Fig Pudding And A Monkey

A Memory of Bailiff Bridge.

I loved Bailiff Bridge - I was there from 1943 (when I was born a Baldwin) to 1961, when I came to college in Hull and settled nearby.

I loved my school, with its large shelter in the playground; I loved Miss Ashton, whose ring clicked on the piano in the hall when she played.

Although my school dinners were good, I think of one incident when I had to stay in the hall until home time, with a dish of fig pudding in front of me, declining to eat it. I'd be about 6!

The nature table was always a feature of classrooms, then. Our class was once asked to bring twigs and buds to school. After tea, some of us set off to find some, across the beck, ending up at Jimmy Tidswell's farm. We rambled freely round the fields a lot in those days.

Jimmy was in our class. He'd told us he had a pet monkey, but wasn't believed.

I was looking over the pigsty when I felt a thump on my back. There was the monkey and I heard Jimmy shouting, 'See! Told you I had a monkey!'

My grandchildren love that story.

When our present Queen was crowned we all (maybe our class, or maybe the whole school) went to the pictures to see the film 'The Conquest of Everest' as a treat.

Thanks to all the story and drama opportunities at Bailiff Bridge School, all those years ago, I have been able to make a living, first as a Drama teacher and now as a (very) part-time Arts Therapist in an NHS Mental Health team.

So - thank you, Bailiff Bridge! I'm so pleased this website doesn't use an 'e' in the village name, by the way!

Wendy Cross