Wallington County

A Memory of Wallington.

I went to Wallington County (no, we weren't 'Wally Boys' as people say these days), from 1957 to 1964. When our son followed me some 40 years later, I found the school very lttle changed from my day, apart from a new science block. They even still referred to the old science block as the 'New Block', and the new science block was therefore the 'New New Block'. Whilst I usually coped with academic lessons okay, anything physical was a different matter. I think Mr Wellstead the woodwork teacher, must have torn his hair out at my complete inability to plane a piece of wood. I could describe in great detail; exactly how to make a mortice and tenon joint, but actually doing it was a different matter! The same must have been true for Mr Ireland, the PT teacher, when he discovered how utterly useless I was at anything which involved throwing, catching, kicking or striking a ball; not to mention vaulting, bunning, jumping etc, etc. The only thing I was any good at was the Scottish dancing ('Rock with Jock' we called it), probably because I've always had a sense of rhythm. I also remember going to Pinche's Stores over the road for sweets (four for a penny), bubble gum, little drinks and, later on, Lovely Jubbly at only 4d a carton. I don't know why the shop was called 'Pinches' as I think the people who ran it were called 'Shelley'. In those days we all had to wear caps and were supposed to 'touch our caps' as a mark of respect whenever we met a teacher or lady outside of school. We weren't allowed to wear 'drainpipe trousers' as there was a minimum size for trouser bottoms of something like 16 or 18 imches (we weren't into flares in the 60's).