I was born on September 13th 1933 so I went to school during the war and one of the things I can remember about it was Miss Base our head teacher at Browick School Wymondham who used to measure our feet, as if we had big enough ones we could get extra clothing coupons. One time because my feet were not quite long enough she got a ruler and pressed it down my leg and across the top of my foot with a sock on it to make sure my toe was over the line, as she said it would help us as my father was a pensioner. (We had to stand with our heels against the wall for this to be done).
I was one of the first ones to leave school at 15 and I can remember the first thing we had to make in sewing lessons at Wymondham Secondary Modern School was a dress to wear in the summer and the last thing was a tray cloth. I was also allowed to leave school at the end of the summer term as my father was a pensioner and my birthday was on the day they started back at school on September 13th.
While at Browick junior school I was talked into going to live with my sister Betty, who was married and lived at Wicklewood to stop her going to work in an ammunition factory, but I would only go to Wicklewood School for one day before I went back home.
On May 16th 1959 I got married and lived in Wicklewood with my husband Arthur, after 13 years I had a baby Diane. When she went to school on the first day I asked her how she got on she said “I’m not going there any more”, I said why and she said “they did not teach me to read and write”. Diane was the first one to read all the books in Miss Sherry’s class except one that they could not find. While Diane was at Wicklewood school she sat up the same corner in the same room nearly all the time she was there as she was first in Mrs Sherry’s class for 3 years (as they all did). Then the Headmaster Mr Hughes retired and Mr Thurburn took over as Headmaster and re-organized the way things were done. Then another head took over for a short time I forget his name, then Mr Wright until Diane left to go to Wymondham High. After Wymondham High she went to sixth form at Wymondham Collage then on to Edge Hill College Ormskirk, Lancashire, then into teaching for a living. I think she is the first person from an ordinary family to start at Wicklewood School and end up teaching. I was a laundry worker at the Friascroft Laundry in Wymondham and Arthur was at Gaymers cider factory most of his life.
Here is something that happened during the war on the Lizard Wymondham. My brother Tony age about 9 came running indoors shouting that the plane flying over had just dropped 4 big black birds out, my father knowing they were bombs quickly shut the door. These bombs dropped close to the railway that a train was travelling on and blocked the river, then missed the Lizard House and one landed on the side of the road and breaking the gas, electric and water pipes. We were told that as all 3 were broken the water stopped the gas and electric catching fire. The 4th bomb went into the garden of Nos 3 and 4 houses on the other side of the road, we lived in no 9. We had to have the fire brigade there pumping the river round by the road and through the bridge until a new bridge over the river was rebuilt. There were also 4 bombs dropped on Mr Fryers land near the common land of the Lizard that never did go off, they said at the time the bombs had gone down about 20 ft so would never go off. This land is part of where the new bypass was going but they put it over the Oxford land next to the Lizard land so they won’t go off with all the traffic. This is the school song at Wymondham secondary school when I was there and Miss Clarke was there as head teacher. I always thought it would have been better for people that had left school. It’s good to see the school we knew. The land of youth and dream, to meet again the rule we knew, before we took the stream, for working days and holidays, were great and melancholy days, they were great days and jolly days at the best school of all.
