"My All Saints memories, 1959-1963"

A review of All Saints C Of E First School by Mick Brett written on Sunday 26th of July 2009

I attended between 1958 and 1963. I think at that time you could enter at 5 years old and leave at 15 without ever leaving. While I was in the infants school the Headmistress was Mrs Hardy, ably accompanied by her assistant Mrs Ambler who I had a crush on. Mrs Ambler played the piano during assembly, impressing me tremendously by playing the Warsaw Concerto each time we filed out after prayers. She left to have a baby who she named Duncan.

In the center of the room flooring was a small square, fitted with a brass ring so it could be removed. Into this hole was placed The Maypole which we danced around, again to Mrs Amblers piano. We had "Big Toys" and "Little Toys" days, the former being played with in the classroom, the latter in the small hall. Mrs Hardy's office was a tiny room at the top of some stairs. I visited the school in the late 1980's and the office was no longer in use due to it being a fire risk. Playtimes usually consisted of ball games up against the wall, marbles, "off ground tig" or recruiting other playmates to your game by walking around, arms linked, shouting "All join on for charging" or whatever game one wanted to start.

When I moved to the Primary section I'm sure the headmaster was either called Mr Dunford or Mr Davison, not sure which. The only other names that come to mind are Mrs Lofthouse and a Miss Biaz/Biers, something like that. She wore a caliper on one leg and walked with a terrible limp. I was scared to death of her as she clanked around the room checking our work but she was nice in fact and we used to make models out of coloured sticky-back paper and raffia.

Another vivid memory was watching the Headmaster give some boys "six of the best" for stealing crisps and stuff from the stores. We were all gathered in the hall to watch the punishment being meted out.

We used to do PE dancing in the assembly hall to "78 rpm" records played on a wind up gramophone from which the strains of the Peer Gynt Suit blasted. I loved " In the Hall of the Mountain King" best of all.

On the right hand side of the small path which lead from Kennion St into the infants playground were a series of temporary buildings which had obviously been in use for a long time as classrooms and were in a sad state of repair even then. They were freezing cold in winter and terribly stuffy in the summer.

I still have an old black and white photograph taken on Kennion St as we kids were about to set off to Scarborough on a day trip. Those days the road was unmade and had some kind of stone pillars at the top end which I presume once held some kind of gate. At the other end of the street and across the road stood Horton Hall, a derelict old stately house. I remember sneaking in there one day and looking at a kind of Minstral Gallery which was almost falling down.

It's sad to see the old school boarded up, it was a grand old building in it's day..

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