Longhope, United Kingdom

A cameo description of life in Longhope before World War I is given in a memoir by Arthur Bullock. He fondly recalled, "I could hardly have chosen a better village to be born in than Longhope". Among the reasons he gave were that the houses were "sufficiently concentrated to give a sense of community and sufficiently scattered to give the citizens a sense of individuality". He alluded to the frequent services run by the Great Western Railway, but noted, "for shopping it was really not necessary to go outside the village as there were two good general stores with three small shops, two bakers, a post office, coal merchant, blacksmith and four public houses. He also records that later "Mrs Wright opened another general shop and news agency, and Mr C. Powell built a village hall which he called the Latchen Room. There was a cricket team, football team, tennis club and choral society."

Bullock's memoir provides a detailed account of life in Longhope at that time, including the role of James Constance and Sons as the chief employers in the village (whose workers included Bullock's father George and brother Wallace) and the profusion of other trades that were in operation, including hurdle making and wheelwrighting, and also records that the greatest fruit crop grown there were plums. The Bullocks were a characterful family, very active in village life. Other local families included the Carpenters, the Lanes, and the Halls, who were cartwrights. The village also had more than its fair share of eccentrics, including the churchwarden and builder, Feyther Field, who apparently would ride along on a bicycle carrying a ladder.

Bullock notes that there was a council school next to the Zion Baptist Chapel at the top of Hopes Hill, but he and his siblings went to Longhope Church School across the road from the church. Arthur described it as "one big room with a fire grate at one end"; toilet facilities were primitive and there were "no washing facilities but a tin bowl and a chunk of red carbolic soap". The schoolroom was bitterly cold, he recalled: there were times in winter that his feet were so cold that he could not feel them his hands so cold that he could only write with difficulty. However, he was full of admiration for the quality of education the pupils received from the schoolmaster and schoolmistress, Mr and Mrs Hill. The current village school, Hope Brook Church of England Primary School, was formed on 1 September 2001 by the amalgamation of the two earlier schools (Hopes Hill County Primary School and Longhope Church of England School). It is situated next to the recreation ground.