Phil & John's Amazing Journey Part 1 Infant School Memories

A Memory of Groby.

How many of us as fresh faced five year olds, on our very first day at school, look around the classroom and think ‘will any of these children be classed as ‘true’ friends fifty years from today’? Well none of us of course, we are far too young and nervous to be thinking of anything other than ‘when can I go home?’, but about a year ago my great buddy, John Hughes, pointed out to me that it was fifty years ago that we both embarked on our path through education at the Groby Infants School on Leicester Road. Fifty years! Surely, we should commemorate that occasion, but how? We decided to take a literal stroll down memory lane, and if we could take in a few local hostelries along the way, then so much the better. This, interspersed with a few loosely related meanderings and babblings off piste, is my account of that day – 11/08/12.

After throwing together an approximate route that would start at my old family home in Groby and end up in Markfield, via Johns former abode at the Field Head, we decided it would be fitting to visit a couple of the teachers from our formative years. I had phoned ahead to ask Miss Mason from the Junior School at Martinshaw Lane and Mrs Brewer, our very first teacher at the Infants School, if they could spare us a few minutes to pore over some old school day memories. I’m so pleased now that we took them flowers, and not the traditional apple that was offered to gain teachers approval back in the 1960’s!. The look on Miss Masons face when John thanked her for helping him to learn to swim at the old baths on the corner of Avenue Road and New Street in Coalville (those trips on the bus seemed like major excursions back then) was priceless. I reminded her that apart from later being her paperboy I have always love Bach’s ‘Jesu Joy of Mans Desiring’, the piece she would play perfectly on the piano as we entered the school hall for morning assembly.

Next, armed with a grainy old black and white photograph of the class of 1961, it was on to visit Mrs Brewer. Not only could this remarkable lady put names to all twenty nine faces of that year’s intake, she could remember the names of our siblings also. Clichéd as it may sound, we recounted incidents and events from those days as if it were yesterday. It seems that not only was Mrs Brewer our teacher, she was also our nurse, as John recalled how she had tended to an eye injury he incurred and I remembered how she had come to my rescue after I had fallen into a dense patch of stinging nettles whilst trying to retrieve a football. A huge thanks to both ladies, not just for today but for all the tuition, guidance and care they gave us back then. Thanks also to Mike Brewer who very kindly printed us off some clearer copies of the class photo.

So now it was time to visit the school buildings, opposite the Post Office at the top of Leicester Road. Both schools, Infants and Juniors, built around 1873, stand side by side, the former now a private residence, the latter, the village hall. We would have to settle for photographs of the buildings’ exteriors. Or so we thought. The present day owners of the Infants school took time off from their gardening to invite us in to look around. No evidence now of the old wooden desks with built in ink wells. No blackboard, no Janet and John books. But this wonderful old building, a mini Hogwarts with its thick, solid stone walls and archways has retained its original majesty. No need these days of course to wear duffel coats and scarves indoors in the winter as we did in those pre-central heating days. I could remember exactly where I had sat in class in both of the rooms that once made up this wonderful old structure. What a bonus to be shown some old photographs of Christmas parties and class gatherings that had remained in the school all these years. A massive thanks to Pete and Ruth for kindly allowing us inside their home.

More photographs of both schools, then it’s across the road (without the help of the Lollipop Lady!) to the Post Office. No sign today of those magnificent old glass jars of sweets that used to adorn the front window. No pear drops, pineapple chunks or white chocolate mice. And long since gone is the old ‘penny box’ I’ll wager, where we would invest out coppers on Black Jacks, Fruit Salads, Sherbet Flying Saucers and Bazooka Joe gum. I never did save enough wrappers for that Swiss Army Knife!