Handside School 1940-1946

My father Harry Pickard taught music at Handside School just after the war ….maybe 1946-48?
Has anyone got any information I could have, or do you remember him?
My father was a Manxman and returned to Isle of Man to teach music at Castle Rushen High School.
Any information, or memories of him would be lovely.
Thank you

I really cannot believe that no one has mentioned Templewood School !! It opened I think in 1950 or 1 & I was one of the first students along with my sister Elizabeth Robertson. She was three years older than I. I recall that Mr Otter was the first Headmaster . I was in the junior part of the school in the very first class at the end of the corridor. (The colour RED I associate with that particular class.) We had a gorgeous teacher with whom I was enamoured – settle down people, I was only five !! It was in that class I was first introduced to the footlights of the stage which in later times was to become my profession ! The play we performed was called “The Hobyars” by whom, I don’t remember . I was playing ‘ensemble’ and i made a dramatic re-entrance to inform the audience that one of the Hobyars had escaped and we were all in mortal danger. Anyone remember that dramatic entrance ?- No, I didn’t think so. Neither my parents nor my sister Elizabeth attended. Pretty disappointed at the time, but I’ve played to much smaller audiences in my time. I remember receiving a Coronation mug at that school, also a medal for the same. And we all, as a school, had to traipse, in pairs, down to the Welwyn Cinema to watch the Conquest of Everest!!!! I do remember we had a canteen at the school that served lunches as we were still subjected to food rationing. In 1953 I and Elizabeth left at the end of the school year to go to boarding schools. I went to a prep school in Mill Hill, Nth London. Liz went to Goudhurst college for girls in Cheshire !!! My parents were Australian and thought it was the best thing for their children to take advantage of the British Boarding School System. In total had 9 years of boys boarding schools ! At the completion of which I travelled back to Australia and immediately became what is derisively called a “Pommy Jackeroo !!! Look it up in Goggle.) Telling Australians, in a cultured Oxbridge accent that I was in fact a Fifth generation Australian and that we came ‘out’ in 1841 earned me absolutely no respect at all. But I’m still here in Australia and wouldn’t live anywhere else for Quids !

In my comment sent recently I think I made a mistake, Miss Ward married a local solicitor names, Russell – Jones. I think I may have said Russell – Smith

My mother Patricia Brown and her sister Barbara Brown attended Handside School during the war years having been evacuated from East London. My mother wrote a long diary of her evacuation to Welwyn many years later and if anyone is interested, I’d be happy to share it.

My grandparents lived at 121 Handside Lane, they were early residents of WGC moving there in 1923 firstly to Brockswood Lane I think. They were Arthur and Gwen Smith, he played bridge for England. My mother Gill and her sister Lorna would have been in Hanside Lane at around that time. As I child I had my photos taken by Studio Lisa as my grandparents knew them. They are not in the photo though as this would have been later.

 I have been trying to find info on Handside School between 1937-1940 which is when my mother attended the school. I eventually discovered that the Handside School was not on Handside Lane as I had eroneously thought but was located on Applecroft Road and was in fact renamed Applecroft School in 1953.