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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 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. |
| 1. Plymouth Grove School | 2. Longsight Police Station | 3. Plymouth Grove |
| 4. Hathersage Road | 5. Little Sisters of the Poor | 6. Plymouth Grove West |
| 7. Stockport Road | 8. Grindlow Street |
| 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 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. Here we also put on plays and concerts. |
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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. |
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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+. |