Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School

A large glass slide with dimensions 3¼ x 3¼ inches. Possibly used for projection during a talk. Note this is not a negative plate from a camera — it has a positive image, see below. Its origin is unknown, However, the photograph dates from before 1948 when the lecture room, Room 8, was converted into an ordinary class room, and two widows were fitted into the blank wall, situated to the left of the double doors, that faced the upper playground.
 

The slide held up to a cloudy sky. All four edges are protected by a black fabric sticky tape.

This plan shows the ground floor of the upper end of the school when Room 8 was configured as a lecture room. The seats are raked so that the pupils face the clock-tower end of the school. The room was converted to an ordinary classroom in about 1948. For some unknown reason, the wall shown on the extreme left lacks the gap for steps leading from the upper playground. The plan also shows the boys’ entrance, and a gate to serve it from the Hirwaun Road; the arrow in the photograph below, taken around 1894, may show this gate. The figure 4690 for Room 9 may represent the volume of the room in cubic feet. Its dimensions were about 16ft x 23ft which would make the height of the room about 12½ ft. A glance at the “1920s class in Room 9” photograph, in the Memories & Memorabilia Section, clearly shows that room to be at least twice as high as the master standing at the back of the room under the window.

The arrow indicates two large gate pillars, probably for the Boys’ Entrance. The large pillar on the extreme left is part of the Aberdare Park boundary.