Ballard School holds highly successful Heritage Open Day, welcoming more than 120 visitors for tours of the House and grounds including an exhibition of its World War 2 history.

Ballard School brought history to life last Saturday 9th September when it opened its doors to more than 120 visitors as part of the national Heritage Open Days Festival.

Ballard School House was built as a private residence in 1905 by the Ubsdell family and still retains many of its Arts and Crafts period features. The school was delighted to welcome a very special guest – the great-granddaughter of Mrs Genevieve Ubsdell who had commissioned the building of the family home in 1900. Other visitors included former pupils and staff members, local business owners, and many from the local community who were interested in learning more about this beautiful, historic building and its extensive and lovely grounds.

A major attraction this year was a focus on the role Great Ballard House played during World War 2.  The school put on a fascinating and informative exhibition including photographs, memorabilia and details of some of the battalions such as the Lancaster Fusiliers, Green Howards and 7th Wiltshire Regiment all of whom had been stationed there during the war years. A performance by members of a local World War 2 Reenactment Group made a lively and colourful contribution to the event; and to give visitors a real flavour of life at that time, refreshments included potato shortbread made to a wartime recipe!

Headmaster Alastair Reid said:

“We had an extremely successful, well attended day which was greatly enjoyed by visitors and staff alike. As a school, we’ve had a fascinating journey back through time researching the building’s rich and interesting past. It’s been a real history lesson for us all.”

The ‘history lesson’ was a great learning experience appreciated by the many visitors on the day. As one of them said,

“I cannot begin to convey to you how good it is that the history and heritage of Great Ballard and all its occupants and different facets of the building’s life are now treasured and cherished. We are incredibly grateful to you all.”

Ballard is an independent, family school welcoming children from Nursery to GCSE and is situated on the edge of the New Forest National Park. For more information, visit http://www.ballardschool.co.uk

Heritage Open Days is England’s largest festival of history and culture, bringing together over 2,500 organisations; 5,000 events; and 40,000 volunteers. To learn more about the Festival, go to https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/