A local history and genealogy page for the Parish of Wimpole.
Pupil Group, Wimpole (C of E) Village School.
A wartime group of 46 school pupils photographed at Wimpole Village School during October 1940. The image date and pupil names were written on the back of the original photograph.
Back Row(left to right): Keith Bullen, Eric Clarke, George Payne, Derek Baulk, Gerald Homant, Gordon Northrop, Thomas (Tom) Davenport, Tony Mahoney, Gerald Charter, Tony Baulk.
Fourth Row(left to right): Hilda Clark, Daphne Rumbold, Phyllis Pratt, girl (? Ankers), girl, Joan Mayo, Doris Reynolds, Joyce Wisbey, Sylvia Cheeseman (Chessum?), Margaret Clark.
Third Row(left to right): girl, Sylvia Mason, Joan Horsfield, Joan Blaby, Joan Chessum, girl, Ivy Payne, girl, Peggy Bullen.
Seated Row(left to right): Frederick (Freddie) Blaby, Betty Blaby, Janet Skinner, girl, girl, girl, June Pratt, girl, boy.
Sitting on Mats(left to right): Ron(ald) Flack, boy, Eric Chessum, Peter Pratt, Brian Gadsby, Dennis Rolph, David Mayo, Gregory Mason.
[See also the complete list of pupils in 1942 below.]
Please contact the website if you have any other Wimpole School photographs, information, memories or can help with any of the missing pupil names.
This 1940 photograph above was taken in 'The Chestnuts', the outdoor playing area of Wimpole School. Behind the pupils is a glimpse of the old Village Hall, built along what is now the access driveway to School House, No 22 Cambridge Road.
In 1940, the Head Mistress of Wimpole School was Katherine E Newell [the wife of Mr William G Newell, the proprietor of the village garage]. The Assistant Teacher was Mrs O Baker. Mrs Newell had been Head Mistress at Wimpole since 1921. When she retired two years later in 1942, she received an inscribed booklet of thanks that listed her 'Present Scholars':
This item was donated by the family of Keith Bullen (July 2020)
The 'Present Scholars' listed in the booklet are as follows. Many of them can be identified by name in the 1940 photograph above. Those who are listed in the 1942 booklet but not identified in the photograph are underlined. [Note 1940 to 1942 were war years and there are probably child evacuees in both lists]
Daphne Rumbold
Peter Pratt Douglas Clarke Margaret Smith
Gregory Mason
Thomas Davenport
Brian Gadsby
Ronald Flack Michael Skinner Derrick Gooch Audrey Turner
Ivy Payne Doreen Watkins
Betty Blaby
Phyllis Pratt
Margaret Clarke Edna Charter
Peggy Bullen
Derek Baulk
David Mayo Dennis Trebble (?)
Janet Skinner Denis Baulk Patrick O'Brien
Keith Bullen
Joan Horsfield Valerie Watkins
Frederick Blaby
June Pratt
Eric Clarke
Douglas Smith
May Mason
Tony Baulk Victor Chessum Marie Bullen Maurice Skinner Michael Jarman
Pamela Jones
Joyce Wisbey Neal Horsfield Ernest Reynolds
The 'Old Scholars' listed in the booklet are as follows:
Joan Chessum
Frank Martin
Zilpha Davenport
Segrid Charter
George Wisbey
Alma Ablett
Gerald Homent
Gerald Charter
Peter Bullen
Jack Jarman
The Wimpole School 'Managers' [presumably akin to School Governors today] listed in the booklet are: Mr R R Hagger, Mr H G Peters, Mr E J Dyball, Mrs Lancaster and the Reverend E Lancaster.
1903 (2nd Edition) Ordnance Survey Map, showing the location of the School at Wimpole
Wimpole Village School c1905 Wimpole's Church of England School was completed in 1876, then
closed suddenly in 1946
(the brick structure being declared "absolutely unsafe for the children")
