As Old Father Time moves on relentlessly we were called to lunch by the bell.

By and large, school lunches in the 1950s were meals to be endured rather than enjoyed, and as we entered the dining room having been summoned by the one o clock bell I was never filled with the joy and anticipation of a tasty experience.

Instead, there was just a feeling of hungry necessity, something needed to keep body and soul together for the rest of the afternoon.

There was, however, from time to time, a silver lining which arrived in the shape of a pudding christened  "window frames" by the boys in School House. Made from suet and fruit from the kitchen gardens, I found this thoroughly enjoyable and always looked forward to its arrival on the table.

Served with a helping of custard it was very filling, and the downside to this was that it lay heavily in the stomach for some time, making us very sluggish during the afternoon. 

Unfortunately, the School cook had the unhappy knack of serving this up on Wednesdays and Saturdays, prior to afternoon football matches. Whilst this was not particularly detrimental to the quality of football in general, I felt it impacted on the First XI 's performance during inter-school matches, and it was to their detriment.

 'Stoker' Lewis refereeing a match on the first game pitch

I felt so strongly about this that when I was appointed Captain of Football by Headmaster Williamson I decided to take the matter up with him, making the case that this pudding was affecting the School Team's mobility on the football field. He promised to mention it to Mrs Tudor, but it did not seem to make any difference, and I actually pleaded with the cook's son Dicky, who boarded at School House, to mention it to his mother. 

Lunch over it was time to prepare for more lessons, apart from Wednesday and Saturday, when afternoons were given over to sporting activities depending on the time of the year. The least favourite day of the week for form IVA , as juniors, was, without question, Tuesday. (Starting at 2pm and finishing about 4.15pm). We had three periods, and on Tuesdays we were faced with a double period starting at 2pm under the tuition of the much feared " Stoker " Lewis.

His very presence was intimidating, and we were all scrubbed up, with pencils sharpened, and rubbers cleaned when the 2pm bell called us to classroom IVA, which was situated off the long corridor between Form III and the Library.

The ground floor layout in the 1950s

For some unaccountable reason me and my classmates in Form IVA earned the reputation with the teaching staff of being the nightmare class (from hell) , which could partly explain why Dai Lewis immediately clamped down, excessively in my opinion, on classroom discipline, when teaching us.

Possibly, having seen how our unruly antics in the Memorial Hall had resulted in the premature departure of one of the Masters at Oswestry School, he had concluded that a firm hand should be taken from the outset.

'Stoker' Lewis in action in the classroom

However, we were not alone, and I suspect that if our Junior contemporaries were to be truthful now, they would admit that we were all fearful of this intimidating Welshman in and out of the classroom. He was able to maintain discipline in School House by instilling fear of reprisals, and he had a formidable presence wherever he went.

It was always good to hear the bell announcing the end of lessons for the day so that we could then participate in sporting activities until tea time.

Ralph Williamson, in 1957 during the visit of  HRH the Duchess of Kent on the School's 550th Anniversary

Headmaster Ralph Williamson declared that it would be good for each boy's development if he were to join a club, and in the mid 1950s it became obligatory to do so. At that time there was a choice of about five clubs, and I was torn between Chess, Photography, and railway modelling.

 The Railway Modelling Club in action

As a keen photographer I was tempted to join the Photographic Club, which was an expensive pastime in those days, and since I was always short of money I turned my mind to the alternatives. I later joined the Climbing Club which operated amongst the trees up in the dingle close to the open air pool.

The open air pool viewed from the dingle

Since several of my classmates had opted for The Chess Club, a game I knew little about, I decided to join them in an effort to learn the finer points of the game.

Tuesday and Thursday were declared official club nights 

The popularity of the club grew to such an extent that individual members were soon playing postal Chess against boys at schools throughout the country which led to the formation of a School Team. Very soon afterwards Oswestry School began engaging in inter - school competitions, including with a school from Kiev in Ukraine, and the excerpt below, taken from the 1957 January edition of The Oswestrian, reports on the progress being made.

Chess Club report from The Oswestrian

Being a rookie player I became used to losing most of my matches. I was never a good loser at anything, and being more interested in physical activity anyway, I would sometimes skip clubnight, break bounds via the dingle, and go for a long run, occasionally in the company of Roger Morgan, who also enjoyed distance running, and who would go on to win the Victor Ludorum in 1961.

The next ring of the bell at six o'clock would announce it was tea-time.

In the thrid and final part, I will talk about the gang of bandits I dubbed " The Tuckroom Terrorists " because of the shameless way they demanded goodies from boys' tuckboxes.