A selection of photographs showing Norton High Street Primary School possibly in the early 1980s. The Headteacher Mr Brown can be seen among the pupils lined up in the playground. Other views show the nursery and one of the pre fabricated classrooms. I hope the photographs bring back happy memories for any former pupils.
Photographs and details courtesy of Tom Collins.
The kid at the front, on the 3rd picture down is me 🙂
These are great nostalgic photographs. It is hard to remember the layout of the buildings given what is there now. I recall the nursery with its sand pit overlooking Tanners Bank. I also recall Mrs Potts teaching me in one of the prefabs and the unsalted butter that we used to make with the creamy bit from the top of our milk. Then there was Mrs Caygill in the main block as you entered up from the arch with Miss Jumps class on the lefthand side corner as you entered the yard.
In the building in the first photograph I recall being taught by Mr Hammill whose classroom windows were to the left of the one in the photograph. A teacher whom we knew as “torture” Thompson also had a classroom in this block.
My final classroom was beyond that building shown in the first photograph at the rear of that block was a netball court with a scaffolding type climbing frame nearby then down a few steps were two more prefab classrooms. I had the pleasure of another Mr Thompson in the right hand side room, but better than that during those warmer, longer summer days we were, on Fridays, given a choice had we been good enough or answered questions correctly. We could either have a spare milk, or go into the garden area behind the huts between them and the allotments. No choice really warm milk loses every time.
I stand corrected but I did not think that the school survived much beyond its 100th birthday which would date the photos to around the mid to late 1970s. I cannot read the car registration on the car parked near to the cut through to the old dining room so as I say I stand corrected.
Lots of happy memories though, thanks.
car no. looks like XXG 899J.
Paul the number is XXG 899J although that only tells us the year the car was registered it could well have been an old car.
I attended the adjoining nursery and this school from early 1945 until summer 1951. I can still recall my first day at the nursery when not wanting to be separated from my mother there was quite a scuffle. The Nursery was run by Ms Potts with assistance from Ms Knott.
The only activity that I can recall was having to take an afternoon nap in an upstairs room which faced towards Billingham Road (Tanners Bank?). I did not welcome the enforced inactivity.
The primary section of the school was headed by Ms Lindsay, followed by Mrs Poulter. Some of my teachers were Ms Ingram, Mrs Farr and Ms Barker. I can also recall a Miss Norton who became Mrs ???? during my stay.
The junior school was headed by Mr Corner. My penultimate years teacher was Mrs Kelly who was also the mayoress, and my final years teacher was Mr Thompson who lived near Norton Cricketfield. Mr Thompson had served in India during World War 2. At the end of the day he enthralled us with stories, sometimes about snake charmers and fortune tellers, but more often the story was a serialised Sherlock Holmes or from a book about crusading knights, the title of which eludes me.
I am surprised to see that the prefabricated classrooms were still in use in the 1980’s!
I remember being in one of them for PT sessions on a rafia mat, but I believe that the other was a regular classroom. Was there not also a Music / PT room? As I progessed through the school, we moved to classrooms in three different areas, the final two years being in the block shown in the first photo. The entrances to the areas had engravings on the stone door lintels, INFANTS, JUNIORS, and SENIORS? I believe that in my final year it was a class of 18 boys and 22 girls.
Was the rather grande double fronted house a former private residence which later became part of the school?
I remember Mrs Fleming. My first day at this school was 3rd September 1969 – I had moved from Carlisle the previous day – and Mrs Parnell (School Secretary) showed me to Mrs McQuillen’s classroom (the nearer of the huts, to the left of the entrance door). I seem to remember playing the xylophone next door in Mrs Fleming’s classroom (to the right of the hut entrance). To the right of Mr Brown can be seen the wall which led to the Dining Hall. Country dancing and the learning of the hymn ‘Oh Jesus I Have Promised’ by heart was done in that same Hall. Later my classroom was housed in the building behind Mr Brown – with old Mr Thompson. Mrs Parnell’s office was there, also young Mr Thompson and his kiln. The window shown on that photograph was in the room where I took my 11 Plus examination in 1971. There was a lovely pear tree in that playground when I was there. The window on the left in the first photo is the exact same window that appears on the right of the third photo. Many thanks, Tom, for sharing these lovely photos with us. I have longed to see more detailed photos of my old Junior School on this site for many years. These are great! 😀
It was in one of these fabricated classrooms whilst a pupil of a Mrs Fleming’s class where I remember getting an ‘A’ for an essay I wrote about Winston Churchill…most of which was copied off the back of a famous people card that came out of a packet of tea!