We are currently working on the history of the school and would welcome any memories you may have.   Please forward comments via e-mail to admin@stanstead.nottingham.sch.uk, post of telephone - whichever you find the best.

 Memories of her childhood  from Michelle Batchelor who spent her childhood living in a house on Stanstead Avenue

I have been looking at the Stanstead Primary web site. It's looking great, but the school wasn't built on the site of a turkey farm - it was just an ordinary old farm. The farm house itself was sited around Manly Close, Heronridge. It had turkey's, chicken's and guinea fowl. Not long after mum and dad moved into their brand new home (mid-60'S) several turkeys escaped form the farm and found their way into our garden.

They grew corn on the site where the school and school field stand. The farm had a farm shop that sold eggs, apples, oranges and other vegetables. When my brother and I were little mum used to walk us along the disused railway embankment to the shop to buy fresh produce. One day when I was about 9-years old a cockerel got lost and found its way to our garden. It was during the school summer holidays so I was thrilled as it meant I could feed him when he crowed at about 5am every morning. I fed him rabbit food which he seemed to enjoy as it had a lot of corn in, eventually me and my friend went to the farm to tell the farmer that we had his rooster. He came to fetch him and gave us 50 new pence - a huge amount of money.

The farmer eventually stopped growing corn and the Stanstead School car park (top field) became a meadow, Travellers used to tether their horses in the field while they stayed on the farm. The children who lived on Stanstead Avenue felt that the top field was theirs. We played hide and seek and ball games in it. One day I came across a lovely "Gypsy Horse" I sat on it and it bit my Wellington boot and pulled it off (In those days you had 2 pairs of footwear shoes and wellies!) We used to go to the farm to collect feathers from the domestic fowl.

The farm became empty and slipped into disrepair. The Traveller families still used to camp over on the fields and land adjoining the now derelict farm. An exciting adventure for the Stanstead Avenue kids was to explore the now empty farm house and out-buildings. The cellar was amazing as we were convinced that prisoners had been chained up down there. We also used to walk along the drainage system, it went from one side of the Railway embankment through to the other, it was very dark and scary.

In 1977, during the summer, we held a street party on Stanstead Avenue as it was the Queen's Sliver Jubilee. The council allowed the street to be cordoned off to traffic (not that many families had a car in those days). The mum's and dad's put trestle-tables up in the cul-de-sac and everyone brought a food dish to put on the table. Judging by the photo's food was a simple affair and our most talked about dish was an iced cake with a Union Jack on it. Mrs Henrys from  Stanstead Avenue made it - she still lives there. Everyone wore red, white and blue and we played games.

The school was almost finished in that Jubilee year. The Stanstead kids hated all the diggers, dumper trucks and builder vehicles as it meant that the field was no longer "theirs". It's ironic that so many Stanstead Kids have sent their own children to the school and in my case fought the Council with the Stanstead Action Group and saved the School from closure. As my much younger sister attended Stanstead from about 1984 I can remember Mrs Edwards (the then Headteacher) having the steps put in so Stanstead School children could access the railway embankment for "Nature Studies". My sister made many strong and lasting friendships at Stanstead, something which seems to last to this day. It is a very unique and special school.

Thank you Michelle - does anyone else have memories of Stanstead to add to this page