Peg Monkey
master brummie
Lyndhurst County Primary School (1960-1983)
The school had a relatively short life of 23 years and it does seem an odd decision to close it down after such a short period, presumably there was an initial bulge of children on the estate when it was first developed, which changed as the population aged, having said that, there must be children living on the estate who have to walk to the nearest school (Yenton or Osborne Road?). I still remember the building as an example of contemporary architecture of the day, a flat roof building of prefabricated construction, modular in design based on 3 distinct features; when viewing the school with your back to Beechmount Drive the centre of the building was the floor to ceiling glazed main hall, to the right was the infant/reception single story block of two class rooms and to the left of the main hall was the main block of classrooms on two floors, I think there was 6 on each floor. The caretaker lived in a useful sized detached house just to the right of the school, there was pedestrian access to the school from Beechmount Drive, the main entance and small carpark acessed from Rowden Drive, apart from the playground (adjoining the main classroom block) there was a large playing field (now built on I believe) which had open access for use by children of the estate at any time.
I never went to the school (my post #17 explains why) but many of my friends did, I've tried to find a photo but no luck so far.
I believe the school has now been demolished but I guess the caretaker's house was left untouched as it would still be useful family accommodation.
If a photo doesn't emerge I'll post a sketch showing the basic outline of the school later.
Peg.
The school had a relatively short life of 23 years and it does seem an odd decision to close it down after such a short period, presumably there was an initial bulge of children on the estate when it was first developed, which changed as the population aged, having said that, there must be children living on the estate who have to walk to the nearest school (Yenton or Osborne Road?). I still remember the building as an example of contemporary architecture of the day, a flat roof building of prefabricated construction, modular in design based on 3 distinct features; when viewing the school with your back to Beechmount Drive the centre of the building was the floor to ceiling glazed main hall, to the right was the infant/reception single story block of two class rooms and to the left of the main hall was the main block of classrooms on two floors, I think there was 6 on each floor. The caretaker lived in a useful sized detached house just to the right of the school, there was pedestrian access to the school from Beechmount Drive, the main entance and small carpark acessed from Rowden Drive, apart from the playground (adjoining the main classroom block) there was a large playing field (now built on I believe) which had open access for use by children of the estate at any time.
I never went to the school (my post #17 explains why) but many of my friends did, I've tried to find a photo but no luck so far.
I believe the school has now been demolished but I guess the caretaker's house was left untouched as it would still be useful family accommodation.
If a photo doesn't emerge I'll post a sketch showing the basic outline of the school later.
Peg.