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Plymouth
Grove
School
 Opened in 1906, this imposing red brick school sits on the south side of Plymouth Grove West. In 2009 it isn't technically a Longsight School because it now lies inside the Ardwick District. However, to those who lived in Longsight prior to the 1960s it will always be a Longsight school.  In the
1950's the road was lined with huge trees that carpeted the
pavement ankle deep in leaves. In a side-road between the school and
Stockport Road, horse chestnut trees
provided the treasured conkers
which every autumn provided hours of competition
at
playtime at the
school.
The
three-storeyed
building housed the Infants on the ground floor, the Junior and Senior
Girls on the second floor and Junior and Senior Boys on the top floor.
The playground at the front of the school was separated from the street
by a low wall and a wrought iron fence and looked across to the Convent
of the Little Sisters of the Poor. At the back
of
the school a building
housed the outdoor toilets which, apart from their obvious use, often
became part of a game of "tick" as the pursued would duck in one
entrance and out the other to escape the one who was "it". I can attest
to this personally because on rainy days large puddles would collect
near the entrances and I ignored the warnings of the teacher on duty
and raced in and out one day only to end up face down in a puddle.
 The image above was donated by Bryan Goodwin The
ground floor
had a large hall where every morning we had our assembly. It also saw
service as a gymnasium where I remember dancing around the maypole and
learning to somersault on coconut mats that were better suited for
scouring a toilet bowl than rolling around on. It was here that we had
our Traffic Safety Week, when a whole town of shops and roads and zebra
crossings was set up and the classes took turns running shops, going
shopping and performing police duty for a week or so. Here we also put
on plays and concerts.
 Coronation
Event at
Plymouth Grove. Four rather wrinkled
members of the Household Cavalry.
Close by was Mrs. Alberti's office where, on the way out to play, you could stop off and buy a digestive biscuit, cheese biscuits or, if you were really rich, a chocolate-covered biscuit. One of my
memories is from 1952, the Coronation Year -- the teacher unpacking a
box and giving each one of us a Coronation Mug which, minus its handle
stayed around our house for years, even if it was where my mother kept
her false teeth at night. In the afternoon the whole school walked down
Stockport Road to one of the picture houses, I think it was the Kings,
to see the news reel of the Coronation. At the age of 8, if I remember correctly, boys and girls were segregated into different parts of the school. The girls used the playground on the Stockport Road side and that half of the front playground. They entered the school on the Stockport Road end and went up the stone staircase to the second floor into a world that was off limits to boys. The boys played on the Plymouth Grove side and that half of the front playground. They had their own entrance and took the staircase to their own world on the top floor where Mr. Howarth was the headmaster and "Pop" Walker was the pipe-smoking legend who got everyone ready for the 11+. |