My father started school at the age of five
at Lescudjack Infants’ School where he was taught by Miss Birch and Miss Hocking. At the age of
seven or eight he moved on to Lescudjack Boys’ School where the teachers were
Miss Thomas, Mr McGuiness, Miss Rosevear, Mr Clynick and Mr Hitchens.
Eventually my father came top in the
scholarship exam for admission to the Penzance County School (later to become
the grammar school). The school had opened in 1910 under the headmastership of
Mr G. L. Bradley who still held the post when my father entered the school in
1933. At that time the school only had 250 pupils divided into six years. The
first year, for boys aged 9 or 10, was for fee paying pupils while scholarship
entrants went straight into the second year. The main subjects were Latin,
history, geography, English, mathematics, French, physics and chemistry.
During my father’s time at the school the
pupils helped to raise the funds for and to buils gymnasium. The school held
many fund-raising events and pupils also helped with work on the foundations.
During the 1930s the County School stood on
the very outskirts of Penzance, Treneere Estate not having been built at that
time. My father remembered taking part in school cross country races which
began by crossing the fields where the estate now stands. Incidentally, he
finished 2nd in the junior race in his first year.
The 1938 edition
of the school magazine, The Penwithian,
quotes the following : “We find the
entrance to the Recreation Ground torn down and preparations being made for the
Treneere Estate. In the fields, hedges were being removed and trenches dug up
for water and gas pipes. A large tent was pitched just above the school garage
and we learn that the foreman on the estate is camping there”.
Tony Casey, Falmouth, Cornwall.
No comments:
Post a Comment