Description:

Trevor James Powell

Where did you go to school?
I went to Newton school from 1936 to 1944.

Where did you live?
I lived at the Little Green with my mother, father and two sisters.

How did you go to school?
I would walk the mile and half to school with my sisters but when I was 12 I had a bike. We met a lot of children at the tump on the way.

Who was your teachers?
Infant teacher was Miss Jordan and then Mrs Dunabin.

What did you do through your school day?
In the morning we would wait for the whistle to go, then we would form a line and go into school in a regimental order. I don't remember much about what I did in class, but when Trafford went over Miss Jordon would let us go out and look at the areoplane but later it was stoped because of all the planes flying over. When war broke out we had fire drill. We all had to form lines and go a quarter mile away and wait. One day a boy tied his spare rib from the pig on the bell chain we all waited for the dog to eat the bone, after a hour Mr Dunbin came in and wanted to know who the bone belong to. Mr Jones was a good woodwork teacher and he took us for woodwork. We use to climb up on the coke pile and peep in at Miss Willetts and Mr Tubby.

What did you have for your lunch?
Sometimes you had to eat your lunch at the desk, you put your cloth on the desk and I would have sandwiches with cheese, jam,ham or pig meat and some cake. Other times you could have your dinner when you wanted and you could then go out in the pasture and play fox and hounds. In winter you took cocoa or horlicks and the teacher would boil the kettle for us to have a hot drink. In the summer we had cold water from the pump.

What did you wear to school?
In the summer I wore short trousers and in winter I wore corduroy trousers, a cap, when I remember it, and an over coat. I had to take my gas mask which hung in the cloak room with my satchel.

Did you have any jobs to do before or after school?
Not before school but after I would carry wood in, as well as any other jobs that needed doing. Dad was always telling me off because I was always making thing with wood and used all Dad’s nails.

Can you remember any local events or any thing else about your school days?
Mr. Richard Jenkins must have been a kind man because he let all the children play in the pasture for years.  My father told me that they tried to make a flush toilet by digging out a pit, then letting it go at night but it did not work so they went back to the buckets. Also there was a family of 7 children who only had one pair of shoes so only one child went to school at one time. The parents were put in prison for 3 months for not sending them to school.

Observations:

This contribution from Trevor James Powell January 2003