The Tin School

A Memory of Durham.

I was at this school from 1949-57, when I lived in Longacres. I seem to remember a bronze plaque on the hall wall stating that it had been built in 1908. It had evidently been built as a temporary structure, but had managed to last until the early '80s. (I visited it in 1981, I think, when it was closed awaiting demolition, the door was open so I ventured in. The smell of the hall - sour milk bottle tops and chalk dust was still the same!) I started in a relatively new concrete classroom at the bottom of the infants' school yard, where we had modern desks, the lids of which lifted to reveal a slate underside where we did any writing with a slate pencil. We had small white cowry shells for counters. Our teacher in the reception class was Miss Houghton, later Pickering.
Year 2 onwards was spent in the corrugated iron building, where everything was as it must have been in 1908, with double, iron-framed desks with oak tops containing ink well;. on graduation to the juniors' school, these were filled with ink. I was the ink monitor and did the rounds each morning with a mini watering can of ink, topping up the little white pots. We learned to write with dipping pens, and transgressions in letter formation were punishable with the cane. Right handers were caned on the left hand so that writing could continue. Quite amazing to read that one of the swivelling blackboards was used to form the stable roof in the nativity plays - that hadn't changed when I was there.
There were usually quite a few gypsies in the school, their caravans being parked in a lane at the bottom of the school field, prior to the industrial estate being built. These must have been quite a headache for the teachers as they never stayed long before being replaced by other gypsy children.
Food was still rationed (after the war) I think, and eating school dinners was compulsory, and quite an ordeal at times. Leaving food on one's plate was another crime warranting corporal punishment, and my brother, knowing he couldn't cope with the food, used to take a paper bag to school and sneak any un-eaten food into this. He then feed it to one of the goats kept by the gypsies, and on one occasion I've never forgotten, the goat ate the paper bag, but not the school food!
Teachers after Year 1 were Miss Westhorpe (later Alison), Miss Hammond, Miss Bell, Mr Smith, Mr Hilary, Miss Alexander, Miss Fitzpatrick and Mr Kirk. Classes were usually of 50 pupils.

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