Figure 1.--We are not sure just when Brockenhurst became a county school. The uniform was little changed in 1934. All the junion boys wear short trouser suits. Notice that many boys in the second row also wear short trouser suits.
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Figure 1.--We are not sure just when Brockenhurst became a county school. The uniform was little changed in 1934. All the junion boys wear short trouser suits. Notice that many boys in the second row also wear short trouser suits. |
We are not sure precisely when Brockenhurst made the transition from Pupil Teacher Centre to county school, but by 1934 it
was probably a county school. The uniform, however appears little changed from the 1926-30 period. The girls uniform is little
changed from 1930. The boys still wear various styled suits rather than a uniform. There appear to be a few more
darker-colored suits than earlier. There also appear to be more double-breasted suits. Even several junior boys wear them.
Even more boys appear to be wearing short trouser suits than in 1930.
Brockenhurst was founded in 1909, originally as a Pupil Teachers' Centre. A Pupil Teacher's Center was a school where promising girls as young as 13 learned to be teachers. Pupil Teachers' Centres were first established in 1846. The girls had to demonste a capability in basic numeracy and literacy skills. The school in 1909 began in the Wesleyan Church Sunday School room with only about 18 children. From the beginning it was a coeducational school. The school proved very successful and by 1929 had grown to over 200 children of primary and secondary age. The school had religious links, but was partially funded by the local authority. The school in 1926 had about 200 pupils. Some time in the ealy 1930s the school became a county school. HBC is not precisely sure what the designation county school meant, but judging from the uniform and coposition of the school, there does not appear to have been any great change. The school continued to be a secondary school. The younger children look to be about 11 years old which is about the same age that children entered grammar and other secondary schools.
These photographs of Brockenhurst are of considerable importance. Because the boys wear their own suits rather than a school uniform, they are wonderful historical records of the kind of suits that British boys were wearing at the time. Later pictures of boys in uniforms are not as accurate an indication of popular styles as is the case of what the boys were wearing before an uniform was introduced. The styles and colors of suits that the boys wear show what was commonly worn during this period.
Figure 2.--The boys wear many different styles and colors of suits. Apparently the school required suits, but let the boys and their parents decided what kind. Notice the different colors and styles. Most of the junior boys wear short trouser suits. This was presumably what younger boys wore rather than a school requirement. While most boys wear suits, a few boys wear blazers (but not the school blazer) and sports jackets wih different colored slacks. |
We have no early photographic images from Brockenhurst. The school photographs in 1934 show all of the junior 1st year boys as well as many 2nd and 3rd form boys wearing short trouser suits, although the styles and colors varied widely. The girls, unlike the boys, wear a perscribed uniform.
Boys and girls in the 1930s commonly wore school caps and hats. As this was the official school photograph, it is unclear if Brockenhurst had school headgdear and if so what ot was. If thdey did almost certainly the boys' caps would habe been the standard peaked school cap. Girls' school hats were more varied.
The boys wear many different styles and colors of suits. Apparently the school required suits, but let the boys and their parents decided what kind. Single breasted jackets are the most common, but several boys, especially the older boys, wear double breasted jackets. Most of the junior boys wear short trouser suits. This was presumably what younger boys wore rather than a school requirement. As this is a formal portrait with the boys pictured in rows, it is not possible to tell what the older boys are wearing and about what ahe the boys began to change from short to long trouser suits.
None of the boys wear blazers, although many girls do. In a 1926 photograph, one boy did wear the school blazer. I'm not sure at Brockenhurst why boys did not wear the school blazers. Such boys at other schools were quite commonly worn by boys, of course these weere primarily all boys' schools. The Brockenhurst blazer is a colored one with white or light-colored piping. I'm not sure what the color was, but the blazers and the girls' gym slips appear to have been the same color. It is not clear why so few blazers are being worn. Perhaps it was the expense.
Figure 3.--Although it is difficult to tell for sure, it looks like all the boys are wearing lace-up shoes. I do not see any boys wearing sandals. Virtually all of the boys wear ties and many of the girls. Click on the image for a view of the ties that the girls were wearing. |
All the boys, except one, wear ties. Quite a few are wearing dark-colred ties, although I'm not sure that they are wearing the school tie. (There is a school tie because almost all the girls are wearing identical ties.) In addition, many boys wear a variety of lighter-colored ties that are clearly not the school tie. This seems to HBC as rather unusual as boys and girls at the same tie generally wear the same school tie. Perhaps this convention was less established in the 1920s and 30s when coed schols were the exception rather than the norm. HBC notes that more boys are wearing dark, solid colored ties than was the case in 1926. In contrast to 1926, many of the girls are wearing ties--but not as many as in 1930. We do not, however, see the sprinking of striped ties that some girls wore in 1934. The girls wear their ties tucked under their gym slips. There are a few exceptions.
All of the girls wear gymslips, includng the girls wearing blazers. There are several different styles of gymslips. Most of the gym slips in 1926 were worn with with white blouses that had quite large Peter Pan collars and no ties. In 1934 as in 1930 0 the gym slips appear more standard and there are few blouses with wide collars. Several girls wear dark blouses with their gymslips. In addition, most of the girls are wearing ties.
As the boys have their jackets buttoned, only a few sweaters are vissible. The ones that are appear to be wearing various patternes rather than a standard grey sweater.
Figure 4.--Most of the boys wear grey kneesocks, although there are quite a variety of top colored bands and patterns. One boy here appears to be wearing black kneesocks. |
The pocture os not clear enough to tell much about the shirts that the boys are wearing. They do appear, however, to be mostly white rather than grey shirts. Interestinghly, the colored blouses that some girls were wearing in 1930 are no longer being worn in 1934.
All the junior boys in 1934 wear short trouser suits. A few younger boys in 1930 had long trouser suits. The short trouser suits were presumably what younger boys wore rather than a school requirement. It is not clear what most of the boys in the back are wearing. There is no indication that any of the boys are wearing knickerbockers as was common in America. Many of the boys in the second row are wearing short trousers, but it is not possible to quantify how many.
The junior boys in shorts all wear turn-over-top kneesocks. They all appear to be mostly grey, althouh a couple boys have quite dark socks. A few boys wear kneesocks with top colored bands. The photograph it is not clear enough to tell. There are some boys that do have tkneesocks with colored bands, but they appear to be varied colors rather than socks with the school colors. Since the socks with the colored bands are not the school's socks, we are not sure just where they came from. Perhaps the mothers just liked the look. One boy has black kneesocks. A few boys wear kneesocks with paterened tops. All the girls wear black long stockings as was the case in 1926. The kneesocks are only worn by boys. None of the boys wear long stockings.
It is difficult to tell, but all of the boys appear to be wearing shoes rather than sandals. In the 1930s many boys wore sandals, especially boys the age of the junior boys. Almost certainly some of these boys wore sandals in the primary school they had just come from. I do not see any of these boys, however, wearing sandals. The fact that none of the boys wear them suggests that there was a school rule prohibiting sandals. I'm not sure why this may have been. They may have been considered to informal. HBC is not, however, about the chronology of school sandals, it is possible that they became more common in the 1940s and 50s. One boy wears white shoes--perhaps sneakers.
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Figure 5.--The variety of kneesocks that the boys are wearing can be seen here. Since the socks with the colored bands are not the school's socks, we are not sure just where they came from. Perhaps the mothers just liked the look. The girls still wear long stockings. Click on the image for a look at the long stockings. Note the the horizontal tie that one boy wears, rather like "Just William". |
It is no clear if the children had dressed up specially for the portarit or if this was how they normally dressed. HBC tends to think that this is prbably a good reflection of their everyday dress. Our experience is that whike the children may be told to dress smartly, there are always a few who do not get the message or forget. The fact that all the boys wear suits and all the girls wear gymslips suggests that this was how they normally came to school. Stangely one girl wears her gaberdine raincoat.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1880s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits]
[Short pants suits]
[Socks]
[Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers]
[Blazer]
[School sandals]