I recently received from my cousin Pauline Williams details of some of our family who attended Drybrook school in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

We've had many requests in the forum in the past from people enquiring if any old school records are available, so I contacted Pauline back and asked her if she was able to give me some details on what school records Gloucestershire Archives hold. The following is the reply I received from Pauline.

From what I remember they have five ring binders with I think it was 365 named schools, not sure how many for the FOD but I was surprise with the number I did see. I remember Ashleworth, Maisemore, Ruardean Woodside, Drybrook, Lydney, Lydbrook and Churcham.

For the most part there are a number of school logs which if you have time to read and hope to find an ancestor, thats why the School Admission Register is the best, you can at least see who did go to school and where, confirm their birthdate, parents names, place they lived and how long they went to that school which all adds colour to a given person.

I only looked at two but in the one I noted an Edwin Slade with a guardian Mrs Woolford which would prove handy if his ancestor was looking for him?

The earliest Register starts c1867 they do vary but most go well into the 1900's, of the two I looked at the one I had to sign privacy so I took it to mean that there were people in that register who could still be alive? 

Hi David,
You probably know but at least some if not all of the contents of the Glos Archives are searchable from the National Archives website. In some cases the results themselves are freely readable online (I've read pdfs relating to deeds of old houses, Wills, c19 Church Council Meeting Minutes etc). In the case of School Registers I believe they are kept "closed" until 31 years after their cover dates.
The basic website search page is
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/default.asp

For the example typing "Drybrook School" gives 41 "hit"s. Each hit can then be explored and individual details are given for every article, register, report archived therein. They are listed in great detail as to where & what is archived, and what is contained for example in some cases lists of the various documents, plans, etc.

Hopefully this at least helps prepare prospective visitors to the Gloucestershire Archives, especially if they have the same problems I have when trying to access their website direct. In another instance I typed "Longhope Saw Mills" as my grandfather & his father worked there, and got five hits. (There are 804 hits for "Longhope Gloucestershire", for example !).
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=040-d3824&cid=0#0

As can be seen the Glos Archives hold a great deal of the business & personel records of this old Longhope business. Available to read online are complete transcripts of ancient documents about the Manor of Longhope, etc etc.

I hope this helps.