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Floreat
Prescotia |
The
Website for former pupils of the Prescot
Grammar and Prescot Schools |
© The
Prescotian 2000 - 2010 |
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| Extracts
from 'Prescot when I was a Boy'
by Arthur S. Roberts [Published
1987] |
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Arthur
S. Roberts
PGS 1922-1926 |
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Continuing
along High Street beyond the Hope
Street opening, the next building
is the Hope and Anchor Hotel.
This commodious establishment
abuts on what was the picture
framing business of Mr.Harland,
whose wife taught geography at
the local Council School. The
Preston family lived in the
adjoining house, and next door to
this was the tailor's shop of
Messrs. Roberts and Bromley. Jack
Saggerson's garage and taxi
service carried this block to its
end at STorth Court, beyond which
was the Grammar School and its
playground shielded by a wall and
iron railing. When Thomas
Eccleston offered the land for
this school, an error on the part
of the surveyor resulted in more
land being available on the south
side of Hackley Moss than was
intended. On hearing that the old
school building was unsafe and
inadequate, Eccleston offered a
piece of land twenty yards
square. The error occurred when
the surveyor mapped out his plan
on an area twenty-five yards
square. The school was
transferred from its old site
(opposite the Church), where,
according to a minute in the
records, it was described as
being unsafe, 'due to the
proximity of increased vehicular
traffic passing its door'. The
changeover took place in 1759,
and the Grammar School was housed
at this new site until the
present building was erected in
1924. The first two years of my
time at Prescot Grammar School
were spent in this building and
the places annexed. After the
transfer of the school to the new
premises the old building was
used as a clinic. This was later
demolished and is now one of the
many car parks in Prescot.
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| The Royal
Hotel yard was a broad expanse at
the top of Derby Street, which I
believe was used for stabling
when the Royal Hotel was a
coaching station. This was before
my time, but I remember when it
had the Assembly Rooms and two
cottages at its northern
extremity. I recall that the
Ormandys and the Shuttleworths
were the tenants of these
cottages. What the Assembly Rooms
were originally used for I do not
know, apart from balls and social
functions, but the upper floor
accommodated Forms 3A and 3B of
the Grammar School at the time
when I joined the school in 1922.
In those days, and in fact until
the new school in St.Helens Road
was opened, it was necessary to
deploy certain of the lower forms
of the school to venues up and
down the town. The Assembly Rooms
housed two of these forms as did
the Wesleyan schoolroom and the
Parish Rooms. Constant changing
from place to place for various
lessons, and the time taken in
getting there,- reduced the time
allowed for lessons. However, due
to the inadequacies of the school
buildings this constant movement
was inevitable. From the
King's Arms, the road to
St.Helens branches at right
angles from High Street and
Varrington Road. A grocer's shop
appears to have stood on the
corner, but my earliest
recollection was of Joe Smith's
greengrocery which adjoined the
newsagency of J.Edwards in High
Street. In 1913 Joseph Burke's
cookshop was next door, and this
was later occupied by the
Molloys, whilst John Fowler's
hairdressing saloon was on the
other side of this.
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The latter
was taken over by the late Bill
Birchall who used to cut my hair
when I was a boy. An incident
which I well remember, and which
proved the authoritarian nature
of the schoolmasters of the day,
occurred on this very spot. It
was a Saturday morning, and on
leaving the barber's shop proudly
displaying my newly cropped and
brilliantined head, I refrained
from putting on my school cap. There
appeared to be no one about and
it was Saturday, so I
nonchalantly made my way towards
High Street when a stentorian
voice accosted me with the words,
'Boy, put that cap on'. It was an
unwritten law that members of the
Grammar School when outside
school premises must wear caps at
all times. I recognised the
unmistakable voice as belonging
to the headmaster,
Mr.C.W.H.Richardson, and suitably
chastened, I hurriedly donned my
offending headgear, and hoped
that the incident would be
forgotten. lot so, as at assembly
on the following Monday I was
hauled out by the Head who asked
if I was ashamed to wear the
Grammar School cap. I wonder what
the reaction of a scholar would
be today?
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| Farm land
worked by Mr.Metcalfe reached
from the St.James Road side of
the Lane Ends back along
St.Helens Road towards the town
centre. This was enclosed by a
sandstone wall, broken only by
three cottages and the entrance
to the farmhouse until it reached
the eastern side of Cross Street.
The building of the new Grammar
School in 1924 took a fair
proportion of this farmland. The
cottages half-way along the road
were demolished, and the farm
house became the residence of the
Headmaster. This in turn was
pulled iown, and the wall
continues unbroken from Lane Ends
to the entrance to the school and
playground. Five houses stand
between the school yard and Cross
Street, the next street off
St.Helens Road. Beyond this was
an old established public house,
'The British Soldier'. |
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