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These notes are written not in any chronological order but only as they occur to me.
Infants School - Writing on slate sometimes the slate pencil would squeak and you had to change it. Multiplication Tables up to 12 times 12 learned by recitation.
Other tables :- Pounds, shillings and pence. Weights, tons, hundredweights, stones, pounds and ounces. Volumes, gallons, quarts, pints, gills. Counts, grosses, dozens, units, hundreds, tens and units. Lengths, miles, furlongs, chains, yards, feet, and inches. Areas, Acres, square yards, square feet, square inches. Fractions and decimals.
All these relationships had to be learned so that you were able to answer such as 'How many square inches are there in a square foot?' quickly and correctly. Regular mental arithmetic tests were used as part of the weekly routine. Reading and writing were also part of the lessons, with, on some occasions, a poetry reading.
Big School - It has a fancy name now but that was what it was called then. More lessons along the same lines as the infants. Each spring, as part of a Natural History lesson, wild flowers and flowering herbs were brought to school. When identified the name of the pupil who brought the first specimen was written on a sheet on the classroom wall.
When spring was over the pupil whose name appeared most frequently on the list was awarded a small prize. The older girls were taught cookery while the older boys worked in the garden and were taught simple woodwork. Also in the garden was a small weather station complete with rain gauge and maximum and minimum thermometer and daily records were kept by the top class.
Drawing was also taught and as part of another lesson railway time tables were used. You had to find the route and the times to get from one station to another. Another memory concerns the Norse Saga of Beowulf which we read or had read to us. Whether it was part of an English lesson or a history lesson is no longer clear.
Photographs were fastened on the end wall of the hall showing the Sunday when, as a result of a long frosty spell, the River Wear was frozen over. Some of the older boys had marked the occasion by taking a sledge on the ice from Witton Park to Bishop Auckland.
Three of the staff came to school on motorcycles and these were parked at the end of the hall on newspapers. The hall was used as a gym and I think there was a vaulting horse and a mat. Sports days were held in the field belonging to the Welfare opposite and this field was also used for football. While I was there the Workshop was built and the school painted inside and out.
Mr. Ernest Preston came as Headmaster in the mid twenties and the staff included Mr. Watson, Mr. Wearmouth, who, at some time, had played football with a touring team in Spain and /or Portugal. From his remembered comments football was then, as now, attended by biased and violent supporters.
Then there was a local lad, Mr. Frank Richmond, who, apart from teaching, had some fame as a sprinter. On the female side, there was Mrs. Armstrong, a formidable lady, who kept a cane on the top of old type radiator and if she was not satisfied with the noise level then the cane was noisily drawn across the top of the radiator.
This threat and a few short words were often sufficient. Mrs. Henderson and Miss Stephenson were also on the staff at that time. A regular visitor, though not strictly on the staff, was the 'Kiddy-Catcher' who looked at the registers and visited the homes of pupils with unexplained absences.
Armistice Day was marked by a ceremony in the hall, where the two-minute silence was observed. On one occasion we were told the story of the four sons of the once local Bradford family and the medals they won in the Great War 1914-18. They were awarded, Roland V. C. and M.C., George V. C., James M. C. and Thomas D. S. O. Only Thomas survived the war, he died in Darlington in 1966.
During his tour of the 'distressed areas' the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, called at Witton Park. He visited the Welfare Building, opposite the school, and to see him we looked out of the school windows, probably climbing on desks to do it. Disappointingly all that could be seen was a group of bowler hats.
On the same visit he signed the Visitors Book in St. Paul's Church and paid a call on residents of the Square on Woodside. This consisted of a group of small houses, one down one up, with access to the bedroom by a ladder, surrounding an open area, with tap and earth closets in the centre.
Asked later to comment on the visit Billy Mole, an upset resident, said, 'He called my house a Hovel'. Billy Mole had a neighbour Bob Gregg. Bob was quarrelsome when drunk. The story goes that one Saturday evening Bob and Billy quarrelled and the drunken Bob broke Billy's windows. On Sunday morning, cold sober, Billy took a hammer and returned the favour.
My schooldays included the Miner's Strike of 1926. This started in May and my father, a strong union man, came out on strike. When the autumn term started the old National School, also used a Church Hall, was taken over as a 'soup kitchen' and school children went there for a mid-day meal.
The strike ended on November 21st and the soup kitchen carried on till December. A party was held for those children whose fathers were still out of work. My father had started work. Another memory of the strike was that there was a pair of boots given to each school child.
These boots came from a Boot Fund; the precise nature of the charity responsible is lost in the mists of time. What is not forgotten is that they were substantial boots with studded soles and probably with a light heel plate and that my boots were given on a sunny day.
The Old School was used for other activities. One was a talk given by Sybil, Lady Eden, on a visit to Palestine, supported by a slide show using a 'magic lantern' with its own acetylene gas supply from a portable generator. The lantern and the gas supply are the only details I remember.
Clothing jumble sales were arranged by the local vicar, Rev. Farnell, with clothing collected from wealthier parishes in the south. One further recollection of my early years, while walking to High Grange to visit my grandmother, I saw a set of the tubs from the Jane Pit drifts in the banks of the Wear crossing the road.
There was a bridge across the road and the set was on its way to the screens. These were situated between the road and the railway. Another memory of that occasion was the poster of the 'Bisto Kids' on the supporting wall as I walked under the bridge.
In 1930 I passed to go to Bishop Auckland Grammar School. We travelled by train, walking from the top of Black Road, as it was then named, by way of King Street and Main Street to the station. This route had two advantages, as you turned to go down King Street you could see Wear Valley Junction, the Viaduct, and the position of the train, and going down King Street you could see the home signal.
Using these indicators it was possible to decide whether or not you were late. I was often advised by one of the local housewives 'You'd better run, the boards off'. In rainy weather King Street, particularly if you were running, had one major disadvantage, the stone flags of the pavement concealed pools of water.
An ill-judged step and you ended with your socks and shoes wet. The return route from the station was by Low Queen Street, turn left by the fish shop, right at Greens shop, up High Thompson Street, left to the top of High King Street and then right to Black Road.
Richard H. Alder
Birstall, Leicester
30th June 2000
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