Ghostly goings-on at The Gower

The building in Gower Street, St Georges, fell into disuse and was threatened with demolition. But there was a tide of local protest and now a voluntary group, Gower Heritage and Enterprise Foundation, is aiming to transform the Victorian building into a hub for the community once more.

Records, archives, and above all, the recollections of St Georges folk, have been brought together to the tell the story of the building in a booklet called "Book of Memories, 1873 to 2005."

Some of the memories concern Miss Vaughan, the headmistress of the Board School, as it was known for most of its life, who would arrive at the school from her Trench home in a taxi. Going home, two girls were allowed to have a lift inside, and two boys were allowed to stand on the running board before being dropped off.

Miss Vaughan, not unusually for those times, would readily wield a cane and would throw a piece of chalk at inattentive pupils. But despite being strict - delivering canings to a whole class if it didn't snitch on a culprit - she had a full tin of biscuits in a cupboard to reward good behaviour.

Greta Masters, nee Elkes, recalls in the booklet: "She sat on a high chair so that she could see all of the children.

"Miss Vaughan called my sister a 'little monkey.' My sister jumped up, pushed past Miss Vaughan almost knocking her off her chair, and said: 'I'm not a monkey. The last monkey I saw looked like you.'

"My sister was going home, but one of the lads ran after her and persuaded her to come back. Miss Vaughan never called her names again.

"Miss Vaughan used to make pupils help her with her garden and her shopping. She would pick a couple of girls and then take them in a taxi to Oakengates to help her with her shopping. We then had to go home with her and put the shopping away."

Kim Gwilliam's memories are from its youth club days. The school closed in 1962 and became a youth club, firstly known as Oakengates District Youth Club, and later the Gower Youth Centre, earning its nickname, The Gower.

Kim says she has fond memories of The Gower, and it was once a great safe haven for the youth of St Georges.

She was chatting there one day and was told the story of the ghost of an old caretaker who had died there, and every so often he could be heard walking through the building.

"I thought no more about it. Then a couple of nights later I had been helping out behind the coffee bar and everyone else had left apart from me, Aubrey, John and Dawn, and there were a few others there, not many. We were sitting having a cuppa discussing some upcoming event.

"Then it happened. The ghost started walking through. He started at the one end with the stage and you could clearly hear him shutting doors then turning the keys. He walked all the way through the club, closing doors and turning keys.

"It was as you can imagine a scary sound, but he didn't bother us. As he walked through, the room went very cold for a couple of seconds, then he left out the other end.

"I asked if anyone knew his name, but nobody did. I'm glad the place is staying. At least he will still have somewhere to haunt."

The foundation stone of the building was laid on April 25, 1873, and it was, speeches at the ceremony make clear, conceived as a Lilleshall Company Hospital for those injured in pit accidents and industrial accidents.

"The hospital will be erected from a design partaking of the Elizabethan and Tudor styles of architecture, and will accommodate six beds in its present form, with provision made to add another wing if necessary," a contemporary report in the Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury News said.

However Ken Lewis, who lives opposite the building and has looked into its history, says research cannot confirm it was ever used as a hospital for Lilleshall Company employees and in any event, he says it must have been a school before 1879. After many years as a school, it became a youth club in the early 1960s.

Although generally pronounced as spelt, Mr Lewis points out that the name Gower is derived from the Leveson Gower family of industrialists and landowners: "The name is pronounced Lewison Gar or Lewson Gar."

The building closed, he says, as a youth centre in about 2004 or 2005 and fell into disrepair and was due to be demolished, but in 2014 was saved for the community and granted Grade Two listing by English Heritage.

The Book of Memories has been published by Terry Gilder and is available from him on 01952 810167 or Albert Dolan on 01952 619716.