I HAVE just returned from a very rare and alas a very short visit to Taunton, the town of my birth. With old age and all that goes with it, I am unable to make this visit as often as I would wish, but on this occasion I was able to see again, many of my old haunts.

These haunts included the village church at Kingston St Mary, where I was baptised; the chapel graveyard at Curry Mallet where my father, mother and young brother are buried and other places of interest in the village. The chapel has now become a private dwelling and I am sorry to say that the graveyard is in a very sorry state, being overgrown with brambles.

I visited the Wedlands estate and saw the house at number 18 where I spent my youth. Wedlands seems to have changed very little over the years.

Alas Huish's Grammar School is no more but I was surprised to find St Andrew's School in Rowbarton still standing and still operating as a school.

I joined the infant school in 1932 and progressed from class to class until I sat and passed what was then known as the scholarship' in 1939.

I remember that on one of the classroom walls (Miss Blackmore's class I believe) were boards on which were recorded in gold letters, the names of all those pupils who in previous years had passed the scholarship.

Seeing the old school again made me wonder what became of those boards as they were indeed part of the history of the school. Perhaps somebody will be able to enlighten me. I would of course love to hear from my old classmates still living in the Taunton area, although I expect that they are now few and far between. I can be contacted on Swindon 01793-82541.

REG SELWAY Stratton St Margaret, Swindon