CURRICULUM VITAE
... in the beginning
... early years
... senior school days
... Girl Guides
... teenage friends
... the world of work
... getting married
... the Sheffield years
... on to Hertfordshire
... a change of direction
... so where are we now
... other trivial info
Early years...
By now I had started school — in September 1952 to be exact. I went to Shire Oak School in Headingley from the age of four-and-a-half to eleven. The first six years were spent in the main school building on Shire Oak Road. The final year was at the beautiful St Ives annex on nearby Wood Lane. The headmistress throughout this time was Mrs. Morfitt. Form teachers (from my first class onwards) were Mrs. Spurway (Kindergarten), Mrs. Jackman (?), Mrs. Ellis (Transition), Mrs. Turner (Remove), Mrs. Isherwood (Preparatory), Mrs. Guy (?), and Mrs. Sheridan (J5). The games mistress was Mrs. Johnson.
Pupils whose names I can recall were Elizabeth Relton, Jane Laycock, Barbara Platt, Ceinwen Hopkins, Valerie Smith, Sheilagh Watson, Anona Jackson, Tania Costello (who sadly died of leukaemia), Susan Mold, Linda Hyde, Rosemary Norris (who I believe had a twin sister Jennifer Norris), Roger Wilkinson, John Houghton, Martin Lee, Lee Moore, Michael Crystal, Guy Marshall, and Roger Heywood.
I remember the school building and playgrounds very well. I also remember that once a week each class was taken to Cookridge Street Baths for swimming lessons.
Sometime during my years at Shire Oak, my family moved from St Anne’s Road to Beckett’s Park Crescent, Headingley.
Other friends I remember from that time all lived nearby. They were Jennifer, Dorothy, Anthony and Susan Walton, Margaret Pedley, Christopher Rickeard, Arthur Pickard, Brian Johnson, Jacqueline Rowe, Sally Vetter, and Roger Wilkinson. Also Susan Clarke, with whom I used to have tea at her home on Weetwood Lane.
Did you go to Shire Oak School? Do you know anyone who did? Do you have any connection with St Anne’s Road, or Beckett’s Park Crescent in Headingley. Do any of the names above mean anything to you? If so, please e-mail me at sandramidgley1@gmail.com