Born in 1929, I was a pupil of F.G.S. from its opening day when we lived at Sunnyside
(and then Kyle in Pierrefondes Avenue) which still stands on the island just
south of Bradford’s Garage.
I later went to Farnham Boys’ Grammar School during
WW2 as an out-of-County pupil along with many other Hampshire lads, it cost 50 bob a term.
In those pre-war days the passenger-carrying miniature railway that
went (then) from Attwood’s Dairy (next door to F.G.S.) to Blackwater had its locos
built and maintained by a Mr. Smith in Prospect Avenue, the track to his house on
the south side went across the sports field of F.G.S. The Farnborough end was later
resited at Farnborough Car Auctions.
I remember little of my schooldays, only one fellow classmate
called Spinks. My father was a Principal Scientific Officer at the R.A.E.
Bruce at ‘Sunnyside’, Farnborough Road (at the junction with Prospect Avenue) probably in 1936 when he was aged six or seven.
Bruce Main-Smith : July 2010
I asked Bruce if he could expand on his description of the miniature railway and he replied with this most interesting letter.
Malcolm Knight