Our head teacher bathed children in the cloakroom

Jump to: navigation, search

Margaret Hirst (nee Clayton) of Wood Street, Chaddesden, writes about her childhood memories of growing up in Derby.

Margaret Hirst (circled) taking part in a Sunday School anniversary rehearsal at Greenhill Methodist Church Hall, in St Peter’s Churchyard

I was born in 1939 at the bottom corner of Alma Street, opposite the Oxpring greengrocer’s, which was at the bottom of King Alfred Street, and Mrs Britten’s sweet shop, which was diagonally opposite.

When sweets came off ration, my dad gave me a whole sixpence several days in a row to choose anything I wanted from Mrs Britten’s store. My father worked as a railway shunter and money was tight, so this was a big deal.

Dad was the youngest of 15 children, two of whom died before he was born. He was born in Dean Street, quite a small residence considering the size of the family.

Gladys Fletcher, his youngest sister, at one time owned a tobacconist shop with her husband, near Abbey Street School.

Another sister, Annie Potts, ran the off-licence on the corner of Upper Boundary Road and Franchise Street. Brother William Clayton, from Wolfa Street, was a very successful pigeon fancier and was given the prestigious “Freedom of the Flying World” award.

When I was about 10 years old, I learned to roller skate and my friends and I used to go to the top of Stockbrook Street (a very long road), wait for the bus to go by, then push off from the top of the hill and roll all the way to the bottom. It was most exhilarating.

There were not many cars around in those days.

I also remember playing whip-and-top up and down the middle of the road in Alma Street, as well as many other street games, including ball games.

One favourite game, played on the pavement this time, was trying not to step on “monkey” bricks.

These were standard-sized blue bricks with a diamond pattern in the top, randomly placed amongst the other bricks.

During these days, I used to spend a lot of time playing with Sylvia and Anita Rood but, when they acquired a television, they would disappear to watch children’s TV.

One year, I was invited to Sylvia’s birthday party. We thought it was amazing as we were taken by train to Whatstandwell to a converted railway carriage in a field, near the river. We played games in this wonderful place and had a picnic tea.

I went to Gerard Street School, where Miss Aitken was the infants head teacher. While there, I had to take a teaspoon to school to put in a large jar.

Just before playtime, we had to queue up to be given our spoonful of MOP (cod-liver oil and malt). We then had to wash our spoon and return it to the jar.

I progressed with age to the junior school, at which point the boys were segregated from the girls.

I do not remember any accidents on all of those stairs or steps leading down to the playground but I do remember the gate between the boys’ and girls’ playgrounds, which was sometimes left open.

I made friends with two Brians – Brian Reed who lived on Abbey Street, and Brian Reece, who came from Lynton Street. The latter went on to Bemrose School and I believe that he played the organ there.

Miss Hudson was the head teacher of the junior school (girls section). She had a fetish about using handkerchiefs. She would do a spot check during assembly and anybody without one would be given a square of cut-up roller towel for that purpose.

Miss Hudson also instigated a bathroom to be built in the corner of our cloakroom. Every Friday, she would don a white coat and supervise the bathing of a number of children. I am not sure whether she selected them or whether parents had requested this. However, she was a caring soul and I remained friends with her for many years.

These thoughts lead me on to my own bath-time. This was once a week in an enamel bath, which had to be lifted out of the pantry and took up all of the available floor space in the kitchen. The electric copper was put on to boil the water. My mother saved all the ends of our bars of soap and put them into the copper “to make the water nice”.

The copper was fitted with a tap so filling the bath was easy but emptying it was more of a chore. Imagine my thrill when I eventually had a proper bath where I could simply turn on the taps and actually see my leg in clear water rather than the cloudy stuff I was brought up with.

Pages linking here

The day elephants marched down London Road

[edit]

FEEDBACK

Did you enjoy this article? If so, why not comment on it? Perhaps you disagree with something in it, or you know something the writer doesn't and can add some extra facts. You may want to ask a question about this article. Making a contribution is easy - either click 'edit' to insert more information or 'discussion' and then 'add comment.' This is your site. Please feel free to use it to the full and share your memories, thoughts and knowledge about Derbyshire with others.

If there is no 'edit' link showing it means the article has either previously been published in the Derby Evening Telegraph, or it has been protected by the site administrator and cannot be edited.'

Other tags that are relevant to Our head teacher bathed children in the cloakroom

Help us to improve You&Yesterday by adding more tags to this article. Simply edit this page, find this area and add the words in a list separated by commas next to the *.

To find out more about tagging please click here.

County: Derbyshire

Return to Twin_brothers_who_both_overcame_11-plus_failure

Retrieved from "http://www.youandyesterday.co.uk/articles/Our_head_teacher_bathed_children_in_the_cloakroom"

You can edit or add to this article.