The Old Primary School

A Memory of Ellington.

My sister Roberta and I used to walk from Ellington Colliery to the school at Ellington Village. My Nanna would wrap our dinner money and savings money in a handkerchief and see us off from the top of the first row. In autumn there was a tetty field and a turnip field along the road and we would watch the women and kids picking vegetables and then they would carry them to the horse and cart. The farmer would sometimes let us ride the cart limmers to the top of the road. We would take a big turnip home at Halloween to scoop out for a lantern and put a small piece of candle inside. In winter we were given a miniature spirit bottle full of ginger wine to warm us up on the way to school, I still get a warm feeling just thinking about it.