Figure 1.--.
|
Figure 1.--. |
My education was done at three state schools. My first two years were at a mixed (co-educational) infant’s school, from there I went to an all boys' junior school for 4 years. In my last year at junior school, I had to sit what was called the 11+ exam, which determined whether or not you went to the grammar or secondary modern school. As I failed the exam, I spent
the remaining 4 years of my education at a secondary modern, which was also a mixed school. We did not have a uniform. The only schools in the town to have a school uniform were the boys' and girl's separate grammar schools and the town's only private fee-paying school. While I was at school there was increasing discussion of adopting a uniform a most English
secondary schools had them.
My education was done at three state schools. My first two years were at a mixed (co-educational) infants school.
I went to an all boys' junior school for 4 years. I wore a school cap in junior school, but caps were generally discarded by the time you went to secondary school as no body wore them, unless you went to a school that had a uniform. In my last year at junior school, I had to sit what was called the 11+ exam, which determined whether or not you went to the grammar or secondary modern school. As I failed the exam, I spent the remaining 4 years of my education at a secondary modern.
I was a typically dressed junior schoolboy of the 1950s. I wore short trousers and jackets like most boys did at that time. On warm summer days the jackets would be discarded in favour of a slipover or perhaps just a shirt. Also on those warm days, we would have our classes on the school playing field rather than indoors, which seemed quite sensible. I remember at the time tghat fir some reason, one thing I didn’t like to see was a boy who wore trunk style underpants that were bigger than the short trousers he wore. As the legs of
these could be seen below the hem of the legs of his shorts. Some boys got holes in the seat of their shorts and you could often see the lining through the hole, which would eventually be patched with some material. Thankfully that never happened to me.
When I was in my third year at junior school my Mum introduced me to corduroy, which I liked to wear not only for school, but everywhere else for that matter. it was an outfit consisting of shorts and a lumber jacket in brown. The jacket had two breast pockets, which were flapped and fluted, it also had elastic around the waist and the ends of the sleeves. The shorts had a buttoned fly and loops around the waist for a belt, which was always the familiar snake clasp fastener. What appealed to me about corduroy was its appearance, I loved the velvety sheen it gave off when new and I was forever running my hands down the wales and the shorts had a kind of serrated effect at the hem. But what I liked most of all was the
sweet smell it had when new. This kind of outfit was very popular and quite a few boys at school had similar outfits. As was the stand alone corduroy shorts, which were more favoured by mothers because of their hardwearing characteristics. I had pairs of these shorts in grey, green, navy and tan colours as well as grey Terylene/worsted shorts.
There were many parties at school in the week leading up to Christmas and this was the one time when some of us went to school in our best clothes. The fourth year Christmas party was a special one in that the girls from the neighbouring junior school were also invited. It was held at night, I guess the American equivalent would be a prom. I remember I wore my second last short trouser suit for it. It was a light green worsted. The jacket was double breasted and the shorts were well tailored with a short pleat at either side of the crease. I remember one of my teachers saying I looked quite smart in the suit.
My secondary modern was a mixed (co-educational) school and like all the secondary modern schools in the town it didn’t have a uniform. Which in a way I now feel was a great pity as a uniform identified which school you attended. Most of the first year boys including me wore short trousers to school, but the number of boys who wore them slowly diminished through the school year. I wore shorts to school until the Easter holiday of 1959 by which time I was 12½ and I made my first appearance in long trousers at the start of the summer term,
these were in fawn cavalry twill. There were a few comments made more from the teachers than the pupils. I remember walking down the corridor after assembly one morning and a rather sarcastic teacher pulled me up and said, ‘I haven’t seen much of you since you started wearing long trousers.’
I had several pairs of shorts in either light or medium grey Terylene/worsted. There was one pair, which had a white pinstripe through the
material, and these were fully lined right to the hem. I also had my last pair of corduroy shorts a navy blue pair although the dye was faded due to the number of times they had been through the wash. Conversely the once gleaming white cotton lining of these shorts had taken on a blue look to it. One pair of grey shorts I had was rather unusual in that they buttoned up at the side as opposed to the front although they still retained the fly.
My long cavalry twill trousers took some getting used to and for the first week of wearing them I found they chafed my knees and thighs and I was glad to change into my long brown corduroys, which I wore as play trousers. I did try a pair of jeans, but I never quite liked them it was the coarseness of the material, which put me off wearing them as well as their appearance. Although quite a few boys that I knew wore them both for play and for school. I once saw a boy at school wearing short cavalry twill trousers and these had turn ups (cuffs).
I was fortunate that I had more than one pair of long trousers to wear for school, but there were a number of boys whose parents could only afford to send them to school in the only pair they had. This meant that they would have to go back to school in short trousers whenever the time came for their longs to be washed. This happened one day to a boy in my class when we were in the second year. He was a few inches taller than I was and it was surprising how much younger he looked in shorts than he did in his long trousers. Of course, I still wore knee-length socks until I started wearing long trousers and these were replaced by the much shorter calf-length ones.
As far as jackets are concerned, I remember wearing one of green Harris Tweed and another in light green with a hounds-tooth check through the fabric. Some boys at the school wore black blazers and these with either the grey long or short trousers they wore gave the impression that they were wearing school uniform. The only thing that was missing was the school crest on the left breast pocket.
I only wore one raincoat to school and this was my grey Robert Hirst coat, which I got when I was 10-years-old. I loved it and I was loathed to part with it when I was 15. The older I got the shorter the coat became. When I first got it, the hem reached to the calves of my legs, but by the time I said goodbye to it, the hem was well past my knees and the sleeves were several inches above my wrists. What attracted me to the coat was its lining, which was a kind of artificial shot-silk. I was often mesmerised by the way the colours
changed according to how it was held to the light, a deep crimson one moment and lime-green the next. I once looked at it through a magnifying glass and I could see how the crimson thread had been woven with the lime-green thread to produce the shot effect.
My PE kit consisted of black sateen cotton gym shorts, which had a dull sheen to them and black plimsolls. We had PE twice a week on a Tuesday and Friday afternoon. PE and games were the lessons I most hated and I have vivid memories of the day my class was issued with its PE kit. It was our first PE lesson and our form teacher marched us down to the gym and then he handed the class over to our PE teacher. We were shown into the changing room and told to sit on the benches. He went away for a few seconds and came back with an
enormous cardboard box. He told one boy to stand, looked at him then he rummaged in the box and threw a pair of shorts at him. This went on until every boy had been issued with a pair of shorts. When this had been done, the teacher took the box away and returned with another, this time containing the plimsolls. When these had been issued, we were told to take our PE shorts home and get our mothers to embroider the initial of our Christian name and along side this our surname. My Mum did mine in yellow thread, which contrasted well with the black fabric of the shorts.
I recall trying the shorts on when I got home. The first thing I noticed was how much lighter they felt from the short trousers I wore. Another
thing I noticed was that they had a tiny pocket on the inside for your handkerchief. It was a bit of a shock to learn that when I had my first
PE lesson proper that I had to do PE in just my shorts and plimsolls, we weren’t even allowed to wear our underpants let alone vests. For games I wore normal kit of football strip and shorts. Cricket is not a game where you would expect to wear shorts, but at my school it was compulsory for you to wear shorts for cricket. My mum bought me a pair of khaki drill shorts and a green closed fronted short sleeved shirt for the game when I was in my second year. On days when we had cricket most boys turned up in their shorts, but I was a bit conscious of being seen in mine, so I wore them under my long trousers.
We never talked much about the clothes were wore, in the late 1950’s early 1960s we talked more about things that mattered and clothes were well down the list. There were one or two occasions when the subject might be mentioned, but not often. I recollect one morning when I met up with two friends from my class. They were Martin and Peter (names changed), Martin started wearing long trousers at the same time I did, but Peter was still in the short ones. His mother had bought him a new pair in blue and Martin asked me what I thought of
Peter’s new shorts. I told him they looked quite smart. There was boy at the school who was often the topic of much conversation because he was well over 14 before his Mum put him into long trousers. He was often asked when he was going to start wearing long trousers and he would often reply that he liked wearing shorts, but somehow we thought differently. People were more sympathetic toward
him rather than cruel.
There was one major topic of conversation in the playground one afternoon in the summer of 1960 when I was still in the second year and that was the proposed introduction of a uniform for the school. There was no school that afternoon as the teachers were holding the meeting to discuss the matter and we spent the whole of it in the playground. Word quickly spread and people began to speculate as to what the uniform would look like. Some said that first and second years and those under five foot would have to wear grey shorts. I
became a bit concerned at this and I had visions of having to return to short trousers again. In fact, that’s what one of my classmates said, ‘you’re going to have start wearing short pants,’ he told me. That night when I got home I asked someone to measure my height and I found I was barely on the five-foot limit. I needn’t have worried as next morning in assembly our head teacher told us that the uniform would not be introduced until the start of the new school year, by which time I would be in the third year and those in that year and the fourth regardless of what height they were could wear long trousers. As it happened the uniform was experimental and not compulsory. The following September a few people turned up in the uniform, but it was not a great success and consequently it was dropped a year or so later. We even talked about it outside school, a friend who lived a few doors from my home had talked the matter over with his Mum and he told me she was going to put him into long trousers. Although we were the same age, he was considerably taller than I was, yet he still wore shorts and I suppose it was a blessing in disguise for him? It was a standard school uniform, grey long or short trousers and black
blazer with the school crest, knee-length socks for the boys who would be wearing shorts these had two bands at the top. A white shirt and blue and gold diagonally striped tie. No cap however. The same for the girls except a skirt in place of trousers.
Sadly the school closed sometime during the 1970’s. The bulk of it was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a housing development and what remains of the school is now a community centre. Twelve years ago I attended a reunion there in what was the school hall. It seemed strange standing in the hall with the memories flooding back. The boys’ gym is still there so is the changing room as is what used to be the boys’ playground. In my mind’s eye. I could see myself not as an adult, but as I was when I first came to the school standing in the playground wearing my boyhood clothes.
The only schools in the town to have a school uniform were the boys' and girl's separate grammar schools and the town's only private fee-paying school.
