THE STAFF

Mr Oldroyd and Mr Farish had cause to be grateful for the assistance of many dedicated and long-serving members of staff. In several cases the teachers served under both Headmasters, and Mr Farish must have been glad that he found a sound nucleus of experienced and able people already at the School.

It is difficult to make a selection from the staff for special mention, and the following have been chosen mainly on the basis of length of service, the twelve men and women listed having worked for an accumulated total of over 350 years at Heywood Grammar School. They are listed in date order of their appointments. Some of them also moved on to the new Heywood Senior High School after 1968 and continued teaching there.

Philip Caesar Corlett

In November 1911, after the appointment of Mr Cadman as the School's first Headmaster, advertisements were placed for the position of Assistant Senior Master to assume responsibility for the teaching of Chemistry and Physics. Mr Corlett was successful from among seventy-seven candidates, and was appointed at a salary of £170 per annum.

When he took up his appointment, he was also called upon to teach Geography, Music and Drill. Three years later he applied for the Headship on Mr Cadman's resignation, but was unsuccessful. He apparently accepted this setback with equanimity, as he continued to teach at the School, eventually specialising in Mathematics, until retiring in 1948.

The following extract is from the farewell in the July 1948 edition of the Phoenix:

"Mr P C Corlett retires from teaching at the end of this term and his retirement marks the departure of the last of the original staff of the School who were appointed at its opening in 1912. A native of the Isle of Man, he was educated at Douglas and at the University of Liverpool, where he took his Bachelor's degree in Science in 1904, and his Master's degree the following year.

After teaching at Port, Bakewell and Millom, he came to Heywood to teach a variety of subjects, among which later generations will be astonished to learn Mathematics was not included.

With the increase in staff and pupil numbers after the First World war, he entered into his own at last, and abandoning the Sciences to Mr Hope and Mr Gregory, became the great mathematician that he has remained to the end of his career. He is still, in his last term, teaching the Sixth Form Mathematics, and it is by the teaching of this subject that most generations of the School must remember him."

Mr Corlett was also extremely influential in the development of Physical Education in the School, and in the formation and work of the Dramatic Society.

He died in November 1949.

Mary Lythgoe

Miss Lythgoe was appointed at the School's opening to teach Needlework for three hours per week at three shillings and ninepence per hour. She also had similar arrangements at schools in Radcliffe and Whitefield, and taught evening classes at the Technical College. As the number of girls at the School increased, so did her hours of work, and so did the number of subjects she taught. These included Millinery, Dressmaking and eventually Cookery. She retired in 1947, one year before Mr Corlett.

The following tribute was printed in the Phoenix:

"With Miss Lythgoe's retirement, only Mr Corlett remains of the pioneers who began what was undoubtedly the bold experiment of a Grammar School in Heywood. Miss Lythgoe saw the School grow to its present size and organisation, and many generations of girls will remember her careful teaching, and her high standard of personal example, while the whole School owes her an equal debt for her fine services at the School and House parties".

Miss Lythgoe had been in poor health even while working, and she died the following year.

Rachel Firth Pearson

Miss Pearson attended Rochdale Secondary School and Manchester University, gaining her Master's degree in 1917. She was appointed at Heywood Grammar School to be "in charge of History throughout the school" in 1919.

She remained Senior History Mistress for the next forty years, but at various times also taught Latin, English, Scripture and Music. For many years she played the piano at morning assembly.

In 1956 she was appointed Deputy Head, and held that position until her retirement in 1959 at the age of sixty-five. She had taught at Heywood Grammar School for forty-one years, the longest continuous service of any member of staff, (but see Mr Hope below).

George Archibald Gregory and Harry Hope

The careers of Mr Hope and Mr Gregory have much in common. They were appointed within three weeks of each other in early 1920, and both retired at the end of the Summer term of 1957. They joined a school poorly equipped for the Science subjects they were to teach, Chemistry in the case of Mr Gregory and Physics for Mr Hope. Laboratory apparatus was lacking in quantity and quality, as were textbooks. They were given the task of fully equipping the laboratories and ensuring that the teaching of Science was of the required standard. This they did, and continued to teach their respective subjects for the next thirty-seven years.

Mr Gregory was educated at Scarborough Secondary School, and at the University of Leeds, achieving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1915. During the first World War, he worked in munitions, and did service in the Army during 1919, before being appointed to Heywood Grammar School, to teach Chemistry and Junior Maths.

He returned after retirement on a part-time basis in view of the shortage of Science teachers, and remarkably was still teaching when the School closed in 1968, actually spending some time at the new Heywood Senior High School before finally deciding that he had contributed enough. He was seventy-nine years of age! His final retirement was short, and he died in 1970.

Mr Hope was a local man, attending Bury Grammar School, and then Manchester University. He served in the Army throughout the years 1916-1918, and taught in two Manchester schools before joining Heywood Grammar School. He became a Bachelor of Science in 1911 and a Master of Science in 1928. Apart from his teaching of Physics, Mr Hope pioneered swimming at the School, and in 1951 he received the Royal Life Saving Society's Certificate of Thanks from the then Princess Elizabeth in recognition of his work, which had resulted in several hundred pupils gaining awards.

Messrs Hope and Gregory retire in 1957, although in Mr Hope's case, only temporarily.

Jessie Maud Evans

Miss Evans went to school in Carmarthen before attending University College, Aberystwyth. She was appointed Senior English mistress at the school in 1920, having held several teaching posts previously. After twenty-two years service, she left to take up a position at Okehampton Grammar School. During her stay in Heywood, she was for many years the Girl Guide Commissioner.

Of all the members of staff covered in this chapter, Miss Evans was the only one to leave the School other than on retirement.

George William Davies

Until 1950 there was no full-time teacher of Physical Education at the School. Mr Davies was appointed in 1921 to work one day per week teaching "Physical Drill and Games". He was eventually to increase this to two days per week, sharing his time between the School and Eccles Grammar School until his retirement due to ill health in 1950.

Harry Howarth

Mr Howarth was educated at Newchurch Grammar School and Reading University College before service in the First World War interrupted his studies, which he resumed at Queen's College, Cambridge when the war ended. He gained his Bachelor of Science degree in 1921. His first teaching posts were at the quaintly named Manchester Warehousemen and Clerks School in Cheadle Hulme and Royal Commercial Travellers School in Middlesex.

He was appointed to teach Geography at Heywood in 1924, and obtained his Master's degree in 1926. It was not until 1946 that he became Senior Geography Master, and in 1957 the Senior Master at the School. Towards the end of his career he introduced Geology to the School as a GCE subject.

In 1937 Mr Howarth married a fellow member of staff, Gladys Coulthurst, who, although she left the School on her marriage, was known to pupils over the next twenty years. She was first drafted in to act as deputy teacher during the war, but continued to cover for staff shortages and absences into the late 1950s. In addition to her specialist subjects of English and French, she taught many others, even covering as boys' Physical Education instructor just prior to the appointment of a full-time teacher in that post.

Outside the School, Mr Howarth played an active part in the life of the town. During the Second World War, he assisted in the local Citizens Advice Bureau, and he held a long-service medal in the Special Constabulary. On the educational front, he was the teachers' representative on the Divisional Education Committee, and represented the School on the Youth Employment Committee. He was also on the governing bodies of several local Primary and Secondary Schools, and for eleven years taught commercial subjects at the Adult Education Centre.

As early as 1929 he started the Chess Club at the School, and persevered with it despite fluctuations in its popularity.

Mr Howarth retired at the same time as Miss Pearson in 1959, and moved to Grasmere. For the next five years Mrs Howarth continued to serve as a magistrate in Heywood despite the travel involved.

Miss Pearson and Mr Howarth take their leave of Mr Farish, 1959

Audrey May Smith

Whilst not a member of the teaching staff, Miss Smith's long service to Heywood Grammar School can not go unrecorded. A pupil at the School from 1927 to 1933, she returned in 1937 as School Secretary. When the Grammar School closed in 1968, she was still there, and continued to work at the new Heywood Senior High School until 1977. She assisted Mr Oldroyd for nine years and Mr Farish throughout the whole of his career as Headmaster. Although she had little contact with most pupils, the efficient running of the School for over thirty years owed much to her organising abilities. Miss Smith would have been the ideal person to write the history of the School. She is remembered at Siddal Moor Sports College, where each year there is an Audrey Smith Award for Attainment in Business Studies.

Dorothy Jean Wood

Miss Wood attended the County High School for Girls in Sale, and then Manchester University, leaving with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin. After several teaching posts, she was appointed to the School on a temporary basis in 1940, this being normal procedure during the war. She was to specialise in Latin, but was also put in charge of Junior English.

She supervised the Girl Guide troop at the School in the immediate post-war years, and for many years worked with Miss Peers in producing the School and Staff plays.

On Miss Pearson's retirement in 1959, Miss Wood was appointed Deputy Head. Like Miss Smith, she continued her career at Heywood Senior High, remaining Deputy Head, and stayed on beyond Mr Farish's retirement, finally to retire herself in 1971.

Hilda Peers

A native of Bury, Miss Peers attended Bury High School, where she was School Captain in 1925. During her subsequent years at Leeds University, she became a Bachelor of Art in 1929, and a Master of Art in 1932. She then taught at schools in Rochdale, Heywood and Bolton before being appointed at Heywood Grammar School in 1943, as Senior English mistress to replace Miss Evans.

In 1946 she revived the Dramatic Society, and produced school and staff plays for the next twenty years. She was also heavily involved in the production of the school magazine until its demise. She retired in 1967.

Miss Peers was an outstanding teacher of the English language and its literature. Despite an austerity in appearance and manner, among former pupils interviewed in connection with this book, she, perhaps more than any other teacher, is remembered with respect and, indeed, affection.

Another long and distinguished career ends. Miss Peers retires in 1967

William Thomas

The only member of staff covered in this review to be appointed after the Second World War, Mr Thomas came to the School in 1947, when he was thirty-nine. He was educated at Preston Grammar School, then at Exeter College, Oxford, becoming Bachelor of Arts in 1930 and Master of Arts four years later.

He taught French at Whitworth and Colne Grammar Schools and at Lord William's School, Thame, before moving to Heywood. Almost immediately he began leading school trips to France and Belgium, despite the state of post-war northern Europe, and these he continued for the next twenty years.

Mr Thomas moved to the Senior High School in 1968 as Senior Master. He retired in 1971 and died shortly afterwards.

Nicknames

As in all schools, nicknames for teachers were in some cases more widely used than their real names. Many were predictable, so that from the staff members covered in this chapter Mr Corlett became Corky, Mr Hope was known as Soapy, Mr Gregory as Gag from his initials, and Mr Thomas as Tommy. Mr Farish was referred to as The Boss or Pop. The women teachers didn't attract nicknames in the same way, Christian names sufficing for Miss Pearson and Mrs Howarth, and some of the others escaping altogether, although Miss Wood was known as Daisy.

One nickname, however, had a less obvious origin, and requires an explanation. Mr Howarth's first day at the school in 1924 was on the day before Shrove Tuesday. As some well-informed pupil must have informed his colleagues, this day is known in the calendar as Collop Monday, and for the next thirty-five years Mr Howarth rejoiced, or possibly not, in the name of Collops.