilities existed in Box School, senior children went to Hawthorn Centre for woodwork classes and for domestic science lessons. Eleven and twelve year-olds went to Corsham Council School and thirteen and fourteen year-olds to Corsham Regis. It wasn't until the baby boom had kicked in after 1951 that numbers increased to over 200 children.
Arthur Adams, Headmaster 1944 - 1966
Arthur Adams had previously worked at St Michael's Church of England School, Aldbourne, Marlborough. The school decided to adopt an aided status at the close of the war, meaning that the Parochial Church Council took responsibility for education there and this may not have suited Mr Adams' desire for the more professional control of the County Council.
The schoolchildren in the years immediately after the Second World War had been hardened by the horrors of the conflict and were treated in a more disciplined way by the staff. After the war, Wiltshire County Council used Kingsmoor House in the Ley as a Children's Home and assessment centre, which resulted in the increase of numbers on the infant roll, including many deprived children needing individual attention. In 1952 the School Managers wrote to the Director of Education complaining about overcrowding: 37 children in a room which can only hold 24 infants and Class IV with 49 children and an unusually high proportion of children requiring special attention.[1] These were difficult years with conflict in society between those wishing to preserve discipline and respect for authority, which had existed in wartime, and older children, seeking freedom and challenging the austerity of post-war Britain, who expressed themselves as Teddy Boys and Teddy Girls.
There were many changes evolving in the organisation of Box School. Plans to extend the premises by acquiring 2.8 acres to build more classrooms at the rear of the school had not progressed and in 1953 Bert Swan was teaching 21 pupils (17 boys and
4 girls) in the Methodist School. There were various building issues, including the inadequacy of the old electric lighting where some lights did not work at all and others were not sufficient to illuminate the whole room in 1955.
Another solution to the problems was to restrict the ages of children taught in Box. As early as June 1938 the Council had proposed to the Managers that Box Schools should transfer senior children aged over 11 years for education away from the village.[2] Plans were shelved during the Second World War and in September 1954 they were revived. With insufficient space in Corsham, the vicar Rev Lendon Bell saying that the Managers proposed to make public that Box children are to be excluded from the new Secondary Modern School and denied the opportunity of senior education.[3] In the event the problem was resolved when senior pupils were transferred to Melksham Shurnhold Secondary Modern School in 1954 and to the Corsham Secondary Modern School after it opened in 1955. Henceforth Box became a Primary School for children until they took the Eleven Plus exams and went either to the Grammar School in Chippenham or to a Secondary Modern School. The roll of children on Box's register reduced to 170 including juniors and infants. Such a low number threatened the viability of the school and brought obvious questions about staffing numbers.
Wiltshire Council were against the employment of husband and wife at the same school but, with the shortage of teachers that existed in the 1950s, they agreed to a temporary position for Mrs Adams. In 1958 Mr and Mrs Adams and their family relinquished their tenancy of the School House, which was put up for rent.
Back row: ?, John Mortimer, Ingrid Bush, Andrew Hayter, ?, possibly Mrs Starosta, Peter Browning, Rosemary Mills, Hugh Sawyer, Jacqueline Hawthorne.
Middle row: Marion Thompson, Pat Kiff, ?, ?, Susan Carpenter, Christine Webber, Sally Crow, ?, ?, ?, Jacqueline Hazell, ?.
Front row: Richard Hyde, Marcus Adams, Nigel Greenman, Peter Baldwin, ?, Tony Gover, ?, ?, ?. (Courtesy Hugh Sawyer)
Middle row: Marion Thompson, Pat Kiff, ?, ?, Susan Carpenter, Christine Webber, Sally Crow, ?, ?, ?, Jacqueline Hazell, ?.
Front row: Richard Hyde, Marcus Adams, Nigel Greenman, Peter Baldwin, ?, Tony Gover, ?, ?, ?. (Courtesy Hugh Sawyer)
Mike Warren Wrote
In 1950 I went to Box Church of England School. In those days I lived at Box Highlands so the walk to school was down Quarry Hill. One of the teachers was Bert Swan, a lovely man, who spent most of his teaching career there. Mr Adams was the headteacher and his wife seemed to be second in command. In those days it was an all-age school and pupils stayed until they were fourteen years old, unless they passed the eleven-plus exam. Not many pupils did !
The toilets were outside, the water would freeze in the winter and the urinals were open to the elements. The rear playground was for older children and the front was where the younger ones played - now it's the car park. There had been three schools in the building at one time for boys, girls and an infant school, all with their own entrances. At the start of school and after playtimes we all had to line up in straight lines, waiting to go into class. If all was not perfectly right, you got whacked on the leg with a ruler. In those days all the boys wore short trousers until they were about fourteen.
Bert Swan (28 October 1908 - 1998)
Many current villagers have fond memories of Bert Swan. Bert Eric Swan was the son of a Castle Combe farmer and went to school there before attending Chippenham Technical School in 1920. In 1931 he moved to Box School and lived at The Ley, Box, in a property then called Sunny Cottage. He married Ellen D Preedy in 1933.
Bert worked at Box School for most of his working life until his retirement in the 1960s. An incident in 1935 illustrates how our attitude to treatment of pupils has altered over the years.[4] Bert was accused of assaulting an eleven year-old boy, who had been dismissed from a singing class for misbehaving. Bert said that the boy became impudent and he gave him a "a smack with no force behind it; it was really a cuff." The case was unanimously dismissed by the magistrates saying "The teacher certainly meant no harm."
Ever-reliable as Senior Assistant at the School, he was an immensely practical man, keen on gardening and an accomplished landscape illustrator.[5] In the austerity of 1934 he drew maps for the children illustrating the geography of the week's news and the political territorial situations in Europe.[6]
He was a stalwart of Box Rovers Football Club for many years, seen below on the right as Club Chairman when the team were champions of Wilts League Division II. He took over as temporary headmaster on the death of HA Druett and helped Arthur Adams to settle in following his appointment to the position.
Anna Grayson recalled Bert Swan
Bert was a small man; a teacher at Box School. He was very keen on teaching children gardening. His own garden was very well cultivated. He had a red-haired son, Terence, and his wife Ellen kept an immaculate house.
Play Times
We could go onto part of the Recreation Field behind the school, which had a couple of swings, a roundabout and a seesaw. We could only use the facilities on certain occasions but we did enjoy them before school started. We had a third of a pint of milk at playtime, the bottles coming in big crates. If there was a cold spell the cream used to freeze and rise about three-quarters of an inch with the metal-foil cap perched on top. The sparrows used to love pecking at the frozen cream. Also it was great fun for us to suck as if it was a lolly. At dinner time cooked meals were delivered from Chippenham in aluminium trays. We sat on long benches at fold-away tables and you had to sit with your back straight, otherwise it was the ruler again.
We played "British Bulldogs" (tag) in the playground and the girls often played Two balls (a chanting game). I enjoyed it as well, using the wall to throw two balls against the wall, one at a time, catching the first and throwing it again before the next. Sometimes I would let them bounce and try different variations. I am sure that it why I became good at catching with quick hand-eye coordination. Skipping was popular too and marbles. Sports day was held on the recreation field and it was about that time that the lower level was flattened and the hedge was taken away between the upper and lower areas. On occasion, from the school I saw men in white clothing playing a game of cricket, when you would not dare to go inside the white line of the boundary or go anywhere near the cricket square, a sacred area.
Teaching at the School
I remember some lessons where we listened to the wireless. One was a nature programme where there was a wallchart with a different picture for each week's episode. One was for music as well. The only items on the walls were world maps showing the empire. I remember photographs being taken of individuals inside the building and class photos taken with us on benches in the back playground behind the room used for Physical Education and dinners.
Above: School leavers in 1954 (courtesy Val Harris)
When I was in the top class we were all crammed into Mr Adam's room, which became the staff room when my mother taught at the school years later. We had wooden desks with metal frames. The seats and desk tops were hinged. They were so tightly packed together that there was no room between rows and we had to climb over each other to get out. The only art lesson I remember was when a new male teacher came. We covered a glass jar with papier mâché, then painted and varnished it, a real treat. Nevertheless I ended up as an art teacher.
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Below the rear playground there was an area of ground where we would go and garden in the summer. We would assemble at a shed in the playground, put on a pair of wooden clogs, pick up a spade or fork and go down to the plot to dig it. I never remember being supervised there and we nearly always ended up throwing clods of earth at each other, making a terrible mess and getting into trouble.
Each springtime Mr Adams would run a wild flower competition. The competition would last a couple of weeks and on Sundays mum and dad would take us to nearby fields and hedgerows to find a massive selection of plants that we could identify and take to school. I used to win year after year and the prize was always a pocket-sized Observer book, such as The Observer Book of British Birds. In 1953 we were all given a china cup with a transfer to commemorate Queen Elizabeth's Coronation. When we left school Rev Selwyn-Smith gave each of us a bible. Left: School Outing to Exmouth 1954 (courtesy Val Harris) |
Intractable Problem of the School Clock
In 1952 there were great changes at Box School when it was in the process of being taken over as a Voluntary Controlled School (controlled by the Local authority of the Council). The state therefore took over responsibility for the school buildings but this would not apply to the school Clock which had been erected by public subscription to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The School Managers had previously been responsible for maintaining the clock and some work had been done in 1936 but by 1952 it was in serious disrepair. The striking had ceased just before the Second World War and the clock itself stopped in 1951.
John Brooke, chairman of Box Parish Council, summed up this situation at an open public meeting in February 1952: He liked the clock (a handsome addition to the School) and was in favour of something being done but, as a School Manager, he entirely opposed any school money which was given for educational purposes being spent on it.[7] It was agreed that the clock must be restored even though the costs were estimated as £70. A sub-committee was formed to organise a house to house collection in 1952 and eventually £83.4s.11d was raised.
In 1952 there were great changes at Box School when it was in the process of being taken over as a Voluntary Controlled School (controlled by the Local authority of the Council). The state therefore took over responsibility for the school buildings but this would not apply to the school Clock which had been erected by public subscription to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The School Managers had previously been responsible for maintaining the clock and some work had been done in 1936 but by 1952 it was in serious disrepair. The striking had ceased just before the Second World War and the clock itself stopped in 1951.
John Brooke, chairman of Box Parish Council, summed up this situation at an open public meeting in February 1952: He liked the clock (a handsome addition to the School) and was in favour of something being done but, as a School Manager, he entirely opposed any school money which was given for educational purposes being spent on it.[7] It was agreed that the clock must be restored even though the costs were estimated as £70. A sub-committee was formed to organise a house to house collection in 1952 and eventually £83.4s.11d was raised.
Hugh Sawyer Wrote
I attended Box School from 1952 to 1958 and have many fond memories from a completely different era! I lived on Quarry Hill, and walked to school and back every day. The exciting part of the journey was going past the Price Factory, where reject tennis balls were thrown out of the window. They became very useful in the playground!
The teachers I remember most were Mr and Mrs Adams and Bert Swan. Times were different then, and you had to expect punishment for being naughty – which I was occasionally. I even had a blackboard rubber thrown at me once!
I made a lot of friends, and we all met up during the breaks, playing games such as conkers in the playground and swapping cigarette cards. One prominent memory was watching the solar eclipse. With an absence of sunglasses, we were taught in advance how to put soot from a burning candle onto a piece of glass so that you could peek through and watch the drama without being blinded! Not something that would be encouraged these days.
I passed my eleven-plus, so I must have been taught well! Then I headed off to the City of Bath Boys School, got my GCE O-levels (as they were called then), started work with the Admiralty and spent my whole working life in the Ministry of Defence. So I have Box School to thank for starting all of that!
In 1953. Back row: Douglas Plum, Susan Waite, Anthony Smith, Elizabeth Ford, Jeremy Wring, Christine Smith, unknown, Ann Ball, unknown, Diane Betteridge, Peter Browning. Middle row: Stuart Gould, Jane Smith, Susan Kiff, unknown, Joyce Clarke, unknown, Mrs Adams, Ingrid Bush, Marion Thompson, unknown, Jacqueline Hawthorne, Joyce Kay. Front row (seated): Barry Case, David Smith, Michael Warren, Hugh Sawyer, Paul Dancey, Marcus Adams, Davenport, unknown, Nigel Greenman, unknown, David Boulton, Pete Warren. (Courtesy Hugh Sawyer).
The events in this article are now over half a century old. Some of the children shown are no longer alive and we wish to remember them fondly with this article. We welcome all corrections to the names, some of which have been dragged out of the deep memory archives of contributors.
References
[1] Letter 30 September 1952
[2] Correspondence from Wilts County Council to CW Oatley, 22 June 1938
[3] Letter 24 April 1953
[4] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 17 August 1935
[5] The Wiltshire Times, 1 August 1935
[6] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 4 August 1934
[7] Minutes of Public Meeting 20 February 1952
[1] Letter 30 September 1952
[2] Correspondence from Wilts County Council to CW Oatley, 22 June 1938
[3] Letter 24 April 1953
[4] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 17 August 1935
[5] The Wiltshire Times, 1 August 1935
[6] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 4 August 1934
[7] Minutes of Public Meeting 20 February 1952