The
practice of walking behind R. S. Briggs through
the town to Prescot Parish Church was
"revived" in 1946, I think. Nothing
like that happened during the War. Whether it
hade been going on prior to 1939/40, I do not
know. The first time we did it, I remember that
we had to walk round the tram from Liverpool
which parked up just round the corner from the
Liverpool-Warrington road just past the traffic
lights, besides the horse shoeing place. The
Chairman of the Governors was Canon Martin who
was Vicar of Prescot and he conducted the
service, if I remember rightly. The business of
seeking a half day's holiday was done by the chap
who gave the prizes away and gave the address at
the annual Speech Day, held initially in the gymn
(hence only the parents of prize winners could
attend) but later by the late 1940's in the
Canteen at BICC Ltd (when every one could attend
and had to!). I take it that the Boocock seeking
the half day holiday arose because Speech Days
were abandoned (in the name, no doubt, of not
hurting the feelings of those who had not won
prizes either in the class room or on the sports
field - the heady days of the 1970's when my kids
started school in North Yorkshire).
Oh for the days of Mrs Carey, the school cook
until the late 1940's. The great, great joy in
those days was Jam Flan, basically a layer of
pastry covered with a red jam and served with
custard with a just a few second helpings. Next
favourite was Spotted Dick, a sponge pudding made
with dates amongst other fruits that were
available (we were still on ration books at the
time) also served with custard. Trouble was if
you were unlucky enough to be on second dinners,
some of these favourites had run out and we were
offered a variety of ghastly things, thought up
by the cook at the last minute.
I should tell you that when I first
went to PGS, the dining room was what became Room
19 later...the kitchen became the VIth form room
or was it for prefects...cannot remember. The
"new" dining room was opened in the
post WW2 period and was huge by comparison.
Before that people could only have lunch in the
dining room one week in two: those of us on
sandwiches ate them in the room next door to the
old dining room which was the woodwork room in
those days.
Joe Kirk came to PGS in the late 1940's, probably
around 1948, certainly before the year 1949-50
when I was in the V th form doing School
Certificate. Even in those days, there was a mega
row when Kirk tried to have us sing a hymn other
than "And did those feet in ancient
times" at the end of the School Year,
probably in 1951. RSB intervened and had us sing
Kirk's choice at the start of the last assembly
and then "Jerusalem" at the end.
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