My Junior Years
Crowlees Church of England Boys School was my Junior School. I moved there from Lee Green Infants School at the age of seven and remained there until 1951 when I was eleven.
One of my
classmates was to become very famous but we had no inkling of this at the time. This was
Patrick Stewart who was to become a world famous actor, equally at home on a Shakespearean
stage, on the deck of the USS Enterprise as Captain Jean-Luc Picard or starring in many great
films. The photo on the right is of a 10 year old Patrick. It was at Crowlees that I learned to
read the old style gas meter with dials, a skill I have never lost. We had a great football team
but without any help from me as I was hopeless at all sports. One of the stars of the team was
Trevor Brooke who lived at Towngate. His father was a miner in the days before pit head showers
and it was a common sight to see him returning home after a hard day in the mines covered in
coal dust.
Crowlees Church of England Boys School was my Junior School. I moved there from Lee Green Infants School at the age of seven and remained there until 1951 when I was eleven.
At Crowlees Boys' school, my first teacher was Mr. Townley who pre-dated Mr. Ward. We had to learn to recite our times-tables parrot fashion all the way up to 12 times 12 are 144 and got the ruler across our hands if we got them wrong. If you want to check out the old units of measurement, weight, volume and old money then click the Old Money link on the left.
After the war ended the Air Raid Siren was used to call the volunteer firemen in the event of them being needed to fight a fire; there was also a bell installed in each fireman's home which would rouse them from their beds if they were needed in the night. The siren was tested once a week. At first it was at 10.00 am on Sunday mornings but was later moved to 12.00 noon on Saturdays following complaints from people who wanted to sleep in on Sundays. The fire station was in Ings Grove Park just in from the Huddersfield Road entrance. The red double-doors from which the engines used to emerge have long since been walled up. When the siren sounded the firemen would down tools at whichever local firm they were working and would hurry to the fire station by bicycle or whatever means they had available. The door would open and the fire engine would emerge with its bell ringing and the firemen clinging on sometimes still struggling into their uniforms. The firefighters moved to a new station at the present location on Huddersfield Road (opposite the bottom of Knowl Road) in May 1965.
These 3 photographs were kindly given to me by Marlene Shelton nee Brooke who found my website
and thought I might be interested. How right she was. I defy anyone in my age group not to be
excited at the sight of our old fire engine parked outside the old fire station in Ings Grove
Park. This photo is from around 1953 and Marlene's father, Gordon Brooke, is sat at the front
of the engine in the centre. Other names have recently been offered and are as follows. Sat in the
driver's seat is Leonard Beaumont, only one of many Beaumonts who have served with our Fire Brigade
over many generations. At the far side of the front seat, wearing a peaked cap, is Station Officer John Twentyman Harrison (Jack). Mr Scargill is seated in the middle row while standing at the back on the lower
side-runner, with helmet in hand, is George Garforth. Standing behind the engine at the very back is
Jack Thompson.
The second photo is from about the same time. Kneeling on the front row is Gordon Brooke in the centre and
at the right of the photo is another Beaumont, this time George Henry Beaumont who was always know as just
Henry. Holding the trophy is Station Officer John Twentyman Harrison (Jack) while at the far right on the back row is Jack Thompson.
This picture is a photo taken at a children's party sponsored by the firemen and dates from 1956. These parties were held in the billiard room above the fire station. Clicking on any of these pictures will show a larger photo.Marlene has supplied the names that she knows and I have had some others supplied too. I list them
here but if you can pick out any others then please email me. On the front row, second from the left
is Melvin Brooke and on his left (going right) is Marlene Brooke while the front row girl standing
in the centre on the step is Christine Thompson. The boy with the zipped cardigan at centre front is
Michael Beaumont who was to follow his family's tradition and later become a fireman himself.
Second row, second from the right is Michael Brooke and third from the right is Jacqueline Thompson.
Third row back and first girl in from the right is Carol Brearley. At the right of the photo at the back and just in front of the window is firefighter Henry Beaumont with his hat pushed back on his head. Moving left we come to Henry's wife, Mavis, holding their baby Keith. Moving on to the centre of the same row is another youngster being held up, wearing a light coloured top, who is Alan Beaumont.
The Library was also in Ings Grove Park housed in the old Ings Grove House that was demolished
to build Ings Grove Home for the Elderly. After the library moved, the building was used as a
school clinic and I was sent there to have a verruca cut out when I was about 12. The building
in Eastthorpe that houses the present Library was a ministry building and I remember returning our gasmasks
there some time after World War II had ended. My younger brother and myself had Donald Duck gasmasks
and we used to play games in them but fortunately never needed to use them for the purpose they
were intended.
On the left is how it looked at the top of Pinfold Lane at the time when I lived at the bottom of
the hill. These cottages were pulled down when the whole area was developed in the 1960s. When we
moved onto Kitson Hill Road in 1948 only the houses on the Road itself had been completed and the
rest of the estate was one big building site. London Park Estate was only a planner's dream and Fox
Royd was still an area of fields. The farm shown on the right was still occupied but I don't think
that any farming was being done.