Alexandra Park School

 

 

 

I spent three marvelous years at Alexandra Park School from 1955 to 1958. To me (living in a dreary Victorian pub in the centre of Stockport) my daily excursions to the school and its environs were a delight.The contrast between The Railway Inn and its location as compared to "Alex Park" ( school and park) were to me immense representing a trip out to the "country".

How we saw the world when we were young! The idea that Edgeley seemed rural to me then may now seem absurd but compared to the centre of Stockport it was to me. 

The photographs bring back many nostalgic memories: school dinners in the pre-fab huts - actually in the park itself (you can still see the foundations), the now demolished air raid shelters in the playground, gigantic ice slides in the winter, trips to the now demolished (arctic) baths on Petersgate and so on.

Mostly though it's my fellow pupils that evoke so many thoughts. How I WISH that I'd noted down all the names. I did make a feeble attempt on the last one: listing all the boys and three of the girls! - and then abandoned it for another day. never finished it, it didn't seem pressing at the time (how typical of our childhood).

Some, who were particular mates of mine I know without needing any reference, with others I see a face and know the person but the name has gone.

We (the boys that is) all had nicknames - mine naturally was "Nick"; sometimes I can recall the nickname but that's it, no more. Some are just a blank in terms of identity, but the person is warm in my thoughts.

It's with the girls though that I struggle the most. We were pre-adolescent and "the girls" were not included (nor would they have wanted to be) in the lunatic and occasionally mildly violent games that all boys play. They kept to their activities and we to ours. Because they were not "boys" they sort of co-existed in their own world. That's not to say that we ignored them, I remember being very friendly with several, because say we shared a desk or sat on the same table at dinner, but we didn't play games together and tended not to intermix. Wouldn't it be marvelous if we could put an identity to all those faces?

I've made a start on my blog in the latest article, "Alexandra Park - name that face!", but I can't remember everybody. Can anyone help me fill in the missing names? Click here to see the latest article.

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Copyright © Janet A Nicholson 2011 © John A Nicholson 2011