CHARNEY HALL St. Paul’s Church, Grange-over-Sands



Every Sunday, without exception, we would form an orderly crocodile, two by two, and walk down Charney Well Lane into town to attend the morning service at St. Paul’s Church. If perchance we were to meet an old lady on the footpath we were given strict instructions to make way for her and raise our caps like proper gentlemen! The townsfolk must have been very impressed!

The journey back was not so easy as Charney Well Lane was at least 1 in 3 gradient, the higher we climbed, the steeper it became so it was with relief that we staggered through the school stone gate posts, past the Monkey Puzzle tree on our left and up the tarmac drive.

December 7, 2009 at 3:25 AM
david watt said...

“It is strange that the whole memory of ones incarceration at school is distilled into a few memories and ( usually rather funny but trivial incidents ).
I attended Charney from 62 to 66 and Roger Beaumont was a great pal of mine. 

We had to march down to the town church every Sunday and the only thing that would prevent this was the weather. One Sunday morning the drizzle was on and off and all of us waited anxiously for the decision from Maxwell Duncan and some of the other teachers.

Duncan was clearly undecided, and after a brief discussion, Mr McCullough said, " The way I decide on things such as this, is to ask myself..would it stop me going to the pictures?"
I will never forget the scowl that Duncan gave him, as if to say ..How dare you use such a mundane parallel to make such a reverent decision!
He was, however now left in a difficult place. If he decided not to go, it sort of meant that church was less important than the cinema. 
Of course, the decision was instantly made to go. The drizzle turned into heavy rain half way down Charney well Lane and we were all drenched.”



The north aisle was reserved for the school and it was there that the war memorials to those old boys who had fallen in the great wars were displayed. Unfortunately we were neither told about nor did we, at that time, appreciate their enormous sacrifice.

The Reverend Canon Thomson was the incumbent. He was the father or uncle (?) of one of our pupils. Quite small in stature, with a bald domed head, his manner was authoritive and his sermons long! Did we have a wager as to how long they would last? - I can’t remember but it was a treat to see the choir girls all lined up in their cassocks and square, floppy caps in the chancel pews! I think that our favourite was Lorna, the tall blond one!


Canon Thomson - imaginaire with apologies by Keith Smith


Comments

john cranna said…
I think that David Watt is the senior boy that teased me very gently with Mair Hughes, the matron when I was in Matron's room (not her bedroom!!) and David said to me "What is my name?", is I replied "Watt" to which he said, "I said - 'What is my name?'" and this went round and round with Matron Hughes smiling in the background when David eventually brought it to a close.
5 October 2022 at 14:53
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