Ruth Sillar came up to Somerville in 1972 to read English. After graduating, she went to St John’s College, York, to do a PGCE. She taught full-time for 22 years in two North Yorkshire comprehensive schools, mainly at Selby High School, where she was Head of RE. For the next 11 years, Ruth was a part-time member of the RE department at Bootham School. She is now retired – and still lives in York!
patients department. (I was very annoyed by an early visit to the dentist: ‘That was a waste of time; he only looked at my teeth!’) Treatments could be painful and frightening for a small child and there are experiences that I do not wish to revisit as I write this memoir. I wore a ‘Milwaukee Brace’ every day until I was 17. It was a corset made of stiffened leather and included a neck ring held in place by vertical metal bars attached to the body of the brace. My mother had to strap and screw me into this each morning. I had a built-up shoe for my shorter leg. Once, I was asked whether I would like to be a nurse and replied that I would rather be the Matron. I had spotted that even the consultants treated her with respect and that here was a lady with authority! The City of Leeds opened a school for ‘crippled and delicate children’ in 1929. By 1959, it had become ‘Potternewton Mansion School’: a neoclassical house first built for a woollen merchant, surrounded by its own park. I liked the idea of being at a ‘Special’ school and going there by taxi with other ‘handicapped children’. We were encouraged to be as independent as possible and to focus on what we could do rather than our limitations. I told my mother that I must be on time for school because I held the sticks of one child while she took off her coat and then she would bend down to help me with my shoes. Some children were in wheelchairs and others wore splints or callipers. The ratio of adults to children was high, the school was well resourced and I had an excellent start to my academic career. I went into mainstream education when ‘inclusion’ was not as common as it is today. My father was now Rector of Richmond (North Yorkshire) and I
spent three happy years as a pupil at the ‘National School’. There were 48 children in my class, stone staircases to the classrooms and outside toilets. My new friends and I were soon preparing for the dreaded 11-plus exam but girls easily outnumbered boys in the ‘top set’ and I never once thought that females were inferior or could not achieve great things. Richmond High School for Girls had an ideal building for someone with mobility problems. Designed by award-winning architect Denis Clarke Hall, it was almost all on one level. I did not require ‘in-class support’ but I did have a loyal band of friends who took it in turns to carry my briefcase, the load increasing as the years progressed. There was an interesting mix of pupils: girls from Swaledale farms and villages alongside girls from Catterick Camp with experience of life in other countries. Popular career choices were teaching, nursing or secretarial work, although some people did go on to university. One Old Girl, before my time, went up to Girton: Brenda Hale, now President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
RUTH SILLAR
Education was changing by the early 70s and Richmond ‘went comprehensive’ in my final ‘A’ level year. The High School became the sixth form centre and we now had lessons with the Grammar School boys – and much improved social lives. With its Norman castle and Georgian theatre, Richmond has a fascinating history. I always loved the title of one text-book – The Golden Age of Northumbria – and I feel proud to be both Northumbrian-born and Yorkshire-bred. Ruth Sillar (1972-75)
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