Did anyone hear their parents or grandparents mention the term half timer? Apparently they were school children who around 1900 spent in one week, three days attending school classes , then two days at work, the next week vice versa. My Grandparents did it, also I remember a man from Hilden called Davy Edgar telling me he was also a half timer. Was this practice soley confined to Hilden or was it practiced generally?
Donald

Donald, there's another guy on this forum plus myself who must have been quarter timers, two days a week at school and three days up the lagan.

Perhaps that system is where day release came from in the 50's and 60's An employer would let an apprentice attend school one day a week (work related) while he was learning his trade.
Terry

Terry
Did it myself from Mackies, then when I mitched Day release was stopped and I had to go to night tech 3 or 4 nights a week to complete the course. That was stress, coming home to Hilden, having a bite to eat, trying to remove the oily grime with a kettle of warm water in the jawbox, running up the Belfast Rd to the Lisburn Tech, attending the classes and still trying to find time to court my girlfriend ( now my wife for 40 years )
Donald

Donald/ Terry.
My daddy and my two uncles as well as my father-in- law were all half timers at their different jobs, Robbie (of Netting Dept) had worked since he was ten, in the same department for over sixty years and started as a half timer.
I too was a product of the day release scheme and came home from Belfast ( not so dirty Donald) to go to the tech in Lisburn. I was lucky as I got a Senior Trades Scholarship for the last two years at Belfast Tech and went full time ther for nine months at a time to finish.
LR

Lowroader
Funny but I also did a Junior Trade Scholarship 1962 in Belfast Tech, our practical training and some of our theory was done in Forth River University,( that was the name we gave it ) a disused mill, taken over by the education authorities in North Howard St, Falls Rd, beside Coombe Barbours Foundry, later Wellman, Smith and Owen. Manufactor of Foundry chargers.
Was hard to concentrate, as the classrooms were divided only by a wooden partition about 8 feet high. One of the Instructors was a war disabled German called Max who was very hard to understand as he spoke with an accent. ( Ve haf vays! )
We used to walk, sometimes twice a day between the "big" Tech in College Sq and Horth Howard St, an unthinkable thing now, but we all survived and lived to talk about it.
Donald