Anyone go to the Gregg School in Broomhill 1952/1955?

I didn't say the 'sorry' bit only S36. Perhaps he will reply shortly. He could be on holiday, lucky fella.

I'm saying sorry to bill hailey for betraying

my rock & roll roots & turning to ballroom dancing . I do remember having a conversation with a boy in my class I bought the LP Rockaround the clock, & had bought the next release.

Thanks for explaining S36, Bill should now understand.

Arranged to meet one of my class mates last Sunday and had a good chat. He is not on this site. Don't you think that pupils on this site most likely writes about someone who also reads these comments? If this is true I must say that I have not said anything nasty about the pupils but find it really interesting to read what others say about what happened at the school before and after my time. I left 1959.

---------- Post added 18-08-2015 at 20:58 ----------

Anyone go to the Gregg School in Broomhill 1961/1963? I remember Mr Rankin, Mr Sutherland and many more. Mr Rankin (unknowingly) changed my life.

Hi Hope you are good and enjoying life. A lot happened at the school over the years, some unbelievable (Shanks being dismissed) to some lads (after my time) moving Rankin's car further down the road. I find that most amusing. And to the shocking closure of the school in the 60s. I came from Stocksbridge along with about a dozen others during my time there.

---------- Post added 18-08-2015 at 21:03 ----------

I now remember the reunion being in 1999 and Rankin was then 82 years of age and still looked fit. I wonder if he has made his nineties yet? I had great respect for him, he was always turned out very smartly dressed and groomed.

Have you any idea who arranged the reunion in the 90's as all the pupils I have spoken to didn't get an invite most likely because no one knew how to contact them.

I'm saying sorry to bill hailey for betraying

my rock & roll roots & turning to ballroom dancing . I do remember having a conversation with a boy in my class I bought the LP Rockaround the clock, & had bought the next release.

We don't regard it as a capital offence !!! As I am the world's worst dancer according to my beloved, I admire those who have a sense of rhythm and timing.

I think the reunion Snowball is talking about was organised by a former pupil who lived near the A1 near Worksop, and her name escapes me. I completely forgot the date so missed it.

I visited the old school in the spring It looked much the same just the people missing.

Does anyone remember Robert Godber he left in the third ? Did he become head of Wath Grammer school & became William Haigh ex foreign secretory's mentor.

Does anyone remember david frascati? He had a sex change in the 60s and went to work as a prostitute in Venice?

Sorry, Alan Ladd, I've never heard of David Friscati. Another school lad was said to have had a sex change but this was totally untrue.

I met david, now Deanna, two years ago, he,she was playing piano in a gay brothel in berlin after many years based in venice, he saidvhe went to gregg school in sheffield.

We had a nickname for Mr Fuchs we called him "Nat" thinking that his name was Nathaniel or could have been an undeserved shortening of a well known teutonic nationalist political party:roll:. Was chatting on the phone with one of my old school chums Roger Davison found out after Nat died in 1979 that his first name was actually Maximillian. We should have been naming him Max! So this suggests that his nickname might have been a bit derogatory:surprised, when he was such a nice gentleman.

The above correspondent was David Lowe (1959-64), sadly David died 26.08.2015 RIP.

I was at Greggs after failing my 11+ in 1956. The other week I had occasion to walk by the place, now much changed, with security gates &c, and wondered how on earth they managed to fit everyone into the school panorama photo I still have in my loft. The front garden there looks tiny now.

 

I well remember Rankin who often used to distribute empty tins of his "Four Square Green" tobacco tins to the class, with everyone clammering to get one. Rankin lived at Bubnell, Baslow, if I recall correctly.

Of the teachers there in my time, there was Fuchs, and also his wife, a tiny little woman who spoke with a thick Austrian accent and wore too much red lipstick. Mr Midgley was there too, and he was a very nice guy, although he tended to find it a bit difficult to control the art and PT classes.He also worked at Birkdale School. He was always a bit put on, I would guess. Along with him was Mr Barlow - can't recall his first name - who, like Mrs Wolstenholme, whom I recall was never far out of his company (!) smoked almost as much as Arnold. Mrs Anderson taught us geography and she was quite an attractive lady, from memory.

 

Of the pupils there in my time, I seem to remember the females more than the males (wonder why that is ). There was Mary Plummer who I briefly heard of on friends reunited site and now lives somewhere in the Home Counties; Jennifer Chadwick and Valerie Slater.Valerie was from Conisborough, and she had a wonderful figure. I met her by chance many years later, at a wedding reception at the White Rose Pub in Handsworth, and I asked her if she was married, to which she replied "No, still a batchelor girl". What a waste:love:

There was also Joan Swinscoe, mentioned elsewhere, who, despite being pretty good with her fists, I had a crush on. After getting her on her own one hot summers day in the front bay of the tram, as it headed towards Millhouses, I asked her to the Abbeydale cinema. I was crushed when told it was too hot for the pictures. End of story!

 

The chap I sat next to was called Howard Pease, a pretty good artist, such that, in boring lessions we would swap cartoon drawings under the desk amid muffled laughter. Howard lived at Thorpe Hesley.

 

The above-mentioned Mrs Wolstenholme had her son there at the school; always regarded as a bit of a mummy's boy or wimp, so it was decided to play a prank on him. I supplied a number of cascara laxative tablets and Chris Tym (Totley Rise and related to the butchers there) installed these into the poor lad's packed lunch. Sadly, we were rumbled before the food was consumed and lectured about the dangers of the lad being hospitalised, this, followed by six strokes of the cane in Arnold's Craven A smoke filled office, and followed by three days Saturday detention. My father was very amused by this but I suspect the law would have been called these days.

 

I later attended the school's dance - along with my girlfriend, later to become my wife - and this was held at the Locano, on London Road; it is now a supermarket I think. Here Rankin caused much muttering behind hands as he danced all night with Maxine Wragg, a prefect, many years his junior.It was probably the last school dance ever held.

 

The house captain of Keats house was one Richard Ellis and he regularly gravitated to the bombed out ruins of St Marks Church in company with Christine - whose surname I forget - for a bit of what we all imagined was some slap and tickle at lunchtimes.

 

Sports was usually held at the City Surveyors Ground (or 'Survivors' as many termed it) on Heeley Bank Road. From there Humphries used to take us cross country running up as far as Myrtle Springs and then down over the fields which are have long since been built over and where the trams now run.

 

Swimming was a treat, as this effectively meant half a day off. We went to the public baths at Broadfield Road by bus, a long trip from Newbould Lane and via Nether Edge. From the bus I always looked out for the big eye logo on the blue wall of Photofinishers, under which were the words 'photography for industry' and thought, yes, I would like to do that. After leaving Greggs in 1961 I got a job there, at a time when colour photography was just becoming widely available to the amateur; here I met my future wife and commenced my career in photography which has been my sole occupation for the last 50 years or more.

I was at Greggs for 1 year from Sept 1960 to July 1961 and

---------- Post added 31-08-2015 at 16:55 ----------

I was at Greggs for 1 year from Sept 1960 to July 1961. My father had sent me to Greggs after a miserable GCE result from my previous school. There I met up again with John Moffatt who had also been at my previous school. He had stayed on for a further term to retake his GCE's along with David Snelson, John Bradshaw and Roger Derricourt. On reading the messages posted brought back memories of that time. I often wondered what happened to some of the characters including the teachers.

I would be interested to hear further.

 

regards,

 

jsa4

 

---------- Post added 01-09-2015 at 12:09 ----------

 

I think we were at the school at the same time. On reading some of your memories and the people at the time I'm sure we were. It would be interesting to swap notes.

regards,

jsa4

I left in 59 and up to that time the Tuesday afternoon swimming was at Glossop Road baths. I recall some of the names you mention who were obviously two years behind me. Maxina was a year younger than me and came from Stocksbride. I understand Mr Barlow eventually married Mrs Wolstenholm and it was Mr Humphries who was married to the Austrian lady. I wasn't there when a Mrs Anderson taught.

Some of the comments on this site I don't believe are true and feel sorry for the people they are telling stories about. I also wish I had known about this site several years ago but I am happy to say that I am now in contact with one of my fellow students and are arranging to meet for a second time. I wonder if any other site members were also in the same class but of but until they decide to open up with their own names I can only guess.

Hi Snowball,

Although you left in '59 I suspect we are a similar age. I was 17 when I first went to Greggs in Sept 1960.

You wouldn't have known John Moffatt but I'm sure there are others that we both know both pupils and teachers.

Despite previous comments I disagree about the quality of some of the teachers. Rankin, Fuchs and the English teacher who's name escapes me. Also the delectable Mrs Anderson who got me through geography.

regards,

jsa4