Joyce Cook reminiscences

 

My earliest connection with Upton dates back to 1946 when I obtained a teaching post at St.Mary’s School. After working as a Probationary Teacher in the heart of Liverpool, I was thankful to find myself in such a peaceful and pleasant little village. The whole of my career was to be spent in Upton and so it became my ‘second home’.

 

Upton County Primary School (later know as Upton Manor, then Upton Heath) opened in 1951 and I worked there until I retired in 1980. This brand new school, filled with all the latest equipment , had a big Opening Ceremony . Afterwards the director of Education escorted some of the important visitors around the new classrooms. He spotted my homemade xylophone ( made from medicine bottles ) , played a tune and suggested that I should fill them with whiskey instead of coloured water – and perhaps this was the beginning of my interest in the teaching of music!.

 

 In those days, I had no idea that my ancestors had been musical. I taught music because no-one else wanted to. When a visiting Inspector suggested that I should form a choir, I had to borrow library books in order to make a start. However, it was by entering Music Festivals and listening to adjudications that I became really interested. Each year, auditions were held (for members of the top classes) and I felt very sorry for those who could not sing in tune. So I made sure that there were other musical activities – playing instruments, composing, dancing – and for the football-mad boys who could not be persuaded to learn the recorder – the Manor Morris Men. We performed at concerts and fetes and I remember one very popular outing to Blackpool where we entertained a large gathering of teachers at a nearby college. On another occasion, a coachload of music students from Manchester University came to watch lessons and we made biscuits decorated with crotchets and quavers for their afternoon tea.

 

Many exciting things happened over the years, but needless to say, there were certain highlights. I often bump into ex-pupils and here are some of the things they remember–

 

During the 1950s, the ‘News Chronicle’ – a popular daily national newspaper of the time – announced a special competition for schools. Each day, a picture of something of historical interest would be printed and children were encouraged to find something similar in their own town or village. Since one of the first items was a new school we became interested. The competition – to make a book of findings – had been arranged by ‘Big Chief I-Spy’ whose little booklets such as ‘I Spy Castles’ and ‘I Spy Seashells’ had kept generations of children amused and occupied during long car journeys and holiday outings. We decided that our book should be called ‘I Spy Chester’ – though we realised that some of the clues might be found in Upton. It was hard work but fun. Little groups of children would meet in the evenings and on Saturdays, making sketches and notes. Eventually our book was posted off to London and there was much rejoicing when a telephone call announced that we were in the top three entries for England and Wales. I was invited to Fleet Street to see the exhibition and to meet Big Chief I Spy. He was then invited to Upton to present gift books to the ‘leavers’. The top class put on a performance of ‘Hiawatha’ and he enjoyed this so much that he fancied a repeat!. Later in the year he returned and we found a boy and a girl to guide him around the City Walls so that he could write an article for his newspaper. This led to a huge competition known as ‘I Spy Chester’ to be held on the Roodee. Sadly, on the appointed day it poured with rain and hundreds of competitors had to cram into the Drill Hall. Students from Chester College helped to mark the entry forms and the wonderful prizes – which had been stored at school – were presented by Bernard Breslaw – a TV personality of the 1950s.

 

One Christmas, the Post Office invited us to take part in ‘Dial a Carol’. The recording which took a whole morning, was carried out in the school hall. For about a fortnight, two or three carols were relayed each day and friends and relations from all over the country and abroad, would dial a certain number to hear the Upton children singing. I was told that ‘phone bills were astronomic!’.

 

During the 1970s the school choir took part in Christmas celebrations at the stately home of Tatton Park. We worked alongside the Hammond School of Dance and the BBC singers. The producer Dornford May motored to Yorkshire in order to obtain an enormous roll of red cloth for a team of helpful parents to make gowns for the forty singers. We also bought a supply of candles so that we could carry these as we processed towards the Great Hall singing – in Latin !!.  When the local fire service heard about this we had to change to battery operated candles. For four nights in the week before Christmas, we made the tiring journey to Knutsford – but it was a magical experience and the children remember the gorgeous refreshments especially the turkey pies. As a reward for our work, over the four years, the Hall was thrown open to the choir. The Director of Tatton with his wife and a team of helpers escorted us around the various rooms including parts not seen by the general public. Finally, we sat down to a tea laid out in the Great Hall eating from Victorian china and listening to the Victorian piano-organ.

 

Perhaps the most exciting event for any Manor Choir was in 1978 when the BBC sent a producer and Director to see if we might be suitable contestants for a forthcoming programme entitled ‘ A Good Sing’. We were!  The contest held at the Manchester studios took place over a period of six weeks and Male Voice Choirs, Mixed Choirs, Romantic Duettists and Children’s Choirs would form the studio audience. A coach took us\ to Manchester and the boys were very excited when they spotted a famous footballer in the foyer!. Eventually we found ourselves in the recording studio and when the word ‘transmission’ appeared in red lights I raised my arm and we sang ‘Mairi’s Wedding’ and ‘Mango Walk’. It was with great relief that we returned to our seats in order to hear an international adjudicator report on the six weeks of music. We held our breath as she said ‘Here was something quite remarkable – these little people singing totally in tune…..they sang with rhythm, attack and life…..everything they did was so vital….’. We were awarded 86 marks and had won the Children’s contest, even though the opposition had been so formidable. My videos of that programme plus the winners programme fill me with nostalgia. However, more than all the excitements and successes, I remember the wonderful children, parents and staff at Upton Manor. As one ex-pupil noted on the ‘www.friendsreunited’ –‘they were halcyon days’.