Thomas Street School

Thomas Street

Pupils from the late Fifties – at the time of the school’s expansion in numbers – will recall that some woodwork lessons were taken at Thomas Street County Primary School in west Gorton. Formerly an Elementary School, it was situated in an area comprising numerous streets of terraced houses and a large ironworks. It was off Hyde Road, to the left, between Devonshire Street and Belle Vue. The visit necessitated a short bus journey or a walk along Hyde Road during the lunch break in order to arrive in time for the afternoon session. Special bus tokens were issued to those who required them. Sometimes there were minor problems at the end of the afternoon when homeward bound boys attempted to use their ordinary bus passes on routes for which they were not authorised. Those travelling to Wythenshawe, for instance, boarded the number 53 on Kirkmanshulme Lane near Belle Vue, thereby cutting out the much longer journey into Piccadilly.

Although boys usually made their own way to Thomas Street, an incident was recorded of the occasion when a St Gregory’s teacher “fell on the ice whilst taking his form to Thomas Street for craftwork and banged the back of his head”.

Lessons took place in basement craft rooms and were delivered by male teachers from Thomas Street. Built in the mid-1890s, the school had a memorial stone which included the fact that it was the “The thirtieth school erected by the City of Manchester School Board”. By 1960, all craft lessons could once again be accommodated at St Gregory’s.

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