Manchester Xaverian in the Sixties
Life in a Manchester Catholic grammar school
Bob Cummings The school was located on Wilbraham Road at the Wilmslow Road end. It was a large Victorian villa in its own grounds with playing fields to the right. It was between Wellington Road and Chervil Street, both of which are residential streets. Today there is little sign that there was ever a building there, … Read more
I arrived at Ward Hall in 1960. Another large converted house, it doubled as the refectory at lunch time for the whole college. My teachers included Bro Finbar (French), Mr Crotty (Geography) and Mr Dewhurst (English). Those of us who had migrated from the Prep School found the new intake of 11 plus boys to … Read more
St Anne’s Prep was on Wilbraham Road, Fallowfield. A large grey house behind tall wrought iron gates set in a privet hedge and surrounded on three sides by tarmac which was the playground. The back of the school was adjacent to playing fields which consisted of football pitches and artificial cricket strips made out of a … Read more
From the age of five I attended St Clare’s Catholic Primary School in Blackley. At that time the church was little better than a Nissen hut but the American born parish priest Father George had great plans for a new church which eventually came to pass. However, in the fifties the primary school suffered … Read more