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Newton School,

from 1943

by Val Peters (née Owen)

Header: Newton School in 1955.

NEW-More: The Early Days of Newton School >by Wendy Cope

NEW-More: Victorian Schooldays in Oystermouth > by Carol Powell

More: Local Schools >

More: The Old School at Newton > by Edna Davies

More: Newton Primary School at Nottage Road > by Michael Charles

Newton School

Opposite the Church at the top end of Nottage Road, stood the little School House.

At the side of Newton School was Nottage Farmhouse,

Newton School, from 1943,
by Val Peters (née Owen)

I started school on the Monday after my 5th birthday, in February 1943. I had been longing to go to school and used to spend hours pretending to teach my dolls.

The school was at the top of Nottage Road in what is now the Old School House. There were three classes in two rooms. Miss Evans who lived in Saint Peter's Road took the infants, who had a separate entrance. Miss Harris taught the the seven and eight olds and lived in Brooklyn Terrace. (The road above Underhill Park). Miss Rees, who was also the Head Mistress. taught the nine and ten year olds. Miss Harris and Miss Rees shared the large room with a screen dividing the two classes. The toilets in the school were out across the yard. It was a very happy school, and we children thought the world of the three teachers.

It was still War Time when I started school, so we all had to take our gas masks school everywhere. There was an air-raid shelter in the school grounds, which we were all supposed to go into if the siren went, but I don't remember it ever being used. The one time the siren did sound, they found they couldn't get the door open, so we were all sent home. Mrs. Hickson (Keith's mum) saw us all running down Nottage and took us into her house just below what is now Woollacott Butcher's Shop.

School began at 9am, always with prayers. Lunch time was from 12 noom to 1.30 pm All

children went home to lunch, as there were no school dinners - The Infants finished at 3.30 pm and the Juniors at 4pm.

All the children walked to school or ran if we were late and each child was given a small bottle of milk 1/3 pint, to drink at playtime. Because we lived on a farm, my brother and I did not have to drink it. (It felt like we had plenty of milk at home).

Because the School was a Church School, the Vicar, Rev. Hickin, often came into the school on important days like Ascension Day, the whole school would attend Church in the morning and then have the afternoon as a holiday.

In the large school room, there was a high coal fire with a guard surrounding it. In the Winter we were allowed to come out and warm our hands in tum and we thought this was great. Also the bottles of milk were put by the fire to warm.

While we were in Miss. Harris’s class, she got married and became Mrs. Edna Davies. My friend Marjorie and I were thrilled to see her wedding photos.

Newton School Log Book
September 25th 1944
Miss E. J. Harris was granted a week's leave of absence for the occasion of her marriage.

October 2nd 1944
Mrs. E. J. Davies (née Harris) resumed duties today.
W. Glamorgan Archive

The Wedding of
Morgan Davies and Edna Harris,
25 Sept 1944

Edna Davies later wrote:

Morgan was given a lift down to Fairwood Aerodrome from his base at Holme-on-Spalding Moor in Yorkshire on Sunday 24th September and at 11.00 a.m. on Monday 25th September, we were married at All Saints’ Church, Mumbles, by the Rev. D.G. Wilkinson. I carried a bouquet of cerise carnations, wore a wedding dress of gold brocade, with a short train, a matching gold-trimmed veil and orange blossom head-dress. The wedding outfit was not new, as valuable clothing coupons could not be spared. It had been bought from a very sweet deaf girl and it fitted beautifully. Thus there were enough coupons to buy a new going-away outfit—14 coupons for a jumper suit and 18 for a full length coat.

After the wedding ceremony, we were taken by taxi to the Swansea High Street studio of Mr. Chapman, where our wedding photograph was taken. The wedding reception was held at the Osbourne Hotel, Langland, but the number of guests was restricted owing to wartime food rationing. Food points had been collected by family and relatives in order to obtain enough ingredients for a one-tier wedding cake, which had been made by the Chef of the Mackworth Hotel in Swansea, where my Aunt worked.

After the wedding reception, there being no petrol available for private journeys, we travelled by bus to Brecon, where we spent a very short honeymoon at the Wellington Hotel in very peaceful surroundings ‘far from the madding crowd!’ When we left, the Proprietor gave us half a dozen fresh eggs as a wedding present.

On Friday 29th September, amidst a bustle of soldiers and sailors all coming and going, I saw him off from Victoria Station in Swansea, as he had to return to his unit.

Val Peters (née Owen) continues:

The highlight of the school year was the Christmas Concerts, Nativity Plays and Party. I can still remember being one of the three Kings in the Nativity. Rev. Hickin acted as Father Christmas (we children didn't know it was the Vicar). The school was decorated and every child was given a small stocking with sweets wrapped in coloured foil. We also had a small tree decorated with treasured china ornaments.

Later some of the older boys were beginning to recognize "Father Christmas " So Mr. Davies (Mrs. Davies’s husband) took over.

Rev. Hickin acted as Father Christmas

When we reached Miss Rees’s class there were just thirteen of us in the class - four girls and nine boys. We were all great friends as well as classmates. My love for school was encouraged and I always said I would become a teacher.

When we were ten plus years, we moved down to Oystermouth Council School, and there we sat the Eleven Plus or Scholarship, to enable us to go to the Grammar Schools.

When Miss Rees retired, she called me to the School and gave me many of her teaching books. She said she knew from the first that I would become a teacher, and thought I would find them useful.

Val Peters (née Owen)

The Old School

My teacher, Edna J. Davies (née Harris).

The class of c1948:

If you can add names or any other details, please contact us

The class of 1955:

with their teacher Edna Davies, their names are below

Edna Davies wrote:
The children at the school derived much pleasure and gained much knowledge from the day-to-day running of the farm. They saw the farrier shoeing the horses, the cows coming in to be milked, foals and calves with their mothers. Then, in autumn, came the threshing machine. All windows in school were closed to prevent the chaff blowing in. The straw stack was built alongside the boundary wall.

The cows crossing the top of Nottage Road, in front of Saint Peter's Church, Newton, are probably travelling to Woollacott's Farm to be milked, 1903.

At the top end of Nottage Road were the farm and farm buildings belonging to Dick Woollacott. A boundary wall divided the old school from the farmhouse, farmyard and outbuildings. The old farmhouse, dated about 1630, was last occupied by the Skilbeck family. It became more and more run down and eventually had to be demolished, as it had become a danger to the children in the adjoining school playground.

Nottage Farmhouse

At the side of Newton School was Nottage Farmhouse, which had been built in about 1630 and in front of it, the farm buildings, below.

George Owen and his twin brother, Eric were born in the little cottage next to what used to be Newton School in 1904. Their father, Thomas farmed there and the cow-stalls were behind the house (they later converted these into a kitchen until the farm was sold and the building demolished ).

The Old School House Restaurant.

Although it remained almost the same for 100 years, since the 1960s the Old School has gone through great changes.

It changed hands, the new owners being Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths who continued to run it as a restaurant/hotel. When they left the new owners converted it into two houses.

The New School

The school at Slade Road could not be a greater contrast to the Old School at the top of Nottage Road.

The Newton children now had a totally new environment, with the luxury of playing fields, new furniture, a large assembly hall and many other advantages. There was one disadvantage however. The narrow entrance to Slade Road made for great difficulties. It was dangerous for the children going to and fro and difficult for large delivery vans, the fire engine and the ambulance.

Parents protested that the road should have been widened before the school was built or occupied. Eventually Pear Tree Cottage which stood at the entrance to Slade Road was demolished for road widening, as well as another cottage at the end of Whitestone Lane. We now have a very wide entrance to Slade Road and therefore to the school. Today, the school has an additional entrance at the back of the playing field, through Hatherleigh Drive.

Acknowledgements

Photos: Oystermouth Historical Association Archive and Edna Davies.

NEW-More: The Early Days of Newton School > by Wendy Cope

NEW-More: Victorian Schooldays in Oystermouth > by Carol Powell

More: Local Schools >

More: The Old School at Newton > by Edna Davies

More: Newton Primary School at Nottage Road > by Michael Charles