Classroom inside The National School (now The Village Hall). (Lent by Geoff Atkin)
This picture of one of the classes in Tansley school was taken during the First World War, probably 1917. Geoff Atkin's mother is the third child from the left in the middle row. The children are well dressed with one or two in sailor suits. In front of each child is a slate for writing and drawing on. Although formal teaching was the order of the day, some of the children’s work is displayed on the walls together with some nature pictures. The time was probably around Christmas as a number of paper ball decorations are hanging from the gas light fitting. The school had one main room in which there were three classes separated by glass partitions with a side room for a fourth class again separated by a partition. A door also led to a separate room which the infants used as a classroom. There was no playground but the school was adjacent to the Village Green. The older children tended allotments which were situated in what is now the burial ground of Holy Trinity Church.