Introduction
Welcome to "The History of Wendover School". This web site has been created by a group of five mothers, with children at the John Hampden School, Wendover. The CLUTCH Club was set up as part of the Millennium award scheme, in conjunction with the John Hampden School, the Open University and the Living Archive to research a local history project and create a web-site which could then be available as a study aid on the internet.

This web site project is about a community and its experience of education beween 1868 and 1974. We learn about the old school buildings and about life of a pupil at school in a thriving village community, from pages of original school log books, from photographs and from the memories of former pupils.

Education has been important in Wendover for a long time. A school was started by John Colet, member of parliament for Wendover, over 400 years ago during the reign of Henry VIII.

The target audience is aged 4 – 11, and the aim was to make the topic interesting for them. It is hoped that older children and adults will enjoy the site too.
Children who have difficulty reading the words on the page can click on the speaker icon which is on most pages - this will provide a short summary of the page you are on. Note that these sound files are quite large and may take time to load.
Quicktime must be installed if you wish to hear the sound clips. You can install it by clicking on this button and following the instructions.
The topic was researched in a number of ways:
  • Talking to former pupils of the school
  • Local newspapers from the era
  • Local interest books and magazines
  • Access to archives from the old school

Basic training and advice was provided by the Open University, and the rest has been achieved by the enthusiasm and sheer determination of those involved.

Congratulations to Brenda Ainsworth, Ann Flynn, Karen Patton, Beverley Moir & Caroline Perkins for their dedication and hard work and for achieving their Millennium Awards.

Click here for a full list of acknowledgements