Old school friends reunite, some for the first time in 50 years

Former pupils of schools in the Malmesbury area during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s had been using a Facebook group to find long lost friends from their school days, and thanks to one member of the group, they were able to catch up and reminisce about their school days in person, with friends they may have not seen since leaving school at 16.

Brian Sanderson, 68, who lived in Athelstan Road, Malmesbury for 25 years set up the Facebook group to reconnect the former pupils of Bremilham School and Malmesbury Grammar, as well as St Joseph’s School and Grittleton School back in 2015.

After months, and for some, years, of chatting behind a screen, 50 of the Bremilham Bugs and Grammar Grubs, as they were called back in the day, got to meet face-to-face at the Carpenter’s Arms in Sherston on Wednesday, October 25.

The bugs and grubs all looked back fondly at their school years with friends they hadn’t seen since then, looking at old photographs, reminiscing about lessons and sports teams, and what they’d get up to after school such as making carts and racing each other down hills.

“It went absolutely fantastically. It was really good because there was probably 20 of them who we hadn’t seen since the school days,” said Mr Sanderson.

“We were chatting and going through some old photos.”

“It was really good seeing old friends I haven’t seen since school.”

Funny anecdotes were shared about being kicked off the school bus and having to walk home, and doing things you couldn’t get away with these days like running around playing on the roads and swimming in the river.

Getting everyone together was no easy task. Not everyone is on Facebook, and with a lot of the women changing their surnames when they married it made it tricky to track people down.

But Mr Sanderson has done an amazing job, connecting 522 former pupils through Facebook.

Most have stayed fairly local, but some travelled from Devon, Bournemouth, Hampshire and Yorkshire.