Richard Simmons (now a musician and playing the mandolin in the photograph) sent in his childhood memories of the school:

I was a pupil there between about 1955 - 59. When I started there it was called Old Church Junior School but was renamed Hannah More School in honour of its founder.

We used to get visits from a Mr. Greenhill who was an expert on Nailsea history and used to give us lectures on the subject, I think it was down to his research and representation to the council that the school was renamed. I can still remember most of the teachers names and how the school was laid out. 

When I started the head mistress was Miss Morris. On the first day we were each allocated a peg in the entrance lobby, which was between the new council office and the main building, on which to hang our towel, dap bag and coat.

The teacher of the first class which was in the current council office was Miss Prestige who became Mrs. Short. I think Mr. Emmett was also a teacher at the School but he moved on to Backwell Secondary and was still there when I moved on to there.

The teacher of the next class was Mr. Miles and the next class was Mrs. Cooper who lived at the top of Buckland's Batch.  Her daughter Bridget also was a pupil.

As my final year approached the headmistress retired to be replace by Mrs. Pennycott.  She was a brilliant teacher and had a Red Setter called Shaun who came to school with her and she smoked her way through 20 or 40 players cigarettes a day. She would sometimes send one of us down to Wrigley's shop to buy more when she was running low.

We used to volunteer to take the dog for a walk at lunchtimes and some times would tie him up on Morgan's Hill, go back and say we had let him off the lead and lost him so then we would get sent out for the afternoon to find him.

None of this could happen these days but we thought it great fun!

I also remember the toilets which were extremely primitive to say the least!!

I think the restoration job is stunning and I was privileged to play as part of the 'Twice Dailies' at the opening day in June.