Highclere When I Was Young!

I am the eldest son of the Mills family, we lived in the stable yard at the rear of Highclere Castle, at the age of 5 I went to Highclere primary school, a Miss Baker was the Head, assisted by the Misses Eva and Cissie Thirkell. The school is now a private house, has been for some years, it was situated just below the lodge gates of the Carnarvon estate. Was a long walk from the Castle to School, I remember the winter of 1947 a lake called Red Pools froze solid, great fun on that! and the free milk froze, had to be thawed by the classroom stove!. Later joined the Choir at St Michaels and all Angels church, just below the school, Rev Wormald in charge then, on one occasion for some reason I was the only choirboy that turned up, I had to lead the singing solo! I later joined the Bellringing team, ringing master was a Geoff Dodd, after this a gang of us used to gather outside the village shop in Highclere village to yarn and gossip, I recall sometimes the previous evening's visit to the cinema being discussed "John Wayne said to this tart...", the tart in question would be a famous actress such as Yvonne De Carlo or Rita Haworth!! When aged 11 I left the Primary School, went to Shaw House School in Newbury, this entailed crossing a field from the castle to join a cart track which came out near the then Pheasant Inn (it is now the Yew Tree Restaurant), and I caught the school bus there, near the pub was a village blacksmith, great fun to watch when shoeing horses! The blacksmith was a Mr C Crocker who was also the village postman, operated from the Post Office a way up the road, he must have covered a lot of miles on his bike! Hope this is of interest to someone and indeed may prompt to add their own memories! P J Mills