IN THE 140 years since it first opened, Forest and Sandridge Primary has played a vital role in the education of thousands of children who have walked the school’s corridors in Melksham.

The former grounds of the school at Sandridge Hill were originally given by the Hon Ralph Ludlow Lopes, the then occupant of Sandridge Park.

The school originally had two classrooms with a teacher’s house and was opened in 1874. It was modernised and extended in 1968 to include three classrooms, kitchen, indoor toilet and cloakroom.

In 1990 the old school house became a staff room, library, offices and resources areas. A double mobile classroom was built in the grounds four years later to deal with a rise in pupil numbers.

A decade later more mobile classrooms were added as the school grew to seven classes.

Julie McNally, 47, was a pupil in 1972 along with her sister. “My mum was school secretary and my great auntie worked in the school kitchen. Both my daughters went to the school and now I work here so I have had a connection with Forest and Sandridge for a long time,” she said.

Mrs McNally has become a teaching assistant at her beloved primary – something she never anticipated.

To take more pupils Forest and Sandridge made an historic move to a new site at Cranesbill Road at the start of this school year last month.

The new 420-capacity school includes 14 classrooms, a nursery, a hard sports area and two grass football pitches plus an assembly hall. The changing facilities will be available for public use, and the hall will be accessible for community use at evenings and weekends.

Hundreds of past and present pupils bid farewell to the old site with a party and buried a time capsule at the new site with a photo of the first pupils to join.

Mrs McNally said: “The farewell party was fantastic. The atmosphere was so happy and we had old teachers and heads come back.”