Tower and Town, September 2017 (view the full edition)My Six Years At St Mary’s Iinfant And St Mary’s Junior School, 1940 - 1946I was born in Savernake Hospital in 1935 the fourth of five children. I started school at St. Mary's Church of England School "up Herd Street" in 1940. War had been declared. The air raid warning alarm and the all clear alarms were sounded from the Town Hall - sounds which to this day evoke memories. For six years I progressed through the Infant Department up to the Junior Department next door. We all carried our gas masks in cardboard boxes with a string shoulder strap. We were subjected to random gas mask tests, and on one occasion the authorities brought the real gas into school to test everything out. My brother Michael who attended St Peter's on the High Street, warned me to be on the lookout for this! I dodged it all by going across the playground to the lavatory block which housed several toilets. These were square wooden boxes with a hole in the middle of the large square seat - very difficult to climb onto. The flush came at intervals and passed down this row of loos until all had flushed. I remained there, quite frightened, until all these people had left, then I crept back into the huge classroom which stank of this terrible gas. I am sure those gas masks left many of us claustrophobic! Miss Thomas was a lovely Headmistress. She taught us to read: en masse with a.e.i.o.u always up on the board for word formation plus she would have each and every one of us individually at her desk every day to read to her. Miss Bryant taught us arithmetic and arranged the 12 times tables (we worked in dozens then) on doors all around the room for us to learn them. Strangely enough - we really enjoyed this daily task! It brought out the competitive side in us! Miss Thomas taught us to knit blankets for soldiers. Cast on 12 stitches - knit 12 inches - cast off (no metric system then) it was pounds shillings and pence all the time - adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing - all these skills were gradually introduced to us! Miss Rushton taught the newcomers. We had large print books with pictures to learn to read, but I don't remember much paper available then - we used black slates and chalk. We had plasticine boards and we became very adept at creating "sculptures" and rolling out small balls into weird shapes. The powers that be decided we may all be prone to rickets so every morning we lined up to receive our spoonful of cod liver oil and malt - government issue. The spoon was wiped on some sort of paper between pupils - it tasted DISGUSTING but we swallowed it!! The Infant School consisted of one huge room with an enormous sliding partition which, as required was opened with much shoving and pushing. It was girls only - the boys went to St. Peters down the High Street. We were put into teams: RED, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW. I was BLUE. Every Friday afternoon our weekly points were counted. I remember Maureen Tucker doing this very efficiently for teacher!! The winning team then had the appropriate coloured team star stuck to its poster on the partition wall!! Looking back - a good introduction to learning to live with failure - not always the winning team! Both my brothers went on to St Peter's and my elder and younger sister to St Mary's. The man with the black book in his black case came weekly to check on absentees and followed them up! The Vicar came once weekly to read to us from an enormous bible and teach us our Catechism "What is your name?" We answered "m" or "n". I asked my elder brother at home what this meant - he said he didn't know either. A nurse would come to do a nit inspection. Anyone with a doubtful skin problem or nits would be sent "up to the place on the common!" to be treated, shampooed or bathed in carbolic pink soap. My elder sister objected strongly to being subjected to this once!! It was regarded as shameful!! Miss Pearce was our Headmistress in the Junior School - she taught us our sums "Mathematics". She was a kind gentle but very firm lady regarding discipline. Miss Slade was very easy to like - I remember she was very excited one day because her Uncle John Masefield had been made Poet Laureate and to me it sounded very important news to take home to our family. Miss Mazey taught us to sew and woe-betide anyone who forgot their thimble. Clothes rationing existed, we rarely had new clothes - our mothers had to make do and mend. Material was scarce but we were given the chance to "sew" either pale blue Winceyette or navy blue serge like calico material - into knickers - I made up the navy but my mother refused to pay the money out for them so I had to return mine! I was upset because everyone else seemed to buy theirs. Rosemary Skittrall played the piano for hymns - she went on to become a wonderful pianist and Headmistress! We often had to walk to the common to be treated by the dentist with a foot drill in his caravan. We lined up. We watched the caravan rocking about if a tooth was being drilled - we were all scared - and had to enter alphabetically. Ghastly memories!! Once weekly - was it a Wednesday afternoon we all crossed the road to the School Garden through the iron gates - a very secretive place to a child. We loved being able to weed the beds. We also learned our country dancing there on the lovely lawn. We became quite expert at it and gave demonstrations at garden parties and fetes in the town. The music came from a portable record player! And an old 38 record. I enjoyed St Mary's School. We sat on long two-seater bench seats at the desk which contained 2 sunken china inkwells. There was an ink monitor appointed weekly. The ink was made from powder and water and poured into each small inkwell daily. At intervals we would be asked to stand up by the desk and do "PE" exercises - arms stretch, arms bend, arms swing and so on and march on the spot. Excellent in cold weather - it kept our circulation going warmed us up - but it didn't help our chilblains. We had daily inspection of hands and fingernails. The whole school was heated by a large cast iron black coke boiler. Our daily bottles of milk were defrosted around this boiler in winter. When the milk swelled and bulged several "inches" above the bottle tops we would suck this ice - the nearest we got to an ice cream until after the war. We would wash and save the cardboard tops to make pom poms in "craft classes". One morning without warning, top class was put in the big room with sheets of paper on their desks. Awesome. In front of us were questions to answer. The dreaded 11 plus. I was very scared. A tall upright man in a dark suit walked up and down continuously until it was 'time up' and papers were handed in. Today children are coached for this but not us - not then. I feel very sorry for any child who has ever to go through this. We have moved on. We had daily playtimes in all weathers, outside in the concrete playground. We skipped - juggled balls - played tag and hopscotch - hit a ball with a bat against a tall wall - formed gangs and made friends, played with 'yo-yo's, counters and marbles. When the whistle blew we lined up, shoes in a straight line, then we filed back into school. I seemed to remember there were no school meals - we took sandwiches and the milk was free. What we didn't have we didn't miss. Victory in Europe came in 1945. Clothes and food rationing continued for many years after this. Pamela Horril (neé Stedman) |