We always knew when the school dentist had arrived – you saw his head bobbing up and down at the windows as he walked along, because he had a wooden leg.
You had a yellow form to take home. It cost 6d for treatment, no matter what you had done. I’ll never forget Mr Cartwright pumping away on his treadle, working the drill.
Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921
I started school one month after I was three – I missed my brothers and sisters so my mother took me to start school. I loved it! I remember there being 74 children on the school roll.
Friday afternoons, if you did well, as a treat you could go round to the rocking horse which was really big, like a galloper at a fair.
School dentist
That also brought back not such good memories because it was in the room the school dentist used. That was terrible ! They used to bring round bright yellow forms to fill in and as soon as I saw these forms I would start feeling afraid.
The dentist’s name was Mr Cartwright and his hand shook; it wasn’t his fault, he suffered from shellshock. To have him as a school dentist was entirely the wrong thing. He operated the drill with a wooden treadle, his foot on the treadle when he started to drill.
His nurse used to say, “Don’t be so stupid! Sit still there”.
‘Its hurting me!’
‘No it’s not.’
I used to be so scared when my turn came. Jim Jupe, when it was his turn to be sent to the dentist, he went home, but I wouldn’t have dared; I’d have been sent back.
Pat Burt nee Adams b 1929
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
Miss Chambers, the infant teacher said to Tamar one day , ‘Come here!’
She didn’t come out so Miss Chambers went to get her from the back of the classroom. I always remember Tamar got out of her seat and ran and the teacher was chasing her round the classroom. I remember Tamar running round the playground, and running around the school.
Annette Haynes nee Holloway
I started school in 1942 with Derek Jacobs. I remember he wasn’t going to go into school and he sat on the gate hollering and shouting, and his mother was saying, ‘You will go into school!’
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
I loved school; I was so happy there. The teachers were very strict but I think it was better then.
Mr. Stanway used to shove you in the back. I liked Miss Chambers ‘though.
We went on a trip to London, when I was in the senior standard, to visit museums and so on. Oh it did make our feet ache! Miss White, our teacher was with us. I remember she massaged our feet at the end of the day, she was so kind.
Yarmouth School trip of 1933 with Miss White
School trip 1933 Effie middle row left, Eileen, back row left,
Phil Kelsey front row second left, Miss White centre left with Head teacher Mr. Stanway
When I left, they gave me a special award, for 7 and a half years continuous attendance, I hadn’t had a single day off in that time. Imagine!
I remember one day Miss Chambers had to go home. She wasn’t well – a dog had bitten her leg. They left me in charge of the little ones, 12 of them. We had the rocking horse, and I looked after them. That was the best day for me. I always wanted to work with children.
Effie Pitman b 1921
Yes, we went to London. I shared a room with Ron Pope.
I remember one evening we went to play in one of the parks there and we had a cricket bat. I was the batsman going in and I was knocking out the crease like we used to with the bat, and some bloke come up: ‘Oh’, he says, ‘you mustn’t do that – Jack Hobbs doesn’t do that.’ I said: ‘No, but Phil Mead does’, because I’d been to see Phil Mead by that time, over at Southampton.
Phil Kelsey b 1920
Yarmouth School trip on the ferry photo contributed by Di Broomfield
I went to Yarmouth School (as did my father, my son and daughter, and my two grandchildren). I remember having to wear a Panama hat on school outings; we bought them from a shop in the High Street. One trip was to Windsor.
Joan Cokes nee Cooper b 1918