In the first of what I hope will be a new regular series of articles, I share my memories of Twynyrodyn School.
Whenever I drive along Primrose Hill in Twynyrodyn, and pass the site of the old Twynyrodyn School, I always feel a pang of regret. Regret that the old school is gone, and regret that I didn’t really appreciate it more when I was there. I attended ‘Twyn’ School for four years in the late 1970’s, and now, in retrospect I realise what an impact it made on my life.
Twynyrodyn Junior School was an old school (I have since found out it was built in 1875), and was originally two schools – a boy’s school and a girl’s school, and these two ‘wings’ were separated by the central hall (in days gone by this was apparently the ‘infants’ school). The corridors were tall and echoing and tiled throughout, and in the old boy’s school wing were a flight of stone steps, leading to three upper classrooms, that had been worn down over the course of decades by the feet of thousands of children and staff going to and from their classes.
The classrooms were large and airy, lit by tall gothic windows. In my classroom (in the old boy’s wing, and incidentally the same classroom where my grandfather was pupil in the 1910’s on ’20’s) we had old individual desks with lifting lids and (now redundant) inkwells, all arranged in straight lines facing the door, with the blackboard to one side on an easel. Along the one wall were two very large, old cupboards containing text-books, some of which I am convinced hadn’t been looked at for decades. The walls of the classroom were lined with educational posters, and I remember vividly that the poster next to my desk depicted British Castles, and I spent many hours staring at that poster and dreaming of visiting all of the castles shown….I am getting there slowly!!!!!
In my day, the staff consisted of nine teachers and the headmaster, Mr Ken Adams-Morgan – red-faced, eyebrows with a personality all of their own, and feared by all!!!! I have since realised of course, that he was a very good and a very fair headmaster, not to mention a fine musician, and the school ran like clockwork under his leadership. The teachers were: Miss Davies, Mrs Phillips, Mrs Evans, Mrs Thomas and Mr Fitzgerald over in the old girl’s school (or over the other side as we used to say); and on ‘our side’: Mr Price, another Mrs Phillips, Mr Morgan, and last but by no means least, my own teacher – Mr Humphries.
I was taught by Mr Eddie Humphries for the whole time I was at Twyn School. Mr Humphries was a big man – in every sense of the word. He was a teacher of the ‘old school’, a strict disciplinarian, and focusing very much on ‘the Three R’s’. English and Maths were drilled in to us on a daily basis, with spot tests on spelling and times-tables. I didn’t mind the spelling tests – I was usually very good with those, but the times-tables struck fear into my heart. Anything mathematical still brings me out in a cold sweat. Mr Humphries had a cane hanging behind his desk, and in the four years I was in his class, I never recall him using it – the fact that it was there was enough!!!!
The above makes it sound as if Mr Humphries was a fearsome tyrant. He wasn’t. Every one of us respected him, and I know everyone I speak to today who had the privilege of being taught by him, still remembers him fondly. I know that Eddie Humphries had a profound effect on my life. Without doubt he was the biggest influence in my life, and made me the person I am today – for that I will always be grateful. If I can try to live by the standards he instilled in us all, and if I can be half the man he was, I will count myself a very lucky person.
I’m sure children today would think that the above description of school is from a totally bygone age, but it is in fact just 40 years ago. Schools and the process of teaching have totally changed – but are these changes for the better?
Twynyrodyn School is gone now. It closed in 2003 and amalgamated with the infants school, and the building was demolished in 2008, but it still holds a very special place in my memories.
If anyone has any Merthyr related memories that they would like to share, please get in touch. They can be about any subject as long they are connected with Merthyr.
I was in Mr Humphries’ class in the late 70s, so you were a classmate of mine.
My desk, as faced Mr Humphries’ desk, was on the right, third from the back. Two Steves were behind me, Brewer and Singer. Johnnie Lewis had the front desk in our row.
Your article has brought back a flood of memories, including the British Empire map on the back wall, the time I brought boxing gloves in and the whole class held hands to form a ring in the hall while two boys from the class had to fight to settle a dispute (I can’t remember who or why, but it happened!), the time ‘Sir’ was away for a while and our supply teacher introduced a house system with the names Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea & QPR (none of this Hywel & Glyndwr nonsense), how Mr Humphries made us all learn how to say Llanfair P.G. in full, that poem he liked about a man, an angel and a list of names, the 4 year wait to play against 4E for The Shield, that day we got told off for getting too noisy playing Escalado… and a million things more.
Those were our ‘Stand by me’ years. A childhood lasts a lifetime after all.
I am indeed the Steve Brewer who sat behind you!!!!
You have just brought some more memories flooding back……I remember the boxing match!!!!
I enjoyed reading these memories. I, too,was a Pupil at Twynyrodyn and have the same fond memories- just twenty years older! Looking back, one of the things that strikes me is the size of the school play grounds: a separate playground for the younger boys (front playground), one for the older boys (up the steps) and a large girls’ playground that split naturally into two sections so that the younger and older girls could play their games unhindered. No schoolchild quarrels caused by overcrowded playgrounds in those days- space for everyone to do their own thing .