The Guestbook is not just about finding old friends, you might also
want to post questions about the local area or make comment on a visit
to Coventry and Warwickshire. If you would like to post a message to the
guestbook please send them to : editor@cwn.org.uk
NOTE : For any enquiries where someone
is trying to find someone else we feel it better if you do know the people being sought to ask them first before passing on any information about them - remember they may not want to be found!
[30 DEC 05]
MEMORIES OF COLESHILL PRIMARY SCHOOL
I attended Coleshill primary school in 1979 when I was six years old. I
then went on to attend Coleshill primary the following year across the
road from the primary in 1979 until 1981.
I remember my experiences well and the primary school was, as I recall,
situated opposite some local shops (one was a newsagents) and another,
Beryl's clothes store? - a little further round the corner though I
can't be sure.
At the time, it was a pleasant little school with two playgrounds and
tiny little rooms that comprised what the school actually consisted of.
We used to sing songs such as "The sun has got his hat on", the
Caterpillar song who ate all of the leaves he would come across and lose
one or two of his legs in the process! Pipe-cleaners were all the rage
then - they used to aid in making unusual objects with surplus amounts
of glue and glitter.
I remember a Mrs Wheeler whom may well have been a dinner lady rather
than a teacher, but a stern Mrs Sommers/Summers who was one of my
teachers with large glasses' and bobbed hairdo!
The pupils I attended school with are the following whom later went on
to attend Packington High School in 1982 : Karen Pickering, Rachel
Cadwaledar, Emma Sheppy and Mandy Keating. These are the girls I
remember the most, but I had known quite a few children growing up in
Coleshill during this time from my local village whom I had been friends
with. I was neighbours with the 'Halls' - Samantha and Deborah who was
the youngest and perhaps went to Coleshill primary?
Growing up in Coleshill was a very tranquil time in many ways as it was
such a peaceful little village that had only the High Street for
shopping. I used to play down by the river where the bottom park used to
be with my brother Andrew and sister Lorraine.
I lived in the police houses near the top park where I used to love
climbing on the spider-frame and witches' hat that used to be spun round
by local teens. There was a slide and some swings and a rocket. If you
went out of the park there was a large playing field with some garages
and a big brick wall football was played against. My house was number 4,
right next to the fire station directly opposite the police station.
It's amazing how quickly childhood goes and remembering it is such an
important thing as those memories drift into unknown territories of
existence. I am a writer and I always reflect back as I do forward as
all writers' do.
The best thing I remember about childhood are the fizzy-sweets : the
sherbert dips and the sherbert fountain! I was in the local Brownies and
every week I had 10 pence to spend on whatever I liked on sweets, to
which used to get you a mixed bag.
I also recall the pom-pom hats in winter with the long tassle and fluff
ball on the end, the blue (woollen) knee-length dresses with snow fall
on the front design. We wore woolly tights, t-bar shoes that looked like
they had two eyes resting over your feet! Tartan slip petticoats that
could be worn as a skirt once you had a jumper over the top.
There used to be a fish and chip shop and a launderette not far from the
school and every week, we used to have them at 50p a portion per person
- unlike now at £3.90 or more. I also remember the regular local jumble
sales we used to have in the village from which most of my toys often
came and held at the town hall just beyond the high street.
I was into Victoria Plum, though by 1982 when I was 9, Sindy, Barbie, My
Little Pony and the Tree-top House were all the rage, not to mention the
advent of Star-bright and Care Bears.
I religiously watched Worzel Gummidge every Saturday and 'Spit the dog'.
Bucks Fizz was my generation of music along with the land of
make-believe stuff. It truly was a time of new romance when children had
more access than ever to the world of media.
Coleshill in may ways retained its Victorian principles and remained a
very secular and discreet existence, including the schools that, despite
our generation of approaching millenium, reserved its culture in a very
dated fashion. We, the children who grew up there, out-lived it and
America was the driving force behind it all, right from He Man to the
Cabbage Patch dolls' were all American inspired.
Coleshill was a very old mining town that by the early 80's when I was a
child, had not regenerated any new culture from its Shakesperian roots.
It was like, and if you can remember the snowman by Raymond Briggs,
six-feet deep in snow in December 82/3 and just an electric five-band
heater to keep it warm. It was a semi-parallel world : part Tudor and
American substantial. I recall nuns and the children in their care, the
old social services department and the hairdressers - these were the
only features of my childhood that spoke any English in a sense and you
have to be educated enough to understand this much.
The primary schools were as old as time, perhaps Elizabethan? They were
relics just as they were trying to accommodate the modern child. We made
them what they were and yet not what they were meant to be in 1960+!
These are my memories of Coleshill and the primary school.
I attended Coleshill primary school in 1979 when I was six years old. I
then went on to attend Coleshill primary the following year across the
road from the primary in 1979 until 1981.
I remember my experiences well and the primary school was, as I recall,
situated opposite some local shops (one was a newsagents) and another,
Beryl's clothes store? - a little further round the corner though I
can't be sure.
At the time, it was a pleasant little school with two playgrounds and
tiny little rooms that comprised what the school actually consisted of.
We used to sing songs such as "The sun has got his hat on", the
Caterpillar song who ate all of the leaves he would come across and lose
one or two of his legs in the process! Pipe-cleaners were all the rage
then - they used to aid in making unusual objects with surplus amounts
of glue and glitter.
I remember a Mrs Wheeler whom may well have been a dinner lady rather
than a teacher, but a stern Mrs Sommers/Summers who was one of my
teachers with large glasses' and bobbed hairdo!
The pupils I attended school with are the following whom later went on
to attend Packington High School in 1982 : Karen Pickering, Rachel
Cadwaledar, Emma Sheppy and Mandy Keating. These are the girls I
remember the most, but I had known quite a few children growing up in
Coleshill during this time from my local village whom I had been friends
with. I was neighbours with the 'Halls' - Samantha and Deborah who was
the youngest and perhaps went to Coleshill primary?
Growing up in Coleshill was a very tranquil time in many ways as it was
such a peaceful little village that had only the High Street for
shopping. I used to play down by the river where the bottom park used to
be with my brother Andrew and sister Lorraine.
I lived in the police houses near the top park where I used to love
climbing on the spider-frame and witches' hat that used to be spun round
by local teens. There was a slide and some swings and a rocket. If you
went out of the park there was a large playing field with some garages
and a big brick wall football was played against. My house was number 4,
right next to the fire station directly opposite the police station.
It's amazing how quickly childhood goes and remembering it is such an
important thing as those memories drift into unknown territories of
existence. I am a writer and I always reflect back as I do forward as
all writers' do.
The best thing I remember about childhood are the fizzy-sweets : the
sherbert dips and the sherbert fountain! I was in the local Brownies and
every week I had 10 pence to spend on whatever I liked on sweets, to
which used to get you a mixed bag.
I also recall the pom-pom hats in winter with the long tassle and fluff
ball on the end, the blue (woollen) knee-length dresses with snow fall
on the front design. We wore woolly tights, t-bar shoes that looked like
they had two eyes resting over your feet! Tartan slip petticoats that
could be worn as a skirt once you had a jumper over the top.
There used to be a fish and chip shop and a launderette not far from the
school and every week, we used to have them at 50p a portion per person
- unlike now at £3.90 or more. I also remember the regular local jumble
sales we used to have in the village from which most of my toys often
came and held at the town hall just beyond the high street.
I was into Victoria Plum, though by 1982 when I was 9, Sindy, Barbie, My
Little Pony and the Tree-top House were all the rage, not to mention the
advent of Star-bright and Care Bears.
I religiously watched Worzel Gummidge every Saturday and 'Spit the dog'.
Bucks Fizz was my generation of music along with the land of
make-believe stuff. It truly was a time of new romance when children had
more access than ever to the world of media.
Coleshill in may ways retained its Victorian principles and remained a
very secular and discreet existence, including the schools that, despite
our generation of approaching millenium, reserved its culture in a very
dated fashion. We, the children who grew up there, out-lived it and
America was the driving force behind it all, right from He Man to the
Cabbage Patch dolls' were all American inspired.
Coleshill was a very old mining town that by the early 80's when I was a
child, had not regenerated any new culture from its Shakesperian roots.
It was like, and if you can remember the snowman by Raymond Briggs,
six-feet deep in snow in December 82/3 and just an electric five-band
heater to keep it warm. It was a semi-parallel world : part Tudor and
American substantial. I recall nuns and the children in their care, the
old social services department and the hairdressers - these were the
only features of my childhood that spoke any English in a sense and you
have to be educated enough to understand this much.
The primary schools were as old as time, perhaps Elizabethan? They were
relics just as they were trying to accommodate the modern child. We made
them what they were and yet not what they were meant to be in 1960+!
These are my memories of Coleshill and the primary school.
