We are very pleased to release the first documents from our Prestbury School Log Books project. We’ve teamed up with Prestbury St Mary’s Church of England Junior School and Cheltenham Local & Family History Library to photograph and transcribe the Prestbury School log books and admissions registers during lockdown 2020.

These are fully text searchable Word documents (use ctrl + f to search for a word, date or name) which provide an interesting daily insight into school life. Some include key events in the villages, details of what was being studied, life during and between the wars, issues with attendance, scarlet fever or measles outbreaks and much more.

Some words were unclear due to the old handwriting and these are usually indicated with a colour or ? or italics in the document. We’ve not yet been through them for error correction but should a volunteer be forthcoming to do this please get in touch with us by emailing prestburyhistory@gmail.com.

We also have the admissions registers for the junior class which offers some fascinating information for family or local history researchers. Date and age when entering and date leaving the school, reason for leaving, parent’s name and address when entering upon admission etc… We’ve also added some columns for estimated age at leaving, modern day postcode and approximate distance traveled to attend the school.

This resource has been made available thanks to the following volunteers: Michelle Rees (transcription), Catherine Martin (transcription), Jane Medcalf (transcription), Rebecca Sillence (log book photography/project co-ordination).

John Ryland’s Log Book 1888 – 1917 (Michelle Rees – in progress)

Mr Armstrong’s Log Book 1936 – 1951 (Jane Medcalf – in progress)

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