Former Narberth pupils, teachers and staff are being asked to share their memories of the old school building for a film project documenting the premises, which is now being redeveloped.

‘Our School’ is a community based project set up by Friends of Narberth Old School to produce a film documenting memories of the school.

Friends of Narberth Old School (FoNOS) was set up in 2017 to campaign to save the Victorian school building on Moorfield Road Narberth.

After many years of campaigning and working with Pembrokeshire County Counil, The Narberth Consortium was formed from members of FoNOS and they were able to purchase the school site from PCC, and in the process prevented the demolition of the Victorian building.

One of the conditions for this purchase was that a new library and community space was provided by the consortium for FoNOS to facilitate library services in Narberth (replacing the current library on St James Street), as well as a community space for public use.

FoNOS are delighted to say that the work on the old school site is now under way and once the build is completed, the new library/community space will be named ‘The Rainbow Room’ with reference to the huge rainbow that was painted onto the old school building during the first Covid lockdown by Narberth’s ‘Rainbow Fairy’ Diana Brook and Pembrokeshire artist ‘Lloyd the Graffiti’

“When the new build Rainbow Room is handed over to FoNOS (under the banner of Narberth Old School Trust), it will be an empty shell, we therefore need to fundraise to fit out the space,” explained Donna Harding, secretary of Friends of Narberth Old School.

“This will include all things from internal walls, heating and facilities, right down to carpets, painting and door handles!

“During our time campaigning and talking to local residents it has become increasingly apparent that there are hundreds of fantastic memories associated with the old school within the community of ex pupil, staff and teachers, as well as the wider community.

“FoNOS have realised it would be a great idea and an ideal opportunity, to collect and catalogue these memories to retain them for the future and give a voice to the community.

“This is how ‘Our School’ came about…we want to produce a film and an exhibition of art and memories to share with the community and preserve for future generations.

“We are looking for ex pupils and members of the wider community to get involved with Our School project which will take two stages to complete,” she continued.

Firstly the project will aim to fundraise to produce the film Our School.

This will be a crowd funding system with rewards being offered to individuals who pledge money to support the project.

“We are looking for art work that can be used to produce merchandise - mugs, tea towels, framed prints as well as post cards and pin badges,” said Donna.

“We are also asking for other donations, experiences, gift vouchers etc that can also be offered as rewards for pledges of support.

“We aim to raise £2,000 thorough our crowd funding and the sale of merchandising with this money being used to pay for film makers and musicians who will produce the film ‘Our School’.

“The focus of the film will be the relationship of the community with Narberth’s old school.

“We will invite ex pupils, staff and teachers to get involved and using video and photographs we will document these memories as well as recording the work on the site as it progresses.

“It is our intention to have an original music score performed and recorded by ex pupils through out the film.

“At this point we would like to open the idea of original art work inspired by the old school to the wider community and would put a call out to artists to get involved and donate original one off art work to the project. This could be any medium and size, as long as it is inspired by the old school.

“The second part of the project will be the ‘Our School exhibition and art auction’.

“Once the Rainbow room is complete and the library is open to the public, we aim to hold an exhibition of the original artworks and preview the film, the community will be invited to attend and the original pieces will be auctioned off to raise funds towards to ongoing upkeep of the Rainbow Room,” she added.

Anyone who would like to get involved is asked to email: [email protected] or ‘phone - 07851 822604.

You can also follow the project at: https://www.facebook.com/narbertholdschool and look for Old School Narberth on Instragram.