A Child In Langwith

A Memory of Langwith.

I was born in Langwith in February 1930 at 8 Moorfield Lane. I went to Whaley Thornes infants school and started in the reception class in 1935, the teacher being Miss Smith, who had taught not only some of the pupil's parents but also some of their grandparents. Miss Smith had the ability to teach children to read within weeks of starting school together with writing and basic maths. We all went into the next form with the ability to count, add, subtract and knew our alphabet. I still remember the names of many of the pupils and can clearly remember my first day at school. The names of all the teachers are clearly etched on my mind and with one exemption, all of them were kind particularly the headmistress, Miss Pollard. My transfer, to what we always referred to as "the big boys school", came when I was 7 years old and the teacher was called Sally Sager (I hope I have the correct spelling). The class kept together during the whole of our school lives and I can still remember the names of every pupil which totalled 36 in all! Remember that this included the war years. I could write a book about the years between 1937 and 1944 which was the year that I left school.

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