Teacher threw a rounders ball at the head of a naughty boy
Back in November I published a picture of Wellington Place School in Portsmouth and asked if anyone remembered it and where it might have been. Peter Elmes, 75, knew the Buckland school well and also sent me this map.
He tells me: ‘I attended Wellington Place School from 1948 until 1953, starting when I was four-anda-half.
‘My first teacher was Miss Summers and she is the only teacher I can remember!
'The school was in North Cross Street between Seymour Street, Wellington Place and School Lane – the school being in the middle of these four roads. The new Buckland rebuild saw the demolition of the school and many of the surrounding roads.
'I lived in Cressy Road in one of the prefabs – number 21, which was off Sultan Road.’
Steve Richardson and his wife also went to the school. He says: “My wife and me attended both the infant and junior schools before moving on to secondary school.
‘Sadly, it was demolished in the mid-seventies, but just before it came down I sneaked in for a final nostalgic lookaround and discovered that the headmaster's office had another door at the back which revealed his own loo and washbasin.
‘My wife remembers a misbehaving boy having a wooden rounders ball thrown at him by a frustrated teacher, which bounced off the back of his head. Wouldn't happen today though.’
Gordon Allen was adopted from Haslar Children’s Home aged 10 and his parents moved to Portsmouth to Malins Road, Mile End and he too went to Wellington Place school.
He remembers one day leaving for school after the family cat had kittens. When he got home he discovered his mother had flushed the kittens down the toilet. Not from cruelty but because the family was poor.
One of his friends, Richard Whittingham, lived in Seymour Street and kept horses in the back garden. They used to walk the horses through the house every evening. No one was surprised, it was quite normal back then.
On the map, which I know you will all enjoy seeing, the school is on the left side north of North Cross Street. Many of the streets, Arnaud Street, Seymour Street, School Lane now lie under what is Buckland Adventure Playground but are remembered in several closes built in modern times.