My Mellis memories - Arnold Garnham
I was a pupil at the old Mellis School from January 1943 until July 1949 when I left to go the Eye Modern School (now Hartismere High).
I missed nearly a complete year's schooling due to a TB gland in my neck. The cause of the TB was put down to the school milk, which in those days we all drank at mid morning break.
I was not the only one in the school to suffer as Noel Goodman also had the same problem.
In those days there two classrooms, the little room was for children up to the age of, I think, seven and the big room for the older children before they went on to secondary education.
The little room teacher in my days was Mrs Allen; Miss Pearson was the headteacher when I first started, followed by Mrs Randall for a short period before Mrs Lillian Avery took over.
Mrs Randall was the wife of the woodwork master at the Eye Modern School and also Mrs Avery's sister-in-law.
Mrs Avery lived in Gislingham, and with her husband was a very keen grower of sweet peas and the pair won nearly all the top prizes at the Eye Flower Show.
My early education was mainly the three 'R's', writing in those early days with chalk on a small black-board was always a problem but we managed and I did okay.
Reading was not my best subject but I excelled at arithmetic, and learning my tables came, as second nature, which I will say, was a very great help in my professional career.
Under Mrs Allen's influence we learnt a lot about nature with the identification of wild flowers, birds and creatures.
We were encouraged to find wild flowers and try to be the first one in the class to bring them to school, charts were kept from year to year to establish the earliest date for different varieties as well as the discovery of birds nests.
Looking back now it makes me wonder how many wild flowers suffered and were lost due to our actions.
In Mrs Avery's class our work was geared to the 11-plus examinations, progressing from the chalk and blackboards to books, firstly with pencils and then pen and ink.
We all know what a problem the old ink wells were, with the old favourite of blotting paper, which would some how appear on the end of the nib and ruin your work.
Other subjects were also introduced such as art and projects, but it was arithmetic which still commanded my studies, reading still not to my liking nor was English or spelling.
However, when it came to the 11-plus I passed and was given an interview to go to The Eye Grammar School, but at the interview I told the board that I wanted to go to the Modern School.
I do not know whether Mrs Avery ever forgave me for that, as I was the first pupil from Mellis School to be given the opportunity under her guidance, and may I add the first for many years from the school itself.
The school itself was in a poor state with holes in the floorboards, one coal fire in each classroom so we had to wrap up well to keep warm, outside toilets which were quite a walk from the main building.
Our playground was on the Common outside the school so you can imagine that there wasn't a lot of playtime in the winter, especially when it rained.
Our school dinners were brought to the school by van from Stowmarket in metal containers which at times were not too hot, and of course some times did not arrive so we had to resort to emergency food which would consist of dry biscuits and tinned meat.
The menus were not great and some of the vegetables were inedible, especially the greens which at times had not been cleaned correctly, and the potatoes were I assume the forerunner of today's smash, it was like eating putty.
One of the best was semolina and jam. I wonder what the children of today would say, not to mention Jamie Oliver?
We had periodic visits from the 'Nit Nurse', a doctor and a dentist who I recall was very tall, but his methods were not great.
The drill he used for fillings was operated by his foot and at times was never really quick enough to drill the tooth.
I am afraid this put me off going to the dentist and consequently lost my front teeth at the age of 14 and have had dentures ever since.
I was interested to read in the article that Mellis School was built to replace older buildings in Yaxley and Mellis.
Yaxley School closed in 1942 and the children of the village were bussed to Thorndon, a situation that continued well after the new school was opened.
The old Yaxley school was bought and turned into living accommodation by Sir Frederick Aston and was a summer resort for the ballerinas of the time, Margot Fountaine and Norma Shearer.
I was the first child from Yaxley to go Mellis school, my mother taking me on the back of her cycle to avoid me having to get up and catch the bus at about 8am and not being home again until after 4pm.
We lived in the Council Houses on the Mellis Road and from home to the old Mellis School was over two miles, a distance I used to walk as I got older. I was about 11 before I learnt to ride a bicycle just in time to cycle to Eye Modern School.
The walk to school was always pleasant in the summer months but not so during the winter, especially the winter of 1947 when we had to battle through heavy snow and drifts on most days.
I recall on one occasion I was one of only four children in the school and two of us, Margaret Mole being the other, lived the furthest distance from the school.
The Mellis I recall as a child growing up, was of the cattle feeding on the Common during the summer months, the Common being a picture of wild flowers such as buttercups and cuckoo pint.
There was always a lot of activity around the station with Savill's Mill, corn being unloaded from the farmers' trucks and then loaded onto wagons for onward transmission by rail.
The station yard was used for the receipt of coal and for the transport of sugar beet to the Ipswich factory.
The station was also the terminus for the branch line to Eye with goods trains originally making two trips per day which later became one, and then none with the Beeching Axe.
The passenger service to Eye was disbanded during the late 1930s. Passenger trains also used the station on the main Norwich to London line but of course they disappeared in the 1960s to be replaced by a bus service.
It is nearly 40 years since I moved from my home in Yaxley but, from my visits to home as I will always call it, Mellis has changed somewhat with the closing of the mill, the rail station and the renaming of roads.
However, it is still a place with the Common being the main feature but with its surroundings changing to meet the 21st Century.
Read readers' Mellis Memories in full here:
Lauren Fox - School in the 1990s
Dawn Francis - Mellis in the 1950s
Arnold Garnham - Schooldays in the 1940s and 50s
Valerie Grose - The Railway Hotel and village life
Suzanne Lawrence - 1994 nativity play
Joy Mathews - The old school doll
What are your memories of life in Mellis in the 1950s? Did you attend the old or new village school?
Write and tell us: Mellis Memories, Diss Express, Mere Street, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4AE or email editorial@dissexpress.co.uk
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Thursday 02 September 2010
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