Church Langton School Remembered
Meeting at Cream Teas
I was pleased to meet Eileen and her daughter Julie at Cream Teas one Sunday afternoon. Eileen was keen to tell me how much she loved being at school in Church Langton.
Eileen Pinfold, as she was then, was a pupil at the secondary school from 1941 to 1944. Her overriding memory is the view she had from the playground which gave her the love of countryside views ever since.
Recalling cross country
She remembers doing cross country out over those fields. She remembers Mr. Thompkins, the Head Teacher and the Head Girl who made the others behave.
Eileen lived in Kibworth then and remembers catching the bus to school. She had to take her gas mask in a bag with her. She says she got used to the planes going over and saw the sky lit up from Kibworth when Coventry was bombed.
Although food was rationed she says out in the countryside food was not too austere and was still like normal times but her grandmother would not let her help with the cooking as food was too precious to spoil. In the summer the pupils were allowed time off to go potato picking which they were paid for.
Eileen liked Maths and when she left the school she was given a recommendation for her job with the Board of Trade in Leicester.
Eileen’s sister Eunice also went to the school and is pictured in the orchestra there in the late 1940s/early 50s.
(This article first appeared in the 2023 autumn edition of Langtons’ and District Newsletter and is printed with permission)
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