16 JULY 1994, Page 25

On shoelessness

Sir: The tale told by Martyn Harris about children walking to school without shoes is not so dubious as David Williams suggests (Letters, 2 July). At the age of ten, respectably dressed in my school uniform on my way to my convent school, I often had to thread my way through a stream of ragged children on their way to what was called in those days (1914-20) 'the Board School'. The feet of many were completely bare and the smell was horrendous. The place was Pontypool, the area Parkview (pleasantly residential, but now run down — I visited it a year ago). The children had arrived in a small train on a branch line (now a road) to a little station called Clarence Street, probably from one of the outlying dis- tricts — Pontnewydd or Abnersychan.

Hence Harold Wilson's claim that he walked to school without shoes is probably valid.

Susan Curtis

15 Benham Road, Towcester, Northants