Many, many children are taken to school by car these days. Let’s not blame laziness but rather suggest that with parents working it may be the only way to safely and conveniently get youngsters to their centre of education. But, as we all know, it does add an extra peak traffic time as cars converge on schools.
Is the school run a new phenomenon? Absolutely not. We have a picture here of a group of children whose parents had decided that the Miss Chinnocks’ school in Market Lavington was the perfect place for them to get their education. The family concerned lived in Erlestoke some 3½ miles to the west. This family had not, at the time, moved into motor transport. The family travelled in a small cart.
We have a charming photo here, with five children and an adult seated in the little cart. The horse decided to look away as the photo was taken but the people all posed nicely.
We don’t often look at the lives of non-Lavington residents but these were Lavington educated, so we’ll make an exception. Not that we do know all that much of them!
The children belong to the Look family. The family had Manor Farm in Erlestoke. The family had not been in Erlestoke for long. At the time of the 1911 census Edward Henry Look was a dairy farmer in Somerset with his wife, Eva and four young daughters – Edith, Ida, Eveline and Hilda. Perhaps they are amongst those on the cart. Edward died in 1957 and is buried at Erlestoke.
And off the children go to the Miss Chinnocks’ School which was sited next to the Workmans’ Hall in the village.
One of our new displays for 2013 is entitled ‘School Days’ and there you can see many photos of school children, posing for group photos or just at work. There are also other artefacts to remind us all of school days from the past. We hope to see you there.
Market Lavington Museum 