My First Term at Dr Williams' School, 1954

I want to tell you about my first term at Dr. Williams School for girls in North Wales. It was a well known school and I was to have gone there when I was 11 but my mother's death when I was 8 years old, accelerated the process.

I felt it was a privilege to go there and I was excited about starting. All these parcels of uniform were arriving in the mail. I had never had so many clothes in my whole life! Sports shirts, Sunday dark green serge dresses which we called green sacks, a brown velour hat with a green and white hat band......... Going to DWS meant I could have official piano lessons. My mother had been teaching me since I could sit on the piano stool but this would be a proper teacher with a syllabus from the Royal Academy of Music in London.

I was the only New Girl in the January term and was placed in a dormitory with five other 9 to 10 year olds. The Junior School was called Tremhyfryd (later Llys Mynach) and an aunt had given me rose scented soap as a going away gift. To this day the smell of rose scented soap brings back memories of that first term. I would never in a million years buy myself rose scented soap.

To continue reading this story, click on the associated pdf document on the right

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Comments (1)

  1. Posted by: Susan Ogden
    Posted on: 28.01.2015 at 20:27

    Gwyneth sent this by email from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

    I also experienced the letter censoring she mentions in her story - "Gwyneth is well and happy". We were never allowed to seal the envelopes of letters home!
    (Be sure to read the document on the right hand side of the page)



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  • Uploaded by:Sue Ogden
  • Approximate date of item:
    From: -- January 1954
    To: -- - ----
  • Location:Dolgellau
  • County:Merioneth
  • Creator:Gwyneth Norton
  • Related Story:Associated Story Upload
  • Themes:Pupil experience  

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