27/10/2026
Take my hand and let’s fly back through time to a time during the 1980s. Most schools still taught the kids how to sew and they called it needlework. There were needlework teachers and needlework classrooms. Year after year we would service all the sewing machines in schools across Greater Manchester. Hundreds of sewing machines. Thousands.
Then, come the 1990s our mechanics had retired or left to develop their own plans. So I was left to continue alone. Around this time we extended our services into the schools throughout Merseyside. Some of those schools were huge and had many sewing machines.
Anfield comprehensive had over 70 Berninas. Mainly 801s and 830s. Sadly, as needlework lessons faded from favour, so all those Berninas ended up in a skip.
One school had a needlework on the upper floor of a prefab block. I arrived and settled into the classroom with my overall and toolbox and began servicing the machines.
Funny thing, though. A tree was growing through a hole in the wall. The branches had spread through the room and ivy had crept its way along and across the ceiling. Birds had made comfy nests in the ceiling and every now and then one would fly into the classroom with a worm in its beak.
The school hadn’t the money to sort the problem. So the tree kept on growing and the kids wore their coats and jackets.
Those were the days.
Alan.
