Headmaster Mr Henry Williamson (middle row, second right) with North Sunderland School football team, 1947-48.
Back row L-R: George Nutman, Jimmy Thompson, Ken Day, Tony Lamb, Ronnie Dawson. Middle row: Tony Hall, Mr James Field, Bobby Whillis, Mr Williamson, John Hanvey. Front row: Douggie Dawson, Joe Young, Keith Wright, Brian Short, Ronnie Young
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The book, "Clarty Boots and Inky Fingers", is the outcome of a year's
work by the group, and mixes personal memories with detailed research from school log books, newspapers and archives, with over 200 illustrations.
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Lessons, punishments, playground games and sports, absences and holidays all feature, in a format designed to be dipped into. As well as three schools in Seahouses, two in Bamburgh and one at Beadnell, the book features schools at Fleetham, Lucker, Newham and Warenford. It tells of how many children in the past walked miles to school carrying their "bait tins" for lunch. In the 19th century some were kept off school by their parents to work in the fields or at the fishing.
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"Clarty Boots and Inky Fingers"
is part of a Heritage Lottery Funded project to celebrate the centenary of Seahouses First School. Every child at the First School received a copy at an event on July 17th 2007. |
The book contains many contributions from the wider community and from the children themselves, and is edited by Beadnell poet and historian
Katrina Porteous
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At that time Bamburgh Castle housed a boarding school for 60 poor girls who were taught to knit stockings and prepared for a life in service. These and many other stories in the book give a strong sense of the place of each school at the heart of its community.
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