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suzard
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This message was updated on 3/15/2008 3:03:34 AM by suzard

Thomas Horsley
replied on: 3/15/2008 2:57:23 AM

Excerpt from "A Native of langley Mill Looks back"

"Langley Mill Boys school was referred to as "Horsley's School" That great headmaster, Tom Horsley, was in charge of the school when I first went there, but the older generation still described the school by the name of the previous headmaster.... "Wilkes School"... Tom Horsley was held in great respect, not only by his pupils, but by the whole community. He was a firm disciplinarian, but he was fair and full of fun.Moreover we boys were somewhat in awe of him because of his reputation as a football referee........Every morning he stood at the school gate,watch and whistle in hand.How we tore down Dunster(Dunstead) hill at the sound of that peremptory whistle. There was a legend among the boys that it had once een used in a cup final at the Crytal palace.......
When we were all lined up in the playground, Tom Horsley would walk along the ranks - back and front-to inspect us. he had a passion for well polished boots. No matter how battered and worn a boys boots may be, they had to be well polished. We all wore laced up boots in those days, with the exception of the boys who sometimes arrived at school without footwear.I now realise this boot inspection had another motive.Sometimes a boy's boots were sadly beyond hope of repair. Of course, it didn't need an inspection to reveal the cases where the boys were foot-bare.For all cases of need there was a reserve stock of second hand boots, from which boys were fitted out in the cloakroom, where boot cleaning kits were available....
At that time the school building comprised two large rooms and two smaller ones. The larger rooms were divided into halves by curtains to accomodate two classes, each of which housed some sixty or so pupils. The last occasion when I spent some time in the school was in 1919, when, to my great delight,I did three weeks "teaching practice" there as part of my college course. There had, at that time been no alteration to the layout of the school.
When I was a pupil at the school we sat at long desks and most of our written work was on slates.Exercise books were for very special work, when ink pots and steel pointed pens were distributed by the monitors. The walls were decorated with maps, charts and a few pictures... and a large wall map of the world, with the british Empire coloured vividly in red.This map was always the focal point for an "Object lesson" on Empire day,when dressed in our Sunday best, and wearing red, white and blue favours,we marched to salute the flag.Another prominent chart showed the ships of the Royal navy and the regiments of the British Army,with the King's Life Guards drawn up as the final, impregnable line of defence between brittain and her enemies.There was also a chart on which a large circle was divided into coloured segments. The circle represented the Church year and each of the segments stood for one of the Church seasons, proportionate to its length.
When I reached the top class we received a special treat on friday afternoons, whilst the teacher was at work on the register.In a bookcase, carefully locked up for the rest of the week, was a library. This consisted of 60 or so books.They were not the hum drum books from which we read out loud,but special ones for silent reading.These were such exciting titles as "Around the World in Eighty days", "Tom Brown's Schooldays" and so forth.....
We were left in no doubt at Langley Mill boys school we were expected to become experts in the three R's....at regular intervals the curtain between the two classrooms in one of the larger rooms would be pulled back and Tom Horsley himself put us through our paces in spelling.
One of the mysteries about the curriculum was why, at certain times of the year, the emphasis would be on spelling, then suddenly we went all out for tables and other aspects of arithmetic. It did not escape our attention that there were days when the teachers appeared to be unusually interested in the arrival of the morning train from Ripley. At that time there was a branch line which terminated at a small station beside the main line one at Langley Mill.The line provided a route via Ripley to Derby... We knew the school inspectors came from Derby.

note from editor:
Many readers will have memories of Langley Mill boys school, now used as a warehouse by Bottomleys, the wholesalers.
It was known by most locals who can remember it as "Horsley's School"

note from e: now all demolished and replaced by a car salesroom.(I think!)

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