Question.

[Stallard12]

I have been aware of this for 70 years, yet the stupidity of it has only just hit me.   I was born and lived my young life on Gig Lane, Woolston, a twenty minute walk to the nearest bus stop, which only ran into Warrington.

Now here’s the point.  I took my 11 + exam in 1950 and in the personal information I was asked, if successful, which of these two grammar schools will you choose?   The two schools were :  Urmston Grammar and Widnes Wade Deacon !   How in the hell could anybody in 1950, get from Gig Lane to either of those schools in less than a half a day, if that !   Nobody had cars and I doubt that there was a viable bus route to either.

Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about it, after the exam and before the results, we moved into the Oakwood area of Warrington and qualified for their schools. I had passed and been given a place at Urmston, which I now didn’t qualify for because I lived in Warrington !

Does anybody have any ideas on how that journey could have been successfully made or know of any other person in Woolston who had the same problem and solved it?

[Confused52]

Well at that time you were in the area of the Lancashire County Council Education Authority since you lived in Warrington Rural District. The law at the time was the 1944 Education Act which placed a duty on the Lancashire County Council to provide free transport to school if they offered you a place at a school which was more than three miles from your home for secondary pupils. The two schools offered to you give you the clue Wade Deacon and Urmston are at opposite ends of the Manchester Central to Liverpool Central line. Wade Deacon was a short distance away from Farnworth (Widnes) station and Urmston Grammar a little further from Urmston Station. 

You will have have had to get a bus to Warrington Central and the train to Urmston which was fairly often in those days. Leaving home at 0730 would have got you to school in time with an equivalent journey back in the evening. It would have been quite possible.

[asperity]

My grandfather used to travel to work in Warrington and home again, every day, from Wallasey by train. This was in the 40s, 50s and early 60s. Very few people had cars and public transport was obviously more frequent than it is today, and people were also more willing to walk. My own journey to school involved a 15 minute bus ride followed by a 20 minute walk, and once a week a 40 minute walk between school and the playing field, a game of rugby or cricket or a cross country race, followed by another 40 minute back to the bus for the journey home. No wonder I was glad to leave!

[Evil Sid]

i was lucky in that i managed to get into the local grammar school. this meant catching a bus from bewsey to town centre and then a second bus from there to school. Luckily busses ran every fifteen minute then so missing the one i wanted rarely meant i was late for school. coming home there was a school bus laid on which you had to be front of the queue for if you wanted to stand a chance of getting on. and then the bus from the odeon to bewsey.

When i started work at risley it was a nightmare getting to work on time. bus into warrington. walk from town centre to the bus station by the abc to catch the bus up to risley front gate. problem being that the risley bus ran once an hour and if you missed it you were late. same coming home although there was the option to to get off at the king and queen pub and the get the bus right through to bewsey.

Six months of that and i invested in a moped for £35.00 to get me to work and back. top speed 25 mph in second gear downhill with a tail wind maybe up to 28mph.

[Bill]

Seems a bit odd to be made to travel that distance but local border lines always seemed to be more important than physical distance back then and still are for all I know. I recall one of my friends being sent to Richard Fairclough despite his house on Hallfields Road almost backing onto Orford Secondary School. Ah well at least it prepared us for a life of accepting rules and regulations that don’t always make any sense.

 

Bill 😊

[Stallard12]

Thanks for the response.  I remember now Confused, what you say was exactly what was explained to my parents and I can’t believe that no one at the time raised an eyebrow.

I was thinking more along the lines of using the Manchester bus to get to Irlam, which is probably close to Urmston, but those buses only ran on the hour and probably didn’t start til later in the day.

I should have thought of the train, because my first job as an engineer was at Mather and Platt just outside Oldham.  I had to catch the six am Grappenhall bus into town, the seven am train into Manchester, run all the way up Moseley St to Piccadilly, to catch the company provided buses to the plant.  Because the damn train would always stop 50 feet from the end of the platform and sit for fifteen minutes, I always missed the company buses and had to take the City service and get to work at ten o’clock !

I wouldn’t want to have done that as an eleven year old and then face a day of school.

[Latchford Locks]

On 5/4/2021 at 9:32 AM, Bill said:

Seems a bit odd to be made to travel that distance but local border lines always seemed to be more important than physical distance back then and still are for all I know. 

 

Bill 😊

I lived in Grammar School Rd. And had to get a bus across town to Beamont Tech 5 days a week. for 5 years !

And to rub salt into the wound the bus stop was virtually outside the Grammar School gates 🚌 

[Davy51]

And when did you leave Beamont Tech , Latch ? 

There used to be a lad when i was in junior school who lived just across the stinking brook in Padgate Lane & he finished up having to go to Wade Deacon.

[Observer II]

Guess you'll know of Knocker Norris then Latch ?     😉

[Davy51]

Knocker was a legend Obs. Last time i saw him ,a good few years ago, he was on walking sticks. Proper fair & well respected teacher.

[Observer II]

He ran a good RL team, beating Bewsey in a final at W/pool;  with Barry Briggs and Dave Roughley as the two centres.   😉

[Stallard12]

Allie Brindle was in my senior class at Beamont and had just signed for Warrington.  We alternated between soccer and rugby on Orford Park once a week for gym class and I soon learned how to fake an attempted tackle when Allie was bearing down on me !

[Davy51]

16 hours ago, Stallard12 said:

Allie Brindle was in my senior class at Beamont and had just signed for Warrington.  We alternated between soccer and rugby on Orford Park once a week for gym class and I soon learned how to fake an attempted tackle when Allie was bearing down on me !

Mr Brindle is still at large ,somewhere in Burtonwood.

[Latchford Locks]

On 5/5/2021 at 10:15 AM, Davy51 said:

And when did you leave Beamont Tech , Latch ? 

There used to be a lad when i was in junior school who lived just across the stinking brook in Padgate Lane & he finished up having to go to Wade Deacon.

I left in 1966.  

And I started work on £5 a week; back then you were allowed to keep all the first weeks wage. Then your Mum got half of all wages, which suited me fine.. food gas electric everything included 👍! Boy did I have an eyewatering shock when I got married a few years later 😬

.And England win the World cup wow what a wonderful year 😄 Even the pop music was good 👌

 

June top 5....

	1     Frank Sinatra	Strangers In The Night
	2	The Beatles	Paperback Writer
	3	The Mamas & The Papas	Monday Monday
	4	The Rolling Stones	Paint It, Black
	5	Percy Sledge	When A Man Loves A Woman

 

[Latchford Locks]

On 5/5/2021 at 12:13 PM, Observer II said:

Guess you'll know of Knocker Norris then Latch ?     😉

He was a bully who had his pet pupils (Rugby players) and gave the rest hell Believe me.

His mate was Jack Atherton the metalwork teacher.

[Latchford Locks]

On 5/5/2021 at 5:16 PM, Observer II said:

He ran a good RL team, beating Bewsey in a final at W/pool;  with Barry Briggs and Dave Roughley as the two centres.   😉

His rugby coaching couldn't be questioned his pupil management was something else.

[Davy51]

You are a year older than me then Latch.

[Latchford Locks]

9 minutes ago, Davy51 said:

You are a year older than me then Latch.

 

9 minutes ago, Davy51 said:

You are a year older than me then Latch.

I wonder if we ever shared a crafty cigarette in the bogs at playtime 😅

[Latchford Locks]

Just now, Latchford Locks said:

 

I wonder if we ever shared a crafty cigarette in the bogs at playtime 😅

If Gaffer Henry was on playtime duty all was fine he just wanted a quiet life he and Mr La Won were decent teachers.

Rumour had it La Won had been sunk twice during the Atlantic convoy runs in 1941.

[Observer II]

I think most teachers in those days had a degree of life experience, unlike the modern snowflakes. 😉

[Davy51]

I didn't smoke , but i remember the outside bogs ,a relic from the past. There were a few teachers you could get away with murder with . Mr Green was a t*** though ,pure evil. I bet quite a few of them had been through the war.

I did one term at the new school when it opened on Long Lane ,merged with Oakwood senior girls school. I was there just long enough to take my GCEs /CSEs then didn't need to go again.

[Observer II]

Remember Mr Lyons, the PT teacher ? He used to help Knocker with the Rugby team ?    

[Davy51]

Yes i  remember him . When he left there was one called Ryan took over.

Fanny Yates anybody ?

[Observer II]

Took the new arrivals for English, and had a penchant for slapping kids round the head !    Birket - Head ?    Thomas - Art ?  Alf Hart - French ?    Happy days.    😉

[Latchford Locks]

2 hours ago, Davy51 said:

Yes i  remember him . When he left there was one called Ryan took over.

Fanny Yates anybody ?

Fanny Yates used to get the same bus home as me (she lived in Grappenhall) 

A right sour trout if ever there was one... never smiled. 

Mr Lyons brother was the Wigan second row Geoff.