September 1947

A Memory of Bishop Auckland.

I started at The Mount in September 1947 when I was 3.5 and remember the uniform so clearly - plus of course the liberty bodices with buttons on for the elastic to hold up one's stockings.

I was one of the very few children who could not only read but tie my own shoe laces and consequently was given the job of tying everyone else's!

I remember the ghastly school lunches - watery mince or graveyard stew as it was called made with neck of lamb and full of bones - in fact everything seemed to be watery and grey with the odd bit of carrot floating in it. We had to eat the main course with a spoon, lick it clean and then eat our pudding with the same spoon. Rice pudding with a blob of jam with seeds in which weren't seeds but tiny specks of wood - oh the joys of rationing!

We had Beacon readers with stories of Old Lob - still for sale on eBay!

Then my mother discovered that we were made to clean the classroom floor and a member of staff committed suicide and I was removed forthwith. I don't think I was there for very long but then attended a Mrs Trotters School.

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