Hadleigh Heritage Education and Schools
Hadleigh Heritage Exhibition and Talk
An exhibition in St James-the-Less on Saturday 17th June 2017 was followed on 15th July by a talk by Sandra Harvey on the same subject
A school bell certainly took many of us back to our primary schooldays, when we, often reluctantly, were summoned in from the playground at the end of the break.
The ink wells reminded those of us over 60 of the days before biros, when we used long wooden pens with sharp scratchy nibs, before the “modern” invention of the fountain pen. I can still smell the slightly unpleasant odour of the ink, if I try hard. Of course the younger children then wrote first on slates before they could be trusted with sharp pens!
Perhaps most reminiscent of those days for many of us was the cane. Everyone feared their headmaster or headmistress. Minor bad behaviour resulted in a smack over the hand with a wooden ruler and serious misdemeanors resulted in a trip to the head’s office and a swish of the cane. It hurt to be cheeky in those days.
Sandra made use of the substantial research carried out in earlier years by Chris Worpole for her book “Tales Out of School”, now out of print, but available to order via the Hadleigh & Thundersley Community Archive.
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I remember getting the cane from Mr Tutt probably in 1940. Several of us were late back to school after lunch when we missed the bus from Rivers Corner Daws Heath and got a ride in a van. Still, seems rather hard punishment for the offence!
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