Evacuees

The junior schools at Cobridge, both Roman Catholic and the Church of England, were not too far away. I attended the latter school and during the period I was there had my first encounter with children from other major cities, known as evacuees. They were sent to this and other areas which were not a high risk bombing target.
Even though the only contact I had with them was during school hours, I still remember the names of two if the girls which were in the same class as myself, they were Joyce Macclesfield and Joyce Cleary. They would of course be in their late sixties now like me. It would be interesting to know if they are still alive and see if they can recall their stay in the Cobridge area at that time.

evacuees

It was funny to think that children from the very large cities had seen very little of the countryside, so as a special treat a trip was arranged by the school to take them, and some of the other pupils, on an outing to the Dane Valley. I have very vivid recollections of this day out, even though it was such a long time ago. In particular an afternoon tea which had been arranged. I can still see myself, sitting at a table in the farmhouse, eating a boiled egg with bread and butter, followed by a slice of homemade cake. Such luxury.
It may seem strange to today's youngsters that it was something special, but when food was in very short supply and food such as eggs and cake were not available; even if it had been you had to produce your ration book and have part of the coupons therein removed to  say that your allowance for that period had been used. This of course applied to clothes as well as food; that is if you could get them. Bar far the best way to make sure that you had a fair deal was to shop at one store, as regular customers used to be given preferential treatment.

School memories

Granville infants -

Childhood memories of course must include the time one spends at school. Granville infants was the first school I attended and it was just across the road from our house. It is strange the sort of things we recall. For instance, a boy named Cyril Beswick pulled the tie around another boys neck very tight, the teacher had to cut away the tie as the boy was choking and turning blue, a very unusual incident to stay in the mind of an infant.

Sitting on the very large heating pipes that ran around the classrooms was very popular in the winter. I can only remember the name of one of the teachers, and that was a Mrs. Hall, so I must not have had any interest in the others.

Granville infants

It was then on to Cobridge Church School, which was located a short distance way, opposite the Greyhound Stadium, just a few yards on past Cobridge traffic lights. The head teacher was a Mr. Wilf Kirkham, a very forceful man who demanded, and got, respect. In his office he had a variety of canes, and was well versed in their use (I speak from experience).

I spoke earlier in my story of the evacuees staying in the area and attending our school. One boy was caned before the whole of the assembled school because of his misbehaviour with one of the evacuee girls in Cobridge park. It was no problem getting in and out of the park as all the iron railings that enclosed the park had been taken down and the metal melted down and used to make guns etc. for the war effort. When the boy in question had been caned, he ran home during the play time period to tell his mother. I can see the picture now in my mind of the boys mother coming up to school to see Mr. Kirkham. She was wearing a bag as an apron around her waist, and had clogs on her feet, and was demanding to know why her son had been severely caned. The boy stood outside the headmasters office grinning all over his face. The door opened and his mother came out and, now she knew what he had done, boxed his ears again, wiping the smile from his face; also with the threat that she would tell his father when he came home from work, and what he had been punished for.

Cobridge Church School
This building is four rooms wide by two rooms deep and has three gables to the front. There is a stone medallion on the central gable with the inscription 'St. Peter's School', which it was previously named. There is also a datestone inscribed '1905'.

photo: © The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Staffordshire Past Tracks
 

The final years of the war

About this time World War Two was in its final death throws. Lots of memories, both good and bad, spring to mind of that period.

There was a strict blackout imposed, and unless you had experienced it you could not imagine the full impact it had. All vehicles had masked headlights (small slits) so that the light would not be visible from above. There were no street lamps and even hand torches had to be masked. There was a small luminous disc, about two inches in diameter which was pinned to the lapel of a coat. This disc was supposed to be a marker in the dark, the idea being that the luminous glow from it would be seen by anyone approaching. This however, did not work, as the light given off by the luminescence was so little that you would have bumped into the person before it was seen.

Another wartime memory was of sticky brown tape, about two inches wide, used to stick onto the window panes in the shape of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrews. This was done to lessen the risk of flying glass in the event of a bomb blast. This was a simple version of today's laminated glass. All these measures were taken seriously, but a good sense of humour still prevailed.