Wednesday, August 30, 2017

A radio portrait of Bolventor School in 1947

This morning Radio Four Extra broadcast a programme from 1947 that will be of interest whether you are interested in social history or the history of broadcasting.

The School on the Moor paints a portrait of Bolventor School, which had 24 pupils aged from five to fifteen and two teachers: headmaster Reginald Bennetts and his wife ("Master" and "Teacher" to everybody).

As the BBC blurb for the programme explains:
In this experimental programme, BBC engineers had set-up microphones around this tiny remote village school in the middle of Bodmin Moor in the autumn of 1947. Microphones and cables were left to allow children to get used to them.
Bolventor School closed in 1994.

Today, of course, it is The Old School, a "sympathetically converted Grade II listed former school with stunning views to Bodmin Moor".

1 comment:

Stephen Bigger said...

I had thought you were talking about the book by Dorita Fairlie Bruce with that title of a school not too far from Two Bridges. Starring the delightful Toby who is herself Fairlie enterprising and tough...