Kirkandrews School In The 50s

A Memory of Kirkandrews-on-Eden.

We moved to Woodside, Kirkandrews in l956. It was a boarding kennel and my father, Harold Brown, turned the l4 acres into a small farm. The school was two rooms, one heated by a stove and the other with a fireplace. The toilets were outside, and the sinks in the school porch. I don't think there could have been more than 20 pupils. Mrs Wannop came from Carlisle and taught the younger children. She brought her baby boy, John, with her every day. Mrs Walby was headmistress and lived in the school house on the premises. The yard wasn't paved then and we had many games of rounders outside. Education was basic to say the least, very low key. I moved on to Caldew eventually and took the standard secretarial course. Thanks to Mrs Southern those skills have always been useful. I was the Matron's secretary at the Infirmary and after I moved to the USA, got a job with the Canadian Consulate. I see the old school has been turned into a house, and remember the days with my good friends Ann Graham and Ann Wreay as if they were yesterday.

---

---