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When we first moved to Water Eaton in 1974 from West Bletchley, Mum tried to get us into Eaton Mill School as it was just across the road from us. However, the cut off point for admission was the road next to our house and we lived on the wrong side of it so we had to go to Manor Road Infants and then onto Knowles Middle School. The headmistress of Manor Road at that time was a Miss Maunder who was of the ‘old school’. One day my Mum was called to see her and Miss Maunder told her that if I turned up to school in trousers again I would be sent home as ‘little girls should only wear skirts and dresses’. We also had separate playgrounds for boys and girls, the boys of course had the bigger one!
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When Miss Maunder left she was replaced by Mrs Manistre, who was a wonderful headteacher. She changed things and we were even allowed to venture into the boys’ playground! Playtime was such a great time but I especially enjoyed using the new blue climbing frame which only one class at a time was allowed to use. I also remember playing under a large tree on the field next to the playground and up at the top of the field was a ‘wood’ where one day my friend and I found a live wasps nest!
I can remember some of the teachers names, they were Mrs Williams, Miss Mann and Mrs Bramham, the school crossing man was Mr King.
I can still recall the walk up to the office to pay in my dinner money which we did once a week on a Monday. The office was situated on the left as you went into the school up some steps. Everybody had their own peg with their name on it with a little basket under the bench for you to put your plimsoles. In my previous school I had had to wear regulation navy blue pants for P.E. but here we just went in pants and a vest, woe betide you if you forgot your vest! In the school hall we had colourful apparatus which was attached to the wall and pulled out to become a brilliant climbing frame. It was here that I first climbed a rope.
Dinner was in a bright canteen I can’t remember if it was self service, I think the dinner ladies brought the dinner to the tables for you? Drinks were served into metal goblets from the gold metal jugs. We also used to have an eighth of a pint of milk given to us every day in miniature milk bottles with silver foil tops and a straw. If you were milk monitor you got to give out the bottles and if anyone was away you could have the extra milk. The milk wasn’t always very cold but I didn’t mind because I loved milk. I can’t remember when this stopped but I don’t recall whether we had the milk in Middle School.
Moving up to Knowles Middle School
I was only at this school for a couple of years until I turned eight then I graduated up to Knowles Middle School. At that time the school transfer age took place at seven and eleven, but in that year they changed it to eight and twelve, so when I went up there was an extra year group at the school who seemed so much older than us. It was quite daunting, the school seemed so big and old compared to Manor Road. The corridors seemed to go for miles and smelt musty, I loved the old school hall which wasn’t in use when I first attended as the older children used it as a classroom, but later on was reopened and we held many plays and shows there.
The canteen building was in the middle of the playground and seemed so ancient. We were allocated tables where up to eight children sat with the oldest at the head. These children dished out the dinner and if it was something nice you didn’t always get any, however if it was something like prunes you could guarantee you would get more than your fair share and would get into trouble if you left any (this would of course lead to certain problems for the next few days!) Later on the canteen was demolished and a new canteen block was built onto the side of the school hall. This canteen was self service, I felt so grown up selecting my own food and carrying it back to my seat on a tray.
Assemblies were initially held in the gymnasium with hymns written on big rolls of sheets which were attached to the wall. I had several favourites including ‘Onward Christian Soldier’, ‘When a man won his spurs in the battles of old’ and ‘Jacobs Ladder or dream’ I think it was called. The gymnasium also had apparatus similar to what I had been used to in Manor Road just bigger and more challenging. It even had a trapezium. There was a shower block in the corner where the boys had the cubicle next to the showers and we used to have to walk through to have ours, this was extremely embarrassing.
Outside from the gymansium was a wooden building where we used to be taught french by Mrs Lancaster or Mrs Calder, I could never understand why my French name had to be Therese?
My first teacher was Mrs Curtis who had just joined the school as well as us. Unfortunately the Headmaster Mr Haywood had been tragically killed just before the summer holidays so we had no permanent head teacher at that time. Mr Allen was acting up as head teacher until Mr Bloor joined us from an Army School in Germany. Mrs Curtis was very kind but firm and she brought a lot of the outdoors in to us. Mrs Curtis had chickens at home and one day she brought into school some bantam eggs in an incubator, I had never seen a ‘live’ egg before and was totally enthralled when the eggs hatched into chicks. I was also amazed how soon they became fluffy after their scruffy arrival. We kept the chickens out in a little forecourt that is in the new block of the school just up from the gymnasium.
Another time we had someone come in to show us how to make corn dollies, once again I was amazed and delighted when they allowed us the opportunity to have a go ourselves using the proper materials. It was interesting seeing these old arts which you do not see very often nowadays. Knowles school always managed to introduce us to old arts and crafts, we used to do enameling, wood work, pottery, (we had a kiln still in the woodwork room from when the school had been a secondary school I can still remember the smell). We also took part in Country Dancing and once we danced along with other schools in the county for Princess Anne.
Sports day was always held in the ‘Rec’ with a track marked out to run around. Everybody was split into different teams I was in Blue and there was a lower school and Upper School cup. We used to have silly events such as three legged race, sack race, egg and spoon race but we also had running races, hurdles, and relay races. My team never seemed to win until the last year I was there. I was made team captain along with a friend and we organised who was going to be in the events and the lower school won the cup! I had unfortunately messed up my chances that year when I decided to warm up for the hurdles and jumped them the wrong way, whacking my leg on the hurdle and ending up with a seriously looking lump, I couldn’t take part that year.
Other teachers who were at the school during the time I was there were:-
Mr Bloor - headteacher
Mrs Curtis – my first year teacher and domestic science teacher
Mr Allen – My third year teacher and also deputy head
Mr Scott – Music teacher and my teacher for second year
Mrs Lloyd – I think year two teacher
Mrs Green – I think year three teacher
Mr Ling – involved in the Young conservation group
Mr Breeze – year four teacher
Mrs Calder – taught us French sometimes and took us swimming at Stockgrove School
Mrs Lancaster – my fourth year teacher and she also taught us badminton, table tennis, french, enameling
Mr Baldwin – year four teacher and sports teacher
Mrs Skelding
Mrs Stern – first aid lady
Mrs Wright – secretary
Mr Guess – school caretaker
Mr Bloor introduced school plays and shows back into the school where all the schoolchildren participated. I have very fond memories of these shows and can remember most of the parts I had. One year I was a Scottish Dancer in ‘Mull of Kintyre’, another time we sang ‘Botany Bay’ and ‘I’d like to get you on a slow boat to China’ but my most memorable was my last year when I had an important part in ‘Ernies Incredible Illucinations’ .Both myself and a friend had the part of Doctor which I played in one show and her the next. During the second show I stood in for a girl who had gone down with Chicken pox and played Aunt Ada. I had memorised the whole script and apart from one hiccup remembered all the words.
We had all the usual lessons being taught by our form teacher, Maths, (including fractions; bases; times tables,etc) English, Topic which included History and Geography, French was taught from year three. We also had handwriting classes using manuscript books to write between the lines. We started with pencil and when we were good enough we progressed to a blue ink cartridge pen. Unfortunately I am left handed and the pens supplied had right handed nibs, luckily at that time they had started to make left handed pens and nibs so my mum picked one up for me. I found with the right handed ones I would scratch a hole through the paper.
I went on several trips with the school one to Shortenills where we camped, Verulanium Roman Museum at St Albans, Royal Albert Hall for the School Proms, Tring Animal museum, The Royal Observatory at Greenwich and clock museum to name but a few. We also used to go swimming at the Leisure Centre which I found very difficult because we were told to swim around the edges which were round when all I wanted to do was swim in a straight line. Later on we went swimming at Stockgrove School for Boys. The swimming pool there was a lot older with columns around the edge and a diving board one end. The deep end was extremely deep and after the leisure centre quite daunting.
I had a wonderful time at both Manor Road and Knowles School and my time there passed too quickly. Very soon I was moving on to my secondary school which was Leon School but that’s another story.
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