Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Turner 'lt's bizarre how boys are dressed in long trousers almost as soon as they are out of nappies nowadays. Children are dressed like adults while the adults dress like children. l don't think my Dad possessed a pair of shorts in his life but they seem to be de rigueur for everyone now, not just postmen.'


What a brilliantly perceptive comment this is. You're bang on the money with it.

I wore shorts to school if I wanted to until I was eleven. I didn't have to, I chose to on nice days.

When it came to cross country later I seem to remember a ragtag of vests, tea shirts and a handful of shirtless boys all in the mix. We kind of decided for ourselves and that seemed okay for the most part.

Proper gym was a bit stricter, much of the time we were told not to put any kind of top on and just show our upper bodies off.

Don't get me started on blokes in their 50s and 60s at the gym wearing an earring and who try to have their hair styled like a teenager.

Turner, you make a brilliant point here, a kind of role reversal and what you say I've seen plenty of today with adults doing jobs wearing shorts when it doesn't seem appropriate to do so even in summer. I had a computer technician visit my home yesterday who sounded very professional on the phone but when he came to the house he was wearing some unfashionable sports shorts, white socks, trainers and a blue sleeveless top that looked similar to a vest. The absolute state of some people nowadays. He was no youngster either. He was basically dressed for going down the local gym, not doing technical house calls.

lt's bizarre how boys are dressed in long trousers almost as soon as they are out of nappies nowadays. Children are dressed like adults while the adults dress like children. l don't think my Dad possessed a pair of shorts in his life but they seem to be de rigueur for everyone now, not just postmen.

It is interesting to compare the trends or fashion nowadays with say the mid 50's when I was just a young child. Irrespective of the weather we always wore shorts, (for school very tight short grey shorts) through out the year even in winter. This being so for many boys our legs in particular were acclimatised to being exposed to all weathers.
Long trousers were not worn until you became a teenager, and for me nearer the age of 14 because I was not a very tall boy and always looked quite young for my age. If he had had his way my father would have stuck to the old mantra of his time that "you only wore long trousers when you left school and wet out to work Then you were a man"
A lot different to nowadays when boy s start at infant school wearing long torusers.

To make men of boys Chris.

What both Oliver and Bernard describe here was also not uncommon at secondary schools in the latter 70's and early 80's because I did just the same on about 25 to 30 occasions over three years in that period. Right up to Christmas holidays we did it, not after. It's one of those things that was far worse to spend time thinking about than actually getting to grips with and doing for real, although in my case it got dumped on us with no warning the first time it happened which was actually some point around late September or early October. It had the effect of dragging at least a bit of confidence out of you even if you didn't really feel like it. They did it for a definite reason of some kind but I'm not quite sure what it really was.

Oliver - I'm wondering when that was.

I was at my all boys grammar school from the mid 60s to early 70s. Our p.e. kit was supposed to have been shorts, t-shirt and plimsolls but most of us only ever wore the shorts and soon gave up bringing in the shirt and plimsolls. There were about 90 in the year group and once the elite football group (the only ones to wear more than just shorts) had gone to practise the remainder of us were divided into three groups. These groups, of just over 20 each, rotated around 3 activities including cross country. Thus we could expect to be sent out on a cross country run every third week whatever the weather. However, if the football pitches were considered unfit for use - waterlogged or frozen, we would all be sent on a run.
We got used to running in cold conditions and I too have vague recollections of seeing a little steam coming off our bare tops. I think you are right about confidence building - both in terms of not worrying about other people seeing you so scantily clad and also in finding that such an experience was not really as bad as you had feared.

Comment by: Phil on 11th June 2023 at 22:28


My Durham grammar school head PE master took literally dozens of boys, possibly as many as 50 of sometimes, out together on lengthy winter cross country runs without our shirts on. Initially it was quite a surprise finding myself in that situation but nobody said anything about doing so. Tops stayed firmly back in the school locker room on running days at age 13 up. Not that we went out in snow or in severe freezing frosty conditions in that way, just what I'd call average winter type days, often cloudy and overcast and sometimes quite mild and maybe wet. I do have many memories of rainfall coming down on my body. No matter how heavy the rain we always went out. It was doing us all good you see, that was the mantra drilled into us but only the boys ran this way, not our PE masters. They wore vests mostly or even jackets. I got used to it very quickly and putting the wettest days aside, it really wasn't as bad as you'd imagine in the end once you got in your stride into a steady running pace. I'm convinced I'm not mis-remembering this but dependent on conditions you'd see some of our body skin actually giving off what looked like a slight steaming effect after we finished and stopped from a five miler like that, possibly due to rapid evaporation or rain in a certain temperature.

So yes, shirtless running was a thing, I did it myself and took it on the chin. I wouldn't have chosen to do it, wasn't best fond of it at first but grew accustomed and became very used to it. In some way it did provide a lesson in gaining confidence.

Hi Sam
Thanks for your comments. I was totally unphased by the matter. I have known Dan his entire life. My observation was about how some young people spread to have no inhibitions whilst others are very self-conscious.

I've just seen what you wrote Steve. Were you awkward that he approached you like that?

I suppose doing things like that in your own street deciding for yourself is a whole different ballgame (excuse the pun) to the school telling you en masse to do so, with all the different personality types.

But what makes me answer you is I was sitting on a bus last weekend and a chap about the same age as your one, about 20, got on in his shorts, flashy trainers and no top at all, and sat across from a couple of old dears. They even got up a bit of small talk for a moment or two, he seemed nice, certainly looked good shape whatever he had been doing. But when he alighted off the bus, the two old dears had a right old bitch with one of those 'what are they like nowadays' conversations, really seemed disapproving. They didn't have the nerve to say so though when they engaged a few words.

When I was at school I used to do shirtless PE frequently, especially the gym almost always in two schools I attended. That was no concern but I didn't tend to like going about outside of school in my home area like that, if I was in the sun in the back garden I'd always pop a top on to go somewhere else. I wouldn't have ever got on public transport shirtless but it certainly would not bother me at all if others wish to.

I was in Secondary School in Merseyside between 1977 and 1984. We were shirtless in the gym but never ran cross country shirtless and always wore shirts when outside. We did have communal showers. The water temperature was fine and I don’t recall people raising objections to showering although some people would just wet their hair so it looked like they had showered rather than shower properly.
The issue of shirtlessness seems to focus on being made to do it rather than having a choice. When I came home on Thursday I encountered our neighbours 19 year old son running up and down the street dressed only in shorts and trainers. When he had finished he came to chat with me d as of explained he was doing a couch to 5K challenge. Dan went to the same local school as my son’s and had never had to experience shirtless p.e. lessons and yet here he was enjoying exercising shirtless in the sunshine and then standing chatting without any inhibitions.

I'm amazed by all these comments about having to run bare chested in the depths of winter - or at all. I don't ever recall this at my grammar school in the 60's and 70's, and neither do I remember any of my friends at other schools having to do it.

Nowadays I suspect it would be grounds for a sex discrimination claim - though I suppose they could get round that by mandating that the girls ran bare-chested as well! ;-)

I have commented previously on pe kit at my all boys school 1961 to 66. PE indoors no tops sorts no pants plimsolls . We did not have cross country very often and a s far as I remember only in spring summer. tis was running laps around our sports field so I suppose not cross country as usually meant in it's full sense. For this we wore tops but there was no specific uniform and we wore a t shirt or singlet.

However, when we di athletics ie filed sports outdoors in preparation for sports day we did not wear any tops, again just shorts and plimsolls.

I'm amazed by all these comments about having to run bare chested in the depths of winter - or at all. I don't ever recall this at my grammar school in the 60's and 70's, and neither do I remember any of my friends at other schools having to do it.

Nowadays I suspect it would be grounds for a sex discrimination claim - though I suppose they could get round that by mandating that the girls ran bare-chested as well! ;-)

Devlin, for us taking your shirt or vest off outside was normal. Football and rugby were done skins vs vests or shirts depending on which teacher it was and like you it was everyone topless
for cross country. As you said some preferred it, others less so but there was no choice when the teacher said "strip off!"

Grammar school cross country 1966-70 for me didn't look like the photo here. We always went out running with mandatory no vests on and the only times we did go out running the school cross country with a vest was if there was snow or a frost on the ground. Otherwise we stepped out even in the midst of a January afternoon feeling the air directly on our whole upper body. It was considered good for us to do that, and even if we didn't think it was doing us much good or felt uncomfortable about it we were still going to do it anyway. Going bare chests was quite the thing for the 60's grammar pupils where I went. After you'd run just one or two cross country's like this you did suddenly feel more resilient and capable of much more. Some did it through gritted teeth but nobody would dare say no to it. There was always the mandatory hot communal showers to warm up with at the end which we all shared together and if it had been a cold run we got a couple of extra minutes to hang about in them.

Chris and Gary, Our teacher ensured that the majority of outdoor exercise was performed with the class stripped to the waist. It was better than having to wear a rain soaked shirt.

I completely agree with you Jonno. Doing any kind of PE with bare chests was commonplace when I was in school in the seventies and so was going outside like it, including running around in groups and although we did quite a lot of bare chested athletics during the spring and summer, it was long distance running that took place at any time of year, mainly the less favourable times and it's quite astonishing that we could often run in weather that was, let's just say neither very sunny, bright or particularly warm to feel. Yet if you tell this to someone of school age now I'm sure they'd think you were dreaming the lot of it.

Tell me about it Joanna. I always knew we'd get sent outside in all weathers but did at least expect to wear full PE kit doing so but first rain day that came along when we were due outside and out we went shirtless in a light drizzle lapping the school playing fields in a steady jog. The one positive being at least I kept half my PE kit bone dry and was going to get soaked at the end of the class regardless anyway. School could be weird like that.

We'd see boys out on the yard or field all stripped off to shorts even in the most crazy conditions. They just had to get on with it.

So, you came back from a run in the rain to find a line of soaking wet vests on the ground. Not really worth getting you to put them on in the first place!

Vince, running with bare chests was a very regular event. Our teachers would make us change into vests but when we lined up on the school field we were all told to strip off leaving our discarded vests in a line on the ground. Only then would we start running. When it was mild it was okay but in winter it could be harsh, the first few times it was strange but then you'd get used to it and we were out in all weathers, rain, snow, hailstorms it didn't make any difference to the teachers so long as we were stripped off.

Vince.

There was a lot of cross country running at school with my comprehensive I was at during the years 1981-85 and we would run a lot of it shirtless in the milder conditions, sometimes by choice with one teacher and being told to by another. I was fine with this myself and actually rather enjoyed it. When I left school I kept up a weekly fitness routine, I still do, and would go on training runs with a jogging buddy or sometimes two and chose to run with no shirt on many times because it felt good even outside of the summer season. But even with close buddies running I got some comment about why I was choosing to run like that and one expressed concern I was drawing attention to myself.

The throwing of javelins was the cause of the only PE slippering that l witnessed during my time at grammar school. Two boys had been left to practise and broke the cardinal rule that thou shalt not throw javelins towards the school in case someone exits through a doorway or round a corner. They were sent indoors and after the lesson they each received two hearty whacks of the PE master's plimsole on the bottom in public view. They were both good boys who would never normally break a rule and one was rather a mummy's boy who was told twice to push his bottom out further. He was very red-faced and close to tears from humiliation rather than pain. Lesson learned by all of us as we realised it could happen to any of us in a moment of forgetfulness.

Mark, a p e teacher or any teacher for that matter would not dare to feel your muscles now. Assault!!

Never did a cross country in PE shirtless but going out onto the field during the summer term for track and field we did much of that sent out in a bare chest, this is how we ran track, did long and high jumping, shot putting and javelin. I remember being in a long line of boys with our javelins at school waiting to throw and see who would go furthest and our PE teacher coming along the line and feeling everyone's bicep and talking about the need for a bit of muscle to throw well. None of us seemed to have much at the time and our javelins all fell in a pile on roughly the same spot.

Barechested school running outdoors. I did this dozens of times. Don't ask me why.

(General gym was barechested for all year age groups anyway, that did seem the popular regular more normalised thing then)

I don't know whether it was commonplace but I do know it was very frequent at the secondary modern school I went to in Essex from 1968 until 1973, particularly when we got a bit older in the top couple of years as older boys.

The first few times we did it the conditions were generally quite favourable but we got sent out on days that I would not have expected to without shirts but although we did I remember being quite relieved how easy it was to tolerate running barechested cross country in some quite unfavourable, fresh and quite nippy conditions but the temperature threshold is different for everyone and I'm sure some may have disagreed with me.

None of the accompanying teachers ever ran alongside us in the same way. Cross country runs would involve three teachers on many occasions, and always at least two, mainly in tracksuits but sometimes shorts and a shirt. Never barechested with us though.

I have no idea how far we used to go on the cross country but it would involve a pretty solid three quarters of an hour steady running or very fast speedwalking if you began to cheat a little so it was a reasonable distance. We rarely kept together and spread thin and would always find one of our teachers had stopped and was waiting for the slower ones among us. Three or four classes would merge for cross country so would be quite a big group of boys for one specific activity at the same time. If you assume anything from 10 to 15 boys per class that could be anything from 40 to 60. It was a big school, I'm sure it had a school roll of something like 1200 at the time.

I was a bit shy about such things but like everyone else in school it's something to have to get used to quickly which happens with most of us.

We could have done all this shirted, we had proper full games kits, so I think it's definitely valid to look back and think, why did we do it like that so much, come to school with the correct kit for going outside in yet find ourselves not bothering dozens of times. That is a question for the teachers out there who took us back in the day, and in my case they are probably rather elderly or no longer able to answer that question.

'Running free' was a term I heard about doing this in school. I do know that to run barechested for a reasonable length of time did feel like it connected you to your surroundings in some way if you could feel the outside directly on your body but I'm sure that wasn't the motivation for why we did so in the least. Doing so did nothing to add to our ability to run or keep fit in any way that I understand.

I have not been tempted to take a run in this way since 16 though. Was anybody?

Our teachers always made us run without tops.Was it commonplace?

In the secondary boys school I attended 1961 to 1966 the pe "uniform" was shorts plimsolls. We never wore a top indoors and never thought anything of it. And of course as seemed to the way of schools those days nothing was worn under our shorts.
The actual lesson itself was usually a mix of vaulting horse(which I hated) wall bars(good) and various exercises, hand stands with a partner, running etc. On the whole the lesson was not to bad. The other thing I did not like was laying on the back and on command raise legs 3inches oin the air and then we had the teacher instructing "apart, together" and this carried on for some time.