The following was the second of three articles extracted from the Eccles & Patricroft Journal 29th August 1973
Mr. William Shercliff retired on April 27, 1951 after 38 years' teaching at the school. Originally from Burton-on-Trent, he now lives at 29 Clinton Road, Barnstaple, Devon. Mr Shercliff, aged 82 writes:
Eccles Secondary School opened in 1911 and I joined the staff in November 1912 as a raw recruit more or less straight from college. I therefore did serve with the original staff and was welcomed and very much helped by its members.
I am writing to offer a few remarks about various extra-curricular activities in which we were engaged.
I also recall that my starting salary was £130 per annum, that is just £2.10s per week. However in those distant days a newspaper cost 1d., an ounce of tobacco 5d. and railway fares a penny a mile. We were also paid in gold sovereigns.
One of my early recollections is of the younger men going out at morning break and playing football in the yard with the boys. We also shared their slides in the winter.
Another early event was a summer camp at Abergele in 1914 where we took both boys and girls. This was certainly unusual at that time. While there the news came of Sarajevo and the war clouds gathered.
Curiously the last camp I went to was in 1937 when P. G. Holt and I took a party of boys to the International Camping Club Rally at Weisbaden. It was easily obvious to us that the war clouds were again approaching.
I was indebted to my early colleagues for various introductions to activities which have since been a good part of my leisure life. The headmaster, T. I. Cowlishaw took me rock climbing in Derbyshire and on Tryfan.
J. H. Gunter, a great personal friend, and I think the wisest and most understanding master the school ever had, introduced me to walking in the lake District. Then you took a train to Windermere and walked all the rest of the holiday.
He and Foster Smith introduced me to hockey by way of mixed matches at school. Later, after the war, we three became founder members of Worsley Hockey Team, in which we were joined at times by various pupils and old boys.
Foster also gave me valuable help in my earlier efforts at photography.
I am indebted to a succession of ladies on the staff who so often produced school plays. I remember especially a famous Historical Pageant which involved pretty well the whole staff as well as many mothers who produced the wonderful costumes.
The Manual Department was always much more than a place for lessons, and Arthur Hollis and his successor, Tom Hill kindly allowed me to get a good training in "Do it yourself" jobs using their tools and profiting from their experience.
Our interests were in woodwork, stage scenery, mechanics and lighting as well as radio sets and motor car maintenance in the period when you could work on you engine without being a contortionist.
I am also grateful to F. H. Pollitt and J. S. Owen for stimulating my interest in classical music and the gramophone.
I am still delighted with the annual letters I get from Miss B. A. Baker, Bill Evans and Pen Williams with news about ESS and Chethams. I also had several happy years at the latter school at the interesting time when it was just becoming a grammar school.
Of the 4,00 pupils I must have met in my 38 years at ESS and EGS I can say I have made many friends. I particularly enjoyed the conversations we had in the common room with the young men from the forces who dropped in so frequently to tell us their experiences.
I have a special affection for the red brick building which overlooked my home in Grange Drive. It was built to last. I hope it will serve some useful purpose in the future.