A wartime log book has revealed the remarkable story of how children at Norwich primary returned to lessons two days after German bombers destroyed their school.

St Mark’s Primary and Infants’ School on Hall Road was devastated during a Norwich fire-bombing raid on the night of June 26–27 in 1942.

Norwich Evening News: Children undertake an air raid rehearsal at St Augustines School in Norwich.Children undertake an air raid rehearsal at St Augustines School in Norwich. (Image: Norfolk County Council)

Research by Norfolk Records Office has unearthed the tale of how the school got its pupils back learning amid the ruins in a temporary log book written at the time by its headmistress Amy Buckley.

She recalled working on school records on the night of the raid, describing how she “ran through the church yard just before the ‘all clear’ to see whether the school was safe, and found it a blazing inferno – nothing to be done”.

Norwich Evening News: Devastation to St Augustines School in Norwich following Norwich Blitz bombing in April 1942.Devastation to St Augustines School in Norwich following Norwich Blitz bombing in April 1942. (Image: Archant)

Amazingly she recounts how the school reopened two days later in a neighbouring building used as the church hall and a Women’s Voluntary Service clothing store.

Children were asked to come equipped with a pencil and a story book and accommodation was limited as the children were seated on long forms and Sunday school chairs.

Norwich Evening News: King Edward VI Grammar School following air raid on June 27 1942.King Edward VI Grammar School following air raid on June 27 1942. (Image: Archant)

To ease pressures on numbers 40 older children transferred early to Lakenham Senior Girls and St Marks Senior Boys School.

These neighbouring schools also lent furniture, books, paper, pencils and crayons so that lessons could go ahead.

On July 2 children began a temporary timetable:

  • 9.00–9.40 Prayers and Scripture
  • 9.45–10.45 Arithmetic/Physical training/Singing
  • 10.45–11.00 Milk
  • 11.00–11.45 Recreation
  • 11.45–12.00 English
  • 2.00–3.00 Handicraft (of some simple form)
  • 3.00–3.30 Milk and recreation
  • 3.30–4.00 Story or singing

Norwich Evening News: A group of school children undergo an gas mask drill in 1941.A group of school children undergo an gas mask drill in 1941. (Image: Theirhistory/Flickr)

Alex Atherton, the Norfolk Records Office research blogger who looked into the story behind the logbook, said: “As well as being cramped, the temporary school accommodation was not weatherproof as Buckley reports on July 17 that ‘the weather has been very wet…and it has been difficult to find dry places…since the roof was damaged by shrapnel in the air raid.”

Norwich Evening News: Damage to Bracondale School following Norwich Blitz.Damage to Bracondale School following Norwich Blitz. (Image: Archant)

She added: “The entry for July 24 also provides an interesting insight into how new records were created after existing ones were destroyed.

“The first comment is about weighing and measuring all the children and making new medical cards, followed by the news that the vicar has told her that the school’s managers can’t ‘recondition this old building’ and therefore the school will have to close.

“Most children were transferred to Lakenham Council Primary and Infants and one teacher went to work there as well.”

Norwich Evening News: Bomb damage to Larkman School in 1941.Bomb damage to Larkman School in 1941. (Image: Archant)

St Mark’s Primary was not the only school hit during the Luftwaffe's air raids on Norwich. Bracondale School and Larkman School had been left devastated in 1941.

Nelson Street, Heigham Street and St Augustine's all suffered damage in the Baedeker Raids in April 1942 while King Edward VII Grammar was struck during the same night as St Marks Primary.

However, despite the devastation to the primary school nearby St Marks Senior Boys School on Hall Road avoided serious damage.

Norwich Evening News: The former St Marks Senior Boys School on Hall Road in Norwich, now converted into flats.The former St Marks Senior Boys School on Hall Road in Norwich, now converted into flats. (Image: Google)

The school later closed in the early 1950s and was used by Norfolk Social Services before being converted into eight new apartments in 2014.

Memorabilia found during the renovation included names mischievously carved into the rear brick wall, secret notes written in childish scrawl stuffed behind old timber panes.

Many of its pupils fought in the First and Second World Wars and there are plaques dedicated to some of them in St Mark's Church in Lakenham including Sidney James Day who was awarded the VC medal for his heroic actions in France in 1917.

Norwich Evening News: King George VI talking to 15-year-old John Grix (centre) who was a cycle messenger during Norwich Blitz while a pupils at St Marks Senior Boys School.King George VI talking to 15-year-old John Grix (centre) who was a cycle messenger during Norwich Blitz while a pupils at St Marks Senior Boys School. (Image: Archant)

Another John Grix was still a 15-year-old pupil at the school when he was awarded the British Empire Medal and met King George VI for his heroic exploits as a cycle messenger at the height of the Baedeker Raids which caused death and destruction on a terrifying scale.