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Plymouth Grove Primary School
 Opened in
1906, this imposing red brick school sits on the
south side of Plymouth Grove West. In
2009 it isn't technically a Longsight School because
it now lies inside the Ardwick District.
However, to those who lived in Longsight prior to
the 1960s, it will always be a Longsight school.
****************************************** In July of 2016 I was in
Longsight and I went for a walk along Plymouth
Grove. What I discovered was a new building
sitting in what had been the school's
playground.
       ************************* When I visited again in 2017
the old building was wrapped in scaffolding and
in the midst of refurbishment.
 Here are some images of the
new school.
     *************************
- The Old School -
  In
the 1950's the road was lined with huge trees that
carpeted the pavement ankle deep in leaves. In a
side-road between the school and Stockport Road, horse chestnut trees provided the
treasured conkers which every autumn provided hours
of competition at
playtime at the school.
The three-storeyed building housed
the Infants on the ground floor, the Junior and
Senior Girls on the second floor and Junior and
Senior Boys on the top floor. The playground at
the front of the school was separated from the
street by a low wall and a wrought iron fence and
looked across to the
Convent of the Little Sisters of the Poor. At the
back of the school a
building housed the outdoor toilets which, apart
from their obvious use, often became part of a
game of "tick" as the pursued would duck in one
entrance and out the other to escape the one who
was "it". I can attest to this personally because
on rainy days large puddles would collect near the
entrances and I ignored the warnings of the
teacher on duty and raced in and out one day only
to end up face down in a puddle.
 The image above was donated by Bryan Goodwin The ground floor had a large hall
where every morning we had our assembly. It also
saw service as a gymnasium where I remember
dancing around the maypole and learning to
somersault on coconut mats that were better suited
for scouring a toilet bowl than rolling around on.
It was here that we had our Traffic Safety Week,
when a whole town of shops and roads and zebra
crossings was set up and the classes took turns
running shops, going shopping and performing
police duty for a week or so.
  The hall
was also the venue for a plays and concerts.
 Coronation Event at Plymouth
Grove. Four
rather wrinkled members of the Household
Cavalry.
Close by was Mrs. Alberti's office where, on the way out to play, you could stop off and buy a digestive biscuit, cheese biscuits or, if you were really rich, a chocolate-covered biscuit. One of my
memories is from 1952, the Coronation Year --
the teacher unpacking a box and giving each
one of us a Coronation Mug which, minus its
handle stayed around our house for years, even
if it was where my mother kept her false teeth
at night. In the afternoon the whole school
walked down Stockport Road to one of the
picture houses, I think it was the Kings, to
see the news reel of the Coronation. At the age of 8, if I remember correctly, boys and girls were segregated into different parts of the school. The girls used the playground on the Stockport Road side and that half of the front playground. They entered the school on the Stockport Road end and went up the stone staircase to the second floor into a world that was off limits to boys. The boys
played on the Plymouth Grove side and that
half of the front playground. They had their
own entrance and took the staircase to their
own world on the top floor where Mr. Howarth
was the headmaster and "Pop" Walker was the
pipe-smoking legend who got everyone ready for
the 11+.
*********************************************
I visited the school in 2000 and took these images of the outside & inside.                    ********************************** Images
from April 2014   
Pictures from Days Gone By The Twenties  The Thirties  The next four images were
generously donated by David Kirk and they
feature his father Roy Kirk who attended
Plymouth Grove in the 1930s
    ******************   Coronation
Year 1937
Teacher on the left - Miss
Parker (later Parker-Gee) - Headmistress on
the right - Miss Prentice (later Mrs. Alberti)
Image donated by Hilda
Davis (Turner) - second on the right in the
front row.  ******  Circa: 1946  1946
and our first school photo after the
War..I think we were celebrating Victory
Day..Mrs Alberti..her neice Linda(back row
3rd from left?)my pal Carl Burgess next to
her..Jill ? the first girl I kissed..in
the the school play! It worried me what
the girl I really had a "crush" on, Norma
Goodfellow(5th from left 2nd Row would
think of me!)...thats me back row 3rd from
the Right..and Mrs Hindley was the
Teacher. Happy days!
 Picture contributed by Keith Taylor  1947 - Pat (Butterworth) Little's Class 
1947 - Kathy Butterworth's Class 
    A school assembly in 1957. 1st row Linda Holt, 2nd June and Gail Glasgow [twins], Pat Dodd, Moyra Haigh, Elain Carrington, 3rd Patsy Harrison, Susan Burrows, Christine Starky, Carol Dexter.  Photograph generously donated by Susan Burrows A class in the 1950s. Front right to left Susan Burrows, Moyra Haigh. Back row Pat Stevens, Lynda Livsey, Pauline Miller. Far right 2nd table Billy Downing. 
John is third from the right on the second row from the front. The teacher is Mr. Hardy and the Head Teacher Mr. Greenhalch 
1959 - Photograph
generously donated by John Bullock  Circa: 1959 Back Row: 4th from left Yvonne Penny Third Row: 3rd from left John Shorthose, 2nd from right Anthony Heeney On the Mats: 2nd from right Irvine Mann  This photograph was generously donated by Terry Stirling. Her brother Larry Pilkington is 4th from the left on the third row.  This photograph was generously donated by Terry Stirling. Her sister Lyn is second from the right on the second row from the back. Also on that row second from the left is Susan Thelwell. In the middle row 3rd and 4th from the right are twins Tom and John Doodson.
Circa: 1959
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