Ewelme School 1957

A Memory of Ewelme.

I am Mick Phillips and I was at Ewelme School in 1957. Mr Coles was the headmaster and Miss Walker was my class teacher. We were 9 and 10 year olds in the upstairs room and the younger children were taught downstairs by a Miss Lewis, who got married around that time to someone from RAF Benson.
I remember Miss Walker being presented with some flowers at assembly one morning by Mr Coles to mark her 25th year at the school. She was a rather serious Irish lady in her fifties who rapped my knuckles for not understanding fractions and read to us from Wind in the Willows on Friday afternoon. Although probably no record exists, the BBC came to the school and filmed an item which included one or two classroom shots and a studio interview with Miss Walker. I can't remember what the item was about, but Miss Walker was impressed with the BBC's efficiency and timing and suggested how we might benefit by applying the same attitude. I also remember a village fete being held in the grounds of a house just to the right of the school (looking from Rabbits Hill). The fete was opened by Sabrina, a bosomy, blonde young lady who had recently been discovered by Arthur Askey.
I remember trying to impress (although I didn't know why) as a 'B' member of the Ewelme School Gymnastic team. We had to dive through paper covered hoops held on the vaulting horse and land on coconut mats. In my enthusiasm, I flew beyond the coconut mat and landed in the 'Bowl for a Pig' skittle alley amidst much squealing (the piglet AND me!).  The Rev Bolton was the encumbent St Mary's officer and among some of others I remember were Richard Rowse who took me to his home after school one day to show me the bees his father kept. That seems to have been a good idea as I believe he is now the Managing Director of Rowse Honey, a major company in the area and trading on an international level. Albert Crockatt, David Reeves, Geoffrey Hutchinson and Tony Munday were local lads I believe and Graham Gladding, Peter Hayes, Roger Setterfield, Robin and Derek Prior, Michael Reynolds and Raymond Jalland all had fathers in the RAF as I did.
I have been back a couple of times with different wives (both mine) over the past fifty years and the magical quality is that very little has changed. On a quiet Sunday afternoon with only the school building and no cars or people to give reference to the decade, I could easily have been ten years old again.