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School Days 1926 - 1937 by Sylvia Millard I was no academic. I liked history and geography. I enjoyed finding out which country things came from. I always had good marks for my neat writing, once winning Ist prize at the local flower show. My grandfather once took me to the Colston Hall to a chrysanthemum show and I was very proud of the essay I wrote about it. I enjoyed sewing lessons and still have the cushion cover I made which won 1st prize, also at the local show. After the recreation field was opened, Mr Bisgrove, the head teacher, took us down there and we played rounders. Teacher Miss Pow taught us to play shinty in the playground, a new game to us, and we had to take our own walking sticks to use. As I didn't have one, Henry Collins cut me one from the hedge with the right curve to it. But it was so heavy that when I was in goal no-one would come near me for fear of getting hurt. I was quite a good goalkeeper! We had cookery lessons in the Reading Room, cooking on the coal-fired range and a three- burner oil stove with an oven on the top. The highlight of that was the Christmas cake we each made and iced. The boys used to come round at dinner time to see if there were any samples going. Of course the girls were all well-behaved - once I got into trouble for shutting Betty Baldwin in the coalhouse which was in the corner of the Reading Room. The lesson I really loved was the two weeks' course on dairy work in the Memorial Hall. Twelve of us attended. I was the only girl allowed to go because I spent all my spare time down Collins’s farm [Court Farm], where I even had my own little bucket and stool to help with the milking. But the horses were my real love. We learned to make butter and cheese. We each had a small butter churn with a handle. Sam Frappell got carried away and churned so fast that the churn sprung open and the milk that became the butter flew all over the hall floor. Everyone thought it a good joke except the teacher! After the lesson each day, I would get the horse and cart from the farm and collect the whey for the pigs. Sam Frappell came into another incident I remember. One day Mr Lane, the teacher who taught with a cane in his hand, was using it too frequently, so Sam pulled it off him and threw it to me and I broke the cane in half. We were a lively lot. There is one thing I am a bit ashamed of now. My best friend, Vera Mellett and I were walking to school one lovely sunny day and we decided it was much too nice to be shut in school. So we hid in the haunted house that stood where the Lodge is now, and waited until school started, then went for a walk out along West Hay road, up through the fields to Wrington Hill and back down in time to mingle with the others coming home for dinner. The trouble was, Farmer Marshall had driven along West Hay and seen us. When he got back to the Farm, he said to my uncle: "What was Sylv doing out West Hay this morning?" Uncle went home to dinner and said to my aunty: "What was Sylvia doing out West Hay this morning?" That afternoon, my mum went to visit my aunty and the first words she said to her were: "What was Sylv doing out West Hay this morning?" That tea-time, when I got in from school, the first thing my mother said to me was: "What were you doing out West Hay this morning?" I never did it again. And, for any children reading this, it's just not worth ali the trouble you get at home and at school. So, don't play hookey!!!                                                                                                   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ As I saw Salvia by Chris Coyle Las Vegas and Sylvia Millard seemed an unlikely combination. But meet they did! She won a bucketful of money there and then stayed up till 3.00 a.m. putting it all back in! I said, "What did you do that for!!!???" "Chris", she said "Some moments are just for the living" - and that from someone whose gambling experience (mostly) was shove ha'penny on a Friday night! We worked together at Derrick Hosegoodfor 15 years.where she was the Director in charge of the Saddlery side of the business. Her technical knowledge was legendary  - one might even say "revered" - even in Walsall, the bastion of the saddlery trade. I understand that in his role as one of God's Messengers, the Angel Gabriel has the odd horse or two put at his disposal. Let us hope that all is well in the reins and bridle department, or he will find himself sorely in need of God's help. We are all human however and Sylvia (when roused) could be a force to be reckoned with! The sight of her clenched fist appearing at the top of the lift shaft with the altercation "There will be dead bodies down there if that order is not sent off TODAY" was usually enough to persuade colleagues that perhaps, after all, there was just a slight possibility, that, given a fair wind &c. &c., things might just be rearranged.... I shall never forget the way she looked after her mother during her long illness. If the term "One of the Old School" is meant to encompass the qualities of selflessness, devotion and dedication, then undoubtedly she had graduated "With Honours" from that establishment. We can all bear witness to the huge respect in which Sylvia Millard was held, by her friends, neighbours and colleagues by the attendance at her recent 90th birthday party. Wouldn't we all love such a swansong.

Recollections of the life of Sylv Millard  These two sets of recollections were read out at Sylv’s Thanksgiving Service at All Saints’ Church, Wednesday, 15th January, 2014. The first, Sylv wrote herself, the second was by Chris Coyle, a former work colleague at Derrick Hosegood, Bristol. They are reproduced here in recognition of Sylv’s place as part of the history of Wrington.