Figure 1.--This photograph was taken at Brockenhurst in 1926. At the time the school was a pupil teacher centre. All the boys wear suits, although the styles and colors varied. The girls wear gym slips of varying style, but apparently the same color. Some wear blazers with piping, but only one of the boys wears a blazer. Click on the image for a better look at the girls' uniforms. |
Brockenhurst in 1926 as a Pupil Teacher Center apears to be a secondary school. A photographs from 1926 show all the junior boys wearing short pants suits, although the styles and colors varied. The school appears to have required all boys tonswear suits. The short pants for the junion boys presumably was not a school requirement, but just what most boys wore in the 1920s. The girls wear gym slips of varying style, but apparently the same color. Some wear blazers with piping, but only one of the boys wears a blazer.
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. The younger children look to be about 11 years old which is about the same age that children entered grammar and other secondary schools.
We have no early photographic images from Brockenhurst. Photographs in the 1920s show all the junior boys wearing short trouser suits, although the styles and colors varied. The girls wear gym slips of varying style, but apparently the same color. Some wear blazers with piping, but only one of the boys wears a blazer.
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. All the junior boys but one wear short trouser suits. This was presumably what younger bpys wore rather than a school requirement. |
Boys and girls in the 1920s 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 it was. If they 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. All the junior boys but one wear short trouser suits. This was presumably what younger boys wore rather than a school requirement.
Only one boy wears a blazer, although several girls do. It is a colored blazer with white or light-colored piping. I'm not sure what the color was, but the blazers and hirls' 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, or perhaps it was a new inovation at the schhool. Subsequent photographs, however, show that there was no significant increase in the wearing of blazers. Thus we are not sure why so few boys wear them.
All the boys, but none of the girls appear to be wearing ties. There does not appear to have been a standard school tie.
All of the girls wear gymslips, includng the girls wearing blazers. There are several different styles of gymslips. Most are worn with with white blouses that had quite large Peter Pan collars.
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 3.--It is not clear what type of trousers the older boys are wearing, but at least one boy has a short triuser suit like the younger boys. |
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.
All the junior boys but one wear short trouser suits. This was 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.
The junior boys in shorts all wear turn-over-top kneesocks. They all appear to be grey, althouh a couple boys have quite dark socks. Few boys appear to be be wearing kneesock with top colored bands. The photograph it is not clear enough to tell. There are a few bots that do have kneesocks with colored bands, buttheyv appear to be varied colos rather than socks with the school colors. A few boys wear kneesocks with paterened tops. All the girls wear black long stockings. 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 1920s many boys wore sandals. I do not see any of these boys, however, wearing sandals. Several boys wear whire shoe, I'm not sure if these are sneakers.
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 theor everyday dress. Our experience is that whike the children may be told to dress smartky, there are always a few who do not get the message or forget. The fact that all the boys swear suits and all the girls wear gymslips suggests that this was how they normally came to school.
Figure 4.--HBC thought that one of the junior boys here wears long trousers, the second boy from the right. A HBC readers believes, however, that the boy also wears shorts, only his hands cover up his knees so you can only see his kneesocks. This may well, it is hard to tell. |
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]