Articles
Life at the (East) Oldham High School in the Late 1940s
Derrick McGarry originally contacted MSN from Canada regarding his 1949 class photo. While working on this it became apparent that he was actually in the same year as Joyce Pinder who loaned the '46 photograph. Though boys and girls were so segregated that Derrick always refers to them as "the boys school" and "the girls school". He later added his potato picking photo. The following are extracts from a mail he sent in response to my request for a few words about the photos, and the school at that time. More detailed versions of these photos can be seen by clicking the picture. KD
Lend a Hand on the Land - In 1948, there was an appeal for students to volunteer to pick potatoes for two weeks during school summer holidays, on a farm just outside Ormskirk, . About 20 of us volunteered. Our sleeping accomodation was basic: we slept in bell tents, out in the field. We picked 'taters from what seemed dawn till dusk and our appetites were keen. Sadly, the food, cooked by the father of one of the boys (and so inhibiting complaints), was terrible! Potatoes, as I recall, featured prominently.
I am on the extreme left of photo, in the front row, in white shirt and shorts. The only other name I know is the boy fourth from the left, in a grey shirt and gray shorts, holding a white mug, with his arm up to his collar. That would be my friend David Hart, who is named on the 1949 Va photo.
On Joyce Pinder's 1946 class photo, the girl at 46jp_111 is the same girl listed on my 1949 photo as "Margaret ?" Joyce must have been a contemporary of mine, since these two photos must be of the same boys' and girls' classes with a three-years interval between them.
Further proof is that as I reviewed the 1946 photo, I remembered the girlat 46jp_201. She's Jean Muncaster.That year, 1946, I was 13 going on 14 years old. About half a dozen of us went to the cinema and Jean was my "date." I remember her because although we were very innocent in those days, in an uncharacteristic act of depravity on my part, I put my arm around her shoulders, as I had seen courting couples do. 
My arm was there for the entire film show and when we came to leave, it was completely numb.
In the late 1940s, East Oldham High School was without a Biology teacher. In 1948, they hired a Mr Jones to teach the subject. Headmaster Mr Ashworth told students entering Va for the school year 1948-1949, that they would have to catch up on two years' studies and they would not be allowed to take Biology unless they needed it for their prospective future careers, or if they had had previously good marks in the subject.
The chosen ones were Brian Millward, bent on a career in medicine, me (previous good marks and a fierce desire to drop the alternative subject, History), and the young lady from the girls' school ("Margaret ?"), who appears on the 1949 class photo (46jp-111). 
Since there were only three of us in the class, we didn't always use a classroom. Mr Jones (just out of university) had rooms in a terrace house opposite the school on Churchill Street and often we took our lessons in his parlour there. It was like having a private tutor and with the amiable but strict young Mr Jones, we fairly sailed through the two years' work, leaving several weeks for revision. It was the most enjoyable experience of my high school years.
The boys' and girls' schools were, indeed, completely separate. The only time we met the girls (officially) was at an annual school dance at Hill Stores (I think that was around Christmastime), and "Speech Day" (also at Hill Stores), when the old "School Certificate" -- junior and senior matriculation certificates -- and prizes were presented to pupils with top marks in class subjects, from both schools.
The dances began awkwardly, since the boys were on one side of the ballroom and the girls on the other -- two groups that were strangers to each other. Invariably, the teachers partnered each other, starting with an accumulation waltz, where partners separate during the dance and each choose another partner from those not dancing. That got things going.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I remember Mr Higson striding briskly into the classroom, obviously disturbed about something, and saying "Boys -- I suggest you read 'Alice in Wonderland' as a preparation for life." Observing this sometimes irrational world over the years, it is a remark that has come to my mind often.
Derrick McGarry 19/02/2007
Life at the (East) Oldham High School in the Late 1940s
Doreen Simpson (nee Capewell) originally contacted us in response to an appeal by the site for names for the newly posted 1952 EOHs (Counthill) Panorama. In addition to three formal group photos, her mail included several observations about school life at that time. The following is a series of extracts taken from her mails, with her permission.
Doreen is the second person to refer to staff regularly inviting groups of senior pupils to their homes, the first being Derrick McGarry in About 46-49. It's obvious that they both enjoyed this experience and benefited greatly by it. I doubt if it would be permitted these days, for a variety of reasons, even if staff were prepared to offer such facilities.
The other point of interest is that Doreen mentions WWII. It's easy to forget looking through these photos that the war took place during the time span covered by this site. The only outward sign is the roughly built wall that appears to the right and rear of the 1946 series of photos. We have been told in another private mail that this was the entrance to an air raid shelter in the changing room / gym facility. KD
From Doreen: ..... Mr Barlow and Mr Brodie are missing.[from the staff group] Mr Barber "taught" me German. i.e. he set the work and promptly fell asleep. We had more sense in those days than make a noise and waken him up. I was most embarrassed a few years later when his son married my best friend.
Mr Brodie was a real heart-throb and nearly every girl in the school was in love with him. The fact that he had been a pilot in the war was a big help to his image. Miss Platt used to tell us how all the girls who were at the school during the war used to knit socks for him and send them off to keep him warm!
Madamoiselle Levy was the French Assistante, quite an innovation at the time. She stayed for a year. Miss Moorhouse was my form teacher and was very much a Miss Jean Brodie character. She tried very hard to refine her girls.
.......... I attach the recorder photo. Here's a little background to it.
Miss Hulme, the school secretary ran the recorder group. She was a fascinating person, was a friend of Carl F. Dolmetsch C.B.E. Hon D. Litt. F.T.C.L. F.L.C.M., the most famous person internationally in the world of recorders. All children who were made to play the recorder can blame him as he invented the cheap plastic recorder to encourage all children to have the opportunity to play an instrument.
Miss Hulme used to invite sixth formers who played to her home which was a wonderful experience for me, a girl from a council house. It was a large house which I assume she had inherited, beautifully furnished with a wonderful collection of instruments, many of them old and valuable such as a harpsicord. No tele no computer, just a quiet cultured evening. We were being educated.
.......... So far as I can remember only two girls in what was the top steam actually got to university, me and Sheila Simpson although a lot went to teacher training college.
Doreen Simpson (nee Capewell) Nov 2009
About the 1954 Albums
All photos referred to this page were originally supplied in albums like the one illustrated above. It is dated "OLDHAM 1954"and"PUBLISHED BY GEO. HOLDSWORTH & SON Ltd. Premier Scholastic Photographers HARTLEPOOL."The one shown was loaned by Melvyn Ratcliff. The photos loaned by Anwyl Casterton were also from an album like this, and the locations of several others are known.
The photos are all mounted 11½ x 7¾ " overall, with no legends. Each of the photos carries a makers negative mark of a single capital letter somewhere against a dark background. After posting this page the Maud Wild Album, which contains the entire 1954 series, came to light.
1954 was interesting from a sporting point of view. Tom Higson had recently become Headmaster and had decided that the school should be represented by Soccer teams or Rugby Union, not Rugby League.These were considered more gentlemanly and more suitable for a Grammar School. This was the changeover year, and team photos are shown for both FA and RU rule books.
The school had been particularly successful at Rugby League over all age groups. In the 1952/3 season they won all 5 of the town schools rugby trophies. To record this feat, a photo of the wholeschool squad was taken as part of this (1954) set of photos.
Photos By Melvyn Ratcliff
| 1954 Class 5.X | 1954 Whole School RL Squad | 1954 Sen. Soccer XI | 1954 Sen. RU XV |
Photos By Anwyl Casterton
| 1954 Class I.Y | 1954 Staff | 1954 Girls Swimming |
About the 1934 Panorama
The current image is a composite of two panoramas presented to the site at different times. The first was the property of Ida Tweedale and loaned to us for scanning to the site by Jerramy Sutcliffe, her son, in March 2007. It is marked on the reverse, presumably by Ida herself:-
1934 High School - VI Form Year - Ready for College entry at Lincon
Ida Tweedale (Later Sutcliffe)
Position 674 in the photo
The second photo used in the composite was provided by Maud Bradbury (née Collis) during 2011
The panorama has 544 people on it, compared to 420 & 470 in 57 / 62 respectively. The setting is also a little different to later years, the photo being taken before the woodwork room was built. The orientation of the arc is similar to later photos, but located in the space between the end of the science block and the Churchill St railings.
Maud had a very wide circle of friends associated with teaching in Oldham over many years and a good memory for names and faces from the period of the panorama. Unfortunately neither her (at the age of 90) or her friends had access to the internet and garnering this information was slow. The panorama has been fully indexed to take advantage of this pool of information but sadly Maud died suddenly before we could record much of her knowledge. Some names have been registered and cameos prepared, mainly for staff members, but the item is essentially unfinished as a repository for names.
About the Maud Wild Album
This is an album compiled by the Senior Mistress Mrs. (Maud) Wild. It contains all the formal photographs taken during the 1954 session. They carry the photographers marks A to Z then 1 to 7, 33 photos in total covering all school activities.
We are indebted to Alf Selby for conserving it for us.
Mrs Wild, who was the art teacher, has recorded the names of all the people shown in each photo by writing them on the photo mounts in italic script. Because of this, the entire album is shown on the site including the manuscript names.
They can be accessed from the strip menus, at the top of each photo, or from FotoFind. They are referred to as the '54 Collection'.
The photographs themselves, excluding the mounts, are also shown separately with built in names under the appropriate group menus. This type are referred to as the '54 Series' in the menu systems.
Several groups from this series had already been posted prior to Wild album being presented. In these cases the images are attributed to the original contributor. By coincidence several of these came from pupils' personal albums illustrated here