Rectory Road

The Rectory Road school building from the front elevation had a divided playground at the rear, girls to the left and boys to the right at the far end were a pair of asbestos classrooms. The original Memorial Hall which was donated to the residents of Headless Cross together with the Birchfield Road playing fields was used as an additional classroom. There was a large area of garden occupying the side and rear of the school site, on the top right hand corner next to the pavement was a surface air raid shelter. If you lived within five minutes of the school when the siren went you were allowed to go home otherwise you had to sit in this dark damp shelter.

One afternoon a week we were taken to the Birchfield Road playing fields for sports which was usually cricket or football under the direction of Mr Bob Michie On one occasion, although I wasn't present, a German bomber circled around for a considerable time before making off and attempting to drop his load on the BSA works.

The playing fields, in those days, were divided into two by a hedge and a pavilion, in the first field opposite Heath,s factory was a large, semi-underground Z shaped shelter which was always flooded and never used, in the field opposite the Seven Stars was a shelter similar to the one which stood in the school gardens and only used by one family.

Locals queried why the bomber wasn't fired upon as the town was circled by searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, it was revealed much later that there hadn't been an officer available to give the command.

Most of the air raids were at night and we all used to take cover in the most dangerous place of all, under the stairs, next to the gas and electric meters. Very often we stood outside and watched the bombers being caught in the rays of the searchlights, but they were never hit. I have clear memories of watching the red glow in the sky the night they flattened Coventry, I shall always remember the date November 14th 1940 because the shock of it brought on the birth of my sister prematurely.

Teachers did not move around much in those days and a number of my teachers taught my mother and her brothers and sister before me.

At the age of around eleven the most brainy of the children (and those whose parents could afford to buy a scholarship) left and went either to the County High School or the Alcester Grammar School.

Even in those early days I was very conscious of a social divide, I can rarely remember the children from Plymouth Road or the western end of Birchfield Road being allowed to come and play on the playing field.

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