Until Monday, 1st November, Cockfield village’s claim to fame was for being the birthplace of Jeramiah Dixon, but now it can add the wonderful Victorian primary school to its list of achievements.
The lovely old stone built Victorian building with its tarmac playground and grassed playing fields, reached the grand old age of 100 years. Long gone are the chalk and slates, the draughty corridors and stern teachers with mortar boards, they have been replaced with eco gardens, computers and a relaxed and convivial learning environment.
The 100th birthday was celebrated in style by the excited and noisy children looking resplendent in their bright red tops and exactly matching the balloons, each balloon was filled with helium and tagged with the children’s name and the school details, so keep your eyes open and contact the school if you find one.
After a well rehearsed chorus of “happy birthday to Cockfield School” sang by the children each clutching their red balloon, headmistress Sally Baum then lead the countdown from 10 down to 1 signalling the release of the balloons.
With help from the breeze the lighter than air balloons soon climbed majestically into the blue sky, and quickly became little red dots as they headed off towards Bishop Auckland and beyond.
The event concluded with Tom and Nicki from Sainsbury’s handing out 100 cup cakes freshly baked by Sainsbury’s bakery staff, and were topped with coloured icing each embossed with the numbers 100 on the top.
105.9 Bishop FM would like to say a big thank you to the Cockfield Primary Schoolchildren and Headmistress Sally Baum for letting us share in the fun.