When I went to Yarmouth School we had two classrooms with coal-burning stoves, and outside toilets.
Most of the children lived locally although a few came from Thorley.
We were used to the high tides in the winter. The sea came over the wall and half the playground flooded and you couldn’t use the toilets.
The land at the back of the school, now the car park, was an open rubbish dump. There were always flies in the summer.
Betty Coates Evans nee Lock b 1938
I remember Miss Chambers who lived down by the Mill. If you swore she used to wash your mouth with soap and water. She used to grab hold of you with a cup of soap and water, and put it in your mouth. She kept her handkerchief tucked in her knickers, the old long bloomers. She was a good old gal though. She made sure that what she taught, you knew; taught you to read.
Then there was Mrs Barton, she could be a bit severe at times. I remember once Mick and Barry got the cane, which they didn’t like. Come lunchtime, in the classroom was this fish tank that had tadpoles and stuff in it. What did they do? They both peed in it and killed all the tadpoles – we saw them do it.
Nick Chandler b 1937
When I started school, I had to take my brother John with me. He started school when he was 3 and when he got to 5 he didn’t want to go any more so I had to drag him down the road screaming. It was awful.
Pauline Harwood nee Hatch b 1930
I was never any good at anything at school except drawing.
Colin Smith b 1921, who in 1949, with his brother Stanley, sailed the Nova Espero, a 20 foot boat they had designed and built, across the Atlantic from Nova Scotia, in 43 days. They did this without chronometer, bunks, lifejackets….in what remains one of the smallest boats to cross the Atlantic.
Boats greeting the Smith brothers in Yarmouth Harbour after their 43 day Atlantic crossing in 1949 ; photo Sue Russell
School was good. Yarmouth School was a beautiful school, well built, one door at the back and one at the front, steps up the front with 2 classrooms.
Mrs Barton was in the front one. Mrs Barton, she always used to have me sat at the front of the class. There was her desk and there was me, and I always remember, she used to have this ruler. If I used to turn round to say,
“Alright mate?” Bang! She was a lovely teacher though, used to bring in an apple for me.
There was another teacher, lived up round the corner, Miss Chambers, had the baby class, ‘Polly Chambers’ we used to call her.
The sea used to come over the wall sometimes and anybody trying to skive off school got wet.
They were some good days in Yarmouth. I loved it there.
Brian Pomroy b 1937
Aerial photo of school and town, before harbour was dredged. Photo Rod Corbett