Interview with Alan Counsell

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“I wanted to be a librarian, and the careers officer Mr Jolly said, ‘No way, no way, could you ever do anything like that,’ and what came back was a voice from the side, and that was the headmaster, who said, ‘Now then, how can you say that, because you don’t know our Alan: he can do whatever he wants.”

Alan Counsell, writer, teacher and trainer, Milton Keynes

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Born 11 November 1937

Attended Audley Primary School, Audley Secondary Modern,

Harris College, Preston; Homerton teacher training college, Cambridge

Born in Blackburn in Lancashire in 1937 as one of six children. Memories of being fed and carried by his brothers and sister. Sister Olive, 12 years older, was his carer; two younger and two older brothers. Father a fourth-generation crumpet baker in family business. Alan’s mother and grandfather also worked in the bakehouse, and the whole family had individual bakehouse chores. Alan’s job to wash batter-mixing mugs. Supportive family and neighbours. Alan’s mother fell down the stairs when seven months pregnant with Alan. Difficult birth - resuscitated three times in first 24 hours. Dr Cowell suspected brain damage, but didn’t say anything. Alan and his family did not know he had cerebral palsy until he was 18. At 5, Alan was not allowed to go to the same school as his brothers and sisters. School inspector’s visit led to Alan being admitted to his local mainstream school. Alan’s nine-year old brother Joe would carry him to and from school every day. At 7, Alan’s family kept him away from school for 18 months after special school was suggested. Alan’s grandmother paid for a lawyer at tribunal to prove Alan was of “above average intelligence and of sane mind”.  Doctor suggested Alan’s right arm should be amputated, which his parents opposed. Playing in the street.

Hanging from gas lamp-posts and playing in the church yard – trouble with police. Alan could not walk. Watching football and hop-scotch. Game called ‘knick knack’ (knocking on neighbours’ doors and running away). Secondary school - some teasing and bullying. Headmaster’s interest in Alan’s development. Close friend Eileen, who helped improve his speech. Eileen’s singing lessons. Physiotherapy at age 10. Maths teacher ‘Mammy Brogden’ and neighbours ‘Mammy Buck’ and Mrs Heap. Family 21^st birthday parties.

Download transcript of tape 1

 

Alan’s father worked in bakehouse from 1am. Saturday morning cinema. Mickey, Grandfather’s canary. Parents married in 1922 in a church in Blackburn. Alan born in 1937. Father was an air raid warden. Backyard air raid shelter. Grandmother sang in pubs, at weddings and funerals and was also a spiritualist medium. Father was one of 10 children. Two sets of twins died and six children survived. Alan used to be fed daily a bottle of milk through the school railings by his grandmother. Alan’s brother John and sister Olive argued over who would take care of Alan in later years, brought on by Olive's wedding. Earlier, when Olive was 21, Alan’s grandmother collected clothing coupons for Olive's blue satin gown.

 

 

 

Difficulties at mainstream school. Distrust of doctors, after one wanted to amputate his right arm and another described him as “mentally deficient”. Speech difficulty and making friends. Alan’s school career advisor, Mr Jolly, gave him no hope of full-time work. Depression. Alan’s mum got Alan a job at a local cotton mill as a warehouse boy aged 15, folding materials and passing messages to the inspectors. Alan's aunt and uncle were weavers at the same mill. Alan worked with two other young men, Arthur and Raymond. Going out together and meeting girls. Voice exercises with a singing tutor who allowed Alan’s father to pay a dozen crumpets a week for three years. Alan weekly wage was £1.75. Becoming a “cut-looker” (a cloth inspector). Night school and day-release for three years led to City & Guilds in Textiles. Heating up lunches in the mill oven. Mill machinery: Jacquard loom and a ‘Dobby’. Allergy to new man-made fabrics, such as nylon and terylene. Asthma forced him to seek new work. Unemployment Exchange. Three-month training course to be a gardener’s labourer. Job for 18 months at Action for the Crippled Child in London, showing visitors how the charity educated and cared for disabled children. Worked at a “sub-normality” hospital at Calderstones as a therapy assistant, later becoming a student nurse. Dr Robertson. Washing a dead body. Measuring out medicines and giving injections.

 

Alan set up a five-year rehabilitation programme for “high-grade” patients. Attitudes of non-disabled staff. ‘H block’ patients were ‘low-grade’ (lower intelligence) and many had to be restrained. Staff mixed patients’ main course and dessert, which Alan reported to the chief male nurse. Tribunals prior to rehabilitation programme. Work Assessment - teaching patients work and living skills. Fourteen staff working under Alan, 12 years after he worked in the mill. Marriage in 1965 to Kath, who became pregnant after two years.  Alan’s fear that his own child might be disabled. Training as a teacher of children with learning disabilities.  Interview at Harris College, Preston with Mr Feetny. Trained to be a social rehabilitation officer, part-time over 3 years, at Bretton House, a college of Manchester University. Margaret Morgan, Employment Officer with the Spastics Society, and her employment assessment courses. ‘Casanova Counsell’. Weekly staff dinner-dances at the hospital. Katherine’s family’s attitudes to Alan. In 1969 Alan moved to Meldreth Manor for his first teaching job. Headteachers Mr Crabbe, then in 1971 Mr Brown. Trevor Jeavons deputy head. Camping with Meldreth Manor at Knebworth Park Hertfordshire.

 

 

 

Camping at Knebworth House. Jousting on a quad bike. Mary Chipperfield brought tigers and chimpanzees to Meldreth School Fete. Canal trips. Lions Club in Cambridge arranged school trips. Village volunteers arranged home visits. Girl Guides run by Alan’s wife. Headteacher Mr Brown retired after heart attack.  After a talk at Cambridge University, Alan was offered a place at Homerton teacher training college. Alan offered post as Classroom Assistant. “People like you don’t teach in my school”. National Union of Teachers. Trevor Jeavons became head at a mainstream school in Milton Keynes and offered Alan a job teaching. Physiotherapy with Pat Pettit. Teaching practice in a village school. School Inspectors. Qualified from Homerton College and started new teaching post in Milton Keynes in September 1978.

 

 

 

Milton Keynes Secondary Modern School. Behaviour problems. Teaching general science. Working at Buckinghamshire County Council, 1982 to 1989, as an Integrating Officer, helping to integrate disabled children into mainstream schools. Resistance from teachers. Backing of Alan’s family. Alan and Katherine had three children. Feeding Grant, his first son. School Christmas carols. Children’s understanding of father’s disability. Alan’s father was gassed in the First World War. He wanted to live to see Alan’s first child. When Alan’s father was re-assured that the child was not disabled, he died 48 hours later.

 

Margaret Morgan, the Employment Officer from the Spastics Society. Alan walked out after 12 weeks’ training to be a gardener’s labourer. He got a job in London, aged 22, with Action for the Crippled Child. Brother’s support for Alan at school. Alan learnt to walk at 10 or 11. Older brother, John, and sister, Olive. At 22, lan moved to his own flat, a former ballroom over Charlie Webster’s Butcher’s in Padiham, near Burnley for 4 years, moving to a house in Accrington when Katherine was expecting a baby. Solicitor addressed all his comments to Katherine. Katherine worked at Curry’s. Later, after the birth of Emma, their youngest daughter, Katherine became a classroom assistant in special education. Grant was born in 1968, followed by Marcia, then Emma in 1975. Grant married Helen, and tried to adopt in 1999.

 

 

 

Alan’s advice to his son Grant about adopting a disabled child. Alan’s daughter Marcia had five children, including Hyram. Alan’s other daughter Emma is a teacher of 9-10-year-olds in Milton Keynes. Margaret Morgan and Spastics Society work assessment course at Boughton-on-the-Water. Travelling in the Guards Van.  Luggage mix-up on a steam train from Birmingham New Street to London. Taxi company thought Alan’s speech impairment meant he was drunk. Attitudes today towards disability in the medical profession and amongst employers. 

 

Reasonable adjustments in the workplace. Care in the community. Alan taught for 12 years without a day’s sickness. Continuing Education Department. Exhaustion. Head Trevor Jeavons. Alan retired at 50 and had taught for 30 years. After nine months, Alan decided to become a disability issues trainer. Applied for Enterprise Allowance from a Disability Resettlement Officer (DRO), who said that it was unrealistic because Alan had a speech impairment. Disability Services. Training and Enterprise Council offered Alan a day’s work a week for a year. Later, Alan ran a course which included the DRO who had refused Alan the Enterprise Allowance. DRO had been sacked because of the way she had treated Alan and others.

 

 

 

Alan is a member of Mormon Church. Married in 1960 in a Mormon church between Lingfield and East Grinstead. Religious beliefs and attitudes. Alan has five grandchildren – their attitudes to disability. Neck pain: various consultations with neurologists. Derbyshire Coalition of Disabled People.

 

Surgery proposed because of trapped spinal column. Alan’s experience with doctors. Lack of doctors who specialise in cerebral palsy. Horse riding – problems with insurance.  Views about Scope leadership and work as a charity. Working with Bill Hargreaves. Parents who helped to form the Spastics Society. Today's parents. Political campaigning of Scope.  Too many 'experts' today. Meldreth Manor. Community spirit during Alan’s childhood. Neighbours ‘Mammy Buck’ and 'Uncle' Bob. Bob, who was a weaver, made toys for Alan including a wooden spinning top’. Education during his 18-month absence from school. Brothers and sisters still living in Blackburn.

 

 

 

Living in village for 10 years. Alan's father was involved in bringing up children. Being a teenager in the 1950s and 60s. In February 2000, Alan received a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from Leonard Cheshire Foundation, presented by Jane Asher. Since 1900, Alan has run own company training disabled people in Customs and Excise. Genealogy. Grandfather was a teacher, born in Derbyshire. Mother's family were kitchen-makers in Mansfield. Alan taught an evening class in family history in Milton Keynes. Gardening. Reading. Ballroom dancing. Training courses for Inland Revenue and Birmingham City Council. Ambition to sing and take up horse-riding. Autobiography published in 1982, called 'So Clear in my Mind'.

 

 

 

Difficult birth. Family support to go to mainstream school. Doctor wanted to amputate Alan’s arm. Learning to walk and talk. Mr Jolly’s career advice. Warehouse lad in the cotton mill.  Work for Action for Crippled Children.

 

Work in ‘subnormality hospital’. Relationships. Wedding in 1965. Teaching at Meldreth Manor School. Head Mr Brown. Homerton College teacher training. Appointed deputy head teacher, in charge of integration for Buckingham County Council. Autobiography, So Clear in My Mind. Three children. Grandparents’ reaction. Lifetime Achievement Award.