Digital Ark: St. Florence, Wales: The (old) village school

Infants class

My teachers were

• Miss Coleman January – July 1959,
• Mrs Regemortel September 1959 to 1961.

Around the walls were 12 charts displaying the times tables. Every morning first thing we would recite the tables, usually together, but sometimes individually at the front of the class.
It certainly imprinted the tables onto my brain for life.

Some days we would have a scripture story, such as:

• The Good Samaritan,
• The Prodigal Son,
• Moses in the Bullrushes,
• etc

Then we did sums, initially on slates and then in half size exercise books which had large squares. Hundred Tens And units, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and simple division. If there was something left over after division, we put an R for remainder.

When it came to playtime we had to sit up straight with our hands behind our head. The person with the straightest back often got let out first. I can’t remember if we had our milk before or after our break, but it would be brought into the class by the milk monitors. In the winter it would have been sat on the stove to defrost. I never liked the taste of it on those days.

Later in the morning we did reading, the Happy Venture reading series with Dick and Dora, Nip the Dog and Fluff the Cat. I can’t remember any difficulty learning to read I just worked my way through the books. I think there were 5 books in total. The books themselves were very scruffy and had been well used, but were replaced by newer copies before I left the infants class.

In the afternoon we did writing, again initially on slate then in pencil on half sized exercise books.

Then we would do some craft or painting. I remember making raffia pots and vases, weaving small tablemats and making a nativity out of china clay. The clay always seemed to go hard before I could finish.

We also wrote and drew in our Newsbook and a similar book called the Book of Wales.
We used wax crayons to colour our pictures. The crayons were stored in circular Lloyds tobacco tins.

Mrs. Regemortel would often read a story or chapter from a book before going home. I can’t remember many, but there were the stories:

• how Alfred burnt the Cakes
• the Miller who ends up with a Millstone around his neck,
• Pinocchio,
• Llywelyn and his dog Gelert,
• the ladies of Fishguard against the French,
• and a sad story about a sheepdog.

If you were naughty you had to stand in the corner facing the cupboard.

There was a large Ostrich egg that used to sit on the cupboard as you came into the classroom. It always fascinated me.

Schools programmes on the Radio

The whole school gathered to listen to and sing to Singing Together on a Monday and Rhythm and Melody on a Thursday Morning. The infants always sat on forms in front of the desks in the main classroom.

Some of the favourite songs which I think everyone enjoyed singing were

• Michael Finnigin,
• One man went to Mow,
• Aiken Drum,
• Blow the Wind Southerly,
• Charlie Is M’ darling,
• What Should We Do With The Drunken Sailor
• Camptown Races.

There was also a programme called Nature Study on a Wednesday afternoon which came with a coloured booklet every term.

Sometimes we listened to a children’s serial on the radio in the afternoon.

The radio sat next to the gramophone (which I never heard playing until Mr Lewis came).
The radio developed a fault that caused sibilance on the letter S. It eventually got so bad that it had to be sent away for repair and was gone for a few weeks.

Playground

When I first started at the school I was frighted of the older boys, they seemed to be like men to me. I remember running down the narrow passage between the air raid shelter and the wall and hating meeting an older boy coming the other way. There was also a boy Hughie who had Down's Syndrome who used to chase us younger boys and then squeeze us tight.

The older girls often organised games in the playground.
I remember playing

• Michael Finnigin,
• Oranges & Lemons,
• The Farmer Wants a Wife,
• L.O.N.D.O.N spells London,
• and a game where you had to guess the name of a person from the initials,

The boys also played Cowboys and Indians, and Bumper cars where we folded our arms and bumped into one another.

Every now and again the girls used to play Fashions where they went down the girl’s side passage of the school and tucked their skirts into their knickers and danced and paraded around.

Mrs. Regemortel

I think Mrs. Regemortel owned a sweet shop in Tenby, the Lollipop Shop and occasionally she would bring in sweets as a treat.
Looking back I quite enjoyed my time in the Infants class and thought Mrs. Regemortel was a good teacher.

School Trips

There was only one school trip that I am aware of, which was in the summer of 1959 when I was 5. This was a big adventure for me and was probably the first time I went anywhere without one of my family. We went to Coppet Hall. I think both Miss Coleman and Mrs. Regemortel came. We were picked up by an old Silcox half cab single decker and went via Devonshire Drive to Coppet Hall. We spent the morning on the beach and then walked through the tunnel to Saundersfoot. We all made train noises as we walked through the tunnel including the teachers, which amused me. We had an ice cream and I bought a little tube of multicoloured sand. Afterwards we went back to Coppet Hall beach. I remember Ian Richards digging a deep hole very enthusiastically. We got back to St Florence early evening after a singsong on the bus. We sang songs like She’ll be coming round the mountain and One man went to mow.

School visitors

Periodically we would get the School Nurse visit. She would give any vaccines that were due. I remember having the Polio vaccine which was later replaced with a sugar lump. She would look through our hair for nits and certain children were checked individually, if they had a health issue.

They would take us for a Religious lesson. The Reverend Thomas was very enthusiastic and encouraged a number of us to join the church choir.

During my time in the Infants Class we had a student teacher for a short time.

We would get a delivery of a trunk containing library books, perhaps once a term, but I don’t remember being allowed to take them home.

Upper Class

I moved into the upper class a couple of months after my 7th birthday. It was different to the Infants as Mr Henwood was a strict disciplinarian. He sat behind his schoolmasters lectern desk and had a good view of all his pupils.

The class was in two sections, looking from Mr Henwoods desk the junior section was on the right and the senior section was on the left.

We sat in traditional school desks, two to a desk. We both sat on a wooden bench which folded up and was attached to the desk. We kept our books inside. The desks were old and had lots of ink stains and scratches. Each desk had two inkwells.

There was one desk which was slightly bigger and of a different design at the back of the senior section of the classroom which was used by the two oldest and possibly biggest pupils.

When we arrived at school in the morning we went into the playground and then the whistle would be blown and we would line up, and then go into school.

Coats were hung in the cloakroom. I don’t think we had our own pegs, but hung them anywhere. I know that because I accidently wore Peter Kraus’ duffle coat home one dinnertime.

Every morning we sang a hymn. Most of the year I think we sang The Lord Is My Shepherd to the tune Crimond,
but at Easter we always sang There is a Green Hill Far Away
and at Christmas we would sing Away in a Manger or Once in Royal David’s City.

We always sang grace before dinner to the tune of Old Hundredth. I’m not sure if I ever knew the correct words, but I think it may have been the doxology, which goes as follows:

Mrs Regemortel would play the piano, but sometimes one of the older children would play. I remember Janine Hughes playing, but there were others.

We did arithmetic in the mornings. There were no text books. We used very old scruffy work books, but generally did not write in them, but used our exercise books. The exercise books had soft dark green covers with Pembrokshire Education Committee or written on them.

If we did write in the workbooks we had to write in pencil and rub it out after, some pages had been heavily rubbed out with dirty rubbers.

I seem to remember doing weeks of long multiplication and even longer doing long division. I also remember adding and subtracting:

• Pounds, Shillings, Pence
• Gills, Pints, Quarts, Gallons, Bushels, Pecks
• Miles, Furlongs, Chains, Yards, Feet, Inches
• Ounces, Pounds, Stones, Hundredweight, Tons
• and so on.

We also did vulgar fractions and I had just started to do decimals when I left. The older children went on to do simple algebra.

Two of the older boys would put up the traditional easel which was quite big and heavy. The chalks for it were kept on Mr Henwood’s desk in a green cardboard box labelled E. J. Arnold & Son.

There was no chatter in class everyone got on with their work fairly quietly. If you wanted to say something you put up your hand. When you finished your work you went up to Mr Henwood’s desk to have it checked. The only time we could chatter was at 11 o clock when Mr Henwood went round the back of the school to use the toilet. You could just see the top of his head as he walked past the side window, so we had plenty of warning that he was on his way back.

Every so often the whole class would have a spelling test and we would also have the occasional general knowledge quiz.

I can’t remember a lot of actual lessons, a lot of the general teaching was done in quite an adult conversational style. We had lessons in history, geography and current affairs.

I seem to remember reading out loud from books which seemed old.
There was one that told about the knocker upper who went around knocking on people’s windows in the morning, before the days of alarm clocks.
There was another set of books called something like Broadcasts for Schools which were nature books from the 1930s or 40s. We had to read from them, but I found them quite boring.
There was also a set of The Pickwick Papers, buff coloured books printed in 1915, amongst them were a few reds covered copies that were printed even earlier in 1896.

One lesson I was never keen on was catechism. We did it first thing in the morning once a week, and had a small blue book to go with it. Some children seemed to like it.

We did art and drawing once a week in the afternoon.

I remember using the sycamore leaves from the playground and sticking them on stiff paper to make a pattern. Also drawing round leaves and painting the shapes.

We also had to draw a book laid down, the next week a book stood up with the pages open, then the following week the vertical book on top of the horizontal book. I struggled with my drawing and when I took it up to Mr Henwood he did a long sigh and said Well Paul, I don’t think you will ever be an architect. He was right.

We also had English workbooks similar to the arithmetic books they had the usual: their/there, to/too/two, opposites, big/small questions.

We also had to do joined up writing in our writing books which had blue and reds lines on the pages.

We used wooden pens with nibs. As the nib wore the writing got scratchy so Mr Henwood would notice and give you a new nib. If however you damaged your nib and had to ask for one you would get a telling off. A large bottle of ink sat at the front of Mr Henwood's desk for refilling the ink wells

Also laid at the front of Mr Henwood's desk was the cane. Not a particularly offensive looking item, just a short cane with a slightly fraying end. I never had the cane, but there were some who had it quite often.

I think the first stage of punishment was lines, then a ruler across the palm and then the cane. I only got as far as the ruler.

Other than Arithmetic and English we had lessons as one class, so those of us over the Junior side of the class would sit on long forms at the front of the senior class.

We didn’t seem to do much sport, we had PT lessons and in the summer we played rounders. PT was always done outside, all the equipment was stored in the Air Raid shelter.

The equipment consisted of coconut mats, coloured beanbags, hula hoops and tennis balls. Most people didn’t bring their old daps there was just a big cardboard box of well worn brown and black daps that again seemed very old, you chose two that fitted.

Once a year a small party of athletic girls and boys went to Manorbier, usually in the back of a land rover to compete in some inter- school sports there.

I was never deemed athletic enough.

Mr Henwood was always keen on National Savings and a number of children had savings books and brought in money regularly. He introduced a Penny Bank, so that all children could save, even if it was only pennies a week. I think when you saved five shillings you got a savings certificate to stick in your book.

Cadbury’s sponsored a competition which ran in each school. They supplied some information on cocoa production and chocolate manufacture and we had to write an essay on it. They were sent off to Cadbury’s to be read. I won a second prize which was a 5 shilling gift voucher for Foyles Bookshop. I bought a couple of books and still have one on my bookshelf.

School layout

In those days the headmaster Mr. William James Henwood taught the juniors, about 7 to 11 year olds.

Infants were placed in the care of Mrs. Regemortel. And when she wanted to, she could scare me something cruel. Under her guidance we chanted the various times tables e.g. 1 times 2 is 2, 2 times 2 is 4, etc, and learnt to write using a piece of chalk and a small slate board. Then pencil and paper.

When I graduated to the juniors class we used old fashioned nib pens, ink wells and blotting paper.

Unlike the infants class who used simple, but low, tables and stools, we got proper desks!

Some things that I recall:

• There were two class rooms: infants and juniors.


• There was no heating except an open coal fire in the wall between the two class rooms. I do not recall it ever being lit.


• Around 1963/64 electric night storage heaters were installed.


• Do not ask about the toilets. Green wooden seats, with a primitive wall mounted cast-iron cistern with the traditional long chain.
• The toilet roll was kept on a piece of string hanging around a red fire-extinguisher in the juniors class room. Do not forget to take it with you.
• Oh, and the paper was that hard army-like issue. I think it was Izal.


• The educational high-tech support equipment (beside the 2 blackboards on easels) consisted of a windup gramaphone player cabinet with louvered doors to let the sound out, with storage space underneath.
  And one of the records (78 r.p.m, heavy duty shellac) was Charlie Drake singing My boomerang won't come back.


• I remember a valve radio, we would listen to the BBC school program once or twice a week.


• Less high-tech was the wooden ruler that I got hit on the hand with.
  The cane was for more serious offences.
  On one occasion Mr. M.E. Lewis gave me a penknife and told me to cut a whippy stick from the bank down the side of the school.
  Then he hit me with it.


• Sometimes BBC school program was a music program.
  And then, and for some reason I hated this, there was a box of instruments.
  I remember a few single chime-blocks, a triangle or two, a tambourine and a wooden block with grooves cut on it which you scrapped with something like a rule.


• I used to like Friday afternoons. I can remember Mr. M.E. Lewis reading to the junior class.
  My favourite was Worzel Gummidge written by Barbara Euphan Todd


• About every two weeks the travelling library would call and leave a metal box (like a large ammunition box) full of books.


• I also liked those afternoons when we made cane baskets, from long coils of fine cane that we had to soak in a old metal tub of water before we could work it.


• The juniors room had a moveable wooden divider screen that cordoned off an area for the dinning tables.
• All praise to the cook. Mrs. Nun.


• My mother used to clean the school during the week. A good old fashioned mop and bucket.


• I recall, fondly, how in the first or two year at school one afternoon was spent sitting at a low table with: a collection of old wooden blocks, a toy car,..
  Mrs. Regemortel had an old tan coloured leather-like carrier bag full of these odds and sods.
  I can remember sitting around the table with Sandra Hughes (I always secretly admired Sandra) and Michael Roberts. We would wait for the bag of blocks to be tipped out on to the table, then there would be a mad scramble to get the only toy car (rubber wheels had vanished years earlier I presume).


• There was an air-raid shelter in the playground.


• In the playground, there was a earthy area running along the length of the playground. And at the end of the earth area, nearest the school, was a large sycamore tree.
  In the school photograph 1963 you can see the earth bank (and chickens) to the north side of the playground
  Whilst in the school photograph 1965/66 one can see the sycamore tree immediately behind Mr. M.E.Lewis.


• First thing every morning there was roll-call. And prayers.
  Our Father who art in heaven,
  hallowed be thy name;
  thy kingdom come;
  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
  Give us this day our daily bread,
  and forgive us our trespasses,
  as we forgive those who trespass against us,
  and lead us not into temptation,
  but deliver us from evil.
  For thine is the kingdom,
  and the power, and the glory,
  for ever and ever.
  Amen.


• Last thing every afternoon the two classes got together and said prayers. Something like this:
  
  Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord;
  and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;
  for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
  Amen.


• Since it was a school that was supported in part by the church, we had to troop along once a term to a church service.
  We left the school in a long line in pairs holding hands, and were lead off the the church.


• I remember a inter-schools Highway Code competition. Local schools competed in a sort of knock-out competition. I remember
  Tenby Primary sending a team of 4 (I think Lydia Jones, Lesley Clark, Catherine Bleines and Robert Davies ).
  I was our captain, I suspect that Sandra Hughes, Elizabeth Thomas and possibly Alison Law were the other members of the St. Florence team. We got throughly beaten.

Little Johnny's Gone to Tea

I still remember the following poem from a library book, not that it matters but the book cover was dark blue!

Mrs. Regemortel

A few years after I left the school I bumped in to Mrs. Regemortel and started to chat to her. She told me something that I did not realise, but was true!

She said that she could recall most ex-pupils by their faces - provided that they were girls. She said that boys changed so much through puberty that she could seldom recognise them!

Pupil Technology

Must try harder

National Savings Certificate