Mrs Blands School

A Memory of Burghfield Common.

We moved into School House in 1941 when my dad, Mr Halfpenny, took over as Headmaster. I was 3 and my sister Sheila 7. I loved living on the school premises and would creep into the infants class with my gas mask when the teacher, Mrs Carbine, wasn't looking so I could dive under a desk when they practised sheltering from an air raid. My younger sister, Christine, was born in School House in 1945 and brother, Keith, in 1948. I remember helping my mum to make huge bowls of jelly and blancmange for the school Christmas party every year. There  was great excitement one night when Gregsons shop opposite the school was broken into by some boys from the borstal, not something that happened very often in the 1950s!
I too, remember Terry Clark, he and Keith were great friends and are still in touch after all these years. My best friend who lived in the close was Jenny Mars and we spent many hours playing in the stream and at the fish pond.
The big bell which hung in the playground was given to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford when the school was moved to its new premises.
So many happy memories!