I was born in Crow Lane, Ramsbottom on a-July evening in 1930, so I presume it was
taken for granted that I would attend the school across the road, St Paul’s.. Incidentally,
four generations of my family were pupils there, my mother, myself, my children and
now my grandson. In 1933, I went into the ‘Baby Class’ and I have a lovely memento
to prove I attended regularly-a picture with biblical text-signed on the back by
the head teacher of the infant department Miss Sarah Whittaker. “Well done Doris”
it said. You couldn't play truant living so near to the school, and sometimes in
the snowy weather my father would carry me there! Miss Hassall was my first teacher
she always wore a long sleeve floral overall, as did all the infant teachers and
if we were good, she used to pinch us gently under the chin, a sign of her affection.
Her classroom was a wooden shed at the back of the infant department there was a
wooden sandpit which always had a peculiar smell about it, a lovely old rocking-horse
and toys and books. I can remember being scolded for pushing in front of a group
of children waiting to speak to her - she admonished me with “wait your turn”. Miss
Hassall was the ideal example of a reception class teacher kind but firm. In the
main infant department the hall was divided into two classrooms by a moveable partition
with windows in the top half. Miss Whittaker had the one next to the Baby Class and
Miss Shaw the other. Miss Shaw wore her hair in a bun.. Her brother Charlie had a
grocer's shop at number 60 Bridge Street when you went in they was a delicious aroma
of coffee something I’m sure I never tasted as a child. Miss Whittaker, the head
of the infant department was a stalwart St Pauler and had the interest of both the
Church and school at heart. Her classroom had the only fireplace in that department,
with a big brass-edged fireguard. She stayed at school for her dinner and had on
it a small table near the fireplace. In the spring we grew bulbs and watched their
progress with interest especially if ours grew the biggest and best for the bulb
show. We had shows where we dressed as flowers - I recall being a daffodil in one.
At our Church sermons (Anniversary services on the third Sunday in June) she had
all the girls dressed in white, with white net cap with trumpet-like sides - we were
all so proud to take part in this important event in our Church school calendar.
Miss Whittaker used to arrange a party for us afterwards we had to take our food
and the school provided cups of tea. I remember once taking a hard boiled leg, and
when I put the shell off, the egg slipped into my cup of tea!. At our school Harvest
Festival, we took fruit and flowers – I have a photograph, sitting at tables with
the gifts in front - if we were the one with the bottle of milk in front of us, we
hadn't to drink the milk a bit difficult if you had a straw in your mouth. Christmas
of course was a special time with a large Christmas tree at the far end of Miss Shaw’s
room, but the partitions were drawn back then. When you were ready to go up into
the junior school across the corridor all-girls got a fairy doll - always the same
style with a crepe paper dress, so as you grow older, your eyes feasted on these
beautiful dolls, and you longed for the day when you would get one. The school was
redecorated during my time there and in the infant department, we had some lovely
paintings of flowers on the walls, maybe they were transfers, but to me they looked
like paintings, hollyhocks and lupins in lovely shades on a cream background. Craft
work consisted of woolen bobbles made using cardboard tops of milk bottles as a template.
I never got the hang of opening milk bottles, often I used to push the whole top
in instead of the little round centre pieces. We also made raffia mats that was
funny stuff sometimes you have a thick piece sometimes a thin one, and sometimes
one with both thick and thin. I can just see the card-board we used with string stitched
in it, around which we used to weave. In those days the toilets were across the yard
the infants and girls used one half of the yard and the boys the other - there was
an iron railing between. There was also an iron railing in one corner with steps
down to the boiler house - what an exciting place that was with its smoky smell (
we weren’t supposed to go there but how else could you retrieve your tennis ball?)
Moving up to junior school – our Assembly took place each morning and we had a different
hymn for each weekday. Fridays was “There is a green hill faraway”. Mrs Lucy Metcalfe
was my first teacher in the juniors. I remember she once lost her voice and asked
one of the older girls to speak for her I was so envious and wished I'd have been
chosen. Teaching us real writing, we all tried to copy her immaculate style. In the
early war years we had evacuees in Ramsbottom and their teacher Miss Murray joined
the staff at St Paul’s and used the classroom on the stage. This had a wooden partition
with windows at the top so that we wouldn’t fall over into the hall! She was a good
teacher and wore her auburn hair short, a bit like an Eton crop. Mr Henry Price was
our headmaster, a spotlessly clean fresh-faced, white haired gentleman whom we all
regarded with awe. His desk was at the front of the stage and if you misbehaved in
class you were sent to stand on the line an imaginary one in the wall near Mr Price
and you had to explain to him why you were there. Mr Linley the deputy head was a
more approachable figure, he travelled every day from the other side of Manchester
along with Mrs Cook another teacher who was a widow. She had a classroom above the
stage the only one in the school with a fireplace. She had monitors to do everything
even one to clean her shoes during the dinner break. She tried to teach me sewing,
without success. She was the shortest-tempered of any teacher I ever encountered.
Whilst in her class I took a scholarship examination and came home with my fingers
covered in ink - inkwells and pen nibs didn't agree with me - I was always in too
much of a hurry. Needless to me say I didn’t pass the scholarship, but was able to
take the entrance exam for Haslingden Grammar School which I did pass, probably with
clean fingers and where I attended until 1947. But that's another story.
