"Back to Bechdale"

A review of Beechdale Primary School by CaptainC written on Thursday 8th of August 2024

The junior department of Beechdale school was opened in September 1959 and was the first junior school on the estate which was still catching up with the baby-boomers! I transferred from Croft St. which had been literally Dickensian in comparison.

The Head was Mr Gilbert and my class teacher was Miss Dawes (why did they all look like Audrey Hepburn?). She eventually married Mr Cross, another teacher at the school who rode a huge BSA motorbike. Other teachers I recall were Mr Baldock (or bulldog as we called him!) and Gordon Turner who was a member of the Walsall Society of Artists. His class performed a Civil War drama and he made all of the costumes including a suit of cardboard armour! My class performed The Vain Princess. I was a page boy and had to wear girls' gym knickers and have my legs powdered. Embarrassing or what!

Although an on site football pitch was quickly constructed, for part of the first year we traipsed down to The Bayou; the site of the present Red River estate, for games.

One thing I recall was that before landscaping was completed the school grounds were a moonscape since limestone a been historically extracted there. This, combined with the ominous, overshadowing prescence of the power station and its six massive cooling towers, gave the place an eerie feel. Since Qatermass was on TV at the time,my imagination ran riot regarding alien presences!.

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