Doris Lown nee Harrison's Memories

taken from an audio interview conducted by Bletchley Community Heritage Initiative. BLE/T/016

Where did you live as a child? In Kent and then in Bletchley.

Which school did you attend here? Wolverton Grammar School. I transferred from a Grammar school in Kent.

What was it like at school? What are your memories? I was much happier in Kent. It was purely a girls’ school and when I came to Wolverton it was a bit of a shock, it was mixed there. But I got used to it, but it wasn’t anywhere near as nice as the Kent school. And of course we didn’t do a lot of schooling because every so often the siren was going and we would troop downstairs and all get in the Hall and then they built shelters for us. As I say the schooling was very disjointed then because of the trouble with the trains as well; that’s why I used to cycle sometimes. We’d get to the station at half past three in the afternoon and we’d still be there at six o’clock and get the workmen’s train which is . . . there used to be a little siding at Loughton where it would stop, ’cos in those days there were thousands worked in Wolverton Works. They’re happy days anyway then.

It was a long cycle ride, wasn’t it? Yes, Well, it seemed a lot further this morning, than when I used to cycle it. I used to go through Shenley, which you know, they were all villages weren’t they, and through Loughton and Bradwell.

Which school was that? Wolverton Grammar. It’s at the top of Moon Street in Wolverton.

Was Mr Morgan there? Oh yes, and I saw Miss Button and Mr French and Mr Thomas the other week. We had a reunion didn’t we? In Stony at the Cock . . . and they’re still around.

Anything else you can tell us? Where have we got to?

Well, I think we’ll go back to your schooldays. What about the teachers?

Well, ‘cos it’s Wolverton, you see . . . they’re not really applied to Bletchley. One or two of them did actually live in Bletchley I believe, did they not?

Was Mr Long from Bow Brickhill, was he there? Oh, don’t (chuckles). D’you know when he taught . . . I used to take science at the grammar school and he’d say, ’Course you don’t understand, do you Doris? So in the end I gave up, I just couldn’t cope with it and would you believe when I went to work at this school he was in charge of the Evening Institute. I had to work for him there (laughter). Obviously you knew what it . . . I used to think it so funny, how did he ever get that Austin Seven up that hill at Bow Brickhill?

Do you have happy memories of when you worked at Bletchley Road School? Oh, yes, yes. I loved it there, and I liked working for Mr Cook; I didn’t have a separate office, I worked in with him and then my day was . . . my week was divided into slots, so I’d have so many in the Secondary, so many in the Junior school and the Evening Institute. I had to do two evenings a week and I had two half-days, which meant Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning. But I loved working in the Junior school; they made me very welcome in there, sort of coffee break, I was in with them whereas it wasn’t quite the same in the Secondary.

Was Mr Crisp headmaster? Yes, Mr Crisp was headmaster, as I say there was Mr Harding and then there was Sylvia North, as she became, she was Sylvia Taylor. She was at our reunion in the Cock Hotel, yes. She’s divorced, isn’t she, yeah? Umm, trying to think of the other teachers in there, they were a very friendly crowd; I used to really love going in over there.

Miss Wing? Oh Miss . . . Yes, she was lovely, Miss Wing.

And Miss Hope that was married to Mr Jones? Oh yes. ‘Jotter’ Jones.

And Miss Capel? Oh yes, and Miss Burnham . . . My sister had beautiful plaits and when she had them taken off, Miss Wing was so upset about it . . . my sister worshipped Miss Wing. You’ve only got to mention her now . . . I wanted her to come today but she’s so busy.

Is your sister younger than you? Yes, she’s seven years younger.

Harking back to the Bletchley School, I think Mr Cook was an absolute gem of a headmaster. Having sat in that office, I’ve seen him have teenage boys come in there, because he wasn’t very tall was he, five feet? And umm, he’s reduced them to tears without laying a finger on them and of course they were more embarrassed because of the fact that I sat there as well being in the same office. The discipline then was that they were sent, the boys were sent to him, weren’t they? If they’d er . . .

Did he use the cane? He didn’t need to. He used to fetch these three canes out and he’d go into a long diatribe about how this would sting, that one would hurt more and so forth and by the time he’d gone all through this they were just wilting (chuckles). I never saw him cane anybody.

He was very strict though, wasn’t he? Yes, and of course his second in command was very good. What was his name? Oh. Bill Puryer. Yes, and he was a nice man, yes. And of course Mr Cook used to do a lot of lecturing to the . . . Displaced Persons they were called in those days, which are now refugees aren’t they? . . . Then to sort of get them settled in this country ’cos the RAF camp behind us became a camp - a place for displaced persons.

And one of the teachers from Bletchley school and I became quite friendly, Miss Barden, and she was a lodger in there. Do you remember her?

She was lovely, yes. Yes. She married, didn’t she?