Capital trip for the class of ‘55 Pamela’s London weekend included just about everything – except the Chamber of Horrors!

We remember fondly those red-letter days of our school years – the school trip.

For us living in the North the destinations would typically include Chester Zoo, Fountains Abbey, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, Scarborough, Bridlington, Blackpool... In more recent times we might venture south, overseas even. Exciting times!

Of course such trips would be well planned with an itinerary and travel and hotel arrangements sent home in advance. They might not have been those multi-page “risk assessments” of today’s health and safety mania but at least a page or two about the what, where and when, together with a list of things to take and a few necessary instructions.

Not many 10-or-11-year-old boys and girls would bother to hold on to this historic document but Pamela Boothroyd did and now, as Pamela Gould, of Exley, Halifax, she has sent it to Nostalgia to share her fascinating souvenir of her weekend in London in May 1955 – only 10 years after the end of the second world war.

Pamela was a pupil in the top class at St George’s School, Quarry Hill, Sowerby Bridge – now long-since closed and converted to homes. Fifteen pupils headed for “the Smoke” with their teachers and some parents as helpers.

But first came the question of what to take for this three-day, Friday to Sunday London weekend. It’s a short list: “Sleeping attire, towel and soap, hairbrush, comb, toothbrush, shoe-cleaning materials, mackintosh or coat.” Note that there is a lot of cleaning tackle – but no change of clothes!

Plus “One sandwich meal to be eaten on the train going to London”. And: “Spending money: Very little is necessary, as we shall not have much time for spending. 5 shillings (25p) will be more than enough.”

The instructions were few: “On a trip like this we want as few rules as possible but there are one or two which must be made,” wrote the teacher, who plainly would never have made the grade in Health and Safety – especially as it seems he or she expected a lost 10-year-old, in one of the world’s biggest cities, to find his or her own way back to the hotel!

“On the train, keep to our reserved compartments and do not hang your heads out of the windows.”

In the hotel do not race about the corridors, especially after you have gone to bed, and Pamela Gould, nee Boothroyd, with her sister, Eirys. Eirys took part in St George’s School’s trip to London in 1954, Pamela in 1954 and 1955. keep to your own room after you gave gone to bed.”

There are always crowds in London so when travelling about, whether by bus, by tube or walking, keep with the adult in charge of you. This will save a lot of time in checking up if anyone is lost.”

“If you should be lost ask a policeman how to get to the Royal Hotel, Russell Square, and wait there till someone arrives for you.”

“In London there will be plenty of ‘barrow boys’ wanting to sell you fruit etc. We shall not have time to wait while boys and girls stop to buy.”

“There is a shop in the hotel where presents can be bought but they are VERY EXPENSIVE.”

Pamela’s group left Sowerby Bridge station at 8.13 am for Euston, via Halifax and