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One of the first class photographs to be taken at Weston-on-Trent Primary School in 1897

The new Weston-on-Trent Primary School building after repairs and rebuilding. It opened in 1914 at the start of the First World War

The class of 1924. The teacher is Susanna Wrigley, sister of Mary Wrigley who was head for 30 years until 1922

Most people have nostalgic recollections of their childhood but it is rare for successive generations of the same school to combine their memories into a potted history covering nearly 200 years.

But that is what has happened in the village of Weston-on-Trent where parents, staff and friends of the local school have produced a hardback book called All Our Yesterdays, All Their Tomorrows.

It makes fascinating reading because it includes stories from the countless children who have passed through the school over three centuries. It has been produced this year to mark the opening of a new £2m primary school to replace the old one.

Editor and parent Jo Cooke explained: "It has taken a lot of people a lot of time but it makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the school or local history.

"It captures the successive and very different eras of generations of local children and is being sold to mark the beginning of a new era and raise funds towards equipping our marvellous new village school."

The story begins back in the 1820s when very few children had the opportunity to attend school at all. State education had yet to be introduced, poverty was rife and it was mainly local churches which provided a basic education for the lucky ones.

Families were expected to pay to support the school which was based in two primitive thatched cottages in Weston-on-Trent.

Local clergymen and dignitaries would often contribute to help the poorer families.

Among the benefactors, was the local squire, Sir Robert Wilmot, of Osmaston, who paid for six boys to learn to read and write at the going rate of a penny for reading and twopence for writing.

It was another 50 years before the Elementary Education Act was brought in, making the provision of schools compulsory, and another two decades before fees were finally abolished and all parents were able to send their children to school.

The early 1900s era is well documented, thanks to the Weston Local History Society, which tells of an "us and them" education system. Well-to-do people were able to send their children on to private or grammar schools in Derby, while church schools at Weston and Aston-on-Trent provided education for the rest.

There was a scholarship scheme, but there was only one place at a grammar school available to Weston children and that was not awarded every year.

The official school-leaving age was 14 but most country children had to work while still at school, boys helping with jobs on the land and girls running errands or caring for younger children.

One child of that era is quoted as saying: "I was seven and I used to go to the farm before I went to school in the morning and, after four o'clock, I would go back, milking and suckling calves."

In 1914, after criticism of the school by the Board of Education, work was carried out on improvements and things did get better. But then the First World War brought more hardship, plus epidemics like scarlet fever, diphtheria and measles.

The school log for that era told the story with simple, bleak comments like: "School disinfected and fumigated and books burned" and "School closed to allow teachers to distribute meat cards."

On several occasions over the next decades, the tiny school faced closure by local authorities but the school managers succeeded in retaining it and side-stepped the suggestion that the Weston children should transfer to the next village, Aston-on-Trent.

The year 1937 was a memorable one, for that was when children finally stopped having to fetch buckets of water from a nearby house for drinking, washing and the lavatories after a direct water supply to the building was installed.

The war years are well documented with tales from Peter Hiley, who was evacuated to the village when his Derby inner-city school suffered bomb damage.

"The village school was like a breath of fresh air with friendly country people, sympathetic to our situation. And to attend a small village school with a dedicated and proficient teaching staff was just utopia for everyone.

"Honestly this early education input gave me, a boy with very low self-esteem, and I'm sure many of the other school children, the foundation for aspirations and objectives throughout our lives.

"Apart from classroom lessons, there were out-and-about field studies around the countryside. Taking all that nature on board, gave you another perspective on life at an early age."

Peter recalled the bomb blast tape on the school windows and reminders about the 3Ls (look, listen and learn) as well, of course, the 3Rs.

Today's preoccupation with tests and SATS may seem to be a modern phenomena but the book details not dissimilar standards set for children back in the late 1800s.

These included expectations that four and five-year-olds should be able to recognise letters and that, by five and six, they should be able to read words of three letters.

Seven-year-olds were expected, among other things, to be able to transcribe from a reading book and add and subtract, mentally, numbers up to 10 and write down numbers up to 100.

School was also where children were "encouraged to have self-discipline, to support others, respect family values and demonstrate a responsible, caring attitude".

The playground games the children played over the years included hopscotch, leapfrog, skipping, knights, tag, tick and nick and marbles.

Team sports like netball, football and cricket were introduced more recently.

When television arrived in the school, one little boy claimed he spent the first afternoon it was installed watching horse- racing – though the head teacher of the time was unable to remember it!

One of the things recalled by children of all ages, in every era, was the train line which ran near the school playground.

As the years passed, steam trains turned into diesels but, whatever it was, the children would always wave to the passing drivers and, in most cases, there would be a cheery wave back.

Tim Else recounts how when he joined the school in 1960, he became something of a local celebrity. It turned out that, as well as being the son of the landlord of the local pub, the Old Plough, he was the 1,000th pupil on the school roll.

The book is beautifully illustrated by drawings and sketches by children from across the years and all 94 current pupils have made a contribution in words and pictures.

Their verdict on their new state-of-the-art school is all positive from the new computers and laptops to the toilet block.

"I like the new girls' toilet with automatic taps and a hand dryer and in PE you get more room and you have apparatus. It's really cool," said Erin Riley.

"I love the heated floor," said Jamie Bullock.

"The playgrounds are a lot bigger," added Joseff Williams.

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County:  Derbyshire

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