In 1928, at the age of three, Ron Emmett was keen to get to school:  my brothers used to go off to school, leaving me alone and Mother had to tie the gate to keep me in. One fine day I decided I’d change all this so I crawled under the gate and legged it off to Hulverstone School.

I don’t know how I knew the way, but anyway that’s what I did. I got to the school, and was promptly returned home by one of the older boys in the school.  After some discussion amongst the authorities, or parents, it was decided that the best place for me was in school and there was no objection from the teachers, so off to school I went, at the age of three.  In the 1930s lunch hours were long and full of adventures as Ron Emmett remembers: an hour and a half and during which time we could do whatever we wanted.  Myself, Ken Barnes, Bert Attrill and Arthur Petitt, we‘d leg it off sometimes to the beach at Brook or up Five Barrows or up round the mansion. We’d run all over the place and get up to all sorts of things and then at 1.30 we’d be back at school again and ready for the afternoon lesson all refreshed and tired out...