02186/S, EM/121
EMOHA Project
Collection
Interviewee: Name
withheld b. 1921 Newton Burgoland,
Leicestershire
Occupation: Shop assistant,
catering
Interview Dates: 26/07/2001, 06/09/2001, 11/10/2001
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Interviewee: |
There
were, there was the infants' room. Next to that was the middle one, school,
and then you went up into the next one, which was, into the next room, which
was divided by a screen. That was all that it was. Just a screen across the… |
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EMOHA: |
What
was the… |
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Interviewee: |
So
if the headmaster shouted while we were in this class you could hear every
word of what he was saying. Anybody got the cane, you could hear it. |
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EMOHA:
|
What
was the dividing wall for, or screen for? |
|
Interviewee:
|
Well,
it was so that if there was an assembly of any kind, it could be opened but
it didn't happen very often, only when the school was hired for the village,
local village show or something like that. We had one piano for those three
classes and of course there were no central heating then and we had a coal
fire in the, with a guard round it. Then it eventually got to a stove, and I
think before I left school, the school, I think all that was done away with
and it was central heating then. But the other heat was from a big boiler at
the side of the school which my grandfather used to stoke morning and
evening, and that kept the hot water going. And on Friday nights my grandma
had to clean the school thoroughly and we used to go, my sister and I, and
they were brass taps on the wash basins, and we used to go and polish the
brass taps for her and do all the wash basins and she used to give us
sixpence each for doing that. |
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EMOHA: |
So,
what sort of toilet facilities did they have at school? |
|
|
They
were in the school yard. There was a row of them. There was one kept locked
for the staff. There was the girls' side and then there was a high wall and
then there was the boys' side, and of course, they were, they had the men
come and empty the pans once a week. |
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EMOHA:
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When
you say "empty the pans"… |
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Interviewee:
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Never
conscious of it being done but it was always done. |
|
EMOHA:
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What
sort of pans were these? |
|
Interviewee:
|
Well,
they were metal pans into wooden seats, you see. |
|
EMOHA:
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So,
each toilet…? |
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Interviewee: |
Had
a wooden seat and metal pan. |
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EMOHA: |
Can
you … |
|
Interviewee: |
No
chains or anything. |
|
EMOHA: |
Can
you remember what they were like to use? |
|
Interviewee: |
Horrible.
Well, I thought they were. |
|
EMOHA: |
Was
that very different to what you had at home? What sort of toilet did you have
at home? |
|
Interviewee: |
Oh
no, we had the same thing at home! Oh yes. Lovely white seat because my
sister and I used to scrub it. |
|
EMOHA: |
What
happened to the pan at home? |
|
Interviewee:
|
My
father emptied that. That went down the fields. |
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EMOHA: |
Did
it? |
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Interviewee: |
Buried.
So we never had an accumulation, it was always kept very nice. |
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EMOHA: |
So,
the school ones weren't, you said they weren't, you didn't like using them? |
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Interviewee: |
I
didn't like it but then I was a bit finicky anyway. |