Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

As I remember it most of my school uniform started out as roomy and ending up tight and a little short! I always knew the school holidays were drawing to a close when mum made me try on last years uniform and PE kit to check what would do for another year and what needed to be replaced. I recall that a growth spurt over the summer between my first and second years necessitated a shopping trip not only for new blouses and PE shirts, but a different type of underwear too!

With regard to the weekly bath, when we were primary school age my sister and I used to argue about who's turn it was to have first use of the water!

In reply to Dominic - my father suffered from Rickets in the 1920s.
In response to the comments about shirtless gym & games, showers, etc., - I think the very great majority of boys (& girls?) just accepted all of it as part of the process of growing up. Until the mid to late 50s you all knew that you'd probably be doing National Service anyway. There might have been an initial 'shock of the new' but that was all. (Whether the quality of the gym teaching was all that good I don't know and its too far back to discuss)

I remember my p.e. shorts lasted quite a few years too. Things got a bit cramped inside with bulges becoming more obvious but no-one seemed to care.
As for the comments about personal hygiene, Tim - you are so right. I remember in the 60s having a weekly bath at home and clothes were not changed nearly as frequently. Rickets had, I think, disappeared by then but I hear it is coming back as children are not allowed out in the sun without being covered up with excessive clothing or large amounts of sun block. Times change but not always for the better, perhaps.

Just a couple of thoughts:
Rob says 'as far as our shorts were concerned,I don't think many of us grew out of them, they just got shorter and the gap between the waistband and our navels got wider'. - I completely agree - I think my first pair of (secondary) school gym shorts lasted about five years.

The whole think about topless gym/ no underpants makes sense to me if you look at the state of public health in the 20s & 30s when it was pretty poor. There was a definite 'outdoor movement' at that time and I don't think anyone would have thought much about boys doing gym & ganes topless. When coupled with the fact that lack of Vitamin D causes rickets exposure to the sun makes sense. Also in those days, for many, it was the 'weekly bath' rather than the 'daily shower' and clothes weren't changed as often as they are now so, to me, not exercising in sweaty clothes makes sense.

The PE kit list which parents were given included a T-shirt, so we all brought one to the fist lesson. We were all sat on the floor in the gym and the master told us that when we got changed we must always take everything off, including pants and socks, and come back into the gym wearing just shorts with nothing underneath and plimsolls. So the T-shirts were never worn for PE. However,as far as our shorts were concerned,I don't think many of us grew out of them, they just got shorter and the gap between the waistband and our navels got wider. We used to be barefoot outside for athletics, and no-one ever commented about being shirtless in the gym or outdoors, especially cross country runs. I agree that boys need to wear minimum kit when involved in vigorous exercises,as we were made to do, and built up a really hot sweat,making us feel really great and looking forward to getting in the hot showers afterwards.

Dave - I was at my all boys Grammar School in the 60s - I don't know if there was a directive but we were always bare-chested for p.e. and games - barefoot as well but that might not have been as common. I think it might just have been about common sense, practicality and avoiding the need for unnecessary kit.
Simon - you are right about running barefoot not being as harsh as it sounds. I was glad we ran cross country barefoot as the course usually included some quite muddy bits and the thought of having to get plimsolls clean and dry again afterwards did not appeal. Feet did harden very quickly and I was never aware of any problems with having to run barefoot.

Hi Dave, I left school in 1993 and barechested PE, cross country runs included, were the norm for us. I remember our first PE session. After changing we went straight to the gym and after a minute or so the teacher told us all to strip down and from then until leaving school at 18, all PE and Games sessions were done barechested.

I think at this stage it was the school's choice but our teacher being an ex army PTI, I guess it was inevitable. I know we all had our own personal thoughts but I preferred being barechested. As for cost, well it saved my mum having to buy a proper PE shirt that you'd grow out of anyway.

Dave

It was just tradition - boys just needed to wear the minimum amount of kit to exercise in, no need for a shirt or socks.

Thus, shorts only inside, plus plimsolls outside (and sometimes barefoot, which isn't as harsh as it sounds, feet soon harden up).

Using runs as a punishment also had advantages, it imposes a physical punishmnet on a boy, is fairly long in duration, witnessed by other boys while the boy is undergoing punishment and keeps boys fit.

Certainly my boarding school had a hierarchy of punishments, from starting with lines, then detention, then some kind of physical exercise, then caning. Even canings started as a couple of strokes with a thin cane on trousers/briefs in private, and increased in intensity up to 6 (sometimes more) hard strokes with a much heavier cane on shorts (or even stripped) in publlic

Rob, yes I didn't know that boys had to be barechested for outdoor runs. I live in middle-Europe. In primary school we had to wear vests even outdoors and in secondary school we wore T-shirts. We played shirts vs skins at basketball matches for examples.
Reading the posts it seems for me that in the 60's (and earlier from about the 40's?) shirtless PE kit was a standard for boys at schools in Western-Europe. I wonder what was the reason to introduce it to almost every schools. Was it a central recommendation?

It was a small/medium boarding school in the West Midlands that has since joined with another one.

The early morning runs were normal for the time, and nothing unusual. Having prefects look after punishment runs or detentions, again was normal; most schools where this happened had a system where the prefects could cane a boy, or more often report them to a teacher for a caning - we had the later.

Most prefects were fine, one or two misused their power. In this situation they were going to get you caned, it was just a case of what excuse they used - typical things were being late turning up, or being cheeky, or "not trying". We just had to accept that we were going to be made to report to a teacher, wearing only our shorts and get 6 strokes of the cane.

Simon .. Which boarding school did you attend?

Dave! it sounds as though you were amazed to watch the video and to realise what boys had to wear when they were sent out on a run at that time.But that was how it was when I was at an all boys grammar school from 1955-61. Public schools were also notorious for sending boys out for an early morning daily run all year round in just shorts and plimsolls followed when they got back by cold showers. Prince Charles was famously sent to Gordonstoun and hated it! I was about to post my comments when up popped Simon to add further confirmation. It certainly sounded a sadistic regime at his school, even before mentioning the cold showers!

From Dave's comment earlier

Well I think its a morning run at a boarding school

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1SoHz7I93o

This ties in eactly with what happened at my boarding school in the early 60's.

We were a boys only school, and every morning we had to complete a 2 mile run in the school gronds/local woods/fields. Kit was shorts and plimsolls, always stripped to the waist, even in the middle of winter.

Punishment runs were also given, these took place after school, and were looked after by prefects. 2 laps of the morning route, making 4 miles in all - same kit, shorts, plimsolls, no shirt or socks. Once or twice we were made to run barefoot as well by the more sadistic of the prefects. If they chose to, they could report a boy for being late or slow changing, dirty kit, not trying or any other reason they thought of - nearly always this resulted in being made to report to the gym and being caned in just your pe shorts.

Our indoor pe kit was shorts only, as was normal at the time.

And I haven't even mentioned the cold showers!

Hi Dan,

It was quite a culture shock having to shower after PE when we first started at secondary school. At primary school we just changed in our classroom and always kept our underwear on, so being naked in front of classmates and the teacher was rather daunting at first.

Dan, I don't remember anyone making any comment about the showers; they may have had their private thoughts but as you said, we just got on with it.

Our school was on the ourskirts of town and we ran across the playing fields and past half a dozen houses and across the road and we were then into woodland and out on to hills. We enjoyed being in just shorts and feeling the fresh air on our bodies,eagerly looking forward to getting in the showers.

"Although we didn't run bare chested in freezing winter weather,when we were sent out on a run, usually between April and October,we wore just shorts with nothing on underneath and plimsolls with no socks, which was our normal kit in the gym."

Hi Rob!

I think in the video from abuot 1:05 we can see a run that you describe. Well I think its a morning run at a boarding school but I think boys (and girls in the first minute of the video) are in their usual PE kit.
This is an archive film of a life in a boarding school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1SoHz7I93o

Hi Andrea, I suppose what you describe was the standard PE uniform for girls in most schools.
As for compulsary showers, how did you girls feel about it, were you comfortable with it?
I know that for us boys some were very uncomfortable being naked in front of other boys and teachers in the shower. Some were extremely shy and modest and must have been torture for them, but we just got along with it having no other choice.

Rob, were any of the boys annoyed about the communal showers?
Also, were you made to run through town streets in just shorts or just cross country?

Although we didn't run bare chested in freezing winter weather,when we were sent out on a run, usually between April and October,we wore just shorts with nothing on underneath and plimsolls with no socks, which was our normal kit in the gym. We had two gym periods a week and also a double games period outside when we played football in the winter and wore shorts,no underpants, football shirt and boots and socks.In the summer most of us played cricket.After every session of PE and football it was compulsory to go naked in the communal showers.

In reply to Dan, we had compulsory showers at our Secondary school in the 1970s.

I suppose you could say that we had the opposite of a no underpants rule - our indoor PE kit was gym knickers without shorts or a skirt over them.

Bras were allowed under the white polo shirts that comprised the top half of our PE kit.

I can't imagine doing cross country runs bare chested in freezing Winter weather. But it seems from many posts here that this was the case in many schools.
The only PE we did at my secondary school was a one or two hour session in the gym twice a week, and even for that we wore white T-shirts and shorts.
The no-underpants rule also seems to have been common in many schools, though not at my school. I guess it did not apply to girls in most schools either, if any. But we did have showers after PE.
I wonder how many here had compulsary showers after PE.

Reading some of the earlier posts took me back to my schooldays and PE, very strict on dress code, no underpants rule and if caught would have to remove said underpants in full view of the other boys and then at the end of the lesson have 3 across the bottom with a plimsoll.PE vests were worn only outdoors, on cross country out of sight of the school we removed them until we came close to school again. I recently joined a gym and signed up for the men only days and had the induction where I did a treadmill test and had to be bare chested because I was wired up, I was told as I put on my sports shirt afterwards that nobody bothers with them on workouts here, so that took me back to school gym sessions.

We always had to wear vests for PE until our teacher picked the skins team and then would those lads strip down. The discarded vests would either end up on the edge of the stage if indoors or on the grass or yard if outdoors for the rest of the lesson. Myself and 3 others were picked to strip down for nearly every session for some reason, others would drop their vests occasionally.

When I started at secondary school we had to do PE bare-chested. I had never done this before but soon got used to being stripped to the waist both indoors and on cross-country runs. It was also quite common to be barefoot indoors and some boys even did cross-country while barefoot.

When I was at primary school in the 1960s most of us wore vests (boys and girls - we used to change for PE in the same classroom for PE). The boys ones were plain white and we girls were mainly white with a very small amount of pink around the neckline. We all wore T shirts over our vests for PE though.

Like Charles' sister the vests tended to get discarded once we graduated to bras. For a few this occurred during our last year at Primary school, but for most it was during the first couple of years at Secondary. Attitudes to this varied - some wanted to wear bras as soon as possible to feel more 'grown-up' (a bit like the jockstrap wearers Charles referred to) but for others it took a some persuasion to do so (either from their mothers, or on occasions our PE teacher).

As I don't have a brother and went to an all girls secondary school I can't comment on whether boys of my era continued to wear vests into their teens.

Charles - as Mark said most of us went topless for p.e. - in my case in the 60s and I was very happy about that. I too am surprised that you weren't told to wear nothing under your shorts - I thought that was an almost universal rule at that time and much appreciated if you were made to work hard which we certainly were.
A lot of boys wore the hated vests when I started at secondary school though most of us had managed to get rid of them long before we left. They were never worn for p.e. Plimsolls were on the kit list but never worn inside and rarely outside.

Charles,most of us have said that we had to go topless for PE, particularly in the 1950s and for many years afterwards, but few had any qualms about it and like yourself,when you had to be stripped to the waist, thoroughly enjoyed it.It is certainly healthier and I would have thought that the new Pe master should have also told you not to wear anything under your shorts.If you were made to sweat like us you needed a complete change of clothes and a shower afterwards although it sounds as though your mum wouldn't have approved of you having to go completely naked twice a week.

Unlike many posters here, I don't remember having any qualms about being topless for PE. When I started at secondary school, back in the mid 1950s, our PE kit comprised white vest, white shorts and plimsolls, the actual style being irrelevant. Back in those days, plain white vests, although increasingly unpopular as underwear, still featured in most kids' wardrobes, so with clothes rationing still a recent memory, making underwear double as PT kit made sound economic sense, as did Mum's skill in the cotton-shorts tailoring department.

As far as I can remember, there were no prohibitions on wearing anything under our shorts; most of us either wore our underpants or went commando, while a few lads acquired jockstraps which the rest of us envied and thought rather daring. On occasions when sunny weather encourageed PE classes outide, we played team games as "shirts and skins", but this was the exception rather than the rule.

After I had been at this school for a couple of years, a new PE master announced that, henceforth, it would be healthier for us to do PE topless, a development that we all welcomed wholeheartedly and unanimously, and which effectively put the kibosh on vests as underwear as far as my peers and I were concerned. While Mum wasn't happy with the thought of her son and heir going bare-chested for an hour or so a couple of times a week, the temptation for said son, not only initially to "forget" to put his vest back on after PE, but soon also to "forget" to put it on at all on a PE day, soon became irresistible! Mum was even less happy once she realised that not wearing a vest for PE was a cast-iron excuse for not wearing a vest on PE days and, by extension, for giving up vests altogether, a project I had been working on ever since my younger sister revealed that she had received maternal approval to discard her vests when she started wearing bras a couple of years previously.

We had to wear a jockstrap for sport like PE and running, seems to have fallen out of fashion today

I agree with Dominic that teachers today don't/can't exercise discipline over their charges. Kids are even allowed to call teachers by their first names/

Mark and Roy - you are so right about the lack of manners shown these days. I still find myself apologising to the person who is in the wrong occasionally.

Mark - I live in London now and travel on the underground. A couple of times recently school parties have got on and the children have rushed and pushed past adults to get to seats. Once I mentioned to one of the adults with the party how bad-mannered this appeared but they just stared back at me as though I was talking in a foreign language - perhaps I was!

Back to a more relevant point - children never did answer back or disobey an order at school - not unless you wanted to experience the consequences which would have been more unpleasant than anything teachers can dish out these days. Maybe that is part of the problem - teachers can no longer discipline their pupils effectively.