The school was a stone building that had once been part of Church Farm and still has a date stone 1622 on the wall near the church. The school house was a later addition, and by 1935 a brick built porch had been added to the school. This had a small hand basin and one cold water tap, and there were separate lavatories for boys and for girls.

Children started in the infants at 4+ and continued until they left, at age 14. The stone built porch next to the house had stairs up to a small room where art paper was kept, and a locked cupboard used by the Sunday school. There was a metal safe that held the log books and legal records. In 1935 the playground was compacted earth, with fruit trees, and a capped well, and a partition with girls on the north side and boys on the south. This was soon removed and a tarred surface laid.

The only access was up Church Lane and the steps to the playground had iron railings round where one boy got his head stuck and was freed with great difficulty. The railings are still there.

The two class rooms were heated by coal fires and two gas radiators which were very hot, so children soon learned not to touch them or they would be burnt.

Mrs Smith, the Headmistress at the time, left suddenly and Mrs Jones took over in April 1935. The school house had one cold water tap in the kitchen, a shallow stone sink, and a black iron gas stove. The lavatory was separate, down a short path and the coal house was beside it. The sink was replaced with a Belfast sink and a gas geyser installed in the small bedroom over the new bath. Previously a ‘tin’ bath was used, in front of the fire, in the dining room and it had to be filled from kettles and pans. A flat iron was heated with stones put into the fire until a gas iron was installed, making ironing much easier.

Because the churchyard adjoined the house, it was very damp and mould grew in the cupboards, and there were silverfish and mice! Mrs Jones had previously lived in a centrally heated house with electricity and a bathroom. She had moved to Bedfordshire because it was one of the few counties that allowed married women teachers to hold permanent positions, and Wymington had mains water and flush toilets (two of her requirements!). A new wood floor was put in the school c1937, which was the year electricity came to Wymington. The school was wired for electricity in1940.

Mrs Jones introduced country dancing to the school, much to the horror of the parents – boys and girls would have to hold hands! There was very little equipment; a few books, some slates left over from years ago, well used Noah’s ark animals, dog eared hymn books, pencils, pens with steel nibs and white pottery ink-wells. Long desks seated up to four pupils.

The morning began with prayers and a hymn; a tuning fork gave the pitch. Arithmetic and English followed, then 1/3 pint bottles of milk were carried in by the ‘big boys’, and drinking straws were poked through the cardboard lids. In the winter the milk sometimes froze so it was put by the fire to thaw. After milk break it was playtime and the games played were seasonal. Marbles, hopscotch, “I-acky”, leap frog, tick, and more. In the winter snowballs and slides. Fights amongst the boys were quite common, as were grazed knees. Boys all wore short trousers until they left school. The First id box contained iodine, lint, cottonwool and bandages. A whistle was blown and lines were formed, boys in one, girls in another, and the second part of the morning began. History, geography, nature study, and scripture – this was a Church of England school – and the children were expected to know the Lord’s Prayer, creed and catechism. An inspector came from time to time to test them.

Next it was ‘dinner time’ and everyone went home to eat. The children who lived in New Wymington walked along Rushden Road four times a day. Afternoon school was art, games, singing, and in summer perhaps a nature walk over the fields.

Joe was the caretaker; he lit fires in the morning and cleaned the school when the children had gone home. He threw wet tea leaves on the floor and brushed them; there were clouds of dust!

Mr Rogers, the rector, came from time to time and occasionally there was a visiting missionary. One brought a prayer wheel and used a bunch of keys to whirl it round his head. HMI’s (Her Majesty’s Inspectors) walked in unannounced – there was no security so anyone could arrive, usually mothers saying “Our T… can’t come today – he’s having his shoes mended”, or “Our P… can’t see the doctor for the medical because he’s been sewn into his vest for the winter”. “His surname’s not really B…, but he’s always called that.” Reply – “If that’s what he’s known as, then that’s the name that’s going into the register.”

Before the war the school was also used for elections, meetings, and was used when we celebrated the Coronation Jubilee. In 1938 the senior children went to Harrold school by bus. When the war started they returned to Wymington school and as the school was full, the Chapel room was used for a time until it was deemed safe for the older children to go back to Harrold. The gypsies were ordered to stay where they were at the start of the war, so their children came to the school. “Our J…’s not sitting next to them. They have nits.” The ‘nit’ nurse was a regular visitor, and the gypsies were very clean. Infectious diseases were commonplace; Whooping cough spread quickly and one of the remedies was breathing in the vapour from tar used to mend the roads. One family had a novel remedy – mother cooked a mouse and her daughter ate it! (She died about 5 years ago.)

In August 1939 teachers were recalled to their schools to prepare for war. The school house had a radio. Before the electricity came it had been a wireless that used glass acid filled batteries that were carried, two at a time, in a wooden box down to Mrs Church who exchanged exhausted ones for re-charged ones. On the Sunday morning of 3^rd September 1939 the big boys gathered by the front door which was open, and the radio was turned up loud to hear Neville Chamberlain declare that we were at war, and our lives changed for ever, though we didn’t know it then.

Mothers and children arrived from Walthamstow as the first wave of evacuees. They were billeted around the village and were not pleased at all the noise the birds and animals made. Also there was no fish and chip shop – what were they going to eat? As London was not bombed, they went home, but when the Blitz started a new wave of evacuees arrived.

There are holes drilled in the stone work round the front window of the school house – the last remaining evidence of the steel lined shutters that Mrs Jones had fitted. When the two bombs fell in Abbott’s fields on the evening of Nov 29^th 1940, the people in the sitting room were protected. The long windows on the stairs were broken. All the windows of the school lay in the yard – wood frames and smashed glass. When they were mended the widows were bricked up nearly to the top, so it was dark in the class rooms. Wooden battens were put across the ceiling of the small class room, and everyone crowded in there when there was an air raid warning. They were in there when the Rushden school was bombed. There was a machine gun fight over the school one night, German and British fighter planes gunning each other. The boys gathered up the spent cartridges in the morning, but Mr Dunkan, the policeman, took them all away.

The field between the school yard and Rushden Road was laid for hay. An American soldier rose from the grass followed by a little lady. The children playing in the yard thought they had been picnicking. The Americans at the airfield gave treats to the Podington children. Mrs Jones said the Wymington children were not getting anything so a sports day was held, in the pightle where the Memorial Hall now stands. The pineapple ice cream we had was memorable because there had been no ice cream since food rationing started. One of the wooden jig-saws, given as prizes, is still kept in Wymington.

The winter of 1942 was very severe. The railway points froze so no coal arrived at Rushden Station. The school lavatories froze till there was only one working and when that also froze the school had to close.

Any food not rationed was quickly bought. Tins of MV were eaten by most of the village. Within days large angry red itching spots were plaquing many children. This was so serious that the food inspector had to find the answer. MV was stamped on tins and stood for meat and vegetables. Fortunately there was very little meat as that was found to be the cause of the spots. It was corned beef that had been canned in the First World War!