Name Ann Morgett

Headteacher Mr. Revill

“The staff I remember were Miss Brown WE. and Music], Miss Lockwood, Mrs. Hayes [she had her hair plaited round each ear in coils-we called them earphones], Miss Dobson, Mr Stead [came later after being in the forces], Nurse Dixon [more commonly known as the nit nurse] and she used to tug at your hair.

The surgery was in the cloakroom as was the dentist [with the slow moving drill, with the slow pedal he moved with his foot], and a big black chair, it was torture!

We had a milk monitor and small bottles of milk. We had to go to the Carver Institute for meals (it was a gym then]. We had no canteen so we were walked down the road.

Games day was on All Saints’ Church field.

The central hail was made up of four classrooms separated only by wooden partitions, so that you heard all the other voices from adjoining classes, so it was hard to concentrate on your own teacher.

We had assembly every morning in the hall, Miss Brown at the piano.

If you misbehaved you were sent to stand at the Headmaster’s door. That we found frightening so we had to behave.”

1937 - 1943

Name: Trevor Gordon Jones

Headteacher: Mr. Revill.

“Going to All Saints’ School seemed to be part of everybody’s life in Marple. Although there were one or two private establishments in the village, it was the only primary school and had been attended by my older brothers and sister before me.

Living on the Ridge we walked to school every morning, back home at lunch-time, back again for the afternoon session, and finally, home at four o’clock. Sometimes, on arriving at home, mother would send me back to Marple to do some shopping and I would walk the return journey, so, by the end of the day, apart from playing in the fields I probably walked about six miles. There was an intermittent bus service, “the circular”, which went from Marple to Hawk Green and back down Ridge Road and Church Lane but we very seldom used it. Indeed those pupils who did use that bus were known as “the bus babies” by those of us too “tough” or too poor to walk. In the early days this bus was run by a local firm called Firth and Kirkpatrick who later had their garage just over the canal bridge below the school on the corner of Church Lane and Church Street.

Although the weather was often severe, especially in winter, that was never an excuse for missing school. We would struggle through snow waist deep on occasions and, on rare and extreme days were given drinks of hot cocoa by the teachers. I felt very proud when I heard one teacher comment that the children who lived furthest away from school seemed to be the ones who had struggled through. It reminded me of a story about Lord Nelson which had been told to me at All Saints’. When, as a small boy, he struggled home through extreme weather he was asked, “Weren’t you afraid?” He looked at his questioner and replied to the effect that he didn’t know what fear was! Being something of a dreamer I would imagine myself as Lord Nelson as I struggled through the snow drifts to school.