General News
8 March, 2025
Scholars pour over old photos
FRIENDSHIPS forged in a country school more than 50 years ago were renewed when former students gathered in Newbridge last weekend. More than 30 people returned for the first reunion in six years, tables at the Newbridge Hotel topped with scrapbooks...
FRIENDSHIPS forged in a country school more than 50 years ago were renewed when former students gathered in Newbridge last weekend.
More than 30 people returned for the first reunion in six years, tables at the Newbridge Hotel topped with scrapbooks and photo albums.
Organisers Elizabeth Lapidge Rayner and Gwen Ramm were classmates in the 1950s and have kept up their friendship.
They recalled starting at the school when it did not have flush toilets or drinking taps.
“And sporting equipment ... there was one cricket bat, a softball bat and tennis court but no net. The teacher made one out of baling twine,” they recalled.
Elizabeth said the school also had a Singer treadle sewing machine.
Newbridge Primary School opened in 1861 under head teacher, Antony Lester. One of the two classrooms were demolished in the 1960s to build a new room when workers discovered a bottle under the old building with newspaper clippings from 1867.
The school closed in 1993 due to declining enrolments and the building is now a private residence.
Elizabeth and Gwen said Saturday’s reunion luncheon had been a success.