I am writing about the life and severe ways of my school-teacher, Alice Mary Taylor who came to teach at Hollinsclough in nineteen-twelve and stayed twenty-five years. The last twenty years she lived with her parents at the School House, Hollinsclough.
She was only five feet in height, stocky build, with reddish frizzy hair cut short which stood straight up when she was vexed which was quite often – and all the pupils had to suffer on these occasions. Miss Taylor was very conscientious about her dress for school. She always had dresses or skirts which reached half-way between her knee and ankle. She always had dresses which fastened to her neck which was very short and thick; and she always wore clothes with sleeves to her wrists. I think she thought she was setting the example for the girls to follow; no paint, powder or jewellery. One day a girl was seen by her with a ring which she took off her straight away, put in her desk and given back to her at going home time and told never to bring it again.
I think she would be disgusted if she saw the girls of today going painted, powdered, covered with rings and either going in shorts or long trousers. In my day the girls had to wear long dresses below their knees and up to their throats. She used to tell us at school when she went to buy new clothes that she told the shop-keepers the size she wanted and never tried anything on in the shop and expected them to give the correct size - a thing you could not do today.
When I went to school there was always an infant teacher who taught five to nine year olds. They were in little desks in front of the big stove with a big round guard around it hung with wet children’s clothes which children had taken off when they got to school wet through, after walking some three miles to school. Miss Taylor had a lot of clothes kept at school for all sizes of children to change into while at school and have their own dried for night to go home in.
The big children had desks in the top end of the school and Miss Taylor had a table in front of the old fire-grate which consisted of a grate with oven attached which was handy to warm anything in during the day and put sticks to dry for morning fire-lighting. A boiler was not wanted as there was no water in the school, only carried in buckets from the village trough by the big boys for tea-making and cleaning water was fetched by boys out of the stream running through the village. There was only a bid oil lamp for lighting hung in the middle of the school ceiling.
A big wall clock was hung on the wall facing Miss Taylor’s desk which she ignored if she’d not finished the lesson at twelve. She kept on many a time for at least a quarter, but this was forgotten by her when one o’clock arrived. Children were expected to be back at school on time. The school bell was rung four times every day; ten to nine and at nine; same again ten to one and again at one. Anyone late had the cane. She was an expert at using the cane for trivial offences. She had to deal with some big boys and girls of fourteen years but there was never any trouble with them because the parents had control of them at home and believed in her discipline. No parents ever came to school to complain in my day.
My Grandfather as a school-manager had to come into school every three months to check the register to see all the children marked were there. The children in those days had to sit in the desks from when they went in until playtime; and if any were missing there had to be a good reason. We had to have an hour every morning for Scripture and hymn singing accompanied on the piano by Miss Taylor who was a great musician.
She used to give us lessons how to read properly throwing your voice so she could hear every word distinctly, clipping the end of the words; and you were not allowed out until you had got it perfect. It was the same with writing; it had to be practised until it reached her standard; and also how to address an envelope correctly; and also how to reckon up in your head – no ready reckoners or computers.
I think we were lucky to have a dedicated teacher who had no other interests, living with her parents close to the school. Both had been teachers before her and she had a brother and a sister who were also teachers.
She was also a dedicated church attender at St Agnes Church, Hollinsclough which was joined on to the old school and it was the church bell we used for school and it is still in good order up in the belfrey.