LOOKING
BACK
Phyl Bishop was born during World War I in a house in Bristol Street, just before her father was shipped to Russia as a sapper in the Royal Engineers to take part in the "Murmansk Venture". Her father, grandfather, great grandfather and so on were commoners of Malmesbury and all enjoyed the gift of King Atheistan who gave the common land to the men of Malmesbury in perpetuity for their help in defeating the Danes. in her book ‘Looking Back’ she writes - "So perhaps we date back to the 10th century! Every commoner had his piece of the common land and, when I was a child, many tilled the land to provide vegetables for their families.. .Nowadays the land is rented out to farmers. I have a lot to thank King Athelstan for. Money from the funds provided for my sister Kath to go to the Secondary School as she won a Commoner’s Scholarship. There was also a pay out each Christmas so the King provided our Christmas dinner."
Ruby Lester asked Phyl if she would write some articles on her childhood memories for the magazine and that was how I came to know her. We found that we had much in common; both starting school at an early age, favorite subjects being English and Maths, becoming teachers, and our experience of schools and pupils similar despite starting in the profession 18 or so years apart. Phyl very kindly gave me a copy of her book, published in 1993 which is fascinating reading as her memories of her early life and later experiences till her retirement are so clearly described as well as being superbly written with a good sense of humor, and also illustrated.
Phyl cried to go to school with her sister, an Infants School in Gastons Road and, as she was only 2yrs 8 months old, she could not go on the register until she was three. At the school she learnt her letters and figures by making them in a sand tray; "I began to learn an extraordinary alphabet A for Alice, D for Dombey, Y for Yesso; and I spelt Daddy saying Dombey Alice Dombey Dombey Yesso. I wonder if this was a unique way of learning to spell and read - perhaps an experiment of that time."
At four years old, the family moved to Oxford Street and shortly after the school closed and pupils were transferred to Cross Hayes Infant School. The new house was more convenient although there was no indoor water supply and it had to be carried from a communal tap a few yards away. In winter it froze frequently. The toilet was at the end of the garden but there was no tank, so it had to be flushed by hand from a rainwater tank nearby. Phyl’s brother Dickie was born shortly after they moved to Oxford Street. Memories of Armistice Day saddened her. It seemed to be always cold and foggy. "Father usually played the ‘Last Post’ and ‘Reveille’ in the Abbey on his bugle and attended services in the villages, so it was a busy day for him. The ex-soldiers assembled in Cross Hayes and processed to the War Memorial in the Triangle. When the hymn ‘0 Valiant Hearts’ was sung, Mother would cry, remembering the boys she had played with who never came home’.
At the school they worked to a strict timetable learning the three ‘R’s, reading which came easily, handwriting she loved (why isn’t it taught nowadays?), arithmetic was taught everyday with the help of a bead frame (abacus) which easily led to the four basic processes. Her time there was full and interesting and she wrote: "I think back now to that old buildir9 with love in my head. I see the bare rooms, bereft of all but the basic essentials, the drab brown painted walls, the high windows, and yet this gave me a wonderful start on life’s road. Teachers now would be horrified at working conditions. But the ill-paid, completely dedicated teachers of those faraway days with their obvious love and understanding of us small children, would have made a barn a place of happiness."
The next school for girls of 7 to 14 was in the same building as the infants. Here they had a wider curriculum which proved easy to her after her good grounding. She also enjoyed singing many hymns especially, ‘All things Bright and Beautiful’ ‘There’s a friend for little children, above the bright blue sky’ and her favorite of all ‘Loving Shepherd of Thy sheep’. They were regimented during the day with whistle and one word commands but also entered competitions, gave concerts and played many long-forgotten playground games. At the age of eleven Phyl was awarded a place at the Grammar School on a scholarship provided by a legacy from Elizabeth Hodges who years ago gave money for bread for the poor of Malmesbury.
The Grammar School was a mixed school and Phyl’s first classroom adjoined the gymnasium away from the main building. It was bitterly cold with only a ‘tortoise’ stove for heating and that year was exceptionally cold as the ink froze in the inkwells, making writing with dipping pens and ‘muddy’ school ink even more difficult. In winter time, she had to do her homework by oil lamp, sitting close to get the best of the light and also getting some warmth from it. It was a great day when Captain Mackirdy of Abbey House, who owned the cottage and had electricity installed. Having made up her mind to be a teacher she had to stay on at school for the Higher School Certificate. Her parents decided that although money was short she should do so. There were only about 6 of them in the sixth form and often there was no member of staff available to teach them so they were left to study on their own. Phyl passed the H.S.C. at the end of her second form year and applied for a place at college in Portsmouth where she was accepted to start in 1935.
In Phyl’s own words, at college she was as ‘poor as a church mouse’. The county paid the tuition fees, a loan help with the living-in fees was guaranteed by Mr. Jimmy Jones and the Revd.J. K. Dean, Vicar of Malmesbury; the senior mistress, Miss MacKirdy negotiated an interest free loan from an educational source and various sources raised loans for books etc. so she started with a vs heavy burden of loaned money to be repaid as soon as she started earning . the two years in Portsmouth passed quickly and then she discovered to her error that she had to pay 2 guineas for her final examinations. By a miracle a friend in the same year said her parents would lend her the money.
Phyl passed in all her subjects and eventually got her certificate. Just before the end of the term the headmistress of Cross Hayes School offered her a vacancy in the Infant Department which she obtained without difficulty at a time when few students had a job to go to. After a year a new headmistress was appointed and there was a more relaxed atmosphere in the school. However a year later war broke out and the children had to go into the cellar during the air raids and then learn gas mask drill as well. Many evacuees were sent from London and Tilbury and PhyI was
involved in finding homes for them as well as taking them into classes. She also went to a harvest camp at Cherington to help farmers short of labourers in the summer holidays. Living at home, she struggled to pay off her debts on a salary of £150 p.a. and survived a few lean years until she owed nothing.
After 6 years teaching at her old school, the headmistress moved to a school in Maidenhead to be head there and Phyl went with her. Not liking the place at first, she eventually stayed there for 34 years, and saw many changes take place in methods of teaching. After the Plowden Report, the new headmaster for her final 10 years wished to use all the modern methods, and soon walls were coming down between classrooms, classes were doubling, 2 teachers in each room sharing children and subjects. But he left her to carry on in her own way with her classroom door closed.
It was whilst she was teaching in Maidenhead that Phyl met Win Hyde who was to become her dearest friend. Win, traveling from London since 1948 to stay with a Mrs. Chew in Cross Hayes at weekends and for holidays, traveled back with PhyI at these times; Phyl to Maidenhead - Win to London. Mrs. Chew owned the house in Oxford Street where Phyl lived with her parents, next door but one to where she had lived as a child. Win moved to live with Mrs. Chew in Cross Hayes 1960-1970, when Mrs. Chew died, leaving the house in Oxford Street to Win. Then in 1972, Win moved in with Phyl rather than keep two houses going. In 1977, Phyl retired and looking back on her years in teaching, she wrote: "I pondered over what was, in my opinion, happening to education. No longer was so much emphasis put on the teaching of reading, .. basic arithmetic was losing its place in school lessons; computers would do the work, and good clear handwriting and spelling were not thought to be so necessary. Good Christian training was gradually diminishing as the number of immigrants grew. I felt that I was leaving at the right time."
Phyl Bishop and Win Hyde were for over 20 years stewards together and were friendly and informative to visitors to the Abbey. Phyl devoted a chapter of her book to the Abbey - her favorite building - even describing the restoration in 1928. Describing the changes she had seen in Malmesbury she finishes the chapter by writing: "But the Abbey building itself remains the same. Centuries come and go, ways change, but the grandeur is unchanged. I hope it dominates the landscape for many centuries to come. When I walk down the aisles my mind is often filled with the thousands of people who have trodden there before. I never cease to wonder at the greatness of this historic building."
Even when illness overtook Phyl and her health deteriorated, she continued with Win to be stewards in the Abbey. Win has proved to be a wonderful loving and caring friend who did everything she could for Phyl’s comfort and must be desolated by her death. She would like to thank all the friends who visited, the cards, the presents and especially the prayers said for Phyl; they all meant so much to them both. In addition she wishes to express her thanks to the help given by the district nurses and the hospital.
Phyl was an excellent teacher and much loved and remembered by her pupils. Several people have said that every schoolchild should read a copy of ‘Looking Back’ by Phyllis Bishop, I cannot think of a better epitaph for a conscientious, hard-working, caring and loving person than that.
Margaret Buck
Changes last made on: Wednesday, February 08, 2006