Dave Solomon remembers:
It was in the summer of either 1957 our year had a school trip to the
Lake District. As far as I can remember it was for boys only
(girls didn't do mountains then), it was for several days but less than
a week. We stayed at a large house which catered for school
parties near Lake Bassenthwaite.
Trips out included :-
Rowing on Lake Bassenthwaite, jumping in and slowly drowning because it was so cold.
Carlisle Castle
Climbing Skiddaw (931 metres) - gad it was tough Carruthers
Hadrians Wall - the site of Mr Bambers famous "joke" whilst touring the remains of a Roman fort i.e." Let's go over to the bakehouse and loaf"
As there were no girls present (and even if there were, in those days and at that age we only had a rough idea of what you could do with them) any spare time was taken up with educational games of pontoon or brag, and finding somewhere to have a crafty fag.
We also had a shopping trip to Keswick and I don't think the place ever recovered.
That's about the extent of my memory, but I think a "good time" was had by all, whoever she was.
Dave then found the booklet that all of the pupils were given before they left on the educational trip to the Lake District.
In September 2007 David was re-reading the booklet provided for the trip. I was checking out some of the names to see if I could recall to mind what each individual looked like, when it suddenly hit me like the proverbial thunderbolt. There were 55 pupils on the trip under the "control" of three staff. I think today "Elf 'n' safety" would insist on at least ten minders. But "no one was killed or drowned, in fact nothing to laff at at all"
To read the booklet click on the cover page below. On each page click on it to move on to the next one. The booklet had thick cardboard covers and is linen bound, and is hence difficult to scan properly. Some of the pages therefore have dark marks down the left hand edge - sorry. Other marks are due to the age of the paper, which is now over 48 years old.