This week's pictures from the past

A round-up of the Shropshire Star's nostalgia pictures for the week ending Saturday, September 19. This photo from our files was taken on May 7, 1968. The caption said: "A word of praise from the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Rev M.A. Hodson, at the official opening of the new Church Stretton CofE School, for 10-year-old Kevin Tranter, who read the lesson at the service of dedication. "Also on the picture, from left, are: Lieutenant Colonel A.P. Sykes, chairman of the education committee, Mr R. Morris, headmaster of the school, and the Rev W.H. Wilson, rector of Church Stretton. "The new school is almost completely free of conventional corridors. Each classroom has a folding partition which, when opened, opens into a larger working area." If this picture doesn't look very old, it's because it isn't. But it does record a bit of disappeared Shropshire. This is Neenton village hall, near Bridgnorth, on April 28, 2008, shortly after planning permission was granted for its demolition. It stood just on the west side of the main road, at the bottom of the bank below Churchyard Farm and the church. These Shropshire footballers from yesteryear had obviously had some cup success. But who are they? When was it? What was the competition? The indications are that they were from the Ludlow area, as the photographer's stamp is for "George E. White, Ludlow." The photo was loaned to us by Mr A. Minton, of Abbeyfield, Bridgnorth. "The team have obviously won the cup. I wonder when that was and who the team were." This is what postmen used to look like years ago. This is "Charlie the Postman" handing out something to some children getting on for 80 years ago. The photo was loaned to us by Charlie's son, Dick Williams, of Churchstoke, who tells us: "A few months ago a Mr Malcolm Jones, who lives in Newcastle-on-Clun, gave me a photograph his mother took in 1932 of my father Charlie the Postman handing over what look like stamps to a young boy who was holding out some money for them. "The boy on the left is Mr Jones, and the other lad was Os Francis. The location is Cwm Cae, Pentre, Churchstoke. Note that the postman's hat resembled a helmet." [caption id="attachment_76629" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Pupils of Wem Secondary Modern School, 1958."][/caption] If you're from Wem, and have nudged into your 60s, take a close look and see if you can recognise yourself in this picture. It was emailed in to us by Sarah Reeves, on behalf of her mother Barbara Reeves, nee Jones, and is of Class 1B at Wem Secondary Modern School in 1958. These were Barbara's classmates from all those years ago and she is wondering how many of them can be identified now.