DURING the last year or so, Memory Lane has, from time-to-time, carried readers' recollections of their childhood days at Worcester's Stanley Road School.

These reminiscences were sent in to me in response to a plea from the school's current head teacher Barbara Dunn who, with her staff and pupils, was seeking to compile a detailed history of the school over its 85-year life to date.

It was to be the school's Millennium project.

Past pupils were invited to call in at the school and be interviewed by present-day pupils so that their memories could be written down and recorded for posterity. Many old boys and girls of Stanley Road took up this invitation during the year, and several others have sent in written recollections of their school days.

Using old log books, Barbara Dunn has also pieced together as much as possible about life and activities at the school down the decades, plus a list of head teachers over the years.

The sum total of all this work has recently been brought together and published as a book - Stanley Road Primary School 1915-2000. It is now available, price £5, at the Guildhall Tourist Information Office, the Commandery, the City Museum and Art Gallery in Foregate Street, the Museum of Local Life in Friar Street, and at the school.

I'm sure all past pupils and former staff whose recollections are included in the fully illustrated publication will be keen to add it to their bookshelves as will be their relatives, friends and former pupils.

Barbara Dunn points out that until 1950, there were three separate Stanley Road schools - boys', girls' and infants, each with their own head teacher. At their opening 85 years ago, the three were Worcester's first council schools which explains why their badge has always proudly borne the city's crest.

Among the many interesting items included in the book is a short note written by a pupil about a trip to London, in 1924: "We shall leave the hostel immediately after breakfast and go by tram to Acton Station and then take the tube to the British Museum.

"We particularly wish to see what we may call the seven wonders of the world - the Domesday Book, the Magna Carta, the Florentine Vase, the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, the Book of the Dead, and the marvels of Egypt, Assyria and Babylon."