Memory Monday
In today's Memory Monday we travel back to Westwood School in the 1930s as Frank Lowe recalls his school days. For newer residents, the Westwood School is now the Greek Orthodox Church on Westwood Heath Road. The school was opened in 1872 and closed in 1966. It was opened as the Greek Church in 1976.
Frank remembered, "My first schooling was at Cubbington Church of England School. Later I went to Westwood Heath Church of England School on my bike from Crackley Cottages. My first headmaster was Mr Neale. He’d a nut stick out of the hedge with knots on and he would give you the cane with that. I was only there under him for a couple of months before he retired (30 September 1934). There was no messing about with him.
Cecil Neale, Headmaster of Westwood School from 1895 -1935
Mr Wright the next Headmaster, was a nice little man with glasses. He and his wife and four daughters lived in a house in the school grounds. I liked him, though he was a bit too easy. He had another two women teachers there who took the smaller children, but with his A.R.P. work the older ones got a bit neglected. I might as well have left school at twelve and a half because I didn’t get much education after that. I was down the air raid shelter pumping the water out all the while. It was built over a spring. What I learned was after I left school. At one time the council tried to get Mr Wright out of the School House. But Mr Powers the farmer, whose sons got up a petition and was allowed to stay. Poor Mr Wright lost his wife [27 Dec 1945, buried 31 Dec 1945] while he was schoolmaster, and he is buried in Westwood Churchyard. [Died 12 March 1972].
The children came from around Burton Green, Westwood Heath, and Canley. There was a playground for fresh air and a romp around. The school inside had benches for two children, which were cast iron and wood. The building had a coal fire and a coke stove. The coke hole and coal place were at the back of the school. Me, being one of the bigger kids, usually got the coke in. There was a soft water tank outside to catch water for washing your hands, and that was put in an enamel basin on a tripod stand in the cloakroom. There was a big world globe and maps on the walls with the British Empire in red. There were prayers before school and sometimes the Vicar from Tile Hill came, Mr Evans, he was a nice man.
The lessons were very basic. The girls did sewing, but they did gardening too. Everyone had a garden plot at the side nearest the Working Men’s Club. The girls used to plant flower bulbs and the boys would dig them up and put in shallots for a joke. Green’s orchard was next to the school and the kids went through to snatch apples, till he put a bull in it! My great success was gardening. I still have my reference. My marks were 95 out of 100 for the last one, and I remember it as it was yesterday. I’d pull some cabbage up and instead of clearing away I had left them in a heap on the garden. They classed it as untidiness in those days.
Teddie and Margaret Edgar from Cryfield Farm, who were a lot younger than I was, went to school at Westwood. They had two little two-wheeled Fairy bikes. Their mother brought them to the bottom of the road, and I used to see them into school. I’d push first one of the bikes and then the other. If it was a wet afternoon, Mrs Edgar came in an old Ford Ten, put the bikes in the boot and gave me a lift down to the bottom of the drive. I used to get a bar of chocolate for taking them to school. She was a nice woman."
The above reminiscences are extracted from ‘Nothing was Wasted - A patchwork of Kenilworth farming memories’ by Rosalind Lomas based on Frank Lowe’s recollections, (Kenilworth 1998).
Frank Lowe was the only child of Frank and Alice Margaret Lowe, nee Barnett. He was born on 24 September 1926 at a house on Archery Road, Leamington Spa. They moved to Crackley Cottages just before Frank’s eleventh birthday. All the family worked at Hague’s Farm, Cryfield Grange. Frank’s grandad, Jonathan, at the age of seventy, Frank’s dad and his brother Fred, and Frank. His Mum also worked for Mrs Hague, doing housework. Frank married Margaret Eleanor Milling in 1960. Frank passed away 9 May 2002 and Margaret 5 years later on 7 January 2007. Both are remembered in Oaks Road Cemetery, Kenilworth.
Thank you to Lisa Reay for sourcing the original book and researching Frank.
We are always on the look out for stories, memories and photos relating to Westwood Heath. Please get in touch if you would like to share anything with us…many thanks!
Our email is: westwoodheathhistory@gmail.com