1989 – Pre-Covid Reminiscence
Happy Photographs From The Summer Of 1989
For seventeen years I was fortunate to be a class teacher in Gwenfo Church in Wales Primary School and for many of those years I was the class teacher of Year Three , seven and eight year olds. These happy photographs were taken in the summer of 1989. For three or four years running I was able to take my class on a trip to New Wallace Farm in Wenvoe. John Thomas was the farmer and he was delighted with the idea of showing the children around his farm. It reminded him of when he was a pupil in the old village school and they would be taken on nature walks. Lesley Opie often helped out on these visits and she discovered these photos. For the first two visits we walked the class to the entrance of the Golf Club road where Colin Webb would meet us with a tractor and a large trailer with hay bales down the middle. There was great excitement as the children climbed up on the trailer. We went along past the entrance of the Golf Club and out to New Wallace Farm. John Thomas met us and climbed up on the tractor. We travelled around many of the fields while the children were told about the beef cattle and sheep. It was often a bumpy ride which made it more exciting. On our return to the farmyard the children were treated to orange squash and biscuits while they sat on hay bales in one of the barns. John Thomas’s wife Iris provided the refreshments which was very kind.
We were then taken back to the main road and then we walked back to school. The children wrote thank you letters to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas. One year Mr. Thomas had trouble with his tractor and so that the children would not be disappointed Mr. David Phillips of Vishwell Farm came all the way to school to pick up the children with his tractor and trailer and took us out to New Wallace. Happy days! Lesley Opie and I have put our heads together and come up with the names of some of the children in the photos. Theo Davies, Helen Anning, Ben Gillespie, Jane Hardwick, Katy Fundell, Alistair Matheson, Richard Griffiths, Torsten Patel, Joseph McCann, Nicola David, Sam Hooper, Bethan Rees, Christina Evans, Michael, Naomi Davies and Susan Chaplin. Also in the photo are Lesley Opie, John Thomas and me Sandra Jones