School
And then the whining school-boy, with his
satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school
Alfred
Farndale recalled school life at the turn of the twentieth century. I
remember going to school at Charltons near Tidkinhow.
We then went to Standard 1 at Boosbeck. We stayed there until we were 14. It
was a two mile walk each day. The headmaster was Mr Ranson. I remember Jim, my
elder brother catching me fishing and playing truant. He just said "Get in"
(he was in a pony and trap) and he took me to a day’s marketing at Stokesley. I
remember the second masters name was Ackroyd. I got a fork through my leg and
he sucked it out. We were always inspected as we arrived at school. We had to
walk past the Bainbridge place and people used to say that he had more sheep on
the moor than he was allowed. I remember William
looking after me at mother's funeral. I was crying and very upset.
His son Martin
Farndale recalled that every day Anne and I, and later Geoffrey as well,
were driven into Northallerton, which was five miles away, to school and we
were collected in the evening. School was a very new adventure and not easy
going for me. Mrs Lord was a hard but far task master, insisting on high
standards. Much was learnt by heart – poems, hymns and tables. Mr Lord taught
history and geography and these quickly became my favourite subjects. On Friday
afternoons the school walked in a long crocodile to the village of Romanby, there to sit and watch lantern slides given by a
Mr and Mrs Linton about their travels to the Holy Land and Egypt. These were
wonderful, hazy black and a browny colour and white,
but they opened up the idea of travel and excitement. They also taught us a
great deal and left a deep impression on me. It was at Wensley House school
that I made my first friends. Richard Sawfell was the
son of the county surveyor whose mother knew my mother before they were both
married. David Ramsden was the son of a farmer near Northallerton. Jack
Errington came with his mother during the school holidays to stay with his
Grandmother in Thornton-Le-Moor.
|
The
education of our forebears |
|
The
life of children in seventeenth century to Victorian Yorkshire |
Lynn
Farndale’s son, George Barker on his way to school, 1920 Martin
Farndale, Northallerton Grammar, 1942
In August
1902, Ethel
Farndale, whose conduct had been most praiseworthy in the Sunday School,
and Ada Johnson, who had achieved the same distinction in the day school, were
crowned with chaplets of beautiful roses in the school yard at Westow, near
Kirkham Abbey, by Mrs Speck, wife of the vicar of Langtoft. Songs and
exercises, which reflected much credit upon the head mistress, Mrs Fisher, and
her assistants, formed part of the proceedings.
Rosamund
Farndale, born 1931, from Northumberland became an inspiring headmistress
in Hampstead, London.
Peggy
Baker and Grace
Farndale met when they were working at schools in the southwest.