HERE’S a quirky one for you. It’s a bunch of young ladies pretending to be airplanes. Only joking! It is of course a P.E. lesson from the distant days of the early 20th century when lyrca, leggings, and nylon were but a whispered nightmare on the toxic breeze of modernity.

The venue, and it’s quite a tricky one to guess is the playing field in what is now Abergavenny’s Cantref Primary School.

Prior to becoming Harold Road Junior School, the Grade II Listed Building started life as The Girls’ County Intermediate School’ which served the whole of Monmouthshire. It opened its doors in 1898 with 60 fee-paying pupils, rising quickly to 168 by 1919 and 250 by 1952.

The Butler Act of 1944 abolished fees and subsequently all girls were recruited through the County Grading Examination (known as the 11 plus exam). The school would be later known as the Abergavenny Girls High School.

Sadly, earlier this month the school’s Old Girls Association disbanded after a brief 99 years together.

Watch out for a more detailed feature and more pics in next week’s Chronicle on the old school and the Old Girls Association. In the meantime spare a thought for these poor girls being forced to strike a pose in such get-up. No wonder the poor things look perturbed.

If you’ve got any engaging and striking pictures from the past (they don’t just have to be sport related!) that could do with an airing and benefit from the oxygen of publicity, then why let them

linger and gather dust in the drawer a day longer? Send them to [email protected]. Alternatively you can do things the old fashioned way and pick up the telephone and ring Tim Butters on 01873 852187 (30).