1956 Trip to Edinburgh

Editor: During the summer Jean contacted the site with regard to one of the long school photographs and mentioned that she had enjoyed a school trip to Edinburgh in 1956, she very kindly sent a copy of the photograph and some notes on the trip and her memories of living in Laindon.

I only lived in Laindon for about 18 months (on my 12th birthday) and then moved to Basildon. I continued going to the High Road School because I loved it, and didn’t want to go to Craylands. We lived in Doves Ave which only had three bungalows. Off the arterial Road, just before Pound Lane. It was demolished many years ago. But us kids loved it, although there was no electricity, only gas, no running water and a toilet down the garden in a little shed. How our mother coped with four kids I don’t know.
My brother Doug and sister Kay Osborn went to St Nicholas School on the hill overlooking us.
I have a photo that may be of interest to the website, it is of the school excursion trip that us senior children and teachers made to Edinburgh, Scotland in 1956, it was taken taken in front of the school. We had a lovely week, we traveled to Scotland by coach and then train. We stayed in Princes Street, Edinburgh. Lovely Mr and Mrs Gay are the two staff members on the left. Joan Powell is next to them. Mr Woodward the school principal is in the centre.  Next to him on the right is Pauline Temple and then myself (Jean Osborn now Powell) light coloured coat, buttoned up and no socks! Then on his second left is Norma Fullerton. The tall boy with dark hair at the back is Peter Riches. Unfortunately, although I recognise many of the faces I can’t recall their names.
I have a signed copy of the class photo 1956/7and some of the girls names are: June Newton, Norma Fullerton, Dianne Baxter, Dorothea Muncy, Betty Davis, Pauline Temple, Isabel Beaney, Dianne Moore. Janet Marlton, Helena Hulsey, Kathleen Stelling, Brenda ? Although I recognise most of the girls, I can’t put some names to faces and can’t read the signatures on the back. Excuse any spelling mistakes. I am not in the photo as I was absent that day. You already have a list of the boys.
I also attended the High School evening classes. We were last in Laindon 2008 as I have a cousin who still lives there in Durham Road. He then informed me that the school had been or was about to be demolished. I didn’t look but have since seen the photos, was as others, quite devastated, but that’s progress for you.
For a short while, I rode my Dads bike (with a cross bar) to school from Basildon, wearing trousers (or long pants) and used to nip into the girls’ toilets to change. I was spotted and informed it was a bad image for the school and not to do it again. How times have changed!
Miss Jollyman, taught biology. Not the sort they do now. She had a “beehive “in the room and access to it so we could watch the bees come in. That was my first year there. From the photo she looks younger than I remember her.