A Blast from the Past

“The notion that PE and games might prove to be an antidote to anti-social behaviour among working class boys became evident in government policy-making circles in Britain during the 1920s, and the creation of the National Playing Fields Association, in the mid-1920s, was evidence of the growing conviction among philanthropists and social policy makers that the social benefits that games appeared to bestow on private school boys could also be experienced by working-class youth. Sucessive governments gave a prominent role to games, and sport more generally, as a social good for all and did much to confirm the notion that sport can be a common denominator for people who otherwise are from different social classes.”

[Extract from The Educational Benefits Claimed for Physical Education and School Sport: an Academic Review, November 2006]

Penzance County School for Boys appears to have taken this to heart if this photograph taken in 1927 is anything to go by. The viewpoint for the photograph was roughly where the pavilion would later stand and the imposing building in the background is the old Penzance almshouses in Tremenheere Road.

Thanks to Horton Bolitho (1943) for providing a copy of the photograph and to Richard Eddy (1947) for identifying the viewpoint