Forums Forums Wirral Information Ask - Wiki Wirral Galtres School Bebington

Hello All
This is my first post does anyone know of this school it was known locally as the Owl school due to the Owl being on there blazer badge.

I don't know anything of the school and the following is not conclusive by any means, just trying to put 2 and 2 together.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...01731&layers=168&right=ESRIWorld

Westgarth on a later map 1960, is marked School, no name given. Google maps now shows it as Galtres Park.
Perhaps Westgarth was used as a school.

1964, Telephone Book.

Galtres School (Mrs E J Benson, BA)
Kings Lane, Bebington,
Rock Ferry 1172.

Very vague memory of seeing them around Beb Village --- didn't they have a dazzling purple uniform??

Maybe your right, I associated Purple with Wellington School but evidence shows they were green. Poulton Lancelyn are purple but they are a distance away.

I'm trying to remember what colour Plessington was when it was by Dacre Hill.

There definitely was some "purple kids" floating around Old Chester Road between the bottom of Town Lane to Kings Lane area in the long distant past.

Thanks for the confirmation. Funny how the mind works, after all those years!

Definitely, the college probably disappeared when the cinema was built, the cinema was built on the original nurseries and the row of shops built just in front of the college. So the college probably went around 1938.

It looks like the Kings Hotel was built at the same time.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...on=-3.01688&layers=193&right=168

I was a pupil at Galtres School from 1949 to 1956, when I went on to Birkenhead School. We did indeed wear purple caps and blazers, with a grey owl as badge. The building was a rambling Victorian house which was rather depressing, but the outside play area was wonderful: a small wood, a playing field at the bottom of a deep slope, and the foundations of a demolished building, which acted as an outdoor stage for school entertainments. I received a good education, and most of the teachers were pleasant. I particularly liked Mrs Patterson and a young temporary teacher, Mrs Ditchfield. I was, however, terrified of Mrs Benson, the headmistress, who could frequently be seen walking around with a cane under her arm, which she would frequently use. I and two friends were caned for playing at snowballs after school. I used to dread school: my grandchildren are far happier in their schooling.

For a while in my twenties, I went out with the daughter of one of my Galtres teachers. She had the bright idea of arranging a reunion with Mrs Benson. Within thirty seconds of the commencement of our meeting, Mrs Benson had started to tell me off.

I wonder what happened to them all. Is Mrs Ditchfield still alive?