Memories can have an awful effect on the mind. I'm now 46, married with two (virtually) grown up children. I moved away from Bolton in 1987, only eight years after leaving Clevelands, but something crops up, like the interview on 5Live and I am transported back there. I can smell the building and I can feel the fear. I guess that after 35 years, the fear is probably turning to anger.
Traffic on the M6 was bad - it took over 10 hours for us to get home. That's 10 hours of stewing on memories. Clevelands Day Preparatory School, in the 1970's was run by fear. The headmaster, Jack Lightbown and his deputy, Gerald Hart, were viscous bullies. The beat their pupils regularly. The humiliation that was meted out knew no bounds. The ultimate sanction was the slipper, basically an old Dunlop tennis shoe, white canvas with a green rubber sole. Often hidden in one of the classrooms, if this was your punishment, you were sent into every classroom to ask the teacher if she had the slipper, so that all staff and and all students knew who the latest victim was.
Yes, the main perpetrators were Messrs Hart and Lightbown, but I am pretty sure that all staff were using the slipper. Not sure about K1 (the equivalent of today's Reception class). We were that from teacher's first class at the school. Mrs Maureen Davies was her name and I have fond recollections of her class. With hours of endless chanting of our times tables sitting cross legged on huge floor, she ensured that by the time we left her class, we could all read and write and, by God, we know those tables. It would be a rare accomplishment for a current day state school to achieve that result!
When i was 10, i acknowledge I was hardy the model pupil. I lied to teachers for which I was beaten. I failed exams and test, for which I was beaten. Curiously, I asked to be let out of school early to catch an earlier bus for weeks on end - this was without my parents' knowledge but the school consented - and I was not beaten.
My worst memory was in Mr Hart's class. I don't know if it was science or natural history, but we were asked to bring in some earthworms in a glass jar one day. I didn't, pr at least, I forgot. When quizzed about this I tried to get away with it by saying that I couldn't find any. Clearly this was not true, but Mr Hart saw red. He exploded at me. I stood up in front of the class to face the onslaught. His masterpiece of violence was to stand next to his victim, put his arm round the neck and shoulder, grab and shake. he did this twice and told me to sit down. He came back to me and clearly had not got it out of his system. He told me to "find the slipper." This involved going around each of the six other classrooms to find out which teacher had the slipper. It was in Mrs Warburton's cupboard (she was another user of the slipper, but being a slight woman, I can't imagine that she did the damage that Hart and Lightbown did) I returned to class with the slipper. I was told to bend over Mr Hart's table, a small coffee table next to his desk. "Six of the Best" was the order of the day.
Now, I'd seen this treatment before. It isn't just a slap. It's arm pulled right back, hand behind the shoulder and BANG. A grown man at full strength on a 10 year old boy. Oh, I forgot to mention, Mr Hart's youngest daughter was in our class - so these punishments were carried out in front of his daughter. She was the only one in the class that I recall who was not called by her surname!
After the six of the best, I stood up. He turned to the class, "does he want more - he deserves more."I don't recall if the class responded, but I was pushed back onto the table for two or three more. I DO remember screaming.
Did I tell my parents? No, I thought they'd endorse the treatment. My mother was a pretty violent sort at times, so I kept it inside. Clearly, my friends were aware. I showed them my backside the following day. It was black from my lower back to the back of my knees, and remained so for 2 weeks. one kid in the class told his mother, who carried out voluntary work with the NSPCC. He asked me round to show his Mum, but I declined. I didn't go around to a mate's house to show off my bum!!!
So, he got away with it, as indeed he did when he did the same to others in the class (IM, GB, CL, ET are the initials of the others who received the treatment.
Oh yes, the chalk face he drew on the slipper - he drew Donald Duck onto the slipper so the victim was "branded" on the outside for all to see!
SO, back to the M6 journey. My wife took over driving, and I looked at Friends Reunited (remember that?) I was surprised that I remembered my log in code in the first instance, but when I looked at Clevelands, I was horrified at the comments. I have no recollection of any sexual abuse at the school, but these recollections chilled me. Some of the comments on Friends Reunited, although anonymised:
"well my memories of that horrible nasty place that has ruined my life and chances are alot worse than some, but are still remembered by a few as well. My family and I had our lives made absolute HELL by Jack Lightbown and especially Jerry Hart. I was the one who was dragged to Jerry Harts desk every day and sometimes twice, and he would put me over his knee and say to the class, "Well what should I hit her with today?" and he would spank me with the slipper or a ruler, or his hand but it was the pulling down of my pants and the stroking of my little bottom before being put over his knee that makes my stomach turn even now. When I was in K1 with Miss Taylor at the age of 4 he came up and put a sign on my back and told everyone that if they didn't hit me (like the sign said) then he would hit them!!! I had to wear that sign for most of the day. There was a time I went in to give him a message from Jack Lightbown and there he was infront of his big fireplace holding my sister OFF THE GROUND by her HAIR and shaking her like a rag doll!!! He said that this was going to happen to me when I got in his class. Imagine how you would feel if you saw someone doing that to your sister and you couldn't do a thing about it. I was made to stripnaked infront of the whole class and then get weighed! And so it goes on. My whole family were targeted by those nasty cruel people. There are still some people out there who remember all this happening and still it gets talked about. As for school dinners there are still things I can't and won't eat and I am SO concious about myself and have NEVER been able to do exams as I just have some sort of panic attack stemming from the fear from my childhood and as soon as I open an exam paper I just lose everything...for ever and so I haven't a clue what O levels I did or anything later in life. The damage that place did will never be forgiven. When my parents went in to try and stop it they would be very nice ..till the door was closed then we got it even worse for telling them. Terrible. Awful place."
"Yes it was absolutely dreadful...awful times.In my case,it had more to do with Jack Lightbown with the hand running up and down my legs and up to and over my bum..under knickers.I remember coming in he changing rooms after or before PE to have a good old look.Jerry Hart was also an absolute Monster and was always being nasty to me and belittling me...and a lot more pupils.He used to call me Hedge..never Joanne and used to spit the word at me.
Did you ever have the gauntlet as it was called in Lightbown's class? He used to make some of us crawl through the other members of he class's legs and made them slap our bottoms on the way through.The slipper was always been used also for any slight demeaner.
Sports Day was also a massive fear for me with the terror of not being good at PE and the dread of the torment after.
I think Jack was eventually charged with abuse but I don't know what happened although he died eventually as did Hart.
I can understand these people coming out of the woodwork re: Saville,Hall,XXXXXXX and others."
"The abuse at Cleveland's was a disgrace - Gerald Hart deserved to go to prison - he would take the autistic child in our class and make him read his stories out to the lower classes so they could laugh at him. I remember the gauntlet. One kid was hit with the slipper so hard he begged the teacher oy stop. Don't get me started!"
Apparently Jack Lightbown died in 2006 ( see http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/956935.Clevelands_founder_dies_at_the_age_of_84 ) and it sounds as though Gerald Hart has also met his maker. So they can't be prosecuted. But Saville died and was declared guilty after hi death.
There are countless victims of these fiends who ran this school. I know - I saw them over the years. I can name 22 of the 26 0r so in my class who witnessed the barbarism. There were eight teachers in the school who either participated in or turned a blind eye to the violence, Maureen Davies, Joan Boorman, Pauline Cannell, Maureen Warburton (yes, as in the bread, she was married to MR WARBURTON, the bread man), Connie Bullough, Gerald Hart, Jack Lightbown,Adrienne Pooler. Lightbown retired the year I left and Hart took over as head. A new deputy head was appointed but I don't recall his name. He left very soon after. Why?
I have written a bit of the story - someone else might pick this up.................
I should point out that Clevelands is probably a very different place today. It is under different ownership and has moved premises and clearly, none of the staff from my day will still be associated... At the very least, I sincerely hope that it is different!
