Hello,
 My name is Debbie Hesmondhalgh (nee Deborah Livesey) I am 34 years old,

When I was a little girl my family moved to Eastling, myself and 2 sister
Sharon and Susan, who are twins, were pupils at Eastling School. We moved
from Leyland, Lancs, and settled down at 1 Bankside with a family called
Hobbs. We stayed in the village for only a couple of years then we moved back
to Leyland, as my mum never settled and missed our family we'd left behind.
us kids settled in straight away and loved the open countryside as it was so
different to what we were used to, it was great, the whole experience was great.

We arrived in the village in May 1977, I remember having on my new dress and
shoes, my sisters were allowed to go and play but I wasn't allowed. Within an
hour my sister sue came running in saying Sharon had been run over I walked
down the hill at the side of were we lived and at the bottom she was lying
on the road, she was in hospital a while. In the meantime myself and sue
started school. I can only remember a few names, there was Mr and Mrs Davis,
Mrs Frazer, who lived next to the phone box near the shop, and a few friends
names are, Sarah Creed and her Brother, two sister who lived down Meeson
Close I think one was called Jackie (maybe smith) a girl I think she was
called Rachel and she lived at the vicarage, Gary Hobbs who I sat next
too, his step sister lily Smith, was in my sisters class, as was Christopher
Bailey, and David Hobbs, I am really trying to think but can only remember
faces and the places where they lived. I remember school as being a really
happy place, with Mr Davis calling his wife his pet Dragon, he was really
funny. We used to go swimming in the holidays, and the snow was really deep
in the winter, I can remember having to walk through it to get to school,
and walking along the tops of the piles of snow the plough had left at the
sides of the road.

When we wasn't at school we was out and about exploring our new found
freedom, some of the places we'd go to was the woods just off Newnham Lane, a
Dutch barn in the middle of nowhere, there was a tree outside the church that
was that old and so wide we could get inside it, is it still there? and is
there a chalk pit behind the church? There were two old air raid shelters at
the other side of the field, in front of our house, and there was cherry,
apple, and plum, orchards everywhere and a Christmas tree plantation. We'd
walk up past Newnham to Sharsted Manor and sit outside waiting to see if we
could see Virginia Wade, but never did, we walked that much I'm surprised we
still had legs. We were very poor at the time but it never really mattered, it
is only now when I look back just how poor we were, we had nothing like kids
have today.

It all came to an end and we moved back to Leyland along with our funny
accents we'd picked up, during our stay (I can still get it of to a T) and
the time we spent in Eastling was just a distant memory fondly remembered
from time to time. To this day I am determined that I will come and visit,
and show my 5 Children a wonderful and beautiful place where I once lived,
and if it wasn't for them two fantastic years I would not know that such a
place could exist. Tell the children that they should be proud to be part of
it, and if Eastling School is as good now as it was back then they should be
proud to be part of the best school in the uk.