3 School 

A rough plan of the school as it was when I was there.  There were curtains dividing the three rooms in the main part of the school.  I remember the surprise we got when we went back after one holiday to find the curtain dividing the two rooms at the canal end had gone and a folding wood and glass partition in its place.  I think the other curtain was still there when I left.  There was no ceiling then, it was open right up to the roof.  The heating was by tortoise stoves.

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The Vicar of Bourton, Mr Standage used to come to the school for prayers.  I think it was every fortnight he came.  He used to wear a hat with a crown something like a bowler but not so high and flat on the top with a wide flat brim.  There used to be a big box or chest stand by the wall, we called it the sewing box, I don’t ever remember seeing inside it.  One morning Mr Standage was there he laid his hat on the box, later on he went to sit down and sat on his hat.  I remember that, but I don’t remember anything he said to us.  Yes we had gardening lessons, we had a plot in the allotments across the field at the back of the school.  Are they still there?

 [15L. 16/02/84]  I have heard talk of prizes at the school and watches for perfect attendance, but that had stopped before I started school.  I can just remember going to a prize giving at the school one night with my Father and Mother, but that would be before I started school.  The only prize that was given in my time was the Bishop’s prize for scripture.  [Some were]  completely wrong in saying no one who went to Chapel ever won it, because I won it in 1918 and I was going to Chapel then.  I still have it.  A prayer book.  Then a year or so later another boy who went to Chapel won it, Arthur Smith, he lived in the second house from yours1 in Chapel Row.  I know he asked if he could have a Bible instead of a Prayer Book, and the one he had had the apocrypha in it.  She was wrong too in saying Mr Standage from Bourton took the examination.  I don’t know where the examiner came from but it was a stranger.  The year I won it, it was R.de M.Nixon, his signature is in the front of the Prayer Book.

[22L.23/03/85] The only one I can remember who took lodgers besides Miss West was a Mrs Bradley who lived in Red Lion Street at the first house past the opening [the Jitty] from what used to be the Co-op.  She used to have a school  teacher, Miss Jackson. 

Did you see the photo of a class at Cropredy School, about 1930 in the Banbury Guardian last week?  I think there are some mistakes in the names.  The teacher is not Miss Tyrell, now Mrs Boddington who lives at Bourton.  It is Miss Jackson.  She came from Coventry.  Reg. Charles is the sixth in the back row.  The boy at the right hand end of the front row is I think Harold Cotterill who is still in Cropredy, and the Cotterill in the back row is his brother Harry.  He was killed in the R.A.F. in the war.

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Rear: Mr Bonner.Back Row: Miss Cummings. Louie Howes. Annie Sumner. Lucy Pargeter? Ada Neal. Maggie Busby. Elsie Sumner. Cissy Pettifer? George Upton.  ?  ?  ?  Horace Busby. Miss Wall.

Middle Row: Fred Timms. Tom Watts. Cyril Timms. Ada Timms.  H.Goode. –Eagles.Elsie Cherry.  ?  Kate Busby. Ivy Yates. Emily Cooknell. Florence Gardner. Lottie Pargeter. Christina Shirley.

Front Row: - Goode. Arthur Cherry. Bill Harris.  ?  Bert Cherry. Tom Upton.  ?  Norman Smith.Bill Eagles.  ?  Basil Harris.  ?     ?  --Allitt.