HOOPS, ball games and Victorian dress were the order of the day at Heversham Church of England Primary School in 1991 when the school celebrated its centenary.

Head teacher Geoffrey Bethell wore a top hat, cravat and black swallow-tailed suit for the occasion and the children marched into school after the celebrations to learn their times tables parrot fashion and to divide pounds, shillings and pence as Victorian children would have done.

The teachers put on a strict and strait-laced Victorian manner for the occasion which made many children giggle, but a former pupil and staff revealed that Heversham School had always been a pleasant and relaxed place.

The oldest-living former pupil, Jeannie Wilson, aged 90, of Blue Hills, Heversham, was at the celebrations and the worse thing she could remember about the school was the sound of slate pencils squeaking on slate.

Mrs Wilson started school in 1906 and stayed until she was 14.

She remembered former head teacher Miss Slinger taking the school choir to compete in the Mary Wakefield Festival in Kendal which was a ‘great day out’.

The school was divided into two classrooms and during winter there was a big fire which they all tried to get near.

Mary Davidson, who was Miss Lineker when she taught at the school from 1946-1964, remembered that the school caretaker, Miss Mary Proctor, looked after them well.

“She would always light a fire on a bad day, even in summer,” she said.

Centenary celebrations included a buffet dance, a disco and a thanksgiving service in Heversham Church followed by an exhibition of work and historical records in the school.

In 1993 four pupils from St Mark's CE School, Natland, beat off stiff opposition from 42 Cumbrian schools to take the product prize in a technology contest organised by BNFL.

Matthew Carr, Elspeth Beattie, Sarah Graham and Katie Jackson had an hour and a half to design and make a device to lower a marble 50cms in the longest possible time.