Description: Pam Vincent, the archivist of the Old Girls Association of Wimbledon County School for Girls, tells the story of the school from its origins in 1905 out of the Battersea Pupil Teachers Centre at Wimbledon Technical Centre until its amalgamation with Rickards Lodge in the July of 1969. Her narration is supported with archival photographs of the school buildings, school gardens, classrooms and by group portraits of staff and of pupils posed in their uniforms, grouped as sports teams, and in the theatrical costumes of their breaking up concerts. James Russell photographers of Wimbledon took many of the images, after being commissioned to take regular images of school pupils. One odd portrait from 1939 shows pupils lined up in gas masks standing on the school steps. Photographs of the school include records of the original school building on Gladstone Road and the new school building on Merton Hall Road opened in 1924. Developments on the Merton Hall Road site are shown with several photographs of the school assembly hall, gymnasium, classrooms, the playing fields, and wartime bomb shelters.
Comments
I was at Wimbledon County from 1963 until the transition, where I hade one year at the comprehensive. It was so sad that the school was forced to change.
I didn’t know all the school’s history, but I recognise some of the teachers and have fond memories of playing in the school sports teams and taking part in the annual swimming gala. My love of singing began in the school choir, especially singing in Wimbledon Town hall at prize giving. The school also fostered my interest in dance and drama.
I can honestly say that the school was amazing, in building confidence and encouraging young women to achieve their full potential. This stood me in good stead for a long career in Investment banking.
this school c1928 - 1934, while she lived beside the Parish Hall at nearby Fairlawn Rd.
I've studied the earlier photographs in the film but sadly didn't see her. She liked the school, did well academically and excelled at the piano.
She might have progressed to music college, except that my grandparents could not afford to keep her there. Then there was the war and her own family to care for.
But she resumed her music career later in life (60s) as a pianist, teaching and and playing.
My friend Elizabeth Parker (nee Smith) was also at the school with me and when she died last year, her main hymn was "Praise my soul the king of heaven"
It almost ruined my childhood and early teenage years. I am not a. Intellectual and failed what were then the 11plus and 13 plus exams and was happy in the New Malden Secondary School where l could express my personality and creativity My mother, who worked in National education, had a Snobish streak. and she organized an interview with Miss Wade headmistress. Brief; l was accepted into the school.
There, l was relentlessly bullied by a group of girls the name of the ringleader of which l will mot mention though l remember it well. There is not space here to give more details, but, whereas the staff of the secondary school had been supportive of me and my artistic abilities and l was not punished for drawing all over my excercise books whatever the subject! I loved the corporal expression and even won a competition for creating a poster about the Highway Code. I wish l could go on, there is so much to say, but the years l spent at that school were the most traumatic of my life
opportunity to reminisce!