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I attended Westwood School from around 1970 until just before it closed. I recall Mrs Brown and Mr Govett with much fondness. Mrs Brown was a fabulous teacher, I have never forgotten our project on the Incas - we made paper mache masks and all sorts of other things to add interest, I loved it. She also took us to the church and regaled us with stories of how Westwood was originally called Rowley and showed us furrows in the fields where it had once been. She said that the church had started further down the lane (towards Farleigh) but the Devil didn't want it built there so every night when the workmen had gone home he brought the foundation stones and put them where the church is now until the workmen gave up and built it there. My sister Helen got married in the church (figures)! She went to school in the mobiles in the Social Club car park, one of her teachers was called Miss Norris, a wonderful lady who lived in Upper Westwood for many years. We lived in 106b Upper Westwood. As a child I recall snowdrifts so high in the lane that we were marooned and happy hours tobogganing down the hill in Avoncliffe. We used to buy sweets from jars in Mrs Badders sweet shop in Upper Westwood and go scrumping in the private wood opposite Chestnut Grove. We played on 'the mounds' which are now Bobbin Lane, leapt off of the mine vents (now demolished and replaced with gorgeous blossom trees) and spent happy hours hanging upside down on the white bars which went around 3 sides of a huge tree in the same area. We swung from vines in Becky Addy woods, ran over the canal bed to get from one side to the other and walked around the OUTSIDE of the bridge over the river and train tracks then ran down the same wall short cutting to the fields below. In the summer we swam in the river in Tellisford and Iford. We knew that "batten down the hatches" meant the gypsies were coming (although they dealt horses with our neighbours at 106a). We believed that the Crown Jewels were hidden in the quarries at Upper Westwood during the War. Our shopping was bought from the Post Office or Mr and Mrs Nurse's shop next to the old school, bread and milk were delivered. |