This article has been provided in a collection by Bob Blastock, who died in 2021, and given to the Lanman Museum by his widow Doreen.

Framlingham Area School was one of the first area schools in the county and, as such, was a showpiece. The school opened in September 1937, a week late, because everything in it was new, and had to be unpacked and put in place.  This gave the new staff time to get acquainted with each other, and with the building. 

There were seven staff, Mr Reeve, Mr Stephens, Mr Saxton, Miss Baker(?), Mr Cook, Miss Knights and myself.  All but Mr Reeve and Mr Stephens were straight out of college so Mr Reeve had quite a task. There were four classes of 40.  Mr Cook was the woodwork master and Miss Knights was the domestic science teacher.  The cook was Mrs Scotchmer (sp?). Meals cost 3d a day or 1/- a week, old money.  It was the same price for staff!  Everyone had 1/3 pint of milk which cost 3d per week.

The front of the school was one big lawn with a path down the middle to the front door.  During the first year the boys dug out flower beds in this formation on each side of the path.

These were filled with pink and red polyanthus roses alternately.  The red roses were underplanted with white pinks, and the pink roses with cat mint.  When they all came on bloom it was a wonderful sight, and was much admired by visitors. We were devastated when these were destroyed to make way for a car park.

Children cycled to school from the surrounding villages.  There were no buses and very few cars.  This meant that when the weather was really bad the school was half empty. I can remember, in particularly bad winter, having only two pupils out of a class of 40.

We had a Mr Tye as PE organiser in the county, and he it was who organised the P.E display for the official opening in which the whole school took part.  He came almost every week to see how we were getting on.

We got a bit bored with practising this, so I introduced a little variation. Instead of all leaning one way in a particular exercise I had one team leaning to the right and another team to the left.  I was a raw recruit, and did not know then that one must never suggest an alternative as someone would surely do it at the wrong time. Mr Tye almost had a heart attack!  The uniform for the display was green shorts and cream tops which were made in Must Baker’s needlework class.

We had a wonderful netball team during that first year: it never lost a match. When Mr Reeve came to a reunion a few years ago he could name every member of that team,

On one occasion Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears came to the school to give a recital. We were very impressed because the first thing he did was to pull the front out of the piano. That was I long before they became famous.

On another occasion we had a large group of college. lecturers, about 50 I believe, come to look round the school and stay to lunch. They were very impressed.

When we were new we could have almost anything we wanted.  This, however, did not last for long!

Lessons were limited in scope, compared to today. The first Lesson after Assembly was always Religious Knowledge, followed by Maths and PE. There was History, Geography, Rural Science, Needlework, Music Art and Games and, of course, English.  Each class spent one day, the girls in Domestic Science and the boys in woodwork.

if we wanted to prepare a set of questions for an examination we wrote them on a stencil, and then transferred them to a hectograph jelly. Afterwards, we rubbed each sheet on the jelly which produced rather blurred copies. By the time we got to the 40th copy it was almost illegible!

War was declared on Sunday, Sept. 3rd but on the previous Friday the staff were called in to help with evacuees who had just arrived from London.  These were housed temporarily in Framlingham College. I am not sure what happened to them.  I think they went to the junior school.  We had a school of juniors from Becontree.  Mr Reeve had to share his office with a rather formidable headmistress who did not entirely agree with his way of running a school.  She was a strict disciplinarian.  She brought with her two other teachers.  We were given no extra accommodation but Somehow Mr Reeve fitted them all in without too much upheaval. 

During the war we had fire drill and gas mark drill regularly.  We spent some time in the shelters during air raids. These varied from a few minutes to an hour or two, and were very unsettling.  It took quite a time to get back to normality again. 

After 1941 I was no longer able to use my car, as petrol was rationed, and was not sufficient to travel to school every day from Clopton.  By this time I was married and living at Woodbridge.  From then on I travelled to school by a gas bus.  It left Woodbridge at 8 am, but often did not arrive at Framlingham until quite late in the morning, sometimes as late as 11.  It was always breaking down, and we often had to get out and walk up the hills!  Several teachers from Wickham Market also travelled on the bus and they were often late too. Looking back, I am amazed that I was not asked to lodge in Framlingham.

Everything was much more formal before the war.  All the staff were addressed by their titles, even by other staff. At the end of each session the children had to stand in line and march out one by one.  When a visitor came into the classroom everyone stood.  

The cellar, which housed the boiler, was looked after by Mr Smith, the caretaker.  As a s special treat the children were taken down there to see cartoons from the projector we couldn’t use the hall because it had no curtains. The children thought this was great, but I wonder what the sophisticated child of today would think!

During the war a memo from the Education Committee suggested that a weekly sing song would relieve any tension caused by air raids.  This was extremely popular as all the current popular songs were sung.  Mr Wales, the headmaster who followed Mr Reeve in 1940, ran this.  On one occasion he started a round and forgot to say how many times it should be sung so the school just carried on singing.  We went outside the hall and it gradually stopped, but as soon as we returned it started up again. There was no tension amongst the children that day!  They thought it was hilarious, I think Mr Wales did too. 

I remember the school as a very happy school, and certainly one of the happiest times of my life.

Peggy Martin