Tales From The Village- LYTCHETT MATRAVERS

The Village School's 100th Birthday Celebration of 1975

by Shirley Percival

Lytchett Matravers Board School was first opened on Monday July 5th, 1875, with 46 pupils attending. In celebration of its centenary, in July 1975 the children of the village school performed an operetta- showing how education was introduced to the village and the reception received from parents and children at that time. The children wore Victorian costumes and there was an orchestral accompaniment for all the songs.

Shirley Percival runs a local history group for the Lytchett and Upton U3A.  One of the things the group do is to record tales of local people and events, mostly from the last two centuries, and the great changes and developments that have taken place to make the village the place it is today.  The memory of the village school centenary celebration has been kept safe by this group for 45 years, and kindly reproduced with their permission here: 

Read excerpts from the original centenary magazine below:

An article about the centenary celebrations in the local paper from July 1975:

Thanks to Shirley Percival and the history group for kindly letting us use these in our villages project.