| Description | An interview with Joan FERGUSON, a married woman with one daughter, who is a Retired teacher, born in Stoke-on-Trent and now living in Birmingham. Joan FERGUSON’s father was a Lamplighter, born in ENGLAND and her mother a Housewife born in ENGLAND. In the interview, she talks about …
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My name is Joan Margaret Ferguson and I was born in Newcastle-Under-Lyme….in 1932. First lived with parents and grandparents together, then later moved into a house with just parents. When aged 10 passed a scholarship to go to the leading girls school in Newcastle from 1942-47. Took School Cert. And then left to go to commercial college for a year to do shorthand and typing.
1.50 Describes the girls school: subjects taken. Studied French and German.
Studied Spanish at commercial college.
3.32 Worked in several offices including Richards, a tile firm, where her sister worked. They exported to South America so Spanish useful.
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Sister was a role model so followed her into commercial college, although really wanted to be a teacher. Couldn’t afford it at the time. Joined auxiliary air force at weekends in 1950 and heard from a friend that you could now get a grant to go to teacher training college.
1.48 The first college that I applied to which was Nelson Hall …that was all female, and when I admitted to being in the air force that was very much frowned upon and I didn’t get in. But I also applied to Alsager College and it was male and female which made a great difference, although the rules for the men were very different from the rules for the women. The men were allowed to go to the local pub, but the women were not….
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Enjoyed college but important to pass exams because otherwise had to teach on half pay for a year.
27” I had a grant of £50. a year, which to my irritation was paid, not to me, because I was only 20 when I went, but to my father, even when I was 21 it was still paid to my father…..and he doled it out so much a week…My sister used to give me money to buy the odd lipstick and a few clothes…
1.53 School practice once a week. Storytelling at end of day. Bussed out to rural school. Teacher took ill so had a lot more responsibility.
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School in Manchester was near to an RNAS station so every week had a new child whose parents had come from Germany so had 54 children in the class.
53” You had to choose which age group you were going to take and I did infants….mostly the men went to the seniors, but of course our group was all women because no man would want to teach infants at that time!….
2.28 Story about headmaster being from the south.
3.00 At college from 1952-4, and at first school from 1954-6.
3.35 During time with air force as a fighter plotter made trips to Germany and Malta.
4.35 I’d got itchy feet by that time but we had to stay in England for 2 years because the country had educated us and we had to pay back a bit that it had cost so the only thing you could get away with was if you had a baby, but that was a bit drastic!
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Applied to teach in Rhodesia in 1956. Describes teaching and living in Rhodesia. Importance of weather to farmers.
4.14 Story about dealing with snakes in bedroom.
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Assembly was conducted outside in the playground.
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Taught in a European school. 3 different school systems based on apartheid. Describes aspects of the school system. Old fashioned compared to UK.
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Met a fellow traveller on return ship to UK in 1958, remained friends. Decided to have a break from teaching.
1.17 I went to London and got a job in the travel agents, Thomas Cook.
Story about visits to the theatre.
2.48 Decided to return to teaching. Applied to London County Council. Worked at a special school in Sussex.
Story about taking the children on school outing.
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Describes difficulties of teaching children with special needs.
3.27 Went to work at a school in London. Surprised at the family backgrounds of many of the children. I was very taken aback when the children began to tell me the news on Monday morning and they talked about going “up Scrubs” which was Wormwood Scrubs! And they’d all got either an uncle or somebody who either was in or who’d been in, or was going to be in….
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Went back to teach in Stoke on Trent. Stayed 2 years.
42” Then I became a Catholic. I was born into a Methodist family, then I became C of E. My sister was married to a Catholic so I knew a fair bit about the religion…I wanted to go to a Catholic School so I applied to the Parish school…
1.39 Lots of children of immigrant families. Problems remembering Polish surnames.
2.34 In 1963 I got married to a man who was born in Shanghai… and he’d come over in 1947 from China…
Story of how husband came to be in Birmingham.
4.30 Got a new job in Smethwick at St Philip’s School for 1 year, then was transferred to St Gregory’s School in Bearwood.
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Stayed at St Gregory’s for 9 years until 1973.
1.04 I went to the Education Authority and they suggested that I teach English to immigrants….it was when the quota system was in operation….
2.05 I did a year in the English to Immigrants team, but we had to stop calling them immigrants because most of the children were born in Dudley Road Hospital by then, so they weren’t immigrants, it was just that most of them couldn’t speak the language, so it became the EMSS team (Ethnic Minority Support Service).
2.45 I was asked to go to Cape Hill Primary School….we had a very mixed lot of children and it was strange that I’d been in Africa and taught all white children, and I went to Smethwick and taught Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Caribbeans…
3.57 Took early retirement in 1985 because suffering from asthma and bronchitis.
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Husband died 6th Feb. 1990. Joan decided to stay in the flat. Doesn’t feel alone in a flat compared to a house.
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Describes some of the holidays taken by Thomas Cook customers in the 1950s. Ibiza was becoming popular. Anecdote about a particularly wealthy customer Dame Flora. Mostly middle classes taking foreign holidays.
4.43 Describes foreign holidays taken with husband.
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Continues to describe holidays. Yugoslavia, Greece and Sri Lanka.
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Often sick as a child. Suffered from asthma. Mother worked for the doctor as a bill collector so doctors were regular visitors to the house. Wasn’t allowed to be evacuated during the war.
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Positive experiences of the NHS.
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Reasons for deciding to become a Catholic. Thinks it was mainly knowledge of history that made her become a Catholic
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Reasons for liking Birmingham. Influence of Townswomens’ Guild. Still feels that North is more welcoming overall.
3.58 Secretary of Townswomens’ Guild from 1991.
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Done course at local college in computing.
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Defines identity as English. In Rhodesia the longer I was away from England the more English I felt, because I did tend to say, “oh, we do it better in England”.
57” Now, I do consider myself as European as well…
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It is still a man’s world in spite of all that has gone on. I felt this particularly when I got married because I was 31 when I got married, and at that age you are a person in your own right. And I resented being Fred’s wife and Jean’s mother because I wanted to be me, and when I went to school in the morning and saw Mrs Jean Ferguson writ large on my classroom door, I knew that that was me…
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Relates story of how husband’s parents met and came to UK.
ENDS |