Callington School

Stuart "Sticky" Leach

My First TP was at Callington School, just over the County boundary. “Pasty” Jackson had told us he always beeped the car horn on the bridge over the Tamar to greet Cornwall, so we followed suit.

Chris Heaume was lodging with me; he was teaching at a nearby Primary School.

It was the winter of power cuts, 1973/1974 and we remembered sitting at a table in our rooms doing lesson preparation by candle light.

Our hosts were Mrs Start and her son Dudley. Dudley worked at Cotehele, the National Trust property nearby. In conversations Dudley mentioned several times “Who’d have thought it”  Chris and I were bemused by this until it dawned he was talking about the local pub.

On our mornings Mrs Start always started her conversations with “ Er Dudley”.

She served up a lovely, cooked breakfast, sausage bacon egg beans etc. Fantastic! The next day the same… died and gone to heaven. The next day the same again… bring it on. The next day the same and so on all through our four or five weeks stay. By the end we were gagging for a piece of toast or a boring bowl of cereal!

Two other things I can remember from that TP. Firstly we were required to call a register for lessons. On one occasion I asked where a boy was and got the delightful reply * He baint in zur, ‘is mum be farrowin’ down” A further enquiry in my own Gloucestershire burr confirmed mum was giving birth.

I found out it was regarded as common that at certain times of the year children would be absent to help on the farm or at tourist sites

Secondly, school dinners were fine but with the alternative of freshly baked Oggies from the Ginster’s factory back door held an irresistible allure.