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| Schools Site | Pupils |
| Infant School | Junior School |
This page has grown out of my efforts to remember events at my senior school [Bitterne Park] and finding a group photograph of my junior school class. I find that I can remember more faces in that photograph than in my senior one seven years later!
 © Southampton City Council |
The Schools are now [since 1978] on a new site. When I was there the school was in the heart of Bitterne. I must be getting old as I find it easier to find the roads on the 1871 OS map [Search for "Bitterne"] of the area than on the current map. However, on this map showing the current site of the school marked by the red ring, the old school was between the label ANGEL CR and the label for Bitterne at the original junction of Bitterne Road and Bursleden Road. I moved out of the area before the new by-pass was constructed.
In the photograph showing 'Bitterne Fork', the meeting of Bitterne Road and Bursleden Road, the school is to the right, part of the roof showing above Guster's Ironmongers shop [Guster's opened while I was at school, formerly it was Bitterne Motor Works]. The large tree above the school is actually in the corner of the churchyard. The building in the middle of the fork is the Red Lion public house. The photograph was taken from the corner of Pound Road and Bitterne Road, outside the Methodist Church. There was a path between the Junior School and the churchyard that gave access to the Bitterne Infants School but I think this gate was not supposed to be used by pupils. The main school entrance was at the bottom of Maytree Road, which ran from Bitterne Road, between the Ritz cinema and the Angel Inn.
My earliest memory of school is of the first day there, I must have started at Easter, 1953. I remember walking into the school gate and standing in a long line of mums, each with offspring attached, across the Junior School playground. The queue led to the dining hall where we were checked in. I don't remember any more of that day. In fact I remember very little of my time in the infants.
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The buildings consisted of a row of Nissen huts next to the churchyard. I remember being told we could not leave the classroom one day when in one of these because a burial was taking place close to the fence. Some unfortunate soul took it so literally that they wet themselves rather than ask to leave the room. The rest of the classrooms were in buildings made of concrete blocks. These were on the other side of the playground, Maytree Road side. I do not remember any other buildings except the dining hall which was shared with the Junior School. The only other event I remember was the visit by the School Doctor. A small area in one of the concrete block classrooms was screened off for us to each meet the Doc in turn. Mum of course had to be there too while we stripped off to be examined. As far as I am concerned all we did was read 'Janet and John' books and make Plasticene models - I remember nothing else. There was one significant event, about which I also remember only a very little, and that was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. On 28th May 1953 we all trooped to the front of the assembly in turn to receive a boxed tumbler to commemorate the event. These were provided by the Town Council. I presume that every school child in Southampton received one and I wonder how many of these still exist. Unfortunately I do not still have its box, which I seem to remember was basicly white with some pattern of red, blue and gold on the lid. However, here is the tumbler, front an back.
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Terry Moston - A Fellow Pupil Remembers The Infants' classrooms may have been Nissan huts but were really cosy; they had coke burning potbellied stoves at one end. At one end of the infants' playground stood a huge tree at the foot of which an extensive puddle would formed after the rain. I managed to fall into this and was kindly dried out in front of the coal fire in Mr Shapley's headmaster's study so that I could return more or less dry to the lessons. I remember a number of the teachers well. Miss Mist taught us our tables - we chanted them in musical unison in the sunlight streaming through the high Gothic windows - and how to write nicely and keep our fingernails clean. Mr Mew taught us the richness of English in the overspill hall by the bowling green behind the church and gave us our head and after an input of history facts and fantasy allowed us glorious freedom to write, write, write. And decorate everything with drawings if we felt so inclined. Mr Matthews with his icily pinched face failed to get me to love football. Mr Wetton with his ruddy complexion and daily dose of Virol before lessons taught us the rigours of English and prepared us for what was to come next. There were 53 pupils in our gigantic class with Mr Wetton. We all passed the 11-Plus exam; 52 of us went to grammar schools. One girl got a grammar place at a technical high school. Magnificent. |
 © Southampton City Council |
The buildings here were all the original 1878 buildings. Large solid, blackened yellow brick with tall windows. Inside the brick was painted and the wooden block floors covered with a dark varnish. The rooms were high with ceilings following the roof pitch. Several rooms were made by dividing one large one with wood and glass folding doors. Because the school was too small for the number of pupils we also used rooms in both the Congregationalist Chapel [corner of Bitterne Road and Chapel Road] and the Methodist Church [corner of Bitterne Road and Pound Street], both of which were on the other side of Bitterne Road. I believe some classes used the Drill Hall behind the Red Lion pub although my class never did. After assembly we would be marched across to whichever of these housed our current form room. The playground was all tarmac; there was no grassed area within the school grounds, but I can remember once being marched up to a recreation ground, now under a dual carriageway I believe, for a sports day. Along the Western edge of the playground, the opposite side to the church, there was a row of small trees growing on the banks of a small stream which was a delight for us pupils although out of bounds.You can see the first of the trees, mostly hawthorns, at the extreme right of the picture, the stream was piped under Bitterne Road. I have memories of charging about playing at being cowboys and of games of marbles and flicking cigarette cards in the playground.
So here is that photo that must have been taken about 1956:
click on picture to link to higher resolution [302K] image
Remembering faces is one thing - names are quite different but I will
have a go and add them as I remember. Please help if you can.
Where are you all? Who are you all??
| Class 1B, 1956 . . . . . . . .Numbers are from front row left [ie 3.4 is the fourth person from left in third row back] | ||
| Sturgess twins, John and Richard 1.2/3 | Steve Adams 4.6 | Tony Giles 1.5 |
| David 'Woolly' Bear 1.7 | Christine Morgan 1.8 | Peter Burr 4.4 |
| Mike Gilmour 4.8 | Richard Arnold 4.3 | Elizabeth Pearce 3.8 |
| Gavin Baldwin 4.5 | Neil Pickford 4.2 | Michael Wood 1.4 |
| Linda Lavender 3.1 | Pat Whittaker 3.2 | David Ingram 4.10 |
| Georgina Copeland 2.6 | Thanks to Michael Wood for adding some names I had forgotten | |
Please excuse [and tell me about] any mistakes or spelling errors.
I left the school when the new Thornhill Junior School opened as it's back gate was about two minutes walk from my home. I believe that was Easter 1957?
This website is a 'first pass' at collecting together some memories from my schooldays. If you feel that you have ANYTHING to contribute then please get in touch with me.
All errors constructed by Steve Adams. Last updated: 2 November, 2006
To Steve's other web pages