Jelly and cracknel days at Bere Regis School

On Friday September 16 from 2pm to 7pm and Saturday September 17 from 10am until 4pm a special exhibition will be held featuring old photos from the school.

The exhibition is being held ahead of the new school opening in January.

At Bere Regis Community School there will be a photographic history of the school on display along with old memorabilia and the opportunity to share your memories of life at the school and have them recorded for the archives.

There will be tours around the building, tea and cake and a chance to catch up with all the other visitors at the event.

Alison Bennett, one of the exhibition's organisers, said: "This is your opportunity to bid a fond farewell to a building that has seen the education of generations of village families and has earned a special place in the history of Bere Regis for ever."

In keeping with the theme of the exhibition, Looking Back is taking a look at some memories of Bere Regis School from the recently published book Bere Regis A Step Back in Time, a book published by Alison, which raised £3,400 for the Alzheimer's Society.

Alison, whose maiden name was Collis, and Rose Williams, whose maiden name was Chambers, together shared their memories. Both women are now 53 and their memories come from 1968 to 1970.

They call their memories of Bere Regis School 'the jelly and cracknel days'.

"At school we would always play games in the playground. The games were hopscotch, French knitting, What’s The Time Mr Wolf, elastic or French skipping as it was sometimes called, ankles then knees, then bums as the length of elastic tied in a big circle with a child at each end would be raised higher and higher to see how people got on doing the set moves.

"This was so popular back in the 1970s. It was played mainly by the girls. We would also do ordinary skipping. Play conkers often soak them in vinegar to make them harder to crack open.

"We played marbles sat on the grass and made daisy chains, we played catch the ball, hoops around the waist and football with a rolled up sock to save the windows from being broken.

"Then there was the old monkey puzzle tree, by today’s standards it was somewhat of a health and safety nightmare but we all loved it. It’s true quite a few people fell off it and injured themselves, some even went to hospital.

"Most of us loved sport and sports day was always something to look forward to with the flat races and the three legged race the wheelbarrow race the sack race and the egg and spoon.

"Then there was the ITA reading scheme when someone thought it would be a good idea to teach us a completely new English language, we used slate and chalk in the early days.

"We had a third of a pint bottles of milk until the government stopped it, they were often hot and a bit lumpy, the milk not the government.

"We were lucky enough to benefit from a school swimming pool on site, there were the arm bands rubber rings and the old polystyrene white floats, the footbath, the swimming caps that must be worn so that hair didn’t mess up the filter and the endless shivering, shaking and dripping when we got out trying to dry and dress.

"School Dinners were 16d. We would all go to the school hall and line up and Mrs Lambert, Miss Applin, Mrs Ames and Mrs Hewitt, the dinner ladies, would be in a long line dishing up the meals.

"There were the tin jugs in gold and the various coloured tin beakers. One of the biggest hits of all time was Leo Lambert's secret recipe for cracknel, this was served with jelly and on the days this was on the menu we just couldn’t wait for lunch time to come."

*See next week's Looking Back for more memories of Bere Regis School.

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