Growing Up In Cold Ash Part II

A Memory of Cold Ash.

Hello again.

I started at Cold Ash School, St Marks C of E in 1953. The school consisted of the original brick building housing two class rooms and a large hall, plus a new wooden extension of two more class rooms and a cloak room. The infants' class was in the old building with its high windows to prevent distraction from outside. My teacher was Miss Clarke, a kindly and quietly spoken lady. My main memory from this class was the socialising, I seemed to spend most of my time playing with other children and building friendships in that formative year. There was no pressure of SATS! In the afternoon we would sit on the floor around Miss Clark as she read aloud to us. The infants' class had its own small playground at the back of the school ground next to the church boundary. We also had our own garden there which we cultivated under Miss Clark's watchful eye.
The following year, or it could have been two, I progressed to the room next door which was Mrs Smith's class. Another kindly lady, who travelled each day to school on the 109 bus from Thatcham. I can't remember what happened to Mrs Smith, but she did seem quite old to us children. Partway through my time in that class she was replaced by a young lady named Jane Lowe and subsequently another young teacher whose name, I think, was Miss Bright. This class room was divided from the hall with its high vaulted ceiling by a wooden partition.
The hall was used mainly to accommodate all the children at lunchtime. The majority of us ate a cooked lunch which had been prepared by the school meals service in Thatcham and delivered to the school that morning in large aluminium containers. Hardly cordon bleu, but the only substantial meal many of the children would eat in a day.
The final years at St Marks were spent in the two new classrooms. Mr Pam was the teacher in the first one. A young man from Ashmore Green who drove a large Vauxhall 14/6 , and in the remaining class room pupils were taught by the headmaster, Mr Maynard, who would be accompanied by his wife each Monday in order to collect dinner money.
Other memories of St Marks include the lavatories. Suffice to say, they were basic! When the wash basins were installed in the new class room block the whole school was treated to a lesson from Mr Maynard on how to dry ones hands using one paper towel only. We each had a daily one third of a pint bottle of milk provided. The war had left many children under nourished and rationing was still in place on some provisions until 1953. The crates of milk were delivered to the class rooms by the two pupil milk monitors. During my final year, because I always arrived early to school, I was appointed fire stoker. I went into each class room before school started in the mornings and filled the stove with coke to ensure the rooms were warm enough for lessons. No health and safety worries then.
We were also encouraged to save money by purchasing saving stamps once a week. You could buy a six penny (2.5p) stamp with a picture of the young Princess Anne on it, or a two and six, half a crown (12.5p) stamp with a picture of Prince Charles on it from your teacher. Stamps were stuck into a savings book which, when full, could be redeemed for cash or put into a post office savings account.
Being a church school many school activities took on a religious bias. The whole school attended church for major Christian events and the parish priest often came into school to take lessons. In my early days this was Canon Wade, a very austere man who didn't exactly exude charisma. He did, however, have a severely disabled son to whom he devoted his life, so his manner with the outside world was understandable. Canon Wade was replaced by the Reverent Pod, or Pea Pod as we called him. He was truly progressive, laughing, smoking cigarettes using a large cigarette holder and visiting the Castle to drink beer on Saturday evenings! I also recall a visit by two nuns recently returned from missionary work in Bechuanaland who recounted their experiences to the school.
Many children spent their entire school life at St Marks, leaving to join the world of work at age 14. Others, more fortunate (privileged) went on to grammar school. Children didn't automatically move classes each year, as for many, nine years schooling was divided between four classrooms and teachers. Things were changing in the 1950s and soon all pupils would be moving on to the new secondary modern school , the Kennet, which had recently opened in Thatcham under the leadership of Mr Howe.
I can't end this section on my schooling without mention of two experiences. The first was the introduction of musical instrument tuition in the form of recorder lessons. These were performed by the whole of the top class sitting at their desks and trying to learn in concert. I hated these lessons, but they must have had some underlying effect on me as I have devoted much of my adult life to musical performance. The second was the introduction of swimming lessons. Again, on a class basis, we would go to The Henwick Country Club to use their outdoor and unheated swimming pool. It was so. so cold!

As an appendix to this entry there follows the names of some of my school friends from St Marks. They are not in any particular order, just as they have come to mind. If you knew any of these people please do make contact.

Elizabeth Howe; Christopher Williams; John Hopkins; Peter Brown; David Thurwell; Rose Black; Suzanne Taylor; Jennifer Lyons; Peter Date; Michael Huntley; Robert Smith; Peter McCurdy; George Hallmay; Rosemary Hiscock; Richard Hill; Ivor Loveridge; Stephen Willis; Nicholas Lake.

---

---