Don Sewell's Memories (born 1912)

talking to a Bletchley Community Heritage Initiative interviewer in 2001

Oh, at school, at the little private school to start with.

Where was the private school?

At the top of Church Street. It was a fairly large private house. They didn’t have many pupils, probably about 15 pupils, that were all.

Do you remember who ran it?

Yes, a Mrs Fry.

And did she do it on her own?

As far as I knew, yes.

And that is where you learned to read and write?

Oh, yes, that was my first schooling.

So you went there at what age?

Well, I suppose about four or five, something like that.”

Mr Sewell goes on to say that after three or four years he then went to Bletchley Road School and left aged 14 to begin work.

NB: Mrs Maria Fry died at Newport Pagnell in August 1942, aged 86. She had been teaching all her life and before her marriage taught at the Infants’ School. After her marriage she opened a private school in Church Street, which she continued into old age.

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