We were encouraged to assist the War effort, picking hips for the rosehip syrup and gathering acorns which were taken to school. “Chocolate powder” was our reward, given to you in your own jam jar
Memories of Morcombelake School by Phyllis Diment
The first school in the village used to be at James Hargreaves Hall, which also included the Church behind (no longer stands). The Hall was known as “The School Room” with the entrance via the Church Lobby and down the stairs.
Then the school moved to located opposite St Gabriel’s Church, in the house now known as “Southover”. It consisted of a porch and 2 rooms, the left one for the little ones and the right for the older children. At the back of the building, under a corrugated iron roof was the coke for the stoves that heated the rooms. This was also our designated air raid shelter and practise with our gas masks was carried out regularly. I hated the smell of my gas mask, younger children had “Mickey Mouse” styled ones in red/blue rubber. The toilets were a 3-seater earth closet in a shed style building and the gravelled area was our playground. The adjacent field, accessed by a gap in the fence was only supposed to be used when there were no cows in it, but this didn’t stop the older boys!
I remember the radio programme “Music and Movement”, coloured raffia hats were set around the room and bare footed we skipped around singing and responding to Ann Driver’s voice, telling us to stretch up and be a tree or curl up small, then we used to sit on our mats for a story.
Milk and school dinners were delivered. At Christmas we made paper chains and little lanterns. The older ones making calendars for their mums, I remember making a parrot shaped one carefully coloured with a cupboard strut to hang it up by. A Nativity Play was performed, and I always seemed to be the Angel Gabriel as I was the tallest child. Then made to stand on an infant room’s chair, clad in a sheet, tinsel and wings!
Our lives lacked colour – everything was green, cream or brown. Summer Holidays seemed to be long but full of sunshine (we had double summertime then). We were encouraged to assist the War effort, picking hips for the rosehip syrup and gathering acorns which were taken to school. “Chocolate powder” was our reward, given to you in your own jam jar. I used to help my gran sort the salvage, the hut was at the bottom of “Tresillians” garden. The older boys were allowed out of school for hay-making and the potato harvest.
In 1947, Morcombelake School was closed. Those children living east of the Church were sent to Chideock Primary and those to the west went to either Charmouth or Lyme Regis Grammar School. Whitchurch had its own Primary School then too.
There were 3 evacuees at Morcombelake School, 2 brothers staying at Wanehouse Farm and a niece staying with a local lady.
I remember, aged 7, breaking my arm during playtime and having to go to Exeter Hospital where I stayed for a week. Exeter was badly bombed during the Second World War, and I remember the blackened church buildings as we walked through into a little garden on our way to the hospital from the Bus Station.
Here is a photo taken of my class just before the school closed in 1946-47.
