Les Pearce
Husborne Crawley Pupil
1940-1951
School Menu Page
"I'd have to help Mum too. On washday, which was always a Monday, I'd have to fill up the copper ready for the wash. There was a big tank in the yard full of rain water and I'd have a big bucket on a pole and have to pull up about 10 buckets of water and pour them into the copper. This was all before I went to school. Then my Dad would light the fire under it for her to heat the water hot. During the school holidays I'd have to help Mum with the mangle. She used to say, "You stand there and turn the handle," and the clothes would be squeezed through to get all the water out.

Now here I am, 60 years later, back at school again, but this time I'm the lollipop man!"
Les Pearce, the school's lollipop man, in 2001.