A LOOKBACK today at a famous Worcester school which is not there any more. Well, it is and it isn't.

Because the Alice Ottley School in The Tything has merged with the neighbouring Royal Grammar School and after a few years of politely retaining the name in a joint title, it has now been dropped altogether.

Which is a shame in a way, but a sign of a changing world.

The school was founded in 1883 as Worcester High School for Girls, but renamed after its first headmistress in 1914.

Its reputation was such that pupils were quite prepared to travel long distances each day to start lessons at 8.45am - and then travel home again in the evenings.

They arrived by train, coach and car from as far away as Birmingham, Chipping Campden and Tenbury Wells.

But no article on the AO - as it was colloquially known - would be complete without reference to a mention of lacrosse and Miss Roden.

Hilda Roden, probably the school's most famous headmistress of the last 50 years, was reputed not only to know every girl by first name, but also their parents, brothers and sisters too.

At "lax" many of the girls were selected to play for county and All England teams, while of the other sports available in the modern era, one or two such as judo and trampolining, would doubtless have raised the eyebrows of the original Miss Ottley back in 1883.