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Warrington Lane Infants School

20 Comments

Warrington Lane School demolition
Warrington Lane School demolition
Photo: Rev David Long
Views: 4,060
Item #: 25270
Taken as the school was being demolished in 2003 or 4 to make way for the Lidl supermarket now on the site.

Comment by: LDB on 16th June 2014 at 10:51

was it built as a church

Comment by: AB on 16th June 2014 at 12:21

When I attended in the early 40's there were 7 classrooms. an assembly Hall with a partition, and a Nursery, which had the entrance down the side street. Two of the classrooms were upstairs. My grandmother had attended around 1890.

Comment by: Maureen on 16th June 2014 at 14:20

My Mam went there around the 1920's..awww.

Comment by: Mick on 16th June 2014 at 14:32

It was built as a school, LDB. Entwistle & Joynt tool hire had their business the building in the 1980s.

Comment by: RON HUNT on 16th June 2014 at 15:53

I went there from aged 3 two years in the nursery then junior school until 1953. I remember in the nursery they had two BIG rocking horses. We had camp beds,every day in summer we put them school yard and had a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon, In winter we were inside. Not forgetting the SUPERB orange juice we had...

Comment by: Dave C on 16th June 2014 at 22:23

I was there in the 1950's, in the Nursey School run by Miss Fish and Miss Outram, probably 1954/56. I remember that we all had a pictorial rather than our names on things ( obviously we couldn't read at that stage). Mine was a candle in a holder. It was on my clothes peg and probably a couple of other things which I've long since forgotten. We were expected to have an afternoon nap on "put you up" cots, but like my own Children and Grandchildren, I must have thought there was far too much to do rather than lie around all afternoon and I was eventually put into the Infants school in the afternoons to keep me occupied.
I remember playing under the arches in the playground as trains ran overhead.
Many years later I went into what by then had become Entwistle and Joynts and recognised "John" (?) Entewistle who I had gone to the Grammar with in the 1960's who kindly showed me round the old school which had now become their retain outlet and warehouse. I was amazed that what I had always remembered as a huge assembly hall that had once been our Nursery, was actually quite small. Incredible how your perception of scale alters as you grow older, and bigger ! Great photo.

Comment by: RON HUNT on 17th June 2014 at 08:24

I can remember the pictorial identification for your clothes peg etc. Can't remember what mine was though? I don't remember the railway arches in the playground? The only playground I remember, and where we put up our beds, was the area where the vans are parked in the photograph, which was on the same level as the road. I remember one day there was a lot of excitement as one of the children hadn't gone home from school It turned out he had hidden away in the room in the nursery, where the beds etc. were stored and got locked in. I remember he was one of the "POORER" kids. Its amazing what sticks in your mind from 65 years ago.

Comment by: Rev David Long on 17th June 2014 at 08:50

Ron, it was your comment on Brian's pic of the Darlington Street bridge crossing, mentioning the school, which caused me to root this pic out. The railway crossed Warrington Lane directly across from where I took the pic - so it would have been visible in the shot running where the trees are here, forming the perimeter of the school playground.

Comment by: AB on 17th June 2014 at 09:03

In my days the school yard was in two parts . Under the railway had been converted into Air Raid shelters and in the first years of the war we practised assembling in the school yard . with our Gas masks and going the into shelters Thankfully we never had it to do for real.I too went in when it was Entwhistle and Joynts and it all seemed so small.

Comment by: Grannieannie on 17th June 2014 at 09:29

As a student nursery nurse it was task I was given, when the children had their nap, to embroider the pictorial motifs onto thin cloth ready for stitching onto the bed frames and covers or face flannels and tiny individual towels. The paper motif's cut from large sheets especially for this purpose where mounted and covered with "sticky-backed plastic" for pegs, comb holders etc but would not have stood up to the continuous boil washing which was also a feature of my training. My last job on a Friday afternoon was to scrub the dustpans,the brushes and the mop handles.

Comment by: AB on 17th June 2014 at 14:26

Rev David The trees look to be in line where the railway ran. The school yard was triangular

Comment by: Tim Cooke on 17th June 2014 at 19:31

My dad worked there in the 1970's /80's. It was called 'The Teachers Centre'then and was owned by the local education authority. It was used for school staff meetings & seminars. But my Dad worked in the workshops at the rear, they used to fix the TV's, videos, projectors etc...things that could be fixed by an engineer....and not scrapped like today's technology!

Comment by: Albert. on 18th June 2014 at 11:03

Was there any significant meaning in the name Jerusalem, being associated with Warrington Lane Infants' School?

Comment by: Dave C on 19th June 2014 at 09:00

Thanks Grannieanne, I knew we had " pictorials " on other things, but couldn't remember what they were. One other memory suddenly sprang to mind after I'd written the first note.....the visit of the Schools Doctor, a Scotsman, who I saw around Wigan for the rest of my school life, but never knew his name. He gave out the dreaded injections, accompanied by the "nit-nurse"

Comment by: Albert on 19th June 2014 at 10:29

Dave. Was he the police surgeon, Dr Hoey? He had his surgery in Greenough Street.

Comment by: wiagnas on 19th June 2014 at 23:54

Graham Joynt was my great uncle, i think his wife sold her half to the Entwistles when they moves across the road

Comment by: Mick on 25th June 2014 at 16:52

About forty years ago, did Graham Joynt also have a second hand bookshop in the row of shops that used to be on Darlington St, between Harrogate St and the Pepper Mill?

Comment by: Paul Entwistle on 9th August 2014 at 10:38

The second hand book shop was in the building that had been Entwistle & Joynts first shop but no connection to Graham.

Comment by: michael benson on 21st August 2014 at 18:53

beds in the playground..cowboys and Indians under the arches...my first ever girlfriend..(Judith Griffiths)..miss Thomas the headmistress..ahhh the memories !!!!

Comment by: Victoria Dawson on 7th April 2017 at 13:23

Can anyone remember Miss Kathleen Geraghty, who was a teacher in the junior school in 1949? I am a researcher and would love to find out more about her. She was Wigan's first female rugby league coach. She was a supporter of Wigan RL and had a season ticket. Any help would be much appreciated!

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