Denbigh schools in the year 1915

In the year 1915 Denbigh had seven schools. Howells high school for girls only, Grammar school
for boys only, Catholic mixed school, girls seven to fourteen school, infants mixed five to seven,
one mixed school seven to fourteen and one boys only seven to fourteen.
I attended the infants school from the age of five to seven years and then moved to the boys only
school from seven to fourteen and on attaining the age of fourteen I left and commenced working
on the railway up to the age of my retirement after a total of fifty years. The school I attended was
then called the Love lane boys school as this school was situated in one of the town streets which
is called Love lane, the school was built sometime in the early 1800 s being built of dressed stone
During the seven years that I attended the school I had to walk the one and a half miles to be at
school for nine in the morning back home for dinner at twelve noon, return for one thirty and back
home at four.
The school play yard was usually a sea of mud especially after rain. This would be cleaned and
carried away at intervals by the boys themselves so as to make it a little more suitable to play.
In the main games played were rounders, football, marbles and a few rounds of boxing.
There were about one hundred and fifty boys in the school but we were never given much
homework to do, we might be given a few sums to work out about once a week.
The school had three classrooms above and four classrooms at below ground level. Theses four
classrooms would be very dark during the winter months and also very damp. There was also
never many books about to read, there was also one long washroom below with four wash hand
basins fitted with a cold water tap only.
The lower rooms took in classes one to four and the top room which was one long room took
classes three to seven.
The school carried a total staff of four teachers and one head teacher.
The one female teacher and four male teachers all lived in Denbigh or in the country on the
outskirts of town.
The headmaster was Mr John Roberts; he was a very stern man. He would walk between the
children and their desks while the boys were doing their work. He always carried a cane and if he
noticed anything wrong with the boys work he just rise the cane across the boys hand and point
out the mistake with it.
Classes six and seven were taken by him and everyone dreaded to think when they had to move
up from the lower classes.
There was also one long cloakroom where all the boys hung up their hats and coats.
The caretaker of the school which at that time was a woman and she lived in a flat below the
school.
We were only given fifteen minutes morning and afternoon playtime. There was no such thing as
school meals for the ordinary school only at the county or higher school. We were never taken out
for walks or taken anywhere to see anything educational.
Any punishment (was) handed out by the headmaster himself and would be quite severe. It would
be three strokes across the right hand or three strokes across your seat, but for all that he turned
out some very fine boys which were a credit to the County school.
His school always had the highest number of boys to pass (out of) all the schools in Denbigh and
the outlaying district.
When you finally pass, the boys would go to the Denbigh County School and the girls from the
other town schools would have to trek to Ruthin by train, a distance of eight miles.

All the lessons were in English. The school would commence in the morning with a service
sometimes taken by one of the boys, but mostly taken by the schoolmaster himself.
I cannot recall anyone special coming to visit the school other than one of the school heads or
sometimes the town Mayor.
Their visits would be looked upon as fun because it would be a means of taking the Master away
from his classes. I did not miss a lot of school and there were not a lot of writing books.
Another subject we were learned once a fortnight was cardboard modelling.
The population of Denbigh around this time was around nine thousand.

(This photo was taken at the right hand side of the entrance to Denbigh castle)