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Nancy Lowery (nee Riches) at Killinchy School
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TitleNancy Lowery (nee Riches) at Killinchy School
DescriptionMy sister Olive (who was 2 years older than me) and I started at Killinchy on the 4 April 1934.
We had two miles to walk to school on a shingle road but there was an arrangement then that the mailman would bring young children to school in his mail car so school didn’t start until half past nine and finished at half past three and Olive and I had a ride in the mail car until she was too old to come on that and she got a bike.
We had two rooms at the school; there was a Mr Bruce and Miss Harper in the junior room.
Killinchy became a sole teacher school in 1937 when Mr Millar started.
By 1938, when the picture of Mr Millar and I was taken, I was in Standard 3 (Stan Pycroft was in Standard 6) and there were 18 boys and 13 girls at Killinchy School.
We were taught in the one big room.
In my last year (1941), I was the only one in Standard 6. Mr Millar would set school work for me to do and when I had finished I would help the infants with their work. I enjoyed doing that.
Most of the children lived on farms and came to school on their bikes, ponies or walked. I don’t remember anyone coming to school in a car.
Mr Millar was a very good piano player and we did a lot of singing which we all enjoyed.
He would write the words for the new songs on one of the blackboards. No photocopiers in those days.
At the end of the year we had a school concert which was always lots of fun.
The boys and the girls played lots of games together. The boys played basketball (now netball) with the girls and the girls played rugby with the boys.
I liked rugby better than basketball which I thought was a boring game because you couldn’t move all around the court.
We played sports with other local schools that hadn’t been consolidated then.
In the summer time, for swimming, we walked about a mile to the culvert at Bray’s corner and learnt to swim in the Doyleston Drain.
When we could swim the length of the culvert, which was the width of the road, we were taken to the Doyleston Pool.
In March 1941 I got my 250 yards certificate.
In Standards 5 & 6, the Dunsandel school bus took the Dunsandel, Brookside and Killinchy children to Southbridge to the Manual Training centre for woodwork and cooking lessons so I got to know children from those schools.
We did have the pet show. In my last year I got Champion Lamb and for the prize got some pink silk pyjamas.
At the end of the year, we had the school picnic usually going to Coe’s Ford which was a really good picnic place.
One year we caught the train in the morning at Dunsandel and went to Caroline Bay in Timaru for the day, coming back on the late afternoon train.
Adapted from an article and talk by Nancy Riches
Ellesmere Historical Society
Date19 August 2021SourceThe Ellesmere EchoLocationKillinchy
DescriptionMy sister Olive (who was 2 years older than me) and I started at Killinchy on the 4 April 1934. We had two miles to walk to school on a shingle road but there was an arrangement then that the mailman would bring young children to school in his mail car so school didn’t start until half past nine and finished at half past three and Olive and I had a ride in the mail car until she was too old to come on that and she got a bike.
We had two rooms at the school; there was a Mr Bruce and Miss Harper in the junior room.
Killinchy became a sole teacher school in 1937 when Mr Millar started.
By 1938, when the picture of Mr Millar and I was taken, I was in Standard 3 (Stan Pycroft was in Standard 6) and there were 18 boys and 13 girls at Killinchy School.
We were taught in the one big room.
In my last year (1941), I was the only one in Standard 6. Mr Millar would set school work for me to do and when I had finished I would help the infants with their work. I enjoyed doing that.
Most of the children lived on farms and came to school on their bikes, ponies or walked. I don’t remember anyone coming to school in a car.
Mr Millar was a very good piano player and we did a lot of singing which we all enjoyed.
He would write the words for the new songs on one of the blackboards. No photocopiers in those days.
At the end of the year we had a school concert which was always lots of fun.
The boys and the girls played lots of games together. The boys played basketball (now netball) with the girls and the girls played rugby with the boys.
I liked rugby better than basketball which I thought was a boring game because you couldn’t move all around the court.
We played sports with other local schools that hadn’t been consolidated then.
In the summer time, for swimming, we walked about a mile to the culvert at Bray’s corner and learnt to swim in the Doyleston Drain.
When we could swim the length of the culvert, which was the width of the road, we were taken to the Doyleston Pool.
In March 1941 I got my 250 yards certificate.
In Standards 5 & 6, the Dunsandel school bus took the Dunsandel, Brookside and Killinchy children to Southbridge to the Manual Training centre for woodwork and cooking lessons so I got to know children from those schools.
We did have the pet show. In my last year I got Champion Lamb and for the prize got some pink silk pyjamas.
At the end of the year, we had the school picnic usually going to Coe’s Ford which was a really good picnic place.
One year we caught the train in the morning at Dunsandel and went to Caroline Bay in Timaru for the day, coming back on the late afternoon train.
Adapted from an article and talk by Nancy Riches
Ellesmere Historical Society
Date19 August 2021SourceThe Ellesmere EchoLocationKillinchyRight- Charles Millar (Sole Teacher)
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Nancy Lowery (nee Riches) at Killinchy School (19 August 2021). Selwyn Stories, accessed 16/05/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/5339