Monday 10 November 2008

Top Church School.....and the Vicarage...



When I attended St James C of E Infant School it was simply known as "Top Church" School. It was a solid stone purpose built school (Sadly I dont have a photo of the old school) . For some reason in later years they decided to knock it down and build a more modern school, thinking about it now it may have been the result of a fire... (see photo of new school below right) which is currently situated with its entrance in Salem Street, in fact the modern day playground is built on were the Salem Methodist Church (see photo on right) used to be...
I can still remember most of the teachers around at the time when I went (approx 1953-1959) The first class (most infant) was Miss Clegg -(I still see her in town now and again..) then there was Miss Bury, Miss Boyson, Mrs Holden, Miss Haworth and the final class was Miss Holden, the headmaster was Mr. Rawlinson...
I have managed to find a photo of the old "Vicarage" which was a superbly built building and we used to have the school group photos taken on the Old Vicarage lawns. You would never have expected a building of this calibre to have been demolished. Also I can clearly remember the Rev Fred Bamber was our vicar at that time.....



A photo of the Vicarage kindly sent in by Michael Mullaney