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Background to the school (1927-1977)

Last Updated on Tuesday, 09 October 2012

When Charborough Road Junior School opened in 1927 it had seven teachers and the first headmaster was Mr Joseph Thomason.  It was at this time known as the Charborough Road Council School and pupils transferred from the Fylton (Filton) Church School in September 1927.  

 A second school was later approved and was erected behind the Charborough Road Council School and opened in April 1934.  In 1944 this senior school became known as the Secondary Modern School.  Mr Joseph Thomason was appointed head at the Secondary Modern School and Mr Albert John Chamberlain succeeded him at what had by then become the Charborough Road Junior School.    When Mr Thomason resigned in 1943, Mr Chamberlain took over as head master and Mr Charles H Rickards followed him as headmaster of the junior school in June 1944.  

School plan for 1940s drawn from memory by a former pupil The junior school had quite a troubled time during the second world war – first it was requisitioned by the ARP (Air Raid Precaution) as their base and was closed on 4 September 1939 for nine months. The children were transferred to Shield Road School generally on a shared basis, but on 6 May 1940 the school reopened at Charborough Road and full time teaching resumed.  Then, in the course of the infamous daytime air raid of Filton airfield on Wednesday 25 September 1940, two high explosive bombs fell in the proximity to the school buildings causing serious damage to the structure, one rendering the building untenable for some months and the children were again transferred to Shield Road and some also used the adjacent senior school.  On 2 Dec 1940 – three class rooms of the junior school buildings were put back into use, the necessary repairs to damage caused by bombs having been completed.

However, on 3 December 1940, further extensive damage was caused to the school buildings by high explosive bombs which fell close to the school in the course of an air raid on the night of December 2-3, 1940.  No part of the school could be used for teaching.  A quantity of broken glass in the classrooms and corridors of the senior school also rendered it unsafe for the day, but children were able to move to the senior school the following day.

School plan for late 1950s drawn from memory by a former pupil By 1944 the school was using one prefabricated class room on the Charborough Road Secondary School premises and in September 1945, the junior school was using a second prefabricated class room on the secondary school, and in November 1945, it also occupied one of the secondary school class rooms on the junior school premises – thus making 11 class rooms.   In the spring of 1947 the first of the prefabs were built (known as classrooms 9 and 10) to supplement classrooms 1-8 of the main building at the Charborough Road Junior School.  

When Mr Rickards commenced duty in June 1944, the number on the roll was 422 for the eight classrooms of the main school building.  Shortly afterwards the junior school occupied a room in the Old Church School, Filton, a quarter of a mile away from the main school and also used a classroom in part of the Decontamination Centre, about a quarter of a mile away in the direction of Bristol (at the top of Braemar Crescent, opposite the old Cabot cinema).

With growing numbers of children, a further six new prefab classrooms, in three blocks of two, were agreed and were built on the premises.  As a result in September 1948 the children from the Old Church School room, from the Decontamination Centre class room and from the class room on the secondary school premises returned to use the bigger Charborough Road Junior School.

View down the school showing the new prefabs  built 1948 This made 16 main classrooms on the school premises, and in June 1950 there were then 765 children on the roll.  Thus since Mr Rickards commenced duty in June 1944, the classrooms on the site had increased from 8 to 16, and the number on the roll from 422 to 765.  Mr Rickards retired on 26 July 1968 after many years as a teacher and headteacher at Charborough Junior School.  Mr Morgan took over as acting head and Mr Voyce started 6 January 1969.  The school then bizarrely ‘moved’ from Gloucestershire to Avon on 1 April 1974.

Sources of information include school archives and information from ‘Filton, Gloucestershire – Some Account of the Village and Parish’ by W.L.Harris (1981)

 

Website last updated

9 October 2012

Friday, 29th March 2024. Website designed and provided by Kevin Morgan (pupil at Charborough Road Junior School from 1955-1961).