Page 55 - recollections of a life in Porthleven

We were put into pairs and each child had to hold hands. Off we would walk
through Church Row, up Fore Street, past the Methodist Church, up past
Wellington Farm where most days we would have to walk around the cow
pats (can you imagine the comments today if the farm and the cows were
still there!) up past the Public Hall, where in years to come I would visit
band concerts, shows put on by the villagers and Porthleven Bird Shows etc
etc. At the end of Wellington Road we would walk behind Wellington
Terrace where, at last, the canteen was. We from Church School shared it
with the children of Board School which was in Thomas Terrace Even
though it was called ‘Board School’ it was not a boarding school, it was just
another junior school for the children of the village and local area.

There was no love lost between the two schools, they sat one side of the
canteen and we sat at the other end. Not a word was shared between us for
some reason and after we all ate our dinner we all made the return journey
back to school. Another strange thing we (church school) was all ways first
to get to the canteen. Not once did Board school get to the canteen before us
and of course being there first meant we were the first to leave.

Margaret and I did not always go to the canteen, once or twice a month Gran
would be at school at lunchtime and take us to Joe Williams’s fish & chip
shop for our dinner and we would share a bottle of Vimto .Why we went to
Mr Williams chip shop every so often I am not sure but they were lovely
fish and chips.

Whilst going to Church School I made many good friends, Christopher
Philips, Mark Toy, Gibson Richards and Michael Polly, just to name a few.
We would meet up quite often but when I moved away to Chatham in Kent
to work I lost contact with them. My job in Kent was very enjoyable and it
took me to many places but after about 22 years of living out of Cornwall I
managed to return to live back in our great county.

When Gran picked us up at the end of the school day we would quite often
call in to different shops, such as Bowens which was a clothes shop, the Post
Office a few doors down from Church Row. Then it might be a visit to
Roger’s chemist on the square for some medication for my grandfather who