Reunited in Winchester

9:20pm Wednesday 29th October 2008

THREE friends who attended school in Winchester were reunited in the city, having not seen each other for around 40 years.

Retired home economics teacher, Pauline Parrington nee Shuttleworth, left Winchester County High School – now The Westgate School – in 1964.

The mother-of-three, from Whitchurch, wanted to trace some old friends, and decided to go online to do so.

She succeeded in finding Barbara Corrigan nee Diamond, who is a retired primary school teacher and lives in Downton near Salisbury.

She also located Betty Ward nee Chown, a former science teacher, who has since moved to Rochester in Kent.

The three women – all aged 62 – then decided to meet at the Winchester Royal Hotel.

Said Mrs Parrington: “We had an awful lot to talk about. I think we spent around five hours in the hotel lounge in the end. It was wonderful to meet up again after all this time.”

It turned out to be a double celebration, as Mrs Parrington and Mrs Corrigan both reached their ruby wedding anniversary earlier this year, having wed within a fortnight of each other.

All three women plan to keep in touch, and are now searching for other former pupils from the class of ’64.

Mrs Parrington added that she was particularly keen to find two old friends, Anna Bloomfield and Kathy Hines, who might still be in Hampshire.

E-mail pparrington@btinternet.com if you think you can help.