A REUNION of former classroom pals helped to celebrate a Barrow school’s 125 th birthday in 1998.

Greengate Junior School dug out the old photographs and legers as part of the celebrations.

Jean Holding, of Langdale Grove, told The Mail on July 9: "I came here in the war years, we had to carry gas masks with us.

"When there was an air raid we had to go to the shelters.

"They were all along the middle of the road right up Greengate Street."

Jeannie Helling, of Walney, attended the school from 1975 to 1979.

She said: "I remember the old Mr Smith who used to be here.

"We had a bomb scare too. We had to sit in the Methodist church next door and we all crying for our mums."

The Mail noted: "Crowds of people walked around the hall, looking at the old copies of attendance records which dated back to 1881 and old school photos from the 1920s."

The Mail spoke to Ramsden Street newsagent Joe Wardman, a school governor in 1998 and a pupil in 1948.

He said: “The school was known as 'Rollo' back then because it was called Rawlinson Street School.

"The infant school was mixed sexes but in the juniors we were separated into boys and girls.

"It didn't seem strange then and we didn't take much notice of the girls. We used to play football, cricket or tiggin'

"We were marched into school, it was very military in the juniors. The toilets were outside.

"Once in the classroom you had to sit down and face the blackboard.

"Our desks had inkwells and they were filled up with ink from a big jug and we used dip-in pens.

"We did more of the three Rs then, and history and geography. Music lessons were usually singing.

"I never did the school dinners but you always got a hot meal. It was usually meat, veg and always potatoes. There was a big jug of gravy.

"There was no fancy jackets, everyone used to wear those navy-blue gabardine macs.

"We used to play sports against other schools a lot more then.

"I remember what a big thing it was when we got our first football field, it was near Cecil Street."