A bit of a cheat on our part because they are two different buildings. Pictured top is Hampton Station Infants School in 1956. Erected in 1874 in Station Road on a site now occupied by Rushbury Court flats, it lay between the Railway Hotel and Falkner’s business which sold gardening materials and plants. By 1965 the inadequacies of the Victorian property prompted the planning of a new school, hastened by publication by 1962 Ministry of Education figures showing an expected national increase of 21 per cent of children aged five and six between 1963 and 1970.

Headmistress Joyce Jackson finally moved her charges to the gleaming new Hampton Infants School, off Ripley Road in 1969. Designed for open plan working the total gross cost was just over £101,000. The photograph above was taken last year.

Joyce tells her tale in Hampton Voices, the story of Hampton told by its people, together with its companion volume, Hampton Tales.

These life affirming volumes of personal experience, illustrated with photographs were compiled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Hampton Society. The Hampton Society, www.the hamptonsociety. org.uk Enquiries Jean Alen 020 8979 6102.