Museum exhibition to mark school milestone

So an exhibition at Steyning Museum between March 20th 2014 to the end of August 2014 will reflect on the schooldays of the Scholars of Steyning over the centuries.

The long history of the Grammar School provides continuity for the story.

The School had high ambitions and taught the classics but it was not the only school in the town and, for much of the 400 year time span, it was not even the largest. So it is a broader story than that of the Grammar School alone.

Starting with the Founding document which required the pupils to pay 1 penny a quarter towards the cost of ‘rods’ with which they themselves might be beaten, the exhibition weaves together the stories of the various schools with the help of uniforms, photographs, documents, past homework and objects.

Whether you attended the original Grammar School, the Secondary Modern or the Comprehensive (which bound the two together) you will find things which jog the memory.

And, of course, even if you went to different schools there is much common ground which you will recognise.

It has been great fun to put this story together – but not always easy. It was surprisingly difficult, for instance, to find a blackboard rubber for the display. From being something which every classroom had, it is now a rarity.

Report and picture contributed by Steyning Museum.