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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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| The Old
Prescotian presented a series of
individual memories. |
| Alan
Jones [1938 to 1944] |
- Bobby
Bolton's talks in the
air-raid shelters on
making chemical water
gardens
- The
tram from the Kings Arms
to go to Dovecot Baths,
- Winning
the Shield in 1944 but
who did score the four
goals?
- The
long slide in the
playground at the first
sign of frost.
- 'Juddy'
Hawthorne, often.
"How many blue beans
make five ?
- School
meals - traditionally
mocked - considering the
wartime restrictions were
splendid. Particularly
the jam tart and custard,
- Sadness
and remorse during an
Assembly when Mr Briggs
announced that Mr Murray,
a young teacher who had
been baited unmercifully
with all the cruelty of
youth, had been killed in
action.
- Going
to watch the school
football team on Saturday
mornings having first
bought some banana-split
toffee from the little
shop in St. Helens Road.
I still buy banana-split
simply to evoke memories
of those halcyon days.
- The
400th Anniversary Speech
Day at the Lyme House
cinema. Having left
school, I had to beg a
couple of hours off work
to receive my rather
modest School
Certificate. The
certificates were not
presented...
- Egg's
gown failing off one
shoulder.
- The
expulsion of a boy caught
stealing souvenirs from
an ME 109 on display
outside Prescot Council
Offices during Wings for
Victory Week.
- Changing
into football gear in
class.
- The
farm camp at Broughton,
near Preston on Farmer
Bradley's duck farm.
Stuking corn was great
fun but any offence,
however minor, was
punished by one having to
clean out the duck sheds
which contained droppings
at least six inches deep.
We cycled from home to
the farm but about ten
miles from Preston we got
a lift from a lorry!
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| David
Perkins [1934 to 1943] |
- Charlie
Fennell, woodwork
teacher, "If you
hold the chisel like
this, it is impossible to
cut yourself.... Run for
the First Aid box,
someone!"
- 'Drugs'
Drewry counting off the
lengths or Dovecot Baths
as a clutch of hopefuls
struggled towards their
25 Lengths Certificates.
- 'Richie',
gown billowing out behind
him, galloping across the
yard to call the
tricycled Wall's
ice-cream salesman to
bring his velocipede from
the road onto the field
on Sports Day
- The
mad-cap Founder's Day
football match, two
houses v two houses on a
multi-pitch ground with
staff invigilators to
count the goals -PGS's
answer to the Eton Wall
Game.
- Fondly,
Herbert Chant's parables
of 'Empire History.
"I knew a man who
went out to Australia in
the gold rush. He came
back a millionaire, '
He'd opened a fish and
chip shop at the
diggings'.
- Stiff-backed
blue report books to take
home, marks and positions
with incentive remarks by
the subject teachers
upstaged by the form
masters comment and
finally the Headmaster's
assessment. Mine often
bemoaned my predeliction
for the field of sport to
the neglect of the
academic.
- End
of term quizzes and
general knowledge tests,
times of relaxation,
anecdotes and bits of fun
which like so many
time-honoured
idiosyncracies would soon
be discontinued.
- The
private competitions
after the above to see
who could drink the most
Tizer,
- Eddie
Wood's incomprehension
that anyone might not
enjoy mathematics.
- The
end of term examination
results pinned up on the
class notice board in the
corridor for all to see.
The top and bottom three
in each case almost
pre-ordained and
contentment.
- Struggling
under the netting and
scaling the huge wooden
ramp liberally dusted
with french chalk in the
Sports Day obstacle race.
- The
Swimming Gala, like
Sports Day, a celebration
of athletic prowess; the
long dive, swimming under
water, diving for plates
all alongside the
traditional races: an
exercise in versatility
which gave everyone a
chance.
- Scotty's
propensity with the
board-duster. Chant's
unerring aim with a piece
of chalk.
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| John
Anthem [1939 to 1947] |
- School
fees were £3. 9s. 4d.
per term (exclusive of
books) for boys from
Liverpool.
- School
was open for juniors on
Monday and Tuesday
mornings and Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday
afternoons.
- Riley's
piano accordian in the
air-raid shelter.
- Being
paranoid about the need
to carry a gas mask to
school since the Germans
would use that weapon.
- initiation
into the Mole club and
the Bat club which met
respectively in
underfloor passages and
among the rafters.
- John
Waine and Noel Hawthorne
were ordained.
- The
final of the Secondary
Schools Shield
Competition versus
Liverpool Institute
ending in a goal-less
draw at Goodison Park in
1944. And the replay
there. P.G.S. 4 Institue
0
- Mrs.
Carey's crispy pork and
baked jam roll.
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