YOUNG people today do not have the monopoly on pranks or daring behaviour.

That is the view of Andrew Billington who is the son of much admired historian and teacher, the late Derek Billington.

Andrew’s tales of life at Brownlow Fold School have kept readers riveted for a couple of weeks now not least because these memories have brought back their own recollections of their schooldays.

Outside toilets — they were very cold places to be in the winter — “proper” school dinners with a home cooked meal always on the menu and corporal punishment meted out by teachers on a regular basis were all remembered by Andrew.

Geography was taken by Mr John Brown, he tells us, “a slender guy with short curly hair”.

He had continental maps on an inked roller and would go around the desks, explains Andrew, rolling out a simple map of North America in the students’ exercise books.

Bill Ashworth taught technical drawing and travelled to Brownlow Fold from Blackpool each day which in the 1960s was a long journey.

Andrew recalls his first caning which was not to be his last and finding a way into the cellar where the old coal fired boiler was and where caretaker Jim Platt kept his tools.

Next to the boiler was a small access door which was used to get under the floor of the school.

“We smuggled some chairs into the space which afforded almost standing room and set out the chairs for our comfort and then used the place as a den where we could have a fag and a good chat,” he reveals.

The children would be regularly “marched down” to Moss Street baths in Halliwell for swimming classes.

Moss Street baths had a “slipper bath” facility, recalls Andrew where local people who did not have access to hot water could go for a wash.