Pre-1970s

=Pre-1970s=

The current Westfield Upper School site was built in 1959, to house the then-overflowing Yeovil Girls' High School. In order to enter the High School, Junior School students had to pass the 'Eleven-Plus Exam'.

__**Mr. M. Bolton remembers the area nearly sixty years ago:**__

"I went to Huish Infants when I started school as Westfield Infants was still being built. When eventually we moved into Westfield Infants, we used to be taken for nature study across the area that become the Junior School and into the fields beyond.

About 1952, my family moved to Stiby Road and I used to walk to Westfield Junior School (now Lower School) down through the cornfield. Next to the cornfield, bordering Stiby Road, there was an orchard which had belonged to the farm. I remember the trees being taken down and the houses and flats being built.

This was a real playground - hiding in the long grass, swinging from ropes in the trees.

To the west of the Upper School, where the tennis courts were built, there was a grassy field with a deep depression in it - our imaginatively fertile 11-year-old minds were certain it was a bomb crater left over from WWII; and just south of the path that leads to freedom avenue, just north of the houses in Home Drive, was a pond where we used to catch minnows, sticklebacks, frogs and find our frogspawn and tadpoles."

__**Mr I. Jennings can remember it too:**__

Mr Ian Jennings moved to Stiby Road in 1947. He lived at number 106, which is situated almost directly opposite where the school's Stiby Road entrance is today. That area

When he looked out of the front window in his house, he saw not the Upper School building but cornfields! (The Upper School wasn't built until 1959.)

West of the cornfields (towards modern-day Larkhill Road) were orchards and a greyhound racetrack. The orchards were near a farm owned by a Mr Brake, who later, it is believed, either hung or shot himself. The farm was on the site of the recently-demolished St Anne's flats.

At the far end of Stiby Road, near where the entrance to Freedom Avenue is now, was a pond known as Pimple Pond because of its pimple-like appearance on the flat land. Mr Jennings and his friends used to use this field as a playground.

Alongside the pond was a small stream which ran through Abbey Manor and Monksdale. Where there are now bridges, then were only fallen trees, doubtlessly providing hours of entertainment for the children! Further on in its journey, the stream was piped underground. It did not see the light of day again until it rose at a place near The Bell Inn, where it ran down to Westlands, joining Dodham Brook, then doubling back on itself, meeting tributaries running from Odcombe, and winding its way to Ilchester.

Stiby Road and the surrounding area was rather full of waterways: the field next to the greyhound track was one of the sources of the River Yeo, meaning that the soil there was always very wet and marshy.

Nearly all of the 'roads' were mere tracks with hardly any traffic, which allowed Mr Jennings and his friends to ride their makeshift go-karts down Marl Close, along Stiby Road and down Westfield Road. The only vehicles they were likely to meet were the number 1a bus (the 1b served Larkhill) running every twenty minutes or so, or the horse and cart coming from the grocer's at the end of Stiby Road where there are currently traffic lights.

It is believed that the grocer kept his horse and cart somewhere near Grove Avenue, possibly where Preston Grove is now. This area sustained considerable damage during the Second World War, because the pilots were aiming for Westlands, but missed!

Larkhill Road was not yet established, though there was a Larkhill Avenue, running parallel to the current road. Along that road was a row of (presumably wartime) pre-fabricated houses; Mr Jennings' wife lived in one of them.

Mr Jennings joined the Navy in 1956, meaning he had to leave the area. Nevertheless, he still lives in Yeovil, not particularly far from his former home.

=Events= Type content here

=Developments / Buildings= Type content here

=Shows= Type content here

=Sports= Type content here

=Results= Type content here