Description:

My name is Dorothy Lade (nee Smith). I was at Newton school from 1935 until I was 14 years old. I was living at The Park Farm, St Margarets with my parents, sister and grandparents after we had moved from Yorkshire.

It was a long walk to Newton School. We eventually moved to 'Sunnybank', Newton and that wasn't quite so far.

The teachers were a Miss Jordan, Mrs. Dinabin? and Miss Willetts.

I wore a white blouse and a pleated gymslip. My favourite subjects were Needlework, Knitting, PT. and Cookery. A bus picked us up and took us to Longtown Parish Hall for the Cookery lessons. We had playtimes and games. The cane was used and a punishment book kept. We had to take our lunch with us. Horlicks was made at the school. The water container was put on the Combustion Stove which was also our means of heating.

I had to help at home as we had 2 teachers, a Miss Keely and a Miss Moore, and a girl of 7 years old as evacuees from BootIe, Lancs. with us. I still write to our evacuee. Because there were so many children we had to go to school in shifts - Mon, Wed, Friday or Tues, Thurs, Saturday. The school was used as a Catholic Church on Sundays.

My sister Margaret attended school for a while but due to illness, she missed a lot of lessons. She passed away in 1947 aged l5 years. My younger sister Valerie attended the school but not with me as she is quite a bit younger.

We used oil lamps, outside toilets and coal fires with side ovens to cook in. Tin baths were used in front of the fire for baths and the water heated up in a copper with a fire underneath which was also used for the washing on Mondays.

We had air raid practice drills. The school bell outside would be rung and we would all go across the road into the field and woods. One of the boys brought a meat bone to school and he tied it on the end of the bell rope. The teacher’s dog came along and tugged at the bone. By the time the teacher had realised what had happened we were away to the fields.

We had one pub 'The Sun' at St Margarets and a Post Office, sweet and tobacconist shop at The Corner House - Gladys & Lizzie Price looked after it. We had a local undertaker. A butcher called with meat in a van once a week, and a baker also called with bread and groceries.

Observations:

This contribution from Dorothy Lade, maiden name Smith, January 2003