Well, our planned ‘hard hat’ tours of the construction and refurbishment site that’s to become the new onsite Heritage Hub have gone well. And the learning has been two-way: project stakeholders have been able to glimpse the spaces to come and we have discovered more about the history of our building.
The new evidence of our building’s past comes from two sources. Firstly, the builders discovered a window above the original front entrance. It was hiding above an artificial ceiling that that’s been removed in order to change the room layout. Here it is:
This space will eventually become an office area for Gloucestershire Family History Society volunteers. The window can be their secret as it’ll be hidden behind a new ceiling by the time they take up residence there.
The second piece of evidence came from a lovely lady, Pam Brogan who took part in one of our tours. We discovered the experience was actually a trip down memory lane for her, as she was a former pupil of Kingsholm School, the original occupant of our premises. And she was kind enough to share a photo of herself with her infant school friends, and let us feature it here. She told us it was taken in the 1940s and the children and their teachers are shown in front of an air raid shelter.
Thanks, Pam, it’s great to be piecing together the history of our building and we’re glad you enjoyed your evening with us!
Do get in touch if you’re reading this and have your own memories of Kingsholm School, as we’d like to use these as part of the interpretive displays (stories about Gloucestershire, Gloucester and Kingsholm) in the Heritage Hub.
Jill Shonk
Access & Learning Leader
Gloucestershire Archives 
Such a long time ago but I remember my time at the infants school where I was very happy, apart from not getting a Christmas present or a hat from Father Christmas. I was forgotten and was too shy to tell the teacher I’d been missed out…!
I remember our very first school, meal. I was worried incase there was horrid fat in it and I’d be made to eat it. But there wasn’t any and it was very nice. Served up in small pudding basins.
Some children wore their hankies pinned to their dresses but my mother made me keep mine in my knicker pocket,
We all had identity discs pinned to our clothes ….we were told it was incase we became lost.
War didn’t really have much meaning to us. Although if you were lucky to see a GI he might have a spare bar of chocolate for you. I saw one up a telegraph polenand he sent one down to me which I had to share with my brother.
At school we all had our own picture for our clothes pegs and the canvas beds we slept in in the afternoon.. mine was a hammer which I loved as I didn’t want a girly one.
Games at school consisted of ring a ring of roses, skipping and tag. There was also conkers and marbles but they were hard to come by.
I lived in Oxford Terrace and the house where I was born is still standing and lived in. There was a bakers shop in Alvin Stree near to London Road and I loved the smell of bread,,,but my longing for a bap never came to fruition.
On the corner was Moffats the butchers and a bit along from there was a sweet shop where I think you could get gob stoppers, sherbert and Victory V sweets,
On the corner of Oxford Terrace was Foughs the bicycle shop and next to them was the cobblers hut…that was almost opposite Alvin Street.
I could go on but I’m diverting from the school. But I had to pass these places to get there.
I remember a Tony Meadows lived in the last house with steps going up to the front door as you approached London Road…he would have been three or more years older than me,
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Thanks for sharing these memories with us, Pam. You’ve given me new things to look out for when I’m walking to and from work, and it’s nice to imagine how things must’ve been.
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Glad you enjoyed it. To make it clear……which I didn’t.!
Facing London Road from Alvin Street you had the bakers on the left and where Tony Meadows lived !
Moffats was on the right hand corner and the sweet shop further along there,
Turning left into London Road..you cross over and turn left and the cobblers would be on the right.,it was a long wooden shed, then you came to Goughs the cycle shop which was on the corner of Oxford Terrace,
Turning right into Oxford Terrace there was a wall on the left beyond which was a row of shops along London Road . The second was a chemist shop and they had a garden at the back with the garden wall making up the left side of the terrace.
They had pears growing and every year we would climb over the wall which had glass on the top to get to the pears.
Right of the terrace was the wall of Goughs garden which had apples….he was far to scary to try and pinch his apples.
You then came to the terraced houses..small on the left and much larger on the right..they had bigger gardens ! I think they are all still there.
I lived at no 9 on the left.
Pamela
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