Pat Sampy



Pat Sampy aged 5.

I've just read an article from Totley History Group by Eric Renshaw. I was in Miss Marsden's class with him in the 1930s aged 5 and it brought back lots of memories.

I am Pat Sampy, daughter of Connie and Tommy Sampy, who played for Sheffield United. My brother, David born in 1934, also went to Totley C. of E. School and was a Cub, Scout and Senior Scout. We lived at the top end of Totley Brook Road.

Several of us children walked together to school, up the path to Hargreaves House, along the river, through onto Hillfoot Road, past the Crown Inn to school and returned home for lunch.

In Miss Marsden's class the heated milk that Eric mentioned was Horlicks and, like him, I've never had it again. Later on we had milk in 1/3 pint bottles with cardboard lids used to make woollen pompoms. The bottles were brought in by the milk monitors.

We learned to write using wooden sand trays and counted with cowrie shells. The girls sat on the left of the class and the boys on the right.

In the school yard the girls played skipping and whip and top. There were two types of tops; one looked like a turnip and the other a mushroom. The boys mainly played football.

The toilets were at the bottom of the yards and once the big boys aimed over the top, causing us girls to shriek and run out.

For the Jubilee I was also in the races that Eric wrote about. It was a sunny day and I came First in the 40 yards flat race for 5 year olds and am named, along with Eric, in Robert H. Carr's article. I wish I could run that distance now! We were all given an oblong tin with pictures of the King and Queen.

I have very many happy memories living on Totley Brook Road from 1932-48 before the family moved to Main Avenue. What experiences we all shared going through the war and I recollect what a happy outdoor life we all enjoyed in Totley.

Pat Skidmore (née Sampy)
28th August 2018