Hesketh Fletcher Gym Team

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1132 Comments

Hesketh Fletcher Gym Team
Hesketh Fletcher Gym Team
Year: 1935
Views: 342,691
Item #: 1741
Hesketh Fletcher Gym Team of Atherton, Greater Manchester.
Source: G. Smith.

Comment by: Charles on 15th July 2018 at 06:50

We had punishment PE detentions at Secondary school. Boys did it just their underpants. It was an hours intensive circuit training in the gym.
What made it worse was the thought that Mum would be waiting for me when i got home late, with the strap or hairbrush!!!

Comment by: Palmer on 11th July 2018 at 13:23

William, in the same way I think we all became used to wearing nothing under our shorts, which were also shorter than the ones in the photo. As you say the only exception was when doing handstands. We had a partner supporting us and as we raised our legs and there was exposure to our partner, however the same thing happened when it was our turn to support our partner. But then we saw everything when we were in the showers.

Comment by: John on 11th July 2018 at 09:38

William,
My PE time at senior school was just as you’ve described. I enjoyed PE and don’t think that the rules at the time did me any harm at all.

Comment by: William on 10th July 2018 at 12:14

Palmer, Our gym master was present when we stripped for the showers and could easily see if any boy was wearing pants. We would not have dared to break the rule even if we had wanted to. After the first lesson I never gave it a thought, except perhaps when doing handstands. Our shorts were much shorter than those in the photo.

Comment by: Palmer on 9th July 2018 at 17:13

Bob
In the same way for pe and games we wore shorts with nothing underneath. The teacher never inspected us for pants. I remember that once a boy got caught wearing pants because the teacher saw them through his shorts. He was made to go and remove them and then had to remove a plimsoll which was then wacked across his backside.
How was the inspection carried out? These days it would be irrelevant because I do not think a school could impose a no underwear rule.

Comment by: Bob on 7th July 2018 at 18:16

Hi. It was very unusual to do PE naked. That made it all the more humiliating. Normally we were required to wear short cotton or nylon shorts, with nothing on underneath, subject to regular inspection by the teacher of course.

Comment by: Ross on 29th June 2018 at 22:45

Bob, the way I read your message it seems naked PE wasn’t unusual and you all complied and participated naked. Are my assumptions right? How often would a fellow student be naked?

I was at school in the nineties and I can’t imagine that happening in my day. Although we were often compelled to do PE in our underpants and bare feet.

Comment by: Palmer on 27th June 2018 at 13:55

Re your PE naked experience. Did you tell you r parents and if so what was their reaction? I imagine nowadays the school would be shut immediately and the staff suspended

Comment by: John on 27th June 2018 at 00:47

Hi Dave,
Stripped to the waist for lads PE was a common policy at many schools in the 1980s and well into the 1990s. It was considered dangerous for boys to wear tops because they could get caught in wall bars and other gymnastic equipment.

Also it was considered more hygienic for lads to strip to the waist for PE because many schools had no shower facilities. In the 1970s/80s it was common for many lads to wear a vest underneath their school shirt, and often this would be the same vest that they would wear for PE and then keep on for the rest of the day after working up a sweat doing PE.

I much preferred not having a sweaty vest stuck to my back and appreciated the freedom of movement being shirtless. I’m glad that I had to do PE topless, it was a completely sensible policy and should have continued. Wearing a top for indoor PE is totally unnecessary as well as being unsafe and unhygienic.

Comment by: Dave on 26th June 2018 at 20:08

This photo makes me realize what I missed out on when I went to school in the 1970s/80s.
Our PE kit indoors was the same as this photo.

Hi John! Were your PE kit was shirtless in the 80's too?So it seems topless PE continued into the 80's. Was it common then?

Comment by: Bob on 26th June 2018 at 11:25

looking back at posts made on one of the other headings in July 2017, I saw the discussion about doing PE naked. Has anyone else been made to strip naked for PE? In my all boys Grammar School it happened once to me, along with a gym full of other nude boys. PE was not expected that day. The reason was that not all pupils had been told to bring shorts on this day, repair work going on in classrooms.

Comment by: Rob on 25th June 2018 at 16:45

Gavin A, We weren't told about jockstraps by any of our PE instructors although when a new young PE teacher started at our school when we were in the sixth form, we learned that he wore one under his shorts.It made no difference to us but hopefully when we left perhaps he influenced the powers that ruled that when boys reached puberty they needed some support especially when they had to go cross country running. My dad also knew that I wore nothing under my PE shorts but never mentioned about a jockstrap. However, when he was young and in photos of him in soccer kit he wore those long shorts so there would have been no danger of losing anything.

Comment by: Gavin A on 23rd June 2018 at 11:48

All as Rob says with one exception (thank God)

Senior lads 13 + were entitled to wear an athletic support (jockstrap) for a cross country run if they felt the need, and quite rightly so!

Comment by: Rob on 22nd June 2018 at 16:00

John, this photo was taken in 1935 and was also the same basic kit as we wore in the late 1950's although without socks and our shorts were shorter.We kept the same shorts that we wore when we started aged 11 until we left and the gap between the waistband and our navels got progressively wider. We had to strip off completely for all PE lessons and wear nothing more than a pair of shorts and plimsolls, not only in the gym but also when we were sent out on a cross country run. We didn't need a vest or shirt to stick to our skin and being bare chested made men of us and felt great. Round off each PE lesson with everyone naked in the showers, what more could you have asked for? All boys today would benefit from doing PE like this to improve their confidence and self esteem.

Comment by: John on 22nd June 2018 at 08:25

This photo makes me realize what I missed out on when I went to school in the 1970s/80s. My school never had a gym team, I would have loved to have been taught to do gymnastics like these guys.

Our PE kit indoors was the same as this photo, I think PE for lads should still be done stripped to the waist for safety and to prevent lads from developing body image problems. Exercising barechested makes lads more confident and allows lads to express their masculinity.

Comment by: Simon S on 14th May 2018 at 20:03

Typo error. Should read I don't know why I was singled out by the teacher to strip down all the time.

Comment by: Simon S on 14th May 2018 at 14:55

Steve. I really preferred doing xcountry stripped down to the waist. Our other sessions were done either as skins (gym work, xcountry, athletics) or vests vs skins for basketball. I don't know why but I was singled out to strip by the teacher who made us strip off from age 9 to 18.

Comment by: NickK on 13th May 2018 at 02:41

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZBoJssRd-s

PE section starts at 21:34

Comment by: Bernard on 24th April 2018 at 22:10

Steve - That was the standard kit in the 60s, I think - shorts only, no footwear, underwear or shirt. It certainly was at my school - we wore that in the gym and outside including for cross country.
I don't think any-one ever got the cane for not trying hard enough at cross country though we were not popular if we were late back. Every so often you would see boys in just shorts walking through the corridors to their classrooms for registration at the end of the day while every-one else was in full school uniform. It wasn't meant so much as a punishment - rather that they came back late and did not have enough time to shower and get dressed in time for registration. They had to go back to the changing rooms after registration to shower and get changed. Some looked quite sheepish walking through the corridors in just their shorts and, perhaps, a certain amount of mud.

Comment by: Steve on 24th April 2018 at 16:16

Dave

I notice the video is set in the mid 60's. Like many here, it was when I went to school, and certainly the PE/sports kit allowed is exactly the same as we wore - bare feet stripped to the waist, cotton shorts only. Like us, there were no exceptions to this kit.

Maybe they didn't do cross country, but we always had to run shirtless as well - 90 skinny, frozen lads running in local woods/roads, with just the absolute minimum of kit on, and always the (strong) possibility of the cane on return for "not trying"

Comment by: TimH on 24th April 2018 at 14:59

There is a follow-up 1969 film 'Weg van de haven' which also features the training centre ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZBoJssRd-s

Its another interesting 'watch' - for the ships & cars!

Comment by: TimH on 24th April 2018 at 14:45

I think this not actually a 'school' but the 'Technical Training Centre'/'Apprentices School' (or similar)for the port of Rotterdam back in 1963. Interesting nevertheless, if only for the shipping in an era long gonw.

Comment by: Dave on 23rd April 2018 at 17:32

I have recently watched a video of a dutch boy's school.There are many PE scenes.There isn't any where boys wear shirts for any sport. They are shirtless for every physical activity.Even team games they remain shirtless by using bibs. It proves that shirtless PE was widespread not only in Uk but in another European countries and it was very easy to keep boys remain shirtles even for team games and any sport.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6fjGzOjOj0&t=1136s

I think this is their compulsory PE kit because none of them has any shirt on for sports.

Comment by: John on 21st April 2018 at 09:26

Robert,
My cousin swam without trunks at his independent school for boys, I would not have minded swimming naked amongst other lads but would have been embarassed if girls had been present.

Comment by: GregF on 20th April 2018 at 19:10

Stuart, I remember the same kind of detention. Though we were always stripped down for PE indoors or out it. We did laps of a rather large and unforgiving field in all weathers. I was given 12 laps once for not sweating enough during a gym session when I was 15 Hilarious!

Comment by: Gavin A on 20th April 2018 at 16:24

Robert

Once having gotten over the initial shock it was second nature swimming without trunks.

Comment by: Robert on 20th April 2018 at 10:27

If having to do PE stripped to the waist came as a shock (as it did to me), I wonder how much more so would it have been to find that trunks were not worn for swimming.

Comment by: Sam on 20th April 2018 at 09:23

No problem at all John, I guessed that was what had happened!
Thanks for your comments. It's very interesting to read the different perspective from those of you who grew up when shirtless PE for boys was clearly the norm rather than a rarity!

Comment by: Stuart on 19th April 2018 at 17:42

On the way home from primary school, we saw boys at the local grammar school out running in shorts and plimsolls. Even in winter they still ran stripped to the waist.

Later on I went to the school, and soon got a detention. Reporting after school, we were told to get stripped off to only our shorts/plimsolls, and had to run the school cross country course, then back in the gym in shorts only for a workout.

I soon realised that was how boys were punished ! I was yet to discover that after 3 detentions, boys got the cane.

Comment by: Joe on 19th April 2018 at 13:32

There's definitely some logic to the idea of a standard policy on boys' PE kit so that everyone knows what to expect and gets used to it. I'm sure that would have made a difference to me growing up as I found it difficult to cope when I first experienced barechested PE.
The problem, I think, was that I just hadn't experienced it until I was 14. PE kit was T-shirt and shorts in primary school and middle school (which were mixed), then vest and shorts for my first two years in senior school (boys only). After that we were split into sets for PE instead of forms, with larger groups of boys and therefore more teams required for sports in the gym. So I was shocked to be told my team were 'skins' and had to take our vests off. I felt very awkward and exposed - like many boys of that age I was self conscious about my physique (or lack of!).
No doubt it wouldn't have seemed such a big deal if I'd been used to barechested PE - and also if it had been the same kit for every boy. To my horror, the teacher announced that teams would stay the same for the first few lessons! So next time I was a skin again and felt exposed and embarrassed all over again, seeing most of the other boys in full kit while I wore just shorts.
I appreciate that to some of you this must sound like a fuss over nothing, and of course it became much more bearable as time went on. But I think it's better for boys to deal with this stuff before they reach those tricky teenage years.