"My father and I now live in Sydney Australia but were once residents of Stanmore Road in Wavertree. My father attended the Bluecoat School from 1924-1931. He remembers his days at the school very clearly.

"Every time new boys came in the masters had a large ruler which they placed on boys heads to determine the height, and the boys were numbered in size order from 1 to180 with corresponding lockers. The holidays were in May and September, at times when the state schools were in school. Christmas was spent in the school with ten days without lessons. On Christmas day mothers and guardians were allowed in to visit from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm. The Christmas dinner consisted of beef and potatoes and gravy. There was a parade of 24 Christmas puddings carried around the dining hall by old Blue Coat boys. The size of the puddings ranged from two carried by 4 boys to two carried by 2 boys to several carried by individual boys. There were the old silver threepenny bits in the puddings so the boys ate the pudding quickly to get second helpings and therefore more money!

"Every week from when he was 13 until he left school he had the job of going round the school with the clock man to carry the step ladder. None of the clocks were electric. At the end of the round he had to climb the spiral staircase to the top of the clock tower and stand on a big box and use crank lever to wind up the clockwork and the strike. The disk which was grooved to give the number of strikes was smooth from 10.00 pm to 6.00am so that the clock didn't strike and wake people up."

PAM (& Ian) HARVEY
Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia

June 2000