East Cleveland Image Archive

This young lady looks rather shy to me, can anybody name her? A previous editor placed the following: ”The school looks like a Poor Law School with strict segregation of boys and girls.  Was it a symmetrical building with an entrance at each end?  I bet you had to queue to go in,  boys at one door and girls at the other, the classrooms aren’t segregated today though. How times have changed.” We think the comments from both Andrew Downs: “I don’t think it was a poor law school though, and segregated entrances were extremely common in schools of this period, look at any Victorian school , and you’ll see such writing above the doors!” and Bill Kitching: “I attended Carlin How junior school in 1926, and we did have separate entrances. We lined up in the cloakroom and marched into the hall where there were white spots painted on the floor. Miss Richardson played the piano and we lined up on the spots It was a hungry time in those days and we always had some one fainting – usually a girl. It was not a Poor Law school. It was lit by gas and it was quite something when the teacher climbed on a desk to light the gas lights. It was a lovely school with top class teachers. I owe all my success to the school and wish it well in the future”, sum up the situation very well! We apologise for this incorrect impression.

Image courtesy of Carlin How Community Centre thanks to Andrew Downs and Bill Kitching for the updates.

Although even the date on this photograph was questionable and was thought to possibly date from the 1930s, the two teachers can be identified as: Miss Ethel Adamson (later to be Mrs Bassindale) and Miss Pat Stanlake (later to be Mrs Fletcher). But many of the pupils named remain a mystery, so the Archive asked for help.

Derick Pearson tells: ”First pupil on the left middle row with the triangle was Charlie Hellings (junior); fourth from on left back row Walter ‘Taxi’ Goldby”. Jeanne Whitfield added: ”Back row, second from right ( white sweater/ hair bangs) is myself; Jean Dixon. To my left in the picture, by the teacher is a girl called Cynthia who lived on Queen Street. Sadly, she died of diphtheria shortly after this photograph was taken. Fourth from the right, middle row is Jennie Webster. Girl seated next to the girl standing with the baton is Margaret Dye. Girl sitting with her legs crossed is Mary Young. I’m not sure, but I think the girl above Mary Young is Mary Laverick, (now Fenby) and living in Australia. Also I think the girl next to the drummer is Betty Poritt. I was eight years old so the picture would be dated 1939. I hope this helps.”

Thanks to Derick Pearson for names and Jean Whitfield (nee Dixon) for names and probable dating of the image; also thanks to Eileen Clements for Miss Adamson’s correct name.

Back row: Charles Ward, Barry Lancaster, Colin Lightfoot, John Ward, Brian Yeoman,  ??,  Alan Tyreman, Billy Bell, Alan Dale, Peter Lennard,  George Hall.

Third row: Carol Shaw,  Betty Winspear,  Dorothy Butler, Pauline Dack,  Sheila Featherstone, Audrey Cornforth,  Rae Raistric,  Coleen Hutchinson,  Ann  Carveth,  Jean Ferrer.

Second row: Pat Henry,  Maureen Brown,  Marie Lancaster,  Elizabeth Groves,  Sheila Magor, Ivy Metcalf, ??,  Pauline Cuthbert, Dorothy Webster.

Front row: John Metcalf, David Buddle, Maurice Myers, Derick Smith, James Ward, Geoffrey Lennard.

Thanks to Jean Hugill (nee Ferrer) for all the naming information and for a more positive date for the image.