WE know that if there is something we are unsure about concerning Bolton’s history we can always turn to our avid Looking Back readers and ask the question and, generally, we get the answer.

By asking what the gate posts in Folds Road represented we were not prepared for the number of people who happily answered our query.

It seems that not only did many of you know exactly what it was, but you actually attended the school that the gates led up to.

This was the entrance to Folds Road School and a place remembered well by many of our readers.

We have heard stories of popular teachers, sports’ lessons that were looked forward to and even a youth club which started once the school day finished.

We know of people whose parents attended the school and enjoyed a happy education there.

Like many Bolton schools it has long since disappeared.

School was a very different place in the early 20th century than it is today.

Youngsters were being trained up for an early working life and for many students the school day was split in two with half spent in school and the other half in a working environment.

Times were hard and many families needed the extra money especially after the Second World War and its death and destruction.

Our readers have fascinating memories of Folds Road School.

It seems that for most of those who attended this school the memories are both happy and vivid.

Simply asking what the gate posts belonged to has given Looking Back readers the opportunity to reminisce.

Fred Ramm was a second generation Folds Road School pupil following in his father’s footsteps when he started at Folds Road.

His father, George, had attended St John’s School and was then destined for Folds Road but put a spanner in the works when taking a test in 1920 to determine if he would get a place there.

“He deliberately failed the test as he wanted to leave school and help bring money into the home for his mother, as his father had died,” explains Fred.

But the teacher had other ideas and realised George had failed on purpose and was able to get him a place at Folds Road.

Both Fred, now aged 75, and his older brother, Terry, were pupils there having a great time, particularly because of the amount of sport they were able to enjoy there.

“The school was very much focused on sport and I loved playing football.

“We would go up to the playing fields at Hall i’th’ Wood and it was the only time we saw any grass,” he adds.

He recalls “Woody” — Mr Woodward who was the PE teacher — as well as “Pop” Hardman the woodwork teacher who played the ukelele and could always be persuaded to treat the class to a little rendition of a George Formby classic or two, rather than do any actual work.

The English teacher was nicknamed grandad as he was in his fifties, laughs Fred. He asked a young Fred to help him learn to tie a Windsor knot “but not tell a soul.”

Although the pupils did not wear uniform Fred did like to wear a tie.

Famous footballers were pupils at Folds Road including Tommy Lawton and Bill Holden as well as former Bolton MP Frank White.

“I loved the school. We had a fabulous gym with bars on the walls to climb and bars to walk across carrying medicine balls.

“We had ropes to climb up and swing from too,” he says.

It was a two storey building with a huge hall part of which was used in the evening for a youth club.

When he went along to the youth club the young Fred would play table tennis and board games and there would also be a boxing ring in the centre of the stage.

Fred left Folds Road School to become a French polisher but eventually became a plasterer.

“I remember my time at Folds Road very fondly. I had some very happy times there,” he says.

Sharon Hilton explains that her mother, who is 80-years-old, attended Folds Road Secondary Modern School which had the post to the entrance of the school grounds.

“My mum thinks the posts represent a cricketer who attended the school as a child,” she says.

There will be more on Folds Road School in next week’s Looking Back.

We are keen to hear from anyone who knows more about the history of the school.

Does anyone know when it was built and why the sporting emblems were carved into the gate posts and also when it finally ended its life as a school and was demolished.

n Get in touch with Gayle McBain on 01204 537269 or email gayle.mcbain@nqnw.co.uk