The Other Side of the Dale

227 Pages·2009·0.74 MB·English

by  Gervase Phinn

Gervase Phinn

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DALE
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
A Child of the Dales
Follow Penguin
PENGUIN BOOKS
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DALE
Gervase Phinn taught in a range of schools for fourteen years until, in 1984, he
became General Adviser for Language Development in Rotherham. Four years
later he was appointed Senior General Inspector for English and Drama with
North Yorkshire County Council and was subsequently made Principal Adviser
for the county. He is now a free-lance lecturer and adviser, and Visiting
Professor of Education at the University of Teesside.
He has published collections of his own plays and stories and has contributed to
several anthologies. His own anthology of poems, Classroom Creatures, has
been published by Puffin in an expanded edition called It Takes One To Know
One. Over Hill and Dale and Head over Heels in the Dales, which continue the
story of his career as a School Inspector, are also published by Penguin.
Gervase Phinn is widely sought after as a speaker and recently was an immediate
star on Esther Rantzen’s television show, Esther, appearing a second time due to
public demand. He is married with four children and lives in a village just
outside Doncaster.
For Christine and all other dedicated teachers who take on the most important
duty in society – the education of the young.
I am extremely grateful to Cynthia Welbourn, Director of Education, and Edna
Sutton, Chief Education Adviser, North Yorkshire County Council, for their
support in writing this book. I should like to thank Jenny Dereham, my editor,
who has been an exceptionally wise and patient guide, and Esther Rantzen who
invited me on to her television show ‘Esther’ and encouraged me to tell my
stories in print.
A small child was splashing poster paint On a great grey piece of paper.
‘Do you paint a picture every week?’
Asked the school inspector.
The small child shook his little head.
‘Hardly ever as a rule,
But Miss said we’ve got to paint today – There’s an important visitor in t’school!’
1
At long last, after a two-hour search up and down the Dale, along muddy
twisting roads, across narrow stone bridges, up dirt tracks, past swirling rivers
and dribbling streams, and through countless villages in an increasingly
desperate search, I had eventually arrived at my destination. At the sight of the
highly-polished brass plate on the door bearing the word
BACKWATERSTHWAITE
, I heaved a great sigh of relief and felt that sort of pioneering triumph
SCHOOL
which Christopher Columbus, Captain Cook and Scott of the Antarctic must
have felt on arriving at their destinations after their difficult journeys.
I had seen no school sign, no traffic triangle warning of a school and children
crossing, no playground, playing field, nothing that would identify the austere
building as an educational institution. The tall, gaunt edifice deep in the dark
valley looked like any other large, sturdy Yorkshire country house and I had
passed it unknowingly several times during my vain attempt to discover the
elusive school. Beneath the slate roof, greasy grey and edged with a pale purple
lichen, tall leaded windows faced the ever-watchful fields. From the grey and
white limestone walls gillyflowers and tiny ferns creviced. A little beck trickled
alongside as I made my way to the heavy oak door. At long last I had arrived. I
lifted the great grey iron knocker in the shape of a ram’s head and let it fall with
a heavy echoing thud.
I had arrived at Upperwatersthwaite much earlier in the afternoon assuming,
quite foolishly, that it was somewhere near Backwatersthwaite. As soon as I
stepped through the door of the small village post office to ask for directions, all
conversation ceased and every eye was directed my way. There were two sturdy,