Figure 1.--We are not sure just when Brockenhurst became a county school. The uniform was little changed in 1930, except that girls had begun to wear ties and a few junior boys wore long 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 1930, except that girls had begun to wear ties and a few junior boys wore long trouser suits. |
Brockenhurst in 1926 as a Pupil Teacher Center apears to be a secondary school. We are not sure precisely when Brockenhurst made the transition from Pupil Teacher Centre to county school. The uniform
appears littkle changed from 1926. More girls are wearing blazers and many now wear ties. The boys are still not wearing
blazers, but all continue to wear non-uniform suits. The junior boys still wear short trouser suits, although a few have long
pants. The suits continue to vary rather being a uniform style and color--in contrast to the girls who all wear uniform gym slips.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 and 30s.
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 1930s show most, but not all of the boys wearing short trouser suits, although the styles and colors varied widely. The girls wear gym slips of varying style, but apparently the same color. Quite a few wear blazers with piping, but none of the boys wears the blazer. In 1926, one boy did wear the blazer. In fact one of te most interesting aspect of the Brockenhurst uniform is that the girls had to wear a defenite uniform while the boys had no such requirement other than they had to wear suits.
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. Most of the junior boys wear short trouser suits. This was presumably what younger boys wore rather than a school requirement. Many of the boys in the second row are also wearing short trouser suits. |
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.
All the boys wear ties, but they do not appear to be wearing a standard solid color school tie. There does not appear to have been a standard school tie--at least for the boys. HBC notes, however, that more boys appear to be wearing dark solid colored ties than was the case in 1926. It is abit difficult to tell, but some of the boys may in fact be wearing the school tie. In contrast to 1926, most of the girls are now wearing ties. The ties worn appear to be a solid colred school tie, probably the same color as their gym slip. The girls wear their ties tucked under their gym slips. There are a few exceptions. Two girls wear stripped colored ties. As bnoth wear the same stripped pattern, it presumably is also a school tie. HBC speculates that these ghirls have won their school colors and thus been awarded the stripped ties. This theory is further strengthened by the fact the girls wear their stripped ties outside their gym slips so that they can be betterseen.
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Figure 3.--The boys wear a variety of ties, although a few may be wearing a solid-colored school tie. In contrast the girls only wear the school tie. None of the boys wear the stripped ties that a few girls wear. |
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 1930 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.
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, non of the boys wear dark shirts like some of the girls.
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. 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 a few bots that do have tkneesocks with colored bands, but theyv appear to be varied colors rather than socks with the school colors. 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.
Figure 4.--Almost all of the junior boys in the front row wear single breasted short trouser suits. Many of the boys in the second row are wearing short trousers, but it is not possible to quantify this. Click on the image to see that some of the boys in the second row are wearing shorts. |
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. None of the boys wear whire shoes as was the case in 1926.
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 theu normally came to school.
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]