PaulSH

I'm still close friends with 3 people who I met in my first year at Abbeydale in 1959. One of them is Susan Broadhead. I've sent you a PM Although I was a good swimmer, I hated going to the KE baths - it was always freezing cold. We were never allowed anywhere near the KE lads, so the fact that it was a boys' school didn't compensate. Did you know Victor Edie - he was in the same class as me at junior school. Yes I was in the 6th form with Vic - nice bloke. He went to Birmingham U to do Bacteriology - regret that's all I know of him.

Best Mojo gig I can remember was the Birds [not the US Byrds] which was Ronnie Wood's first recording band. At one point they got the guitars feeding back then propped em up and walked off for a drink/smoke, came back and carried on with the number. Those were indeed the days!

Good evening ladies. A long-time exile in London, I have only recently discovered the Forum and have been noseying around looking for ex pupils of Stradbroke Junior School. I was in the 4th year there in 58/59. Delighted to see mentions of 4 old classmates - Vernie Alcock, Susan Broadhead, Diane Farrand and Jean Gaunt. I think there may have been 2 more from Stradbroke who went to AGGS - Christine Hardwick and Lorna Downes. Can anyone confirm this? Stradbroke was a remarkably successful junior school at that time. The Head was a Mr Long and as well as getting so many girls into AGGS he got 5 boys [inc self] into King Teds. So far as I recall only 3 or 4 pupils out of a class of maybe 40 failed the 11plus. Most KES boys remember Abbeydale girls using our swimming pool. The running track passed right by the pool windows and circuit training was unusually popular on your swimming days.

It was a Bond, as far as I can recall it had a single [driver's] seat in the front with a hard, very rudimentary, bench seat in the back. The trick was to cram 3 abreast on the bench, one across their laps and one [short straw] on the floor on their feet. It didn't do the tonic mohair suits any good at all. BTW Philip - I think it was Anthony Howard Nesbit. His dad was a successful optician in't posh part of town. I didn't know about the Vitesse [flash bugger]. ---------- Post added 05-10-2013 at 00:04 ---------- and John worked at Queen Mary [London] at same time as me. Though we hardly coincided. ---------- Post added 05-10-2013 at 00:09 ---------- and John worked at Queen Mary [London] at same time as me. Though we hardly coincided. ---------- Post added 05-10-2013 at 00:29 ---------- Given the class distribution in the school it was surprising they even fielded a labour candidate. The only mock election I can recall [which would have been 64 I guess] was won overwhelmingly by the Conservative. The only other guy I knew who was prepared to admit to supporting Labour was Roger Taylor, who came from down t'road in Woodhouse. Can't remember who the candidates were. Only that the Liberal became a prefect with whom I subsequently had some serious issues.

I thought she was just Janet but I'm sure you're right.

Joe's Ices [Molinari's] used to tour the Stradbroke Estate as well. Lovely stuff.

Well I never! Someone in my family knew Mr Hutchinson and got me a Saturday job at his shop in t'Wicker. This would have been around '64/'65. Hutchinson clearly didn't take to me and banished me to the cellar to weigh out bone-meal into 2lb bags all day. Harry Moore and the rest of the staff were really nice, as was Hutchinson's daughter. Coincidentally my grandparents lived on Petre Street. Eventually I was transferred to another Hutchinson shop in Darnall run by lovely old ladies called Rose, Violet and Ivy. This shop was a corn chandlers rather than a pet shop. It sold corn, wheat, millet, etc by the sackload, also dog biscuits [Vims?] by the hundredweight and also hemp seed. Not sure what that was for. ---------- Post added 03-10-2013 at 01:22 ---------- Did he also have a practice on Richmond Road? I'm sure when I was a teenager my dentist was Arnold Scholey and I certainly went to a place on Richmond Rd on the left heading from Handsworth to Woodthorpe, top of the hill before it dropped down to the Richmond Hotel [Wards] and the shops. None of his fillings ever fell out. Correction - Arnold Scholey was my mum's dentist when we lived in Grimesthorpe. The dentist on Richmond Road was a Mr Saylis [or Salis]

Hi Dreb Hang on a minute. Philip, yes, pay attention boy - we had a long exchange from the KES website a few years back, prompted by you saying something about Julian Peckett adopting hippy ways [or summat] - as if! Dreb - If you ever come across Frank C again give him my best. John Burgin, now then... John was one of 5 boys in the 59 intake from Stradbroke Juniors. Him, me, Sid Siddal, Peter Blackledge and Bob [baggy] Wright, all brought up on Stradbroke estate. John had street cred by the shedload - even at junior school, where he was "Ted" after his uncle [?] who played for United. He was a great guy, a gentle giant but handy for sorting out the pondlife who bullied smaller or younger boys. There was also a story that he once stuck one on Nat which I heard only after leaving KES so was never able to verify it. I think he had a younger bro who also made it to KES. In your leaving photo you look like an Esquire regular! I went a couple of times but preferred Club 60 [till it shut] and the Mojo. We often used to go in AHN [Tony] Blackburn's Bond 3 wheeler. Generally could get 6 in it. The Sportsman on Burngreave Road was handy for half time refreshment. Pity that Pete Stringfellow turned into a parody of Paul Raymond. ---------- Post added 03-10-2013 at 00:37 ---------- Can any of you recall the final assembly one year when the same John Cooke and a n other played Nutrocker by BBumble and Fats Dominos Blueberry Hill on the piano ? Nat and Flinky nearly choked on their gowns. Yes it sure was a different world back then Hi Dreb Sure can- they [whoever] played it very well. There was another final assembly [or was it the same one?] when someone sang Be Bop a Lula which was quite excellent. The guy who encouraged us to bring records in [and explain to the rest of the class why they were any good] was Willie Scobie. He kicked off himself with Verklarte Nacht by Schoenberg - which was quite challenging. Jim Saunders played us Dave Brubeck's Unsquare Dance [i think it was], which wasn't my thing at the time [any more than Schoenberg] but must have stuck.

OK you've all had a laff, but I worked at Bachelors up Claywheels Lane for two summers around '68 and '69 when surprise peas were being processed - so I know! They were the best peas in Lincolnshire and would arrive round the clock on huge artics within a few hours of being picked [peas go manky really fast]. Each batch was sampled with something called a tenderometer [i'm not making this up] and the very best were sent to the surprise peas lines. The lines were like something out of a sci-fi movie - perforated metal beds dozens of yards long and about 2 yards wide, which I think were vibrated so the peas rolled gently down them whilst very hot air was blown up through them to dry them. This produced an atmosphere around the lines of 100% humidity and about 90 degrees F. Every half an hour or so a hooter sounded and all the lads working on the lines had to drink a glass of salted orange juice to stop them passing out [no really, I'm not making this up]. Fortunately for Bachelors the fresh pea season coincided with the university hols - so they could run the lines on the sweated labour of students. But by eck the pay was good. I worked nights driving a dumper truck shovelling up all the peas that fell of the lines and taking them down to a washer to be turned into animal feed [so they told me]. The works canteen was fantastic and even though I sweated buckets I put on pounds. Yeah, the peas were great - small, sweet and juicy. Much nicer than frozen.

Hi Dreb Yes, I was in the 1[4] intake with Philip then went thro 5Sc & 6Sc. I remember you now from the 4th yr photos. Nat had a thing about hair altho few other staff seemed to care. It was the 60s for god's sake. Was Frank Cartledge one of the others dragged out in assembly? Of all the guys in our year he always struck me as the one who pulled off the cool dude thing most successfully [and a nice bloke too]. I recall Jeremy Fisher. What a sad story. I never realised he was bullied at school altho others were [Alistair Clarke comes to mind as do the names of several of the bullies - probably retired stockbrokers now]. I kept in touch with a few thro uni years [Julian Peckett -RIP, John Mills, Phil Ford & Rod Armitage] all united by music & girls. Them were't days!

Seems we all agree that Willie Scobie was one of the best. For more on him see Hillsboro's post no 22 above. Do any of you remember the alarm clock in assembly incident? ---------- Post added 30-09-2013 at 01:42 ---------- Hi Dreb48 I hated some of it, found ways of surviving it then, after 4 or 5 years actually started to enjoy learning stuff. That was because of teachers who treated us, if not like adults, then at least like intelligent beings who wanted to learn. Also being specky, jug ears, rubbish at kicking balls I was not one of the gilded youth who went on to be prefects or captains of this & that. Some of them were as bad as some of the teachers. "The beatings will continue until morale improves"

Eyup Morts You don't by any chance remember a guy called Ian Rose at KES do you? I think he may have been in your year. I encountered him at York Uni and would like to get in touch. Splits - Jesus! - no way now. My good lady worries about the Bill catching me carrying a pruning knife from home to me allotment.

Hi Philip Any idea what happened to Mr Allen? How long did he survive at KES? Where did he go after that?

I wouldn't be so sure about that. My Uncle Bill, the one who had the chip shop on Eccleshall Road, was approached several times by Wards management, who wanted him to take on one of their pubs. He would never say which one, but I always thought it would be the Devonshire. He always refused, which ****** me off mightily. The point is, there are no rat catchers, or god botherers of any other denomination, in my family.

I remember having a pint of WARDS in the White Hart just off Putney bridge London was told by the then manager that there was three pubs selling WARDS in London. When I first moved down south I lived in Kilburn, where the only decent ale was in the Queens Head [maybe Arms] at No 1 Kilburn High Road [Youngs]. After a few years of this deprivation a pub down Maida Vale, on the way to Marylebone Station [can't remember its name] started selling Wards. This was after the takeover by Vaux. The Wards wasn't bad [for London] but not a patch on how I remember it in the Devonshire.