A BOOK has been published to mark the centenary of Park School in Barnstaple.

It has been written by former pupil Trevor Hill who, the dust cover says, was caned twice and went on to gain more detentions than GCEs.

In his introduction he said that nobody would be more dumbstruck to see his name on a history book than his former history teachers as it was his second worst subject.

The book includes a wealth of photographs, pupil and teacher profiles and reproductions of news cuttings.

It is, perhaps, fitting that the first school photo — printed on page three of the first chapter — should feature the workmen who completed the original building at a cost of nearly £9,500.

The book profiles William Hiern who was the prime mover for the new school, described by the Journal at the time as "Barnstaple's most distinguished citizen."

His published works included catalogues of the flora of African and India and, the book said, he was probably responsible for planting the trees from five continents which still adorn the school's south driveway.

The main consideration for keeping the sexes apart initially was simply that the boys and girls studied different subjects.

The first Barnstaple Grammar School magazine came out in December 1912 and detailed a school visit to Barnstaple Gas Works and the fact that a pupil fell off his pony while riding to school.

A bit of gossip in a later magazine revealed that "a certain master had a favourite trick of squashing boys against the wall" while they were going upstairs.

The First World War had a major impact on the school and not just with the obvious staff members and ex-pupils who joined up.

Pupils were kept busy in the workshop making crutches for the wounded.

And the book records the school's first fatality, former student Stanley Gordon Buckingham, who was killed in action in France on December 29, 1917.

Chapter three focuses on the 'twinkling twenties' and takes into account for the first time the memories of ex-pupils still living.

In 1932 the opening of the Rock Park swimming baths meant that swimming was included in the curriculum for the first time.

There are many anecdotes from ex-pupils about the pranks played on teachers and how boys and girls got around the restrictions that would keep them apart.

The Second World War years saw the arrival of evacuees and staff and pupils undertook salvage activities, using hand carts to collect metals for sorting in the playground.

Fifth form volunteers slept in the staff room to carry out fire watching duties after dark.

On Wednesday May 29, 1946 a dedication service was held in memory of the 43 old boys who lost their lives during the war.

According to accounts there was much physical punishment in the 1940s.

Monitors and prefects could administer corporal punishment with a slipper and one teacher used to get two boys out in front of the class to beat each other with a plimsoll.

Memories of school life for girls in the 1950s included playing flying saucers with the berets, throwing notes wrapped around stones to the boys and flitting around like fairies in modern dance.

Chapter 7 deals with the 'sexy sixties' in which a letter to parents of new boys said too many students were coming into school in a "very pointed shoe" which were "quite unsuitable".

One girl Peggy Slade recalled skipping classes to sunbathe in Rock Park and another, Monica Dix, got away with warming pasties on classroom radiators.

In 1965 pranks included dropping sodium down a toilet which filled a corridor with caustic fumes.

There were also end of school rituals of dunking head boys in the swimming pool and throwing berets and caps in the River Taw.

The 1970s brought about the biggest single change when its name changed to The Park School and pupils were selected from the catchment area rather than on their IQ scores.

Sports days went metric and the school leaving age was raised to 16.

There was plenty of freedom in the last sixth form in 1972 where pupils gambled at three-card brag and poker or made secretive visits to the Liberal Club in town to play snooker.

In physics students used rifles for measuring the speed of a bullet and in chemistry, with just a lab coat for protection, they made poisonous gases.

Compared with school today there seemed a lot more freedom for fun.

Students once left a teacher's 'bubble car' upside down in the middle of the rugby pitch and sixth formers advertised the headmaster's car for sale in the Journal which prompted a flurry of calls to his secretary.

The last two chapters take Park School up to its centenary year.

During those years caning was stopped and new priorities were set including giving awards for effort so that trying hard was valued as much as winning.

GCE O levels and CSEs were replaced by GCSEs and the biggest programme of building work in the school's history transformed the site to accommodate a 58 per cent increase in pupil numbers.

● The book From Grammar to Park, 100 years of a Barnstaple School, 1910-2010, is published by Halsgrove and costs £19.99. It is available from local stockists or from Halsgrove Direct on 01823 653777.