St.Marys Parrock Rd, Gravesend Kent.
A Memory of Gravesend.
I too, was a resident at St Mary's. I went there from St Anne's, Brighton when I was about 6 in 1949 and I left in 1956/57. At that time I was known as Michael Murray. I remember playing in the Shed, it was very cold in winter, or going up to the Squares to play. The long Borstal Walks with Father Baker, god help you if you got behind him, he whacked you with his walking stick. Remember actually having school lessons in St Mary's before this stopped and we went to St Johns Junior School and then on to St Johns Secondary Modern at Denton. Two boys there; Patrick Nye and David Stoddard passed the 11 plus and went to Grammar School in Sidcup. I passed the 11 plus to go to a Technical School but because it was not Catholic, I could not go. I worked originally for a Mrs Grundy, a large woman always in black who smelt to high heaven, cleaning the stairs with paraffin and wire wool. I was then promoted to the laundry, working for Sister Brendan and Miss Blanche. Can you remember the bed wetters standing with their wet sheets over their heads while everybody else went to wash and clean their teeth? I had to collect all the wet sheets and night shirts and take them to the laundry, wash them and hang them on the drying horses. After school I had to take them to the dormitories. Names I remember from that time are David Starbrook, Alan and Michael Read (welsh twins) Micky Finn and David O' Leary. I would love to hear from anyone who was there from 1946 to 1957 to swap memories etc...
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