Seymour Road at Clayton Hall

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Contents

• What was school like over 100 years ago?
  • Hungry children cannot learn
  • What was school discipline like in the 1900s?
• Clayton Secondary School for Girls
• Orchestral Steel
  • Photographs of Orchestral Steel
• Children’s Game Songs, 1978
• Memories of Seymour Road 1987 – 2020, by Anna Trowell
  • Anna’s photographs
• The Clayton Follies
  • Kath’s photographs
• Your photographs

What was school like over 100 years ago?

In the 1860s, one third of children in England and Wales did not attend school at all and up until 1881, children were not required to go. Mass education, as we recognise it today, was taking shape in the early 1900s.

The provision for some schools for older children had been challenged in court, however the Conservative government of Arthur Balfour (MP for Manchester East) passed the Education Act in 1902 which brought state primary schools and local secondary schools under the control of local councils for the very first time. This meant that children were no longer expected to go to work and by 1918, school attendance was not only compulsory but the school leaving age was raised from 12 to 14 years old.

However, between 1870 and 1902, Manchester was a leading city in state education and its School Board built forty schools in this period.

Seymour Road School, built in 1900, was the thirty-third school built. It was originally three separate schools: the Infants, Juniors and an all-girls Secondary School on the first floor.

Hungry children cannot learn

When Seymour Road was built in 1900, Dr Eichholtz, one of H.M. Inspectors of Schools, estimated that 15% of children were underfed in Manchester. Children were still no more healthy than they had been in the 1840s and did not get the good diet they needed, due in part to low income but also because of a lack of understanding of what was needed for a balanced and healthy diet.

In the early 1900s, the newly-formed Labour Party recognised that support from charities alone would not be enough to support children and that the government needed to step in. They passed a resolution at party conference calling “for the provision of meals for School Children at the public expense… [calling on] Labour Town Councillors to urge their Councils to provide money for the work at once…”

In 1906, the Liberal government passed the Education (Provision of Meals) Act which allowed schools to offer meals to their pupils, funded by local taxes. School meals were not always cooked on site at Seymour Road. Where the kitchen is now, there used to be three classrooms. School dinners used to be cooked in a separate building somewhere in Manchester and then delivered to all the schools in enormous metal containers.

What was discipline like in the 1900s?

One thing that Seymour Road shared with other schools was the use of corporal punishment. The cane was the most common form of punishment, however former pupils have shared their experiences of being hit across the hand with a wooden ruler, or had blackboard dusters thrown at them. Ruth Webster, a former pupil at Seymour Road in the 1960s (who was later a teacher at the school between 1980-2016), recalled:

“I can’t remember much about class 2A (Year 4), apart from it being the only time I got a ruler across my hand. [The teacher] was annoyed at the class and made us sit still with both hands on the desk. I accidentally moved one hand, so she hit me with a wooden ruler!”

Ruth Webster

Corporal punishment in state schools was outlawed in 1987 and as recently as 1998 for private schools.

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Clayton Secondary School for Girls

Before 1971, there were two high schools in Clayton; Ravensbury Street County Secondary Boys School and Clayton Secondary School for Girls, the latter of which occupied the first floor of the larger building at Seymour Road.

The high school at Ravensbury Street closed in 1971 due to dwindling numbers in admissions, but Miss Smith, headteacher at Clayton Secondary School for Girls, was busy planning for the introduction of GCE courses. Miss Smith and her dedicated staff were succeeding in their endeavours to persuade girls at the school to stay on beyond the normal 15-year-old leaving age and had established a really good fifth year and even a small sixth year.

However, Clayton Secondary School for Girls, the sole remaining secondary school in the locality, now faced closure.

Mrs Thatcher felt that the high school had ‘no prospect of more than about 200 pupils’ and that nearby alternative high schools would have space for extra pupils and offer more opportunities and specialisations, allowing for more choice for parents and pupils.

Mrs Thatcher also intended to replace the Victorian-built buildings at Seymour Road, as it was felt there was no room for the high school to expand whilst it shared a site with the infant and junior schools. However, these plans did not materialise.

“I have reason to believe that if the Minister heeds my plea tonight [Miss Smith] would be prepared to reconsider her decision to retire. Miss Smith, as with so many others, believes that this school has helped and is helping to shape the lives of the girls concerned and at the same time is making a positive contribution to community life.”

Charles Morris MP

Mr Morris told Education Ministers that ‘the decision to close the school was not for any real concern for the future well being of the girls concerned’, but more to do ‘with administrative convenience.’ “How else,” he said, “are we to interpret this decision when a report presented to the Manchester Education Committee recently warned in the following terms of some of the consequences which will follow:

“One of the difficulties about closing Clayton Girls is that the alternative schools are not in general easily accessible. It is probable that many of the girls will choose Wright Robinson High School for Girls; while others may prefer the Manchester Central High School for Girls, it will be seen from the statistics that neither of these schools has many vacant places in the year groups in question.”

“In spite of this warning, the Manchester Education Committee went ahead with its proposal to close this school.”

400 parents attended a meeting at the school, raising concerns that added costs of travelling, uniform, and school meals would bear heavily on household budgets. Mr Morris continued to the raise this in Parliament, making the point that it could mean real hardship, particularly for low income families. Despite raising petitions and debating the issue in the Commons until after 1 o’clock in the morning, the closure went ahead.

Closing the debate, the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science, the Conservative’s William van Straubenzee, said:

“As in all such cases, the most careful consideration was given to the proposals of the local education authority. In setting out shortly the considerations which were in [Mrs Thatcher’s] mind, I hope that I have shown that in making her decision she had in mind the human considerations which the hon. Gentleman asked her to have in mind.”

William van Straubenzee MP

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Orchestral Steel

Orchestral Steel was the stage name of the steel band started by composer Peter McGarr while teaching at Seymour Road Junior School. It was formed in 1978 and lasted until 1989. All rehearsals took place during lunch breaks and outside school time.

Over this period they established a reputation as one of the leading school steel bands in the country – noted for their performance and interpretation of the orchestral repertoire. Peter McGarr was nominated as ‘Music Teacher of the Year’ in 1986 and went on to achieve the British Composer Award and George Butterworth Award for Contemporary Music.

Highlights

• Five ‘School’s Prom‘ appearances (including two at the Royal Albert Hall, one on the same programme as Nigel Kennedy).
• Outstanding Performance Award 1986 from ‘Music for Youth‘.
• Finalists in Thames TV’s ‘Fanfare for Young Musicians‘.
• Representing the UK at the ‘Jeunnesses Musicale des France‘ at the UNESCO centre, Paris.
• Performance with the Halle orchestra in an arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’.

Photographs of Orchestral Steel

Reviews

‘A tour de force of musical virtuosity’.
(Music for Youth)

‘The last night of the 1984 Schools Prom lived up to expectations with the biggest applause of the three days going to the smallest performers (courtesy of Offenbach). Though it was the agility and flamboyance with which they dispatched ‘Can Can’ that brought the house down, anyone who thinks a steel band can only play loudly has never heard Orchestral Steel’s dramatic rendering of Ravel’s Bolero.
(The Times Educational Supplement)

‘Their individual and corporate virtuosity, rhythmic attack and sheer panache all but took the breath away’.
(The Times)

‘From the first notes of Beethoven’s Fifth it was obvious this was an exceptional orchestra’.
(Manchester Evening News)

‘Great vitality, enviable precision and a real feeling of ensemble in the best musical tradition’
(National Festival of Music for Youth)

Players

Lee Bayley, Danny Carmichael, Lesley Carrington, Helen Clarke, Kelly Clayton, Peter Coulson, Karen Hough, Paula Hough, Nicola Hughes, Claire Mellor, Shirley Nightingale, Lisa Jo Parks, Darren Rathmill, Tracey Reid, Clare Wainwright.

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Children’s Game Songs, 1978

In 1978, Peter McGarr recorded Seymour Road children singing children’s game songs as part of a school music project.

Watch the video below to listen to some of the recordings, accompanied by photographs of Seymour Road pupils from years gone by.

Memories of Seymour Road 1987 – 2020, by Anna Trowell

I joined the team at Seymour Road Infant School in September 1987 as a probationary
teacher. I had qualified as an Early Years specialist and so taught in the Reception class for
two years before taking the lead teacher role in the Nursery in 1989.

My plan, way back then, was to stay at Seymour Road for 3 to 5 years and then to move on.
However, during my first three years I was introduced to Steel pan music, first through the
new Infant band, founded by my colleague Vivien MacDougall and then through an evening
class for teachers. I was hooked and as it turned out, had found the ‘thing’ I was totally
passionate about. I was fortunate to be able to work with Mr Brathwaite and the Junior
school band and with his guidance and support, gradually developed the skills to arrange
music, lead and teach steel band groups myself. I had the privilege of working with many
groups of children as well as staff and parents and Seymour Road’s reputation for high quality
pan playing blossomed. The steel band performed in public many times over the years at
festivals and fairs, at high profile events around Manchester including playing for Queen
Elizabeth at Victoria Station, the Prime Minister at GMEX, the mayor, team GB at the
Commonwealth Games athletes’ village and so many others too numerous to mention. So,
steel pan was the anchor that held me at Seymour Road and I spent the whole of my teaching
career at the school.

Over the years I witnessed many, many changes at the school and worked for, including
acting head teachers, 9 different heads in my over 32 years at the school. During those years
we went from being separate Infant and Junior schools to amalgamating as one school,
Seymour Road Primary and subsequently to becoming Seymour Road Academy and part of
Wise Owl Trust. When I began my career at Seymour Road the site was open access, there
were no security features like intercoms and buzzer systems or locked gates and doors. The
‘veranda wing’ was attached to the junior building where the current nursery stands and
housed a Reception class and the playgroup run by Auntie Kath (Jones). There was an
Education Welfare office in the room which is now the main school entrance and office.
School house was the caretaker’s residence and the old green nursery building stood next
door to it with its flat roof and crumbling floors now of course replaced by the purpose built,
fit for purpose stripy building.

Lessons in school in the late eighties and early nineties were far less high tech than now. We
used a banda machine (spirit duplicator) to produce multiple copies of handwritten worksheets in purple ink, overhead projectors for presentations and roller chalkboards in the classrooms. We had a large TV which could be used to watch educational programmes, as long as they were scheduled at a convenient time. I remember the great excitement when we got our first BBC Acorn computer which was shared between 6 classes which we used to play educational games like Granny’s Garden, no internet then of course. We had no rules about mobile phones, we didn’t need to, nobody at school had one and the email and interactive Smart boards were things of the future for us.

I remember being involved with our school Christmas production very early in my career. I
soon noticed that a large wooden climbing frame in the Infant building hall would lend itself
very well to being a stable for the nativity if it was disguised appropriately. So it became my
job for many years to drape cloth, wrap in brown parcel paper and paint palm trees in
readiness for Christmas, I believe with a little modification it also became Father Christmas’s
grotto on occasion. Later in my time at Seymour Road I also enjoyed the challenge of
adapting, writing and producing many Christmas productions. I was determined that they
should be inclusive and that every child in KS1 And KS2 would have a part in them, they were
a logistically rather chaotic, always pretty under rehearsed but I think fun and a chance to
share with parents and carers and celebrate the talented children of Seymour Road. I also
came up with the idea of the ‘Festive Fandango’ and ‘Swing into Summer’ to end the Autumn
term and round off the school year respectively. I remember those events with great
fondness and pride as we were able to come together share steel band performances and
celebrate the joy of sharing music. Many a staff steel band member suffered some nervous
sleepless nights before their performances.

There are many memories of funny episodes I could share; I have just picked one which
happened early in my career. In the Infant building I remember the entrance and far
corridors were lined with tables containing pot plants cared for by the then head teacher. In
amongst the plants there were little plastic gnomes and other small ornaments. These
objects used to be frequently rearranged by passing small fingers but on one memorable
occasion many of the gnomes vanished. This precipitated the ‘Great Gnome Hunt’, as I like to
call it led by our head teacher. After much searching and questioning of likely accomplices, a
small plastic rake was discovered and provided enough of a clue to the direction in which they
had made off for them to be tracked down. They were discovered hiding in a hole behind a
pipe under a hand basin in the Junior building. Had they made an unsuccessful bid for
freedom or were small hands again responsible for their disappearance? We may never
know, unless of course you know more!

The leaky roof and decaying buildings of the school have long been a challenge but the
building is also a map of its own history and a great resource in itself bearing the marks of its
many generations and reinventions. A modern school may be sleek and efficient but it can
never have the heart that Seymour Road does or hold the echoes of its past. I am proud to
have taught at Seymour Road and to have had the privilege of working with so many children,
families, children of children and staff. I thank the fates for letting me find my life’s passion in
the music I have shared. I know many of those who I taught have gone on to be successful
and I hope all have found some happiness.

Anna’s photographs

The Clayton Follies

Kath Lancaster Evans (née Byron) attended the Infants and Juniors, and later Clayton Secondary School for Girls on the top floor of the school’s main building. She left in 1964. She still meets with her school friends, who she affectionately refers to as ‘the Clayton Follies’. They include Jean Basnett, Vivienne Crook , Celia England, Barbara Fox , Barbara Spencer, Christine Young. Kath recalls:

“Some of us girls in 1962 or 1963 went on strike because it was so cold in class. We went down to the education offices in town complaining. The Evening News came to my house and other girls homes for the story. Miss Lally, the headmistress, took my library monitors badge off me (the shame of it!)”

Kath Lancaster Evans

Kath’s photographs

Kath has very kindly given us digital copies of her photos from her time at Seymour Road. Take a look:

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Your photographs

Throughout the exhibition, former pupils, teachers, and relatives of former pupils and teachers, have shared their photos with Clayton Hall. Take a look: