Pupils are still alive and kicking

I made this stark statement by inexcusably skimping on research and in the belief that the school closed down in the early years of the 20th Century.

However, I have been sharply alerted to the fact that St Nicholas School survived until the mid-1950s and, imagine my red face as letters and telephone calls came in from many of its past pupils who are still very much alive and kicking.

St Nicholas School was built at Infirmary Walk in the middle of the 19th Century and was a gift to the parish from an eminent local figure, John Wheeley Lea, one of the two manufacturers of the world-famous Lea & Perrins' Worcestershire Sauce.

He was twice Mayor of Worcester - in 1835 and 1849 - and was a considerable local benefactor.

St Nicholas School was only ever for girls and infants, and the main section of its buildings still survive today, near the railway arches in Infirmary Walk.

Though always a comparatively small school in size and pupil numbers, it achieved big things on the sporting front, winning a significant number of competition trophies among Worcester schools, particularly in the 1920s and 30s. It had highly successful netball and swimming teams.

Mrs Florence Smith of Newtown Road, Worcester, was the first reader to be in touch with me after the Memory Lane article. She pointed out that she was in the photograph I included of a class at St Nicholas School in the late 1920s. In fact, she had originally sent it to me at the Evening News several years ago.

Her family, the Wedgburys, lived in the Arboretum area but her mother chose to send her to St Nicholas School rather than to the nearer St Mary's.

"I stayed at St Nicholas School until leaving at 14 and very much enjoyed my time there," says Mrs Smith. "There was a netball team, and I was in it as shooter. The headmistress was Miss Una Lewis, and the music and sports teacher was Kathleen Evans."

William Dale of Perrywood Walk, Worcester, contacted me to say he, his twin Harry and his two sisters, Joan and Marion - now in their 70s - all attended St Nicholas School at different times between 1925 and 1940.

"The infant classes were on the ground floor, and the girls' classes on the upper floor. Three of the teachers were named Evans, Timmins and Lovell. Overall, it was a very nice school."

William and his twin and sisters were the four children of Harry and Florence Dale, who were landlord and landlady of the historic Golden Lion pub which stood opposite The Guildhall, in High Street, for 26 years until retirement in 1949 or 50. The family lived at the pub.

William and Harry were in the infants section of St Nicholas School for two years and then went on to Stanley Road School and the Worcester Technical School. Both too, became engineers with Heenan & Froude Ltd, William spending 48 years with the company. Harry Dale now lives in Victoria Avenue, Worcester.

Their sisters Joan (now Mrs Kimber of Leigh Sinton) and Marion (Mrs Fidoe of Wichenford) spent all their school days at St Nicholas School, Joan later going to the Commercial College at the Victoria Institute.

Another family who provided several pupils to St Nicholas School were the Watkins, who lived in The Moors alongside Pitchcroft. Rupert John (Reuben) Watkins, a shoeing smith at local stables, and his wife Ruth had eight children.

One of them, Daphne (Mrs Hill of Beckett Road, Worcester,) wrote to tell me she attended the school for a term as a four-year-old in the mid-1930s, but three of her sisters and a friend of theirs spent a lot of their schooling at St Nicholas's in the late 1920s and 30s.

Daphne says the remainder of the Watkins children were scattered around other city schools. She and her brothers Stan and Peter went to Hounds Lane, and she finished at St Paul's School.

"I trust it wasn't anything to do with me but every school I attended closed down not long afterwards," quipped Mrs Hill.

Her sister, Joyce (now Mrs Barker living in Lancashire) remembers St Nicholas's as "a good school in a way, but small and with not many pupils."

Her enduring memories are of the school being taken every morning to St Nicholas Church at The Cross, for religious assembly, and then walking back afterwards to start the day's lessons. Treks were also involved to Pitchcroft, where the school played its sports.

Her sister, Irene (now Mrs Wain living in Derby) told me she enjoyed "wonderful times" at St Nicholas School until leaving at 14.

"It had a great reputation for its sporting achievements and I did very well at netball, the high jump and running.

"Kathleen Evans was the teacher in charge of sports and she knew Sir Edward Elgar well, living near to his home at Marlbank, Rainbow Hill. Sir Edward often came to conduct at Worcester Cathedral, and Miss Evans took our class there once and introduced us to the great man.

"I can remember him so vividly with his long white hair. I also recall the wonder of hearing him conduct his Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 - Land of Hope and Glory," says Mrs Wain.

She adds that St Nicholas's was such a small school that the girls had to walk across the city centre to St Paul's School for cookery and laundry lessons.

"During my last six months at school, St Nicholas's obtained its first sewing machine - we all thought it was wonderful, but just think of all the equipment that schools enjoy today!"

Another of the Watkins girls, Peggy (now Mrs Banner of Christchurch Road, Worcester,) tells me she held the St Nicholas teachers in awe.

"They often wore high black boots and long black gowns and were very strict. I remember, too, being frightened to death by the nit nurse, a big woman who rode around on a bike, always clutching her small and snappy little dog."

Peggy was only in the juniors at St Nicholas's before moving to Hounds Lane School. She stresses that the Watkins family may have been large but it was "a very happy one."

Her recollection is that some of the pupils at St Nicholas's came from the police houses behind the former Castle Street county divisional HQ and were considered "a bit above the rest."

A school friend of the Watkins girls was Sally Thompson (now Mrs Davies of Bilford Road, Worcester). Her family ran Thompsons, the fishmongers, in Angel Place for many years, and she lived with her parents at the shop, the youngest of eight children and the only one now surviving.

"St Nicholas's was a very good school, and I went there from the age of three to 14," says Mrs Davies. "My late sister Eva was also a pupil.

"It was probably the smallest school in Worcester but it was great at swimming, netball and sports. I was in the netball and swimming teams, and Eva in the netball and sports teams. A friend of mine was the late Ruby Wild who became a fine swimmer, winning a lot of local competitions," recalls Mrs Davies.

Ruby Wild was featured in Memory Lane in October 1999, shortly before she died at 80. She ran a garage in The Tything which was virtually a museum piece, unchanged from pre-war times and a shrine to a bygone era. Through its front window could be seen a 1936 Austin 7 in pristine condition.

Ruby Wild, Sally Thompson (Mrs Davies), her sister Eva Thompson and Irene Watkins (Mrs Wain) are all to be seen in the photograph in Memory Lane today of the sports trophy-winning girls of St Nicholas School in about 1930.

Former Worcester head teacher Miss Beryl Beer was also in touch to refer me to one of the last pupils at St Nicholas School - 57 years-old Mrs Brenda Cameron Mitchell of Sling Lane, Lower Broadheath.

Her maiden name was Cole and her family lived in a house which stood directly opposite St Nicholas School. She and her brother Ken Cole attended the school as infants, she moving on at seven to St John's Primary School and then to Christopher Whitehead Girls School. Ken transferred to St Martin's School and then Worcester Technical School.

"The head teacher at St Nicholas School in my time was Mrs Darke whose husband was headmaster of St Paul's School. Another of our teachers was a Mrs Beckett, and two classmates I remember were Judy Finch and a girl called Sheridan.

"It was very tiny school but a happy one," says Mrs Cameron Mitchell, who went on to a career in teaching. For 24 years, she was on the staff of the secondary school she herself had attended as a pupil, Christopher Whitehead Girls, and she now does supply teaching at Christopher Whitehead High School.

Mrs Margaret Beckwith of Ryeland Close, Worcester, who was also among the last pupils to attend St Nicholas School, has kindly sent me a photograph of the infants in 1950 or 51. Her maiden name was Cave and her family lived at the time in The Moors.

"I am 55 and was at St Nicholas's until I was five. My brother, John, who is 63, also remembers being at the school as an infant. I have a vague feeling too that my late mother Mrs Elsie Cave (maiden name Butcher) may also have attended the school from about 1918," says Mrs Beckwith.

St Nicholas School closed down in the mid-1950s and was later used as an "overflow" for the Victoria Institute, particularly for students on applied physics courses. Its next use for several years was as a base for Reddifusion.