The Bold Type is my record of the
Original Post;
the
Italic Type in { } new notes I have added to make some
sense after the passage of many years.
{I recall why I posted this item: A
gentleman of Scottish decent, resident in Durban, South
Africa, Posted about his previous visit to Scotland}.
Having taken a ‘Sleeper Train’ from
London to Glasgow.
{Whilst the Preston Bound Sleeper cars
were being detached from the Glasgow Sleeper-train to be
shunted into a siding at Preston Station. The travellers
to be wakened and served breakfast before leaving the
sleeper at 8am}.
{The post stated}
I wandered into the Preston Station barbers-shop for a
shave and hair cut; missing the Glasgow sleeper train.
{His ticket was
re-booked for the following nights Preston to Glasgow
night-sleeper.
With a
day to fill in},
A ticket inspector, advised me to join a
train on the next platform, for a day at the sea-side in
Blackpool, and to return to Preston
{on a service train from Blackpool to Preston}
in time to catch the Glasgow sleeper.
{the train from Preston to Blackpool
was taking Cotton Mill Workers for a seven day
holiday Called a Wakes Week whilst their towns
Cotton-mills underwent their annual maintenance}
{The
Posted Question ended with}
“Can anyone tell me what a Wakes Week is”?.
Having taken a ‘Sleeper Train’ from
London to Glasgow.
I wandered into the Preston Station
barbers-shop for a shave and hair cut; missing the
Glasgow sleeper train.
A ticket inspector, advised me to join a
train on the next platform, for a day at the sea-side in
Blackpool, and to return to Preston.
in
time to catch the Glasgow sleeper.
“Can anyone tell me what a Wakes Week
is”?.
I can recall many
items from the period immediately before the 2nd world-war, facts
which may come as a surprise to many people.
Workers in the cotton Spinning and Weaving mills,
located in various Lancashire towns where able to anticipate a six
day Summer Holiday to (which was added the following Sunday, the
normal day-of-rest).
This holiday, known as their “Wakes Week” had to
be taken at the same time as all the other mill-workers within that
town, as the towns Wakes Week covered the period when all the mills
in that town where closed for maintenance of their machinery and
installation of new equipment.
The Wakes Weeks were
spread over the Four weeks of the School Summer Holidays, (fixed by
Lancashire County Council); And workers could be sure that their
towns Wakes week would always fall into the same first, second third
or fourth week of the towns School Summer Holidays.
The mill workers and their
families travelled by special trains to the seaside, for example
Blackpool, Morecambe or Fleetwood, for Seven days (six nights) in a
‘Boarding House’.
The resorts of Southport
and Lytham St Anne’s being seen as being ‘Middle-Class, and so too
far ‘upmarket’ for mere millworkers.
What was a holiday seaside ‘Boarding House’ like
for the Holiday visitor? The deal was often, dinner bed & breakfast
with no mid day meals, after a cooked breakfast (often with
Kippers), the family had to get out of the ‘Boarding House’ until
dinner time, whatever the weather.
On a fine day Donkey rides on the sands, ‘punch
and judy show’, swimming or paddling in an open air swimming pool, a
short boat trip, a walk on the pier.
There was always Sweets, Chocolate, Candy-floss,
Pop (carbonated drinks), Sticks of Rock produced in walk-in
show-rooms to buy.
On a wet day, amusement arcades, or just sitting
huddled in a bus or tram shelter.
For lunch if eaten in a Café, Chip Shop or Pub,
often fish & chips or meat & potato pie and chips, with tea and
bread & butter.
If lunch was Purchased to ‘take-out, to be eaten
sitting on the sand in fine weather, or sitting in a shelter on the
promenade if raining. The fish & chips or meat & potato pie and
chips would be sprinkled with salt and vinegar and wrapped in
newspaper. The tea in a paper cup, or thermos-flask (filled by the
boarding house for a fee).
Old hands came prepared with a thermos flask, a
tin of sweetened condensed milk, and a ¼ pound packet of tea and a
nail.
It worked this way. After dinner on the first
day, then listening to the radio news in the lounge, and maybe
played board games: drafts, ludo, halma, snakes and ladders or card
games: snap, happy families, or whist. Until it was time to go to
bed.
In the bedroom, the tin of sweetened condensed
milk was placed on the floor. The nail was used, to punch two holes,
one each side of the can lid. (the nail was driven with the heel of
a shoe), about a teaspoon of the sweetened condensed milk was
dripped into the thermos flask and a teaspoon of tea was then added.
The holes in the can lid were sealed with sticking plaster, borrowed
from the Cotton mill’s first aid box. In the morning, after
breakfast, the landlady would be asked to fill the thermos flask
with boiling water, at the end of the week there would be tupence (2
pence) added to the bill and often a Hapenny (1/2 a penny) for the
use of the cruet (salt & pepper pots).
Why did a Mill town hold a Wakes Week?
With the workers on holiday, the cotton mills
were closed for maintenance of Boilers Water-wheels, drive belts,
also the Looms and Spinning frames, Millwrights moved in to
undertake this work, moving on to another town when the workers
there left for their Wakes Weeks.
Why Four Weeks School Summer Holidays?
Schools closed for FOUR WEEKS. The children had
four weeks holiday, not so the teachers, only one week holiday, for
they had to work for the remaining three weeks!!!. Although they
might spend just a few days attending a teachers training course.
Before the schools ‘broke-up’ for the holidays,
each teacher was given the Syllabus that the County Education
Authority required them to teach their pupils during the following
academic year. Each teacher, was required to draw up their own
time-tables for the coming year, setting out exactly what they would
teach for each week in every term, day by day, period by period,
this completed, their draft timetable had to be submitted to the
Headmaster for his agreement, so that he could incorporate their
class timetable into the school’s programme.
This preparation was vital, as, unlike today, a
County School Inspector would ‘drop - in’ at the School without
giving prior notice. He would knock on any classroom door, walk in,
the children would stand, he would shake hands with the teacher ask
her to tell the children to sit.
He then introduced himself to the Class Telling
the pupils to address him as “Sir”,
He would sit at the back of the classroom making
notes. During the break he would speak to the Teacher, and when the
children returned to the classroom he would stand beside the teacher
and question individual children on things he expected them to have
learned in the previous lesson, one or two children would be asked
to read a paragraph and he often asked them to take down a short
passage that he dictated. He might ask the teacher to put a couple
of Sums on the blackboard for the children to copy and calculate the
answers He would collect their efforts, and about 10 days later the
Headmaster would receive the Inspectors report.
This was less of a shock to the teacher than one
might anticipate, as a School Governor was in a similar position to an
Inspector as he would spend a few minutes with the Headmaster, check
over the time-table and be accompanied to the selected class-room.
Footnote:
at age seven my greatest thrill was
to sit on a cushion on a high stool in dads Counting-house,
totaling Pounds, Shillings, Pence, Half pennies and farthings, in a
ledger (summing in the reverse order) smallest value coins first.
and receiving one penny if the totals I obtained matched the covered
ledger totals.
Eighty years later, last week a Graduate
Worker in a Mail-order website was taking my order for two items for
£7.99 each inclusive of vat & (post free). I said "that is £15.98".
"we cant be sure of that she replied". we will not know the true
cost until I have entered, the price of each of the items, vat &
postage, into my computer, then I will tell you if your guess is
correct. Finlay she said "I can now prove your guess was not
wrong".
Regards Brian the Aberdonian.