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This was followed by Miss Malone with the class of pupils whose ages were in the
middle range at the end. Each of these classrooms were heated from a large fire place in which a coal fire burned. Still standing looking at the school on the right hand side as you came through the gates were the
boys cycle shed, a locked building that I believe was the coal store,then a small brick built store that housed the PE / Games equipment and next the boys toilets. These were outside at this time with only the
stalls being roofed and having doors. The flushing cistern was a long tin trough that ran the length of the building with pipe and feed mechanism for each of the stalls, the top was open and many lad found that
someone had flushed the toilet while in use or had water splashed over him. The last building on this side was the kitchen and dining room the domain of Miss Burkill and her staff who cooked us our dinners (meat and
two vegetables plus pudding) each day. Friday was the day that we got fish, chips and peas plus pudding. I have a memory that something was wrong in the kitchen or dining room one day and when it came to dinner time
Miss Burkill and her staff brought trays of sandwiches and cake type pudding over to the class rooms where we stayed and ate our dinner. I would be pleased if any one can confirm this happening. Behind me was a
large grassed area that we played on in the summer months and to the right stood the girls toilets which were the same as the boys but without the urinal. These too had no connection to the school building.
Then came the girls cycle shed followed by a small gate to the road. Between the road and the School building was an area of garden with shrubs and flowers then running the full length of the building a tarmac area
slightly larger than the width of a car. Two things that happened not long before I left the School were that the veranda had the spaces between the posts that supported it filled in with coloured glass and double
doors placed in the centre for access. The other that a new Headmaster - Mr Sparks - was to join the School and take over from Miss Brown, the Headmistress. While reading the Winteringham Web Site recently I find
new toilets have been added to the school building so the pupils have no longer to trudge across the playground in the changing weathers, along with other improvements to bring the School up to date. I remember in
the younger class at on end there were two tanks or trays that about twelve inches in depth and four foot by four foot in size that stood on legs, one red filled with sand the other blue with water in it. I think
the sand one was just for play but remember the water one had a set of containers that held different amounts of water. There was a book case that opened into a `L` shape in one corner where chairs were placed so
that we could read the books it contained. During the winter the milk bottles were placed to thaw out and warm up in front of the fire ready for our break time drink. The play ground was apart from where we would
have our break times, PE and games lessons was where we trained for and took our cycling proficiency test under the watchful eye of the police, for which we received a certificate and badge when we passed.
During the summer months we were allowed to play on the grass running around or as some did just sat chatting until the bell rang. Winter and the quite heavy snow falls would once again see pupils back on the grass
making large balls of snow that were placed together to make forts from where snow balls would be thrown. Other large balls of snow were placed on top of each other to make snowmen. Sometimes parts of these large
balls would still be standing well after the rest of the snow had melted.
The words that follow may not be the exact ones written in one of my school reports but as near as I can remember and state `Could do
better if Anthony paid more attention to his work and less time day dreaming` To finish, this bit about the school happened after I had left and involved one of my brothers William (better known as Bill) both he and
John are two years younger than myself and were still at Winteringham school. Getting in from the Secondary School one day I was surprised to find Bill sat there with his arm in a sling - he had been running in the
playground and slipped on one of the metal man hole covers and broken his arm. His bad luck was put down to the little metal nails called `segs` that had been used on the sole of his boots. And if I remember
correctly, this incident lead to the banning of such things in the soles of boots and shoes.
Cycling and recycling
The way different bodies in the year 2007 are complaining about recycling or the
lack of it should think back to the years after the war. No I am not getting on my soap box but thinking back just a little over fifty years.
Recycling went on and as far as I remember no one complained then it was something that we did automatically. As I grew up with other children in the village we would collect milk bottles that had been purchased from one of the shops and return them as they each had from 1d to 3d put onto the normal price (6d = 2˝p in today’s money). Beer Bottles also had a similar price on them this was to get the purchaser to return them for re-use and not forgetting the pop bottles - these I think had a slightly higher return price. If your milk was delivered to your doorstep the bottles were collected the following day by the milkman. We had two different milk deliveries in the village which were the Co-op and Clover Dairies, whose bottles when delivered to the doorstep had no return price.
The best way to return bottles were in multiples as you got more money back. I think that we went round friends and neighbours who kept them until we went round to collect them as did the other children from
their friends etc as it saved them having to return them and were happy for us to keep the few pence. One thing we did find out was that if we took too many back at one time the shops would not take them all that
day. The place where you could mess up was taking your beer bottles back, if the pub you went to did not sell the brand of ale that was on the label they would not take the empties. This came about when greed took
over as some parties would take bottles back and then go round the back of the pubs to where the empties were kept and remove a number of bottles and try taking them back again. This was a great way to add to our
weekly allowance, which was not a large sum but then we were able to buy more for our money than you can today.
Newspapers were collected tied into a neat bundle by the dustbin men who put them on a rack
below their lorry or into the back of the cab in small amounts. But once again us kids were on the job and would take a bundle of clean paper to the local chip shop where it would be used to wrap you fish and chips
in. At that time the owners were allowed to wrap their fish and chips in the paper not like today where they have to be on grease proof paper then wrapped in plain white paper, (back then the fish and chips tasted a
lot better maybe it was some reaction between the salt and vinegar and the news print on them). Most chip shops would give us a free bag of chips as payment for the papers but if the owner was getting low on papers
we would stand and tear them in half to save them time and when done we may have ended getting a larger bag than normal. After having fish and chips the papers were saved to start the following days fire. The
remains of the previous day’s fire - the cinders and unburned coal were either put on a pile or placed into a riddle (a mesh bottomed container) and shaken from side to side to remove the ash and very small cinders,
the larger cinders and unburned coal was saved so that it could be used again. Potato, vegetable peelings along with grass cuttings and dead flowers went to the compost heap to rot down and be reused on the garden
as manure. Other rubbish made its way to the garden fire where when burnt the ash also went into the ground by being washed in by the rain or spread and dug in. If like us you had an orchard when it was necessary to
trim back tree branches and they were thick enough logs were made by cutting them into pieces that would fit the fire place. During the winter months many fires were `banked up` at night, this was by using coal and
maybe some of the saved cinders with vegetable peelings, this allowed the fire to still burn but at a much slower rate than normal thus keeping them in and the rooms would be warm when you got up the following day.
If your parents were lucky enough to have a pig or be part owner of one I remember food scraps being saved and mixed with its food, and when big enough the pig was killed and hams hung from hooks in the ceiling and
there was not much thrown away. Even the chickens’ food was added to this way by mixing in scraps that were left over.
One thing I cannot forget is the toilet paper made by tearing newspaper into a size much
like to days toilet rolls. One of the best papers was the Radio Times much like today’s TV papers but as the name says the information was about the times and programs on the radio. Each Radio Times would be torn
down the centre fold then each page in turn was folded in half and then half again to make four roughly same sized squares then cut or torn. When the amount that was required was reached, a hole was made in
one corner and a length of string pushed through and tied into a loop so it could be hung up on the hook in the toilet ready for use.
Clothing was passed from one family member to the next of the same sex
while it was in good condition then when it could be passed down no further providing the garments were still serviceable they were passed to other relations or to neighbours for their children to wear and nothing
was thought about it.
(None of this “will only wear certain `named ` clothing” as today). I, being the oldest in our family, most of the time was lucky enough to get new clothing but even then the style and durability of it lent towards it been reused. Shoes were another thing they had to be well made and sturdy and were often supplemented by boots. I remember asking for a pair of modern shoes these having pointed toes like what the pop groups wore at one time and was firmly told that I had to have the ones we normally had. After a trip into Scunthorpe with mum I returned home the proud owner of a pair of two tone grey shoes with pointed toes that dad was not very pleased about stating that I had bought them myself and mum telling him I had used money that I had received as birthday presents I think some thing along the lines of as long as it is his money he's wasting that's up to him what he does. But having an uncle a bit older than me saw me receiving some of his clothing at times. I remember my mum, aunt, and grandmothers having a basket of woven cane hanging in the pantry with paper bags, brown paper and string along with other useful items to be reused.
Granddad Stephenson would keep the white paper from the butchers that the meat was wrapped in if it was clean and make small note pads or booklets that we would write or draw in when we visited . Biscuit
tins, jam jars of all shapes and sizes were saved, the tins to put cakes and tarts and buns in. The jars were all washed and reused when home made jams, chutneys and pickles were made most were for our own use
through the year till next season but some made there was to friends and the local fetes. The fats from Sunday roasts even got saved in a large basin and called `dripping` as they cooled the residue settled to the
bottom in the form of a jelly with the fats over them.
Not only was this reused in cooking but bread spread with the dripping, salt added and another slice of bread placed on top and this sandwich was eaten by young and old and the flavour reminded you of the joint it had come from. One of my favourites was when onions had been fried and the fat saved (onion dripping). Mondays was washing day so the main meal normally was made up of what was left over from Sunday - normally cold meat and pickles, or if any mash and veg were left it was reheated as bubble and squeak. This meant that mum was not having to stop and leave what she was doing to prepare a meal from scratch.
When mum or the family went shopping and more than a couple of items were required a basket or bag was taken with you to put your purchases in. (There were no or very few plastic bags). Shops also packed a
lot of their products on the premises.
I remember that sugar was in blue bags of different sizes with the weight stamped on them using an ink pad and stamp. Other things were in brown bags all made of paper. Some shops even had butter that was patted to shape and size with things like wooden bats and then wrapped in greaseproof paper all reusable. Many of the things we buy today are the same but come in different packaging and possibly more of it. The shopping that was done when we were children was to one the local shops on a daily, or maybe twice weekly visit and at the weekend a trip to Scunthorpe Market for the little extra or treats. If anything had been forgotten one of the family went to the shop. Unlike today with the supermarkets in the towns that have taken the place of most of the village corner shops where peoples purchases are made in large quantities to make sure that you have every thing that is needed and in a some of cases over buy and in the end a large part of it is wasted and ends being thrown away.
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