Wigan Album
Warrington Lane Infants School
20 CommentsPhoto: Rev David Long
Item #: 25270
was it built as a church
When I attended in the early 40's there were 7 classrooms. an assembly Hall with a partition, and a Nursery, which had the entrance down the side street. Two of the classrooms were upstairs. My grandmother had attended around 1890.
My Mam went there around the 1920's..awww.
It was built as a school, LDB. Entwistle & Joynt tool hire had their business the building in the 1980s.
I went there from aged 3 two years in the nursery then junior school until 1953. I remember in the nursery they had two BIG rocking horses. We had camp beds,every day in summer we put them school yard and had a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon, In winter we were inside. Not forgetting the SUPERB orange juice we had...
I was there in the 1950's, in the Nursey School run by Miss Fish and Miss Outram, probably 1954/56. I remember that we all had a pictorial rather than our names on things ( obviously we couldn't read at that stage). Mine was a candle in a holder. It was on my clothes peg and probably a couple of other things which I've long since forgotten. We were expected to have an afternoon nap on "put you up" cots, but like my own Children and Grandchildren, I must have thought there was far too much to do rather than lie around all afternoon and I was eventually put into the Infants school in the afternoons to keep me occupied.
I remember playing under the arches in the playground as trains ran overhead.
Many years later I went into what by then had become Entwistle and Joynts and recognised "John" (?) Entewistle who I had gone to the Grammar with in the 1960's who kindly showed me round the old school which had now become their retain outlet and warehouse. I was amazed that what I had always remembered as a huge assembly hall that had once been our Nursery, was actually quite small. Incredible how your perception of scale alters as you grow older, and bigger ! Great photo.
I can remember the pictorial identification for your clothes peg etc. Can't remember what mine was though? I don't remember the railway arches in the playground? The only playground I remember, and where we put up our beds, was the area where the vans are parked in the photograph, which was on the same level as the road. I remember one day there was a lot of excitement as one of the children hadn't gone home from school It turned out he had hidden away in the room in the nursery, where the beds etc. were stored and got locked in. I remember he was one of the "POORER" kids. Its amazing what sticks in your mind from 65 years ago.
Ron, it was your comment on Brian's pic of the Darlington Street bridge crossing, mentioning the school, which caused me to root this pic out. The railway crossed Warrington Lane directly across from where I took the pic - so it would have been visible in the shot running where the trees are here, forming the perimeter of the school playground.
In my days the school yard was in two parts . Under the railway had been converted into Air Raid shelters and in the first years of the war we practised assembling in the school yard . with our Gas masks and going the into shelters Thankfully we never had it to do for real.I too went in when it was Entwhistle and Joynts and it all seemed so small.
As a student nursery nurse it was task I was given, when the children had their nap, to embroider the pictorial motifs onto thin cloth ready for stitching onto the bed frames and covers or face flannels and tiny individual towels. The paper motif's cut from large sheets especially for this purpose where mounted and covered with "sticky-backed plastic" for pegs, comb holders etc but would not have stood up to the continuous boil washing which was also a feature of my training. My last job on a Friday afternoon was to scrub the dustpans,the brushes and the mop handles.
Rev David The trees look to be in line where the railway ran. The school yard was triangular
My dad worked there in the 1970's /80's. It was called 'The Teachers Centre'then and was owned by the local education authority. It was used for school staff meetings & seminars. But my Dad worked in the workshops at the rear, they used to fix the TV's, videos, projectors etc...things that could be fixed by an engineer....and not scrapped like today's technology!
Was there any significant meaning in the name Jerusalem, being associated with Warrington Lane Infants' School?
Thanks Grannieanne, I knew we had " pictorials " on other things, but couldn't remember what they were. One other memory suddenly sprang to mind after I'd written the first note.....the visit of the Schools Doctor, a Scotsman, who I saw around Wigan for the rest of my school life, but never knew his name. He gave out the dreaded injections, accompanied by the "nit-nurse"
Dave. Was he the police surgeon, Dr Hoey? He had his surgery in Greenough Street.
Graham Joynt was my great uncle, i think his wife sold her half to the Entwistles when they moves across the road
About forty years ago, did Graham Joynt also have a second hand bookshop in the row of shops that used to be on Darlington St, between Harrogate St and the Pepper Mill?
The second hand book shop was in the building that had been Entwistle & Joynts first shop but no connection to Graham.
beds in the playground..cowboys and Indians under the arches...my first ever girlfriend..(Judith Griffiths)..miss Thomas the headmistress..ahhh the memories !!!!
Can anyone remember Miss Kathleen Geraghty, who was a teacher in the junior school in 1949? I am a researcher and would love to find out more about her. She was Wigan's first female rugby league coach. She was a supporter of Wigan RL and had a season ticket. Any help would be much appreciated!