Recollections of Oakridge School in the Time of Mr Allen
Title
Recollections of Oakridge School in the Time of Mr Allen
Description
Extracts from an interview with Kathleen Hunt & Eileen Minchin.
When I was a child at Oakridge School the most I can remember were about 125 or 129 children there. We had Scripture every morning. Mr. William Allen was the master and there was 'Teacher Louisa' (Louisa Gardiner, later Mrs. Andrews who then left school and went to live at Eastcombe). Miss Williams lived at Bisley and I thought her marvellous, a born teacher, though possibly an uncertificated teacher. Someone used to come in once a year to test us on Scripture. The vicar, Mr. de Freville was here about 30 years.
We got arithmetic every day and of course we weren't allowed to walk around in the class like they do now. We used to stand in a draft (draught)? Three sides of a square; he gave us questions and we'd see if we could get to the top. We had Drill (P.E. nowadays) outside just where they do now.
For Needlework in the Infants we had to do that awful fraying on calico; our poor fingers! It was used to stuff pin-cushions.
On Friday afternoons we used to do knitting - black stockings, and you had a mark if you did four rounds; they took years and years and the stockings were of different kinds of wool eventually, green and blue, and never seemed to be finished!
When we were in the Infants we read about Bunny and Furry, the rabbits and about Denny and Tatty, I think, though I can't remember much about that.
When Mr. Allen was a bit late coming back we used to all have to recite tables till be came; he used to grumble because we used to sing the tables, "Twice one are two...." not like they do now when they start 'once two are two......They had some big sheets, in fact I think they are still there they brought them out when we had the Centenary; 'the cat sat on the mat' was how we learned to read, and we did not learn phonetically.
I can't remember anything about Christmas or Carols at school. Later on, though not in my time, Mr. Weston taught my children; his daughter is Dame Margaret Weston now Director of the Science Museum at South Kensington. I was at school with Miss Nellie Daroll and Winnie Rowles who lived at Bournes Green. We wore little lace-up boots for school, black woollen stockings which my mother used to knit, white pinafores embroidered and with epaulettes, and broiderie anglais, all startched. The boys wore jerseys, or some wore suits with Norfolk jackets and short trousers and stockings.
The school has changed hardly at all, no additions, only that this end looking up the road, is divided off where they cook, though the toilets have been renovated.
I loved school! Children were there from the age of three to about thirteen or fourteen in those days. But I left when I was about ten and went to Stroud to Badbrook School. I walked to Chalford to catch the half-past eight paper train; there was no bus. We caught the twenty-tofive rail car from Stroud and got home about quarter-to-six. A long day for a ten-year-old!!! (Oliver Hunt told us about the bus that used to come to Bakers Mill but that was a lot later, perhaps ten years later).
Children from Waterlane used to bring sandwiches but we came home to dinner. The children who brought sandwiches had no supervision and ran about eating if they felt like it; teachers were there I suppose but not standing out in the playground like they do now.
The school hours were 9 - 12 , then 1.30 till 4 0'clock.
When I was a child at Oakridge School the most I can remember were about 125 or 129 children there. We had Scripture every morning. Mr. William Allen was the master and there was 'Teacher Louisa' (Louisa Gardiner, later Mrs. Andrews who then left school and went to live at Eastcombe). Miss Williams lived at Bisley and I thought her marvellous, a born teacher, though possibly an uncertificated teacher. Someone used to come in once a year to test us on Scripture. The vicar, Mr. de Freville was here about 30 years.
We got arithmetic every day and of course we weren't allowed to walk around in the class like they do now. We used to stand in a draft (draught)? Three sides of a square; he gave us questions and we'd see if we could get to the top. We had Drill (P.E. nowadays) outside just where they do now.
For Needlework in the Infants we had to do that awful fraying on calico; our poor fingers! It was used to stuff pin-cushions.
On Friday afternoons we used to do knitting - black stockings, and you had a mark if you did four rounds; they took years and years and the stockings were of different kinds of wool eventually, green and blue, and never seemed to be finished!
When we were in the Infants we read about Bunny and Furry, the rabbits and about Denny and Tatty, I think, though I can't remember much about that.
When Mr. Allen was a bit late coming back we used to all have to recite tables till be came; he used to grumble because we used to sing the tables, "Twice one are two...." not like they do now when they start 'once two are two......They had some big sheets, in fact I think they are still there they brought them out when we had the Centenary; 'the cat sat on the mat' was how we learned to read, and we did not learn phonetically.
I can't remember anything about Christmas or Carols at school. Later on, though not in my time, Mr. Weston taught my children; his daughter is Dame Margaret Weston now Director of the Science Museum at South Kensington. I was at school with Miss Nellie Daroll and Winnie Rowles who lived at Bournes Green. We wore little lace-up boots for school, black woollen stockings which my mother used to knit, white pinafores embroidered and with epaulettes, and broiderie anglais, all startched. The boys wore jerseys, or some wore suits with Norfolk jackets and short trousers and stockings.
The school has changed hardly at all, no additions, only that this end looking up the road, is divided off where they cook, though the toilets have been renovated.
I loved school! Children were there from the age of three to about thirteen or fourteen in those days. But I left when I was about ten and went to Stroud to Badbrook School. I walked to Chalford to catch the half-past eight paper train; there was no bus. We caught the twenty-tofive rail car from Stroud and got home about quarter-to-six. A long day for a ten-year-old!!! (Oliver Hunt told us about the bus that used to come to Bakers Mill but that was a lot later, perhaps ten years later).
Children from Waterlane used to bring sandwiches but we came home to dinner. The children who brought sandwiches had no supervision and ran about eating if they felt like it; teachers were there I suppose but not standing out in the playground like they do now.
The school hours were 9 - 12 , then 1.30 till 4 0'clock.
Source
The Pat Carrick Collection
Files
Collection
Citation
“Recollections of Oakridge School in the Time of Mr Allen,” Oakridge Archives, accessed April 28, 2024, https://oakridgearchives.omeka.net/items/show/489.