LITTLE did we know the reaction we would get when we started asking for your memories of the Sidney Hall in Weymouth.

Here are some more in a series of memories of school days in a makeshift school after its original building was seriously damaged by a landmine.

l CHRISTINE Rashleigh-Berry, then Hawker, got in touch and sent us this photo of herself as a school pupil at the Sidney Hall.

She also had some more information on the shop Halletts, in connection with another article on the American servicemen’s Red Cross Club above the now-Swan Inn in Weymouth town centre.

Christine said: “You also mentioned Halletts shop in Weymouth.

“I was the manageress of the gas showroom which was virtually next door to them.

“I took over the job about 1974 and got to know them quite well.

“The shop was set back which gave them a long window.

“Their furniture was very high standard and the window displays were superb.”

Keen potter Christine even managed to sell one of her pieces of art through Halletts.

She said: “I have always been interested in the arts and at that time I was studying for an A level in crafts and sculpture. I made a couple of rather nice pots and a sculpture, which Halletts displayed in their window.

“I sold the pot and one of the staff took a great liking to the sculpture so I gave it to him.

“When I retired I pursued my art further and got accepted on a BA Fine Art Painting course at Cheltenham and then I went to the Wimbledon School of Art and did my MA.

“It was the best four years of my life and I do recommend it in old age.”

l THANKS to Portland resident Roma Connon, 86, who got in touch to tell Looking Back about her own memories of the Sidney Hall.

She said: “Sidney Hall was given to the people of Weymouth by a family - it was either the Groves or the Devonish family.

“My brother Harry Brinsley was a heavyweight boxer and he won the heavyweight champion-ship in the Sidney Hall.

“The hall was also used by scouts, brownies and girl guides. I remember the brownies being at the top of the hall.”

l DICKIE Borthwick, once the world’s oldest footballer, got in touch to make sure the Holy Trinity Boys’ School got a mention.

This school was on the site of what is now the Mulberry Centre in Weymouth town centre.

He said: “We used to share a hall with the Melcombe Regis school which we would use for boxing.

“The teachers I remember from the school are Mr Wills, Mr Comben, and I think the headmaster was Arthur Windust.

“I was at the school for two years from 1945 to 1946 up to the age of 11 when we moved to the north of Scotland and that was where I learned to play football.”

Dickie has shared his school report from July 31 1945 with us, in which he was ranked as the top scholar in a class of 23.

He obtained 198 marks out of 200, scoring full marks in English, reading, composition, dictation, handwriting, arithmetic and recitation.

The only subjects he didn’t get full marks on were pastel drawing and mental scripture, with a paltry nine out of ten in both subjects! Dickie was described as ‘a very keen worker’ and his conduct was described as ‘excellent’.

Dickie’s schoolmates were Johnny Hodder, Andy Mutter, Arthur Wardingham, Bobby Cleaver, David Ace, Micky Sly and Richard Townsend.

He said: “Our teacher Nigel Wills would make up his own stories about Alfie and himself.

“On a Friday afternoon he would do a half hour serial and had complete control of his class at all times.

“Everyone looked forward to this.

“Mr Windust was a very strict headmaster.

“The canteen at the hall was known as the Cookery Nook and the boys would go across Westham Bridge and down Westwey Road for their dinner.”

l ROSEMARY Spicer was a pupil at the mixed gender infant school after the Holy Trinity School at Chapelhay was bombed.

The pupils aged between five and seven had to be housed in a large house called ‘Eastney’ in Longfield Road, Weymouth.

Rosemary said: “I was a pupil at this infant school in 1945, aged five, and moved to the girls’ school at the age of seven.

“The girls had their school re-housed at the Sidney Hall, and I believe the boys went to Melcome Regis School, where the Weymouth Marina office is now.

“For the first year that I was at Sidney Hall, there were some pupils who didn’t move on to the grammar school, or maybe the secondary school at age 11, there were still some older girls up to the age of 14.

“I remember when my mother took me to see the school prior to me moving to the girls’ school, those older girls were having cookery lessons at the Old Town Hall, and were making fairy cakes which I thought was wonderful.

“Miss Swatridge (known as Swatty) was easily the best teacher, who really had the biggest influence in all of my school life for my education and my life standards. She was quite strict but fair.

“The very worst thing at that school was the toilets! We had to go out of the front entrance around the side of the building across our gravel playground.

“As soon as we reached the door we could smell them, then once past the urinals, we had a choice of three grotty loos.

“I used to try to last out until I got home.

“P.T. (physical training) was either in the main hall or out in the gravel playground, where you frequently suffered nasty scrapes.

“For treatment either you walked by yourself or sometimes a friend was allowed to accompany you, along Westwey Road to the Westham Clinic (opposite St. Joseph’s Church) for a patch and the inevitable daub of purple stuff.

“It was a good school, and despite the lack of facilities, we received a good grounding.”

  • NEXT week in Looking Back we’ll be paying tribute to one of Holy Trinity School’s longest serving teachers.