Every year Miss Balls would give two or three children extra evening tuition, at her lodgings in New Street, for the scholarship examination which, if passed, gave recipients entry to the local Grammar School or the Girls’ High School.
In 1936 Margaret Lofthouse, Joan Skinner and I were the chosen ones. They were the prettiest girls in the class; Margaret was dark with big brown eyes while Joan was the epitome of Nordic beauty. I was the thorn between two roses.
Miss Balls lived in lodgings only about 100 yards from my house in Princes Street, but the girls both lived about a mile away in different directions; in those days it was not regarded as dangerous for young girls to be out at night. I cannot remember how many times a week we went to these extra lessons or for how long we went.
Margaret and I won scholarships; my case was borderline and I had to have an interview with an official from the Lindsey County Council Education Committee before getting the nod. Joan was at least as bright as we were but somehow missed out; happily she was granted a Governors' Scholarship the following year. My mother bought some perfume and handkerchiefs for me to give to Miss Balls as a "Thank you" gesture.
Miss Balls left Brigg when she married; I think she returned to her native Cambridgeshire where her husband came from and I never heard any more about her. I hope she was as happy as she deserved to be.
I think we knew the results of the scholarship exam fairly early in the year but we did not start at our new schools until early September, which is the beginning of the academic year in England, and so I spent some time in the next class with Mr Booth, my first male teacher. He was very much "old school"; he too had started as a pupil teacher and he too had taught my father. I think he spent his whole teaching career at Glebe Road and its predecessor, the National School in Princes Street.
In this class we had one lesson per week, known as "torture morning" from the headmaster G W Bratley, probably the only staff member with a university degree. He took us for arithmetic about areas and volumes and I have a clear memory of the lesson in which we worked out the weight of water which one inch of rainfall produced if it fell on an acre of ground.
Two highlights of the Glebe Road year were the Crowning of the May Queen and the school outing. The May Queen was chosen by the vote of the whole school and each class chose one of its girls to be a maid of honour. We had a May Pole but if my memory is correct only girls danced around it. The Queen was carried to her throne by boys pulling her in a chariot much like the one in which Boadicea is often depicted. Proceedings were started by the whole school singing a song See the day, the welcome day is dawning. Cloudless the sky this happy bright May morning. Strangely, though I remember the song, I can recall the name of only one May Queen, Sally Yates, of the five who were crowned during my time at Glebe Road.
The younger children were not allowed to go on the school trips so I only went on two, in 1935 and 1936. For part of the year we took money to school weekly to pay for the outing. My first one was to Manchester and this was the first time I ever went out of Lincolnshire. Several national newspapers printed their northern editions in Manchester and we went to see the printing of one of them but I cannot recall which paper it was. We also went to what I now believe was the Manchester College of Technology and saw something of the technology of cotton spinning and weaving. At that time Manchester was the centre of the Lancashire cotton industry. We saw Egyptian students, probably the first non-Europeans I ever saw. Then it was off to Belle Vue zoo and amusement park for tea, followed by the long road home over the Pennine mountains.
The second trip was to Knaresborough, Leeds and York, all in Yorkshire. At Knaresborough we walked along a river to see Mother Shipton's cave. She is described in Chambers Biographical Dictionary as a witch who lived from 1488 to about 1562. My only memory of Leeds is of going to the museum and seeing oil lamps of the type which were used in the Mediterranean area in Biblical times. In York my main memory is of the girls covering their heads with handkerchiefs to go into the Minster which is the name by which the cathedral is known; it was considered bad form for females to enter churches bare-headed. Then we had a trip on the river past the Archbishop's Palace. It was on this Yorkshire excursion that I first crossed the River Trent at Keadby Bridge, little knowing that about seventeen years later I would be living there.
Miss Balls left Brigg when she married; I think she returned to her native Cambridgeshire where her husband came from and I never heard any more about her. I hope she was as happy as she deserved to be.
I think we knew the results of the scholarship exam fairly early in the year but we did not start at our new schools until early September, which is the beginning of the academic year in England, and so I spent some time in the next class with Mr Booth, my first male teacher. He was very much "old school"; he too had started as a pupil teacher and he too had taught my father. I think he spent his whole teaching career at Glebe Road and its predecessor, the National School in Princes Street.
In this class we had one lesson per week, known as "torture morning" from the headmaster G W Bratley, probably the only staff member with a university degree. He took us for arithmetic about areas and volumes and I have a clear memory of the lesson in which we worked out the weight of water which one inch of rainfall produced if it fell on an acre of ground.
Two highlights of the Glebe Road year were the Crowning of the May Queen and the school outing. The May Queen was chosen by the vote of the whole school and each class chose one of its girls to be a maid of honour. We had a May Pole but if my memory is correct only girls danced around it. The Queen was carried to her throne by boys pulling her in a chariot much like the one in which Boadicea is often depicted. Proceedings were started by the whole school singing a song See the day, the welcome day is dawning. Cloudless the sky this happy bright May morning. Strangely, though I remember the song, I can recall the name of only one May Queen, Sally Yates, of the five who were crowned during my time at Glebe Road.
The younger children were not allowed to go on the school trips so I only went on two, in 1935 and 1936. For part of the year we took money to school weekly to pay for the outing. My first one was to Manchester and this was the first time I ever went out of Lincolnshire. Several national newspapers printed their northern editions in Manchester and we went to see the printing of one of them but I cannot recall which paper it was. We also went to what I now believe was the Manchester College of Technology and saw something of the technology of cotton spinning and weaving. At that time Manchester was the centre of the Lancashire cotton industry. We saw Egyptian students, probably the first non-Europeans I ever saw. Then it was off to Belle Vue zoo and amusement park for tea, followed by the long road home over the Pennine mountains.
The second trip was to Knaresborough, Leeds and York, all in Yorkshire. At Knaresborough we walked along a river to see Mother Shipton's cave. She is described in Chambers Biographical Dictionary as a witch who lived from 1488 to about 1562. My only memory of Leeds is of going to the museum and seeing oil lamps of the type which were used in the Mediterranean area in Biblical times. In York my main memory is of the girls covering their heads with handkerchiefs to go into the Minster which is the name by which the cathedral is known; it was considered bad form for females to enter churches bare-headed. Then we had a trip on the river past the Archbishop's Palace. It was on this Yorkshire excursion that I first crossed the River Trent at Keadby Bridge, little knowing that about seventeen years later I would be living there.
More to follow from Cliff's life story in future Brigg Blog posts.
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