Andover's British School that became Norman Gate Primary

Here is the school in New Street that it replaced – or at least the infants’ part, photographed by Charles Wardell in the early 1960s. The juniors were next door in what is now the Andover museum.

From the mid-1950s, it was known as Norman Gate Primary, but it was built as the British School in 1862.

In contrast to the school in East Street, it was non-denominational, intended for the children of nonconformists who were opposed to Church of England doctrine being included in elementary education.

This was standard practice all over the country and many towns had the two variants.

In 1894 when county councils were formed and charged with local education, the term British School largely disappeared from normal parlance and the building became New Street school.

In all likelihood, the religious divides became progressively less marked and as the town began to expand in the 20th century, first Wolversdene and then Portway schools also opened to take children from those newly-populated areas of the town.

I was among the last pupil intake at Norman Gate, starting there in January 1965 and leaving just 18 months later to go to Balksbury. Some memories are vivid, others less so.

In those days, the headmaster was Bernard Scarborough whose office was directly behind the school in a separate annexe.

Beyond that was a large playground of hard-standing directly behind the back gardens of houses in Vigo Road – all since demolished.

At the far end was a wooden shed holding equipment for summer sports. To the left was a large field that stretched forward to New Street and this was where the kitchen and dining hall were situated, long low buildings of wood construction.

The hall had multiple uses: assemblies, plays and ‘musical movement’ sessions directed from a tape-recorded programme.

The remains of air-raid shelters still lay at the top of the school field but were by then filled with rubbish and broken bricks, no doubt to stop curious pupils going in them.

Back in the school, the classrooms were lofty with arched windows.

Heating was by means of large coal-fired cast-iron stoves protected by sturdy metal guards.

House-martins’ nests clung to the arched eaves outside and playtimes were patrolled by dinner ladies with a cup of tea and an Izal toilet roll – there was none in the outside cubicles and it had to be asked for beforehand.

In my time, all the infants’ teachers were women: Mrs Collett, Mrs Armstrong, Mrs Clay, Mrs Cree and Mrs Musslewhite.

Mrs Baxter was a supply teacher who came in regularly and I remember her teaching me to read at the teacher’s desk. School buses arrived at the end of the day to take us home, announced in turn by Mr O’Brien from the juniors’ school next door.

Soon it was all gone. The school was supposedly unsafe and would have to be closed.

Many of the teachers moved up to Balksbury including the headmaster.

Today, that part of New Street running behind the museum goes straight through the old school site, while the old New Street is now the cul-de-sac called Church Close.

The museum car park lies on the front playground.

This is how the school's site looks now