Stoolball schooldays were a hit!
REGaRDING the discussion of sports no longer played much (mail), during and after World War II, I attended Newbiggin school in Teesdale. It was a typical country school of the time, but long gone now. Two rooms, two teachers and about 30 pupils. ages ranged from five to 14, when we left school. The school’s game was stoolball. Everyone played, boys and girls. The target could be raised and lowered to cater for a pupil’s height. This allowed for a five-year-old girl at one end and a 13-year-old boy at the other. our teacher, miss Clennell, took us for PT. She would nominate two pupils to pick sides. our playground was rectangular with the school building across most of one end. The other end was a junction across a slope into which was buried our air-raid shelter. a road led past the school to the mill cottages. Under the bridge and down a steep bank, Newbiggin Beck flowed past the playground. after rain, it was a raging torrent. Imagine a five-year-old fielding next to the rushing beck. What would today’s soft snowflake generation think of that? But we survived and thrived.