..when it was May Day they had the pole and all the ribbons
Jennifer
We all went to Green Terrace, didn’t we?
Barry
Yeah, because I remember the sports days when we had in Green Terrace. You’d be in the Bullring.
Jennifer
Oh yeah. You know when it was May Day they had the pole and all the ribbons. I remember as a kid we’d dance like round there.
Interviewer 1
In the school itself there wasn’t much room for any sort of sports facilities was there?
Jennifer
There was a yard and I remember it had like what I call like a monkey climb you know with the ropes. There was a separate yard for the boys wasn’t there? For all we had like a mixed class.
Barry
When I was at school there was a gate, like a wooden gate, between the two yards and that was kept locked at all times. I don’t think there were school teams or anything. It was just like lads, played football in the yard. And then for sports day, Egg & spoon race and the sack race and that sort of thing.
Jennifer
That was all like in a Bullring though wasn’t it?
Interviewer 2
So, by the time you went to Green Terrace School, Barry, Jenny had already left. Do you remember much about the building? What was it like inside?
Barry
When you went in the boys entrance, there was a door right in the far corner. Next door was the caretakers flat, and you went up in there, the cloakroom was on your left hand side, and you went upstairs, and that’s to the lower classrooms downstairs for the juniors. And then upstairs, there’s about five classrooms upstairs for the infants.
Interviewer 2
And were the classes quite big?
Jennifer
42 in my class I remember, they were all the same I think.
Barry
I remember Mrs Gowdey, she was a very nice teacher. She lived up Chester Road where the railway bridge used to be. And then there was a Mrs Harrington, or Miss Harrington, I don’t know which. If you’re not paying attention, she used to come round, slap your hand with a ruler, or the blackboard rubber used to come flying across the room. I remember the headmistress, Miss Whitfield, she was a very nice woman.
Jennifer
She was lovely.
Barry
The boys’ toilets were outside, right at the back wall. Different toilets then the boys and girls.
Jennifer
I thought ours were inside, actually.
This memory is part of the Bishopwearmouth Townscape Heritage Scheme collection.