Friday 16 October 2020

Pattison the Ghost at Tapton Mount School _ Carol

Carol shares a story about their school ghost!

“I don't remember how old I was when I first heard about Pattison's existence but, memories of having to go down into the cellar to have showers still stick in my mind. I must have known because I never wanted to be the last one to go back up from the cellar. I remember when I had to stand in the corridor for being naughty and being scared that Pattison would come and get me. I vaguely remember it being a threat from the housemothers if we did anything wrong.

“We were all scared of the thought of him, we knew he had been there for a very long time. I don't ever remember anyone saying they had heard or saw him except for adults.”

Memories from Tapton Mount School - Carol

We recently did an online presentation about our long history with Sheffield to celebrate our 160th Anniversary. Some of our clients attended, and it prompted some memories – these memories are about the school Tapton Mount from Carol:

“I remember how big the school seemed and how the corridors echoed at night.

“I looked forward to the tape lessons when I was very little, this was wearing head phones, which were extremely big and heavy which were connected to a tape recorder. You had to Braille on your Perkins Braille machine, which was also big and heavy. Everything that the person on the tape said, for example, bag (b a g), write a line of the word bag and so on. That's how we learned our Braille.

“I loved the drama room and the musical movement things we use to do. The assemblies where we would sing hymns and I loved and the choir.

“When I first started we had to do basket weaving which I found extremely boring.

“The library was a big room that smelled funny but had many books in Braille.

“I loved going to Brownies and getting out of the school once a week to take part in the Sheffield Junior Choir's rehearsals. We did a big concert at the City Hall and Albert Hall for Christmas which was an amazing experience. That's where I first made friends with sighted girls my age.

My memories of Tapton Mount School were great, much better than my next school at Tapton Comprehensive, except for the house we stayed in called Hallam Lodge on Tapton Crescent Road.

At Tapton Mount there were kids from all over the country, and we played all sorts in our dormitories including with a football.”