LAST week we took a wonderful trip down memory lane to Bockhampton School in the 1930s with former teacher Marjorie Pride.

The school shut its doors in 1961, but village life went on in Lower Bockhampton.

Marjorie lived in the quaint and pretty village of Lower Bockhampton, near Dorchester, for some 35 years with her husband Alfred. She wrote a delightful short history about the area before she passed away in 1984, which her son Derek Pride shared with Looking Back.

Marjorie wrote: “Although we had no gadgets such as washing machines and fridges, we enjoyed our village life, we were all so friendly.”

The cottages were very primitive Marjorie said. There was no piped water, sinks or baths and no electricity. Electricity didn’t come to the village until 1935.

Marjorie wrote: “Some of the cottages in Bockhampton are very old, most of them had thatched roofs and cob walls.

“There were coppers for heating water and boiling clothes. We used a tin bungalow bath if we needed to bathe.

“We had paraffin lamps and primus stoves and kitchen ranges for cooking.”

The terrace of four cottages built of cob (chalk and stone) in the village originally had thatched roofs, but when Mr James Fellows of Kingston Maurward owned the village in 1880, new roofs of slate were put on and the roofs.

Marjorie wrote: “The terrace of four cottages had little porches at their doors jutting out to the road.

“Originally the cottages had two rooms only at the front, a main room and a larder with a staircase leading from it to two bedrooms. Toilets (closets) with buckets were halfway down the long gardens.”

One pair of cottages were modernised as a garage was built and one became a post office.

The post office opened in 1881 and closed in 1970. Marjorie wrote: “During Mr Hardy’s time the post office and shop were kept by Mrs Mary Bartlet who lived in the cottage and opened a post office and shop. No planning permission was required in those days.

“She began by getting various items, cotton and stamps for the villagers when she pushed her pram into Dorchester. She decided to open up a little shop and post office of her own.”

Marjorie said when Mrs Bartlet became too old to cope with the work, her daughter Miss Alice Bartlet took over the post office.

Marjorie recalled: “Miss Bartlet was quite a village character, she loved to chat with her customers. She did not approve of smoking, drinking, gambling or dancing.”

The post office closed when Miss Bartlet died in 1970 aged 89.

The bridge in the village is probably one of the most painted and photographed of the Hardy scenes and was the setting to some memorable moments.

Marjorie wrote: “During World War II a French tank got stuck on the bridge. A crane came out later and lifted it off.

“Swans have built their nests in the reeds by the bridge for many years and people stand on the bridge and watch and feed the swans and their cygnets. The swans look so graceful.

Marjorie said: “The villagers who lived in Lower Bockhampton in those days saw Mr Hardy when he walked from Max Gate to his birthplace.

“On Sunday evenings we walked along the path to Stinsford Church. In later years when Reverend Gooch was the vicar, we acted nativity plays at Christmas time and the church was full of happy people singing carols.”

Most of the men of the village worked on farms or on the Kingston Maurward estate as gardeners.

Marjorie recalled: “There is a dairy farm at Lower Bockhampton from which we fetched milk in small cans. The cows went over the bridge to the meadows during spring and summer and what a mess they made.”