Barry Road School.Northampton

now a junior school.

Previously part of it was a girls only school.

Corner of Barry Road and Covington Street .

 Photos.http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2515542

 

The edge of the school building and the brick wall was a small strip of garden. Once a week we would look after the plants and flowers we grew.Our teacher was Mrs Jupp. Her husband was connected with Tiffield Reformatory School. he may have been the headmaster there.

                                                                                Barry Road Swimming baths .

                                                                                       Northampton

 

Kingsthorpe middle school 1989.

A true portrait of school life .

I worked there from 1990-1995 as school supervisor and head supervisor during the lunch hour.

On leaving St Giles junior school i chose to go to Barry Road Girls Secondary Modern School . Barry Road Northampton.

The teachers were very strick. The headmistress was Miss Clarke. On her retirement she was to go to Australia. For her leaving party we had to learn the song Walzing Matilda.  She kept the whole of the school in order. Each morning we had  hymns and a prayer before starting lessons. For the whole time we had to stand in rows.Many times i felt faint and was taken out of the hall. Miss Clarke thought i was making it up and i was sent to her office and given a telling off. The teachers decided that instead of putting me in the middle of the line they would put me at the end. this seemed to work better.

 We was all sectioned into house groups,  Blue[ Barry house] .Red [ Newbold ]. Green[  Dryden ]Yellow [ Kipling] There was too many girls in Barry House and some of us went into Masefield house which was purple . This was used for team work including  sports day.

 The first year our form teacher was Mrs Mansell . her husband was a vicar

 Our English teacher was Miss Taylor . Part the the lessons was to learn a whole poem from either W.Wordsworth orW. Shakepeare. I decided to learn  Wordsworth , Daffodils 1804." i wandered lonely as a cloud".

One lesson i enjoyed was sewing. This lesson was run by Mrs Binder.She lived with her best friend Miss Cantle who was to be my tutor at Northampton Technical College 4 or 5 years later. Before we could go in the kitchens we had to make a pinafore and a hair band . These were made out of blue and white gingham cotton. our summer school uniform was green and white gingham dresses or yellow and white gingham dresses. Winter uniform was navy with white blouses. While in school uniform was wasnt allowed to eat sweets or food of any kind and to always wear our hats.

 We has a special cookery building that housed two large kitchens. One was run by Miss Parragreen . The other one by Mrs Snedker. she was very good in teaching us to cook . First of all we had to purchase a cook book  from the Battersea College in London.

 One of the first lessons we was taught how to wash a tea towel and keep the kitchen clean. This was boring and i wanted to get on with cooking. i had an idea how to cook as our Aunt Nancy had taught me how to prepare vegtables. My mother taught me how to cook biscuits and cakes.

 The first cookery lesson was cooking an egg . i think we also made toast. then we sat down and ate it and washed up after wards. We progress on to making stews and carrying them home in a kilner jar. As i lived the other side of Northampton in Far Cotton, i had two buses to catch before i got the food home.

Mrs Jupp and her daughter Mrs Armstrong were both teachers. We could chose one lesson a week either craft making or gardening. I chose gardening. it meant i could be out side .Our job was to grow flowers and plants  for the area around the school.

On my way home i passed by the Co-op Bakery and the smell of the new made bread was inviting. I got to know a girl who father worked in the bakery and twice a week i would buy a loaf of bread for the family with money my mother had given me and got the bread at a reduced cost.

it was my job when i was younger to go to the local bakery and fetch the loaf of bread from Clarks bakery in St Leonards Road, Far Cotton.

 It was wrapped in tissue paper and by the time  got home the bread would be minus its crust. i would have eaten it as i walked home.

 

Roade Secondary Modern. Roade . Northamptonshire.now [Elizabeth Woodville School]

 Children from around the neighbouring villages were taken by a coach from the firm of webster to the school each day. we enjoyed the ride to school as we could chat to our friends. we had to behave ourselves as we had a lady bus conductors who wouldnt stand any trouble. if we had a cookery lesson the food we cooked was brought back in our baskets. some of the boys wanted to sample our food. the girls had cookery lessons , the boys had woodwork. the high light of the time spent with the cookery class was the end of term we could find a partner to help us cook a 3 course meal for two teachers. my friend and i choose mr martin[ library/ english teacher, who lived in the same village as me, and the cookery teacher. they were both single and we tried to get them together.

 Most of us were to stay for school dinners as there was no way home before end of school day. If we was ill there was a first aid room where we could go.

 The school merged with a Kingsbrook school at Deanshanger . They are both named Elizabeth Woodville Secondary School, after the wife of King Edward 1V, who was

born at Grafton Regis. Northamptonshire.

 

 

two of my children attended kingsthorpe middle school on my return to the town in 1990.i had the chance of two jobs on offer. one working in the village school during the dinner hour or working at the middle school. I chose the middle school as it was nearest our house and two of my children would be there.the work involved helping looking after 500-600 children during the dinner hour. there was a team of us. I wanted to get to the top and be team leader.it took four years of hard work learning .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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