The picture of the old School with the bell on top must have been in the 1920's going by the dresses and the headgear they are wearing now as it is a School photograph to begin with the Old School I shall just read the notes I have made some time ago about the Old School. It was built about 1845 it was endowed by the Pigotts and Lady Saye and Seal to hold 60 children and it later became a Church School. Not the first master but the master at the end of the 1800's was Thomas Frater he was the Headmaster and he was aided by his wife Caroline and later by his daughter Agnes and she later married Mr Thomas Holt who had lived at Shakespeare Farm. 

Mr Frater himself died in 1899 and his grandson Richard was born a day or two before he died and I understand he was shown his grandson and sadly the grandson was born with a club hand it was like that no fingers but he was very adept with it a wonderful man who became an Engineer and Farmer and did so many things and he left a legacy when he died in the early 90's to Grendon Church although he wasn't living here then he was living in Suffolk. Richard was quite a character and he was born at Shakespeare Farm on Shakespeare's Birthday April 23rd and he said they never called him Will. Then they moved into the village after that.

Following Mr. Frater as headmaster came Mr Bellgrove who lived at the School house and his mother lived at Broadway House as you go round by the Church the Broadway. The family came from Oxford I think Mr Bedgrove's father was at one of the Colleges there, a very educated family and his two sisters I am not sure if it on that photograph or this one, here we are, that is Miss Millicent Bedgrove and Miss Rosa Bedgrove they helped their brother in the teaching at Grendon. Later on Miss Rosa who didn't marry she became a teacher at Brill and used to have to cycle to Brill everyday and then she was teacher at Marsh Gibbon and had to cycle to Marsh Gibbon everyday and then she was the organist at Grendon for about 50 years I think and she lived down at the Broadway. Mr Bedgrove taught I am not sure when he actually left Grendon School because he was here for quite a time (MR HEATON - that School is it where the Village Hall is here?) AG that is Saye and Seale flats actually and the flats that face the road at the back are where the actual School was and the School House, I think you have got a photograph of the School House haven't you. TH Where the trees are at the back would that be the playing fields? AG - No the Playing Fields was on your left. We used to play in the fields where the Village Hall is now we were allowed to play out there sometimes there were two big ponds out there so we had to be careful.

TH was that when they knocked this one down? AG I shall come across the dates as I am going on. In 1911 there were 90 scholars in the log book so if it was made for sixty it was a bit overcrowded wasn't it? As you see there was the two rooms we called them the big room and the little room. The little room was of course for the smaller children and the bit bigger room for the others and there was a huge wooden screen in the middle of the two rooms dividing them so if we wanted to use it as a Village Hall which we had to as there was no other accommodation we put the screens right back and put a stage so that we could have our concerts etc. All home grown entertainment of course. There were two or three teachers coping with all age groups for 5 to 14, older and brighter children helped others with reading etc. Eleven plus Scholarship passes went to the Aylesbury Grammar School and they do now of course it was co-ed in those days boys and girls or to the Buckingham Royal Latin School. Children came from Kingswood, Woodham, Edgcott, Great Moor and Wooton. Do you know where Great Moor is do you? Behind Grendon Wood near Calvert. You take the right turn in Edgcott behind Grendon Wood and they used to walk from there across the fields when it was dry of course but if it was wet they had to come right round the road so they had to start out pretty early. They walked there was no school transport but later of course people did begin to have bicycles when I first went to School very few people had bicycles. Children I mean, grown ups had them but the cycle shed was built (does that show the cycle shed there) no it was in between there. TH There wasn't a uniform in those days? Oh no uniform that came much much later. 

Writing was with chalk, no biros so you had to write carefully otherwise you had a lot of ink drops on your paper. No calculators, no computers, we had blotting paper to blot it up with but you had to be pretty careful and you had little holes in the desk where the ink well went in and grooves where the pens laid. Learning our tables. Do you learn poetry? TH - they don't learn it they read it. Bible passages of course as it was a Church School, we had an examination every year. We did mental arithmetic and dictation and if we were naughty we had the cane. Knuckles were tapped with a ruler and the reasons for that were if you were cheating or telling lies. Very early on it the School history children did have a lot of time off School because they had to go and scare the birds off the corn, scare the sparrows and starlings and really help because it was essential that they grew enough food to keep them otherwise they would not have had enough to last through the winter. They probably would have had another punishment when they got home if they had been naughty at School and the parents knew because they knew they must have done something naughty.

There was no electricity. What can't you have if you don't have electricity? Computers. My brother was clever before we had the electricity in the village which came to us in 1933 and you can see a thing up on the end of that shed well that had sails on and that was a windmill and he ran that and put the wires through the shed and had batteries there which were charged by that windmill and we had little tiny bulbs in each room he was only about 15 or 16 when he did that. We do rely on electricity for so much now.

Children who arrived probably wet through if it was very bad and so you had to have clothes hanging round to dry and still they were hard times weren't they.

Playtime of course we still had playtime, we played with spinning tops, hoops, we used to run down the road with hoops, you couldn't do that now with the cars, hopscotch, skipping, leap frog. We have still got hopscotch on the playground. Farmers in his den. 

The Old School closed 23rd July 1964 and the other school was built. The interesting one too is the Saye and Seale room which was built you see that the end one there, that was the School toilets you went through that door into another little garden and there was another room built in the 1911 before the First World War and it was equipped with cooking stoves and benches for carpentry so all the boys and girls from around when they got to a certain age 10 or 11 would come to have their carpentry and cookery lessons and laundry. Later on that was used as a (163??).   That is where the Saye and Seale flats are. Saye and Seale Charity is still going you can benefit from that - have you heard of that - it was left for people to have money to be apprenticed for education purposes?

Christobelle was over 90 when she died so when you go in the Church you can see her she married once for love, once for money and once for a title whether that is true or not I don't know.

That is all the notes I have got there so please ask questions.

They went to School in the little room from 5 years old to about 7 and then it was usually split between two rooms because there was not room for any more they were all taught in the same room because you had to be quiet otherwise you could not hear what other people were saying. 

In 1927/1928 that was just before I had the Scholarship I am there but you can hardly see me. That is Ashley's Grandad Mr Wilfred Hearne. 

This is Miss Howse? She was the infant teacher I think the School house is behind there you have got one on the slides. That was a very nice house actually at the back of the School.

Was there a dunces cap? I can't remember one you were sat on one side by yourself and felt very guilty.

I can't remember much about the Sports Day and yet we must have had something, we had School Concerts.

I was looking at picture the other day with people in boots and was asked what was on the bottom of the boot - it was hobnails. They had to make them very tough every nail stuck out about that much but the boots had to last for so long. They must have passed them down from one child to another in the family because they had very big families you see. 

You only had the one pair of shoes and you had to take them off and put an even older pair on and you had to make them last as long as you could. You had them a size too big when you had them and then grew into them because you just could not afford to keep buying these things in those days.

We had to cycle not right to Aylesbury but you know where the Quainton road is along the A41 beyond Westcott well there was a Station there and the old trams as we called them used to come from Brill come along this line and we had to get on at the level crossing there.

The tram is another story of course you went to Quainton Road station where the railway met and got on to the main line to go to Aylesbury so we missed part of the first lesson the Assembly and we missed part of the lesson. We had to cycle there in all weathers it was about three to four miles. 

That is Mr Frater you can just see here. 1900's I don't know who the Master is here Mr Frater died in 1899.

The Coronation Children's tea party that is inside the school in the little room.

The boys and girls could play together in the playground but had to go through different porches to get back into school.