ON a house wall in the Comer Gardens district of Worcester, on the city’s west side in St John’s, there’s a blue plaque to Lord Nuffield, who, as William Morris, is generally recognised as the father of the British motor industry.

But as well as being a car builder, Morris was also a philanthropist and supported many worthy causes. In particular he funded medical research at Oxford University and in 1943 established the Nuffield Foundation, a charitable trust into which he put £10m worth of Morris Motors company shares. Morris was born at 47, Comer Gardens in 1877 and a century later the locals could certainly have done with his help.

Because in the late 1970s and early 80s they were engaged in a battle royal with the county council, which wanted to close their CE primary school. The move was included in a grand plan to rationalise educational resources across Worcestershire, but needless to say it didn’t go down well in Comer Gardens.

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The school had opened in 1880 – although parts only dated back to the 1960s – and there was some irony that just as it celebrated its 100th anniversary it was likely to be shut. The idea was to close the Victorian dated Comer Gardens and transfer its 200 pupils to the more recent Henwick Grove Primary site about half-a-mile away to create a new Oldbury Park Primary School.

Cue Comer Gardens parents and pupils taking to the barricades, letters to education minister Sir Keith Joseph and later a delegation down to London to see his successor Dr Rhodes Boyson, backed by the city’s MP Peter Walker.

But it was all to no avail and in July, 1984, Comer Gardens Primary ended with a barbecue and disco in the school grounds. This concluded by letting off three four-inch mortar fireworks, so loud they were heard all over the city as Comer parents refused to go quietly.

The school buildings were later knocked down and 25 houses built on the site by Pershore developer Michael Low Homes carrying the name Elgar Square.

The Comer Gardens area dates back to the 1850s when it was built as an isolated “garden village” with detached houses on both sides of a lane.

The properties were set well back with long front gardens, hence the name. The lane was no more than an unlit track without water mains or sewers, but its trees and shrubs, mainly golden chain, were very beautiful.

The village was developed following the second cholera epidemic of 1848 and became the dormitory home of a colony of Worcester tradesmen.