Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Justin - I think not wearing a shirt at all for cross country was probably better than having to take it off part way round and tie it round your waist or tuck it in your shorts. I'm sure that would have wound me up too.
Our school's p.e. department believed in uniformity of kit so we wore just shorts all year round. This was, of course, before many homes had central heating or double glazing so people in general were used to a wider variation in temperature at home. Our school, on the other hand, had a very efficient heating system which resulted in most of the building being uncomfortably hot for most of the winter. It was quite a relief to get outside and cool off.
I don't think we were too bothered about trying to keep clean - any-one who did would probably have had difficulty keeping up and still got pretty muddy. I remember watching some very muddy water going down the drain in our showers and the remains of the mud on my feet coming off on my towel.

Robbie - we did all p.e. barefoot and shirtless - this was back in the 60s. Our cross country route was probably about three and a half miles long. The first bit was up a sloping track which was very rough with a lot of stones of varying sizes. This was probably the toughest part of the course especially the first few times we ran it. Once I got used to it there was no problem and I think this was pretty much the case for the rest of the runners.
There was then a short section of pavement and a road to cross to get to the area of open parkland for the route proper. This took us along various footpaths some of which were dry and stony and others which could get very muddy. We then returned to the school grounds via another route which involved a benign tarmac footpath along a residential road.
We could run straight through the muddiest parts in our bare feet without having to worry about plimsolls coming off our feet and being left in the mud as would undoubtedly have happened if we had been wearing any. Also, muddy feet can be cleaned much more easily than plimsolls caked in mud. Not wearing shoes or shirts meant that the only item of clothing that needed washing was our shorts - I'm sure my mother wasn't the only one to appreciate that!

Every moment in school PE that I was doing x-country running was a positively joyful experience because it meant for that lesson I wasn't being thrown into either an overly competitive game of football or rugby on the playing fields, both which I simply hated so very much. I'd take running side by side with others, even having a converstion while breathlessly doing it any time, even if I was wet through, out of puff and sweating bucketfuls and splattered with muddiness. I still remember the sense of relief I felt when we got told we were going running. I could tell I was often in the minority with that?

In our younger year groups we often had some sixth form prefects join us for x-country and be with us and it was like bossy older brothers.

Are there any others here who would have taken x-country running every time over football and rugby or who had a similar attitude to me? I was fairly okay at running anyway I have to admit.

Bernard there's much I can relate with there. My own two teenage boys both went to private school during the past decade and have done cross country running. The big difference however was what they wore, in the autumnal and wintery months they were kitted out like they were going on an arctic expedition just for a couple of miles run close to school for a few minutes. Big clunky trainers, thick long socks up to the knee, quite lengthy shorts or even full length jogging bottoms, and multiple layers up to, with long sleeves. All bought by me of course. Most of it got filthy and needed endless washing.

But when I once told them just how I did this back in school in the 1970s they not only looked on in abject horror but a sense of pure disbelief too. because there wereso many times I lost count when we got out there on lengthy runs in basic shorts, trainers with no socks quite often and the bit that neither my own two could quite believe, that I ran around cross country having completely and utterly stripped to the waist even in quite cold weather sometimes over autumn, even winter and chilly spring days. Rain or shine., made no real difference. There was no point making a fuss about it whether you were worried about being cold, or just shy, or both. One of mine said he just couldn't do that.

It was always down to what individual teachers wanted. We had one who took us outside shirted up for cross countries and often told us to take them off as we were about to start or halfway through when we'd warmed up, and then we had to tie our tops around our waists or tucked into our shorts hanging off us which wound me up a bit at the time.

It was the muckiest thing we did in school during wet weather that's for sure. The mess I got in and saw others like had to be seen to be believed. Even if you tried to keep clean as possible it was a forlorn hope some days. We really got put through the grind and my PE teachers seemed to choose some mucky places including running through a new building development at the time. Some of the builders used to look on in amusement at some of us school lads going by. Even a full on four minute shower couldn't quite shift all the filth we came back into school with sometimes and I remember this dark brown water puddling under our feet, god knows how it never blocked the plumbing at times.

l had always assumed the photo was posed for the photographer and they had neither just set off nor just returned. There are six faces looking directly at the camera, no jostling for position and the captain happens to be in the lead which would not necessarily be the case.

Our school cross country runs were entirely along pavements through suburban and semi-rural areas so there was little chance of returning mud-spattered. l suppose it was called cross country because road running was not a well-known sport in those days before being popularised by the London marathon.

Bernard, you ran shoeless cross country runs in school? How far like that? What were the benefits and also the drawbacks?

I remember watching Zola Budd doing track running like that in I think it was 1984, possibly the Olympics that year it must have been. It made a bit of a media splash I think and an impression on me, but going into school not too long after seeing that I actually asked my games teacher in the fourth form if I could run the track, hurdle and cross country in my bare feet. He was having none of it though and refused to let me do that and actually accused me of attempting to show off!

I have modest male UK size 6's and often wondered if that was more advantageous running rather than those with whopping size 12's.

Ross - I too remember coming back from cross country runs with muddy feet, ankles and legs - the mud often got up as far as our shorts and even our backs. However, I also remember running on the dried out mud in the warmer months - this included the first couple of times we were sent out before we fully understood the benefits of running barefoot. We probably came back relatively clean on those occasions but rather more out of breath than the lads in the photo - they don't look as though they have gone very far.
As you say it could be quite cold to start with but we usually warmed up fairly quickly.

To Declan on 22nd April 2022 about a caning for having an opinion.

I had a hot headed middle aged PE chap in 1975 who chastised me for simply not running cross country to the time he'd set me and being much slower. For that 'crime' I got a couple of unbelievably hard whacks from his enormous 'punishment plimsoll' as us in his class called it, one on the back of my bare legs and the other on my backside when he called me over in the changing room as I got ready to shower. It really hurt and reddened my skin up. A summary beating for running a couple of minutes slower and being a straggler holding things up. He was a bit handy with the plimsoll and threw it at boys as well as walloping every now and again for very minor misdemeanours. Abusing his authority I call it, but they could do that then and it was considered fine. Isn't it hard to believe that assaulting your class like that on one man's whim in the moment was tolerated as recently as the mid seventies.

Ross - we looked at the photo a while back.

If you look at the gates, they're opening inwards and there's a street & houses in the background so the chances are that they're running from a run around the local streets. I think someone checked on Google Earth (or something) - It is an urban area

I'd rather think these lads are possibly leaving the grounds on a cross country run than returning from one. Simply because I know from my own experience when I always finished a run I'd be caked in mud! My ankles would be coated in wet mud and I'd have mud that I'd kicked up all up my legs and shorts... ahh good times! I didn't mind the run sometimes a bit cold to start but we soon warmed up.

Declan on 22nd April 2022 at 09:30

The caning was for arguing with my mother. It was just how things were when I was a boy and bad behaviour was just not tolerated. Mostly I bit my tongue but at sixteen I really wanted longs and was pretty forceful in making my case. My father was a headmaster though fortunately not of the school I went to and he had a fierce reputation among the lads of the secondary modern school where he was head.

When I misbehaved he put his caning skills to good use at home! I think I got six for that on my bare bottom and it was sore for quite a few days but I did get my longs!

Paul.
A caning just for having an opinion about not wearing shorts seems a bit severe.

In the 1960s when I was growing up, clothes had to 'last'. My parents were frugal and of course both had been used to rationing of just about everything including clothing. There was never any question of clothes being bought for any other reasons than necessity and requirement.

As such, school uniforms were bought to last, usually things were bought a bit on the large size and worn until they were too short, too tight or just worn out. That there was plenty of 'wear' left in something usually overrode any other reason for replacement. In seven years at school, I had three blazers which was one more than my mother thought I should have needed but she finally had to agree as I moved into the sixth form that my current one would not last two years and was already too small.

So to come to shorts. I wore them until I was sixteen unlike most lads in my year. Shorts were compulsory until thirteen but then 'optional' for the rest of time at school. I suppose I was lucky because one lad wore them right up to leaving at eighteen. I needed new trousers at sixteen because my school shorts were worn out and had been too small for most of the previous year.

My mother was intent on buying new ones, I had argued that I needed longs now and the argument led to a discussion with my father, my mother's solution to most things. In reality, in these circumstances, a 'discussion with my father' was a discussion between his cane and my bottom and of course as I'm sure more than I remember, the cane always won.

My father must have thought about it though, the caning was for arguing, not for wanting longs and a couple of days later, he took me, bottom still pretty sore, shopping for school trousers. I guess that was one caning that was worth it.

Did you feel comfortable wearing shorts 13 and did you wear them just to please your parents.
I too wore them at that age!

There was no choice in the shorts . The school uniform was either long dark grey trousers or dark grey shorts. Black was also permitted, and my family stuck to shorts. As I have said by the time I was getting to 13 they were quite tight.

What sort of shorts did you wear?
Wear you allowed to chose the shorts?

No point. Parents minds were made up. Shorts it was until they decided otherwise.

Declan,why didn't you refuse to wear your shorts like I did?

James
As far as I recall the main reasons that I was kept in shorts was twofold.
a) I was short
b) Long trousers were too expensive.

Declan,what was the reason that you were given for wearing shorts up to thirteen?

As far as I remember I went from shorts to longs when I was about thirteen.

Declan,I think that you were lucky that shorts were unobtainable for your size.Usually,the main criteria for boys wearing shorts was the boys age or his height.I wasn't particularly tall,so at thirteen my parents considered that it was quite suitable to keep me in shorts for as long as they desired.

James
My family relented and I wore "longs" when they had to concede that they could not longer purchase grey shorts in my size.

Declan,I didn't wear shorts on a voluntary basis,they were imposed on me by my parents and as you say we didn't"look grown up".
I did feel ridiculous wear tight fitting shorts like yourself especially when most of my friends were wearing long trousers.

James. I did not like wearing grey short trousers at secondary school was because most of my friends were in longs and I felt that I was not as "grown up " as them . Furthermore grey shorts that fitted comfortably were not really available as I got older and show the ones I did wear were tight and restrictive.

John,

Back then I never used to feel cold, the school was mostly unheated, there were radiators and open fires but they didn't do much to raise the temperature. At best a radiator might have the chill off it but they were never warm and there weren't many of them either. In our common room there was an open fire but it was small in a big room.

Water was at best luke warm and I don't remember ever having anything but a cold shower but you get used to it, I still shower in cold water today, it's so much more refreshing and it doesn't steam up the bathroom! When I used to go to the gym or play rugby, I always laughed in the showers at guys next to me because at times of course you get splashed and I always had freezing cold water while they had hot, oh, the complaints about being splashed with cold water!

Declan,what did you dislike most about wearing short trousers?04itq

We had swimming lessons once a week all year round indoors at the municipal swimming pool. Reserved for our school. We did not swim nude but often in the winter the water was cold. Any complaints about that got the reply swim faster!!!

Ritchie,
That regime was probably good for the immune system. I didn’t do nude cold water swimming at school but shorts and pumps were all that we ever ran in during winter for X country and it never bothered me.

I remember my mum being worried about me being ill in winter when I went to boarding school in 1960. The windows in the dormitory were always open. Six mornings a week we had to run at 06.30 in shorts and plimsolls followed by two lengths of the outdoor pool - naked. Shorts back on and inside for a cold shower and then the day could begin.

I only ever seemed to catch colds and the like when I was home for the holidays.