I left school at the age of fourteen and three days, as in those days one could leave school if you had turned fourteen at the end of September so I was just inside the limit. During my time at St. John’s School we had one or two incidents of note. One little girl, Jenny Carter, was knocked down and killed at the midday break, just outside the school. She was brought into school and I believe laid on the headmaster’s desk. He was never the same afterwards and his hands trembled so much that he earned the name of “Dad Shakes”. I didn’t know anything about it as I had to go down the factory lane to my dinner at home, so I only got to know at 1.30pm when we returned and we were informed school had been cancelled for the afternoon. Another incident was one boy, who later died young, having a fit during lines and Fowler having to bring him round. The other incident was at the bottom of the school yard; iron fenced spikes formed the boundary wall with the then field. (The field is now an extension of the school property.) However one of these spikes had come loose and slipped down into the field. We were forbidden to go through this fence to retrieve our footballs, but we always did. So, this day, a boy climbed through to go down the wall and he slipped, falling onto the spike which was standing upright at the bottom of the wall in the field. The spike went straight through his leg and just missed his artery. Another boy named Ernest Dickson ran down and pulled the spike out of his leg. By that time the teacher on duty in the playground had been alerted, Fowler, and he went down and carried him over his shoulder to the school. The ambulance was called and he was taken to Preston R.I.. His name was Pass, a cousin to the other Pass, all now gone, of course. Ernest Dickson was a POW in Jap hands but returned home after the war.
When I was around thirteen, the oldest eighteen boys attended woodwork classes at an Adlington school (Babylon Lane) once fortnightly. We travelled by bus and had to take our midday lunch with us. The teacher was an eccentric sort of person and frightened us all to death on the very first day of our attending. He said, if he caught anyone using a chisel with one hand there would be flesh and blood flying. How we were supposed to use it was anybody’s guess and very often he would give a boy a very severe clout by the side of the head and then during lessons he would have us gather round his table discussing all sorts of crazy rubbish. I think he was some sort of spiritualist and of course that hastened the time of our departure to catch the bus back to school. His name was Singleton and he came from Penwortham. Whilst in the playground we used to watch him coming along the A6. We would then run to the wall and jeer and boo at him. The oldest girls had been attending cookery for some time before we started attending woodwork, at the same school in Babylon Lane in Adlington. On one occasion, when we arrived for woodwork, there was no teacher there, so all of us boys, except two, took off and made our way up to the canal and proceeded to walk back to Chorley and then go back to Whittle school, just arriving at the same time as the bus returned from Adlington bringing the girls and the lads who had stayed behind. Mr. Bates, our headmaster, was a little surprised at the incident but that was the last we heard of it.
During my school days, one of my chief friends was Edith and, as her father was the fire beater and engine man at Kem Mill, occasionally, as a thrill, her father allowed us to go up the stairs to see the great steam engine which was used as power for driving all the looms in the weaving mill. It was a marvel to see the great crankshaft revolving with its awesome power. Other interests consisted of going to Shaw Hill golf course to “caddy”. If you were lucky enough, you could be taken on to caddy for one of the golfers. The minimum pay was one shilling and two pence for one round of eighteen holes. The two pence had to go to the (pro’s) cabin, which was rather dubious but we had it to pay or lose the chance of being a caddy again. Occasionally we would get an extra sixpence or a shilling if we were very fortunate. It used to take about three hours, if a foursome, to go round the course. On one occasion I received two shillings and sixpence for the morning round and had to go back after lunch for another round, also receiving two and sixpence. That was during the time I had left school and had not found any work. My mother was delighted.
Continue to 07. Growing up in Whittle