WICKFORD COUNTY JUNIOR SCHOOL
After a short 18 months spent living in Chelmsford, my family arrived back in Wickford, to the same bungalow in the same road, towards the end of July 1950. At that point I was packed off to Wickford County Junior School, where I met up with the friends I had made in the infants. My first teacher was Miss Brewster, who, it transpired, taught my Mum when she was a child!
In order to commemorate the Coronation of our Queen Elizabeth II, the school put on a pageant. All the costumes were made by the teachers, children and their parents. I remember rows and papier mache helmets and shields lined up in our classroom ready for our part in the Norman invasion. The Saxons were dressed in sacking – I was a proud Norman!
During my years at WCJS I was also part of the school choir and recorder group and Mr Cole, our Headmaster, put on Christmas and summer concerts. My Mum was warned by Mr Cole not to perm my hair before such an event!
We also did a Christmas play in which Jean Dell and I were both chosen to dance. We were both members of the Mala School of Dancing and Margaret Upton choreographed a very Eastern routine for us.
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Hi David
I remember your name. Wasn’t your dad the doctor in Wickford?
My name is Allen Kemp and I was in class 2A with Mr. Wright as form teacher. I went on to 4A with
Mr. Jolly as form teacher and whose daughter Penny Jolly was also in our class.
I got a few belts off a Mr Lamb but managed to emerge fairly unscathed.
Here are a few names I remember from our class: Mason, Bone, Robinson, Lemon, Blurton, Stribling, Clarkson, Hill, Dale, Panckhurst, Marcell, Dowling, Linda Benson, Joan Clarke. Other girls I remember were Janice Hazler and Hillary Sutton .
Thanks for posting this picture Sandy, I’m the boy on the far left, middle row. As for memories of the school, I remember Mr R E Cole as a nasty vicious unpleasant man who took great pleasure in beating me on a regular basis, along with Mr Hancock and Mr Londesborough (not sure about the spelling). Today they would probably be in prison! But that was then and times change.
Mr Cole was headmaster when I attended Wickford County Junior School in 1959. My first teacher was a Miss Honey. What memories this site is bringing back.
Have just shown the pictures on this page to my wife of fifty three years, who, as Barbara Clarkson, recalls Sandra, and thinks that she is some three years older than Sandra, and was about to go on her way to Brentwood County High School for Girls.
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