Village School

A Memory of Castle Bromwich.

To the left of where the photographer was standing was the junior's playground of the old village school (St Mary and St Margaret's.) In 1963-4 we would have vacated the old buildings and moved into a new building in Southfield Avenue on the Hall Estate. The old school was basically a large room divided into classrooms by immense sliding concertina doors. The windows were very high and so were the ceilings. Because the old school was very cramped just prior to moving to the new one, our class with our teacher Mrs Huggins, had our lessons in two rooms of the old house. I remember immense coal fires in the winter while the rest of the school had hot pipes running around the rooms. Morning assemblies and P.E. lessons were held in the Victory Hall further down on the left. The Victory Hall was later converted into a working mens club. The building on the right with the white end wall and black beams was a general store but I'm afraid I don't remember the name of the man who owned it. A little further on was Rawlings Farm and I vividly remember the smell of the pigs there!
The site of the old school is now given over to flats.