Up the cliffs back to school
JM: I can remember about Ernie (Clee), he was a lovely teacher he was. But the thing was he was deaf. We kids used to take advantage of that see, until he would turn around and say ‘What was that? What was that you said?’ But he was a lovely, a lovely teacher. In fact they all said that Ernie should have been the Headmaster.
YC: I agree, I agree with Joan. He should have been.
JM: I was quite alright in Ernie’s class. Every morning I had to go up to his house, he and his wife lived just up here on the top, and I had to go up to see if there was any mail for him come. Any post. And I was delighted cos I was out from school. I used to take my time going up the road there. Cos I was out from school. But he was ever so good, if it was a bad day, like the weather and that, he’d sit down and play the piano to us. It was fantastic.
YC: He was a lovely pianist. But with Ernest Clee he had a girls’ choir and they won cups competing with different schools. They won cups. Now I’ve got pictures of this that I’ve got to find. I’ve been searching high and low. But I know I’ve got them. A girls’ choir and he had a football team for the boys…and big boys. Jack Hicks was captain, great big fellow, Harold Donnithorne, another great big boy. Lovely football team they had. Then he had carpentry for the boys. They used to make wooden stools with raffia tops and they used to sell these. Don’t know where the money went though.