delticfan

Did anyone on here go to Gosforth School in Dronfield in the late 60s/early 70s. It was more like a Stalinist labour camp than a school. Actually, only a few teachers used corporal punishment, but those who did must have been satisfying some sadistic perversion. I remember two in particular. Headmaster Mr Kemp Nobody knew how old he was but he must have been way past retirement age and senile. He was obsessed with discipline. Every morning, after assembly, he would read out a list of boys' names (girls were not beaten) who had committed some kind of "offence" (usually trivial) the previous day. Or he would send boys out during assembly if he thought they had been talking, coughing etc. They had to leave the hall and go and wait outside his study. Anyone who has seen the film "Kes" by Ken Loach will know what I mean. He would then spend much of the first period giving them a long moral lecture, followed by a caning on the hands. I never got it, but I remember boys coming back to the classroom with ugly stripes across their palms. PE teacher Mr Hill The usual species of sports master - all brawn and no brains. As was usual with PE teachers, he gave the slipper - frequently and brutally. The list of offences was endless: forgetting an item of kit, "slacking" on the sports field, etc. Slipperings (on the backside) were usually administered in the changing rooms in front of one's fellow pupils, for whom it was undoubtedly great entertainment. Of course, at the time, no one questioned this. It was totally normal. I can't remember anyone's parents ever coming to school to complain. Mine were totally in favour of corporal punishment. Children, by virtue of their very existence, had to be punished. I know there is a lack of discipline in schools today, and perhaps some pupils could benefit from the odd caning. But what I saw at Gosforth has made me a life-long opponent of corporal punishment.

I grew up in Dronfield in the 60s and 70s. One of the great Dronfield institutions of that era was a Mr George Vaughan, a greengrocer from Unstone who used to drive his van to parts of Dronfield twice a week and stop outside his regular customers' houses to sell his fruit and veg. My parents were just about the only "young" residents on our road. The vast majority were in their twilight years. Needless to say, they didn't quite "get" decimal currency. Our next-door-neighbour for instance. When Mr Vaughan told her the price of her purchases in decimal, she would invariable reply: "Eeh George, what's that in real money?" We spent years at primary school learning how to do arithmetic with non-decimal currency, only for it to be abolished in 1971. I don't know how much a pint cost then because I was too young, but I can remember a Mars bar costing 6 (old) pence in the mid-1960s. That is the equivalent of 2 1/2 new pence.

I remember the first Chinese takeaway to open in Dronfield. It was, I think, 1973. It was called Tung Sun and was on the main road opposite the (then closed) station. It is still there, although it has had many names in the past 42 years. Hard to believe now, but for us young Dronfeldians it was revolutionary. Many of us were initially reluctant to eat the Chinese specialities, having been told by our parents that it was "foreign muck" and that we would die of instant food poisoning. Compare that with today. Even Dronfield has a variety of non-British restaurants, and half an hour's ride on the 43 or 44 bus will take you to the multi-cultural culinary diversity of London Road.

Dronfield Infant and Junior School, School Lane. 1963 to 1969. Favourite teacher - Miss Newbold (later Ms Sheldon). Had her in the final year. Least favourite - Mr Winsor. Luckily, only had him for woodwork and football. He was obsessed with slippering pupils.

There have undoubtedly been countless discussions on SF about the bridge at Sheffield station. What I would like to know is why British station operators are obsessed with conducting ticket checks at stations while many of their European counterparts allow free access to platforms. There was a time not all that long ago when this system seemed to be catching on in Britain, but now the opposite is true, and every time I visít there appear to be more and more stations equipped with barriers. Surely tickets can be checked on the train.

As a native Dronfeldian (resident 1958 to 1976), I am always delighted to see any new addition to its eating and drinking scene. My next visit isn't until May, but I will definitely be down there on the first evening. The location couldn't be better, as it lies strategically on my walk home from the station to my parents' house.

In the 1970s, there was a stop outside Sheaf House (British Rail Sheffield HQ - long since demolished) at which most (all?) buses heading along Queens Road used to stop, including the 512 Limited Stop to Chesterfield via Dronfield. It was certainly quicker than walking across to Pond Street if you had just arrived on the train, plus there were no trains to Dronfield in those days. Does anyone know why the 43 and 44 Stagecoach buses (and their "A" variants) to Dronfield have been departing from Flat Street for several years. The interchange always looks woefully underused, but it is a nicer place to wait (especially in the rain).

I grew up in Dronfield in the 1960s and can (just) remember the local trains that called at Heeley, Millhouses and Ecclesall, Beauchief (it closed before the others) and Dore and Totley. After Dronfield there was Sheepbridge before Chesterfield. All this came to an end in 1966. However, my father still has an old Eastern Region timetable frrom that era, and it is obvious that there was nothing like a regular interval service, which at least there is today. When I was old enough to travel into Sheffield alone, there were buses, but what a service! The Limited Stop (512 - hourly but half-hourly in the morning and evening peaks) from Green Lane called at Abbey Lane and Midland Station only before reaching Pond Street, and usually did the journey in 20 minutes, and there were routes 11 and 12 serving the intermediate stops. These were the good old days before deregulation. Today, the 43 and related routes take an eternity. In an ideal world, and like in other countries (e.g. Germany), Sheffield would be the hub of a suburban network, with regular services on the all the lines emanating from it (including the line to Chesterfield with Heeley, Millhouses etc. reinstated), with feeder buses (Dronfield is quite large) and integrated ticketing.

You are right. The word Stein is not used in Germany to refer to a glass or mug . The word you are looking for is Maßkrug, usually shortened to Maß, which is one litre. In Bavaria most pubs sell litres, but here in Berlin it's not very common. I will be in Sheffield next May. It would be interesting to know if there is anywhere you can get a litre glass of beer.

Most of the places you go to (Waitrose, The Graze, etc.) seem to be full of children with pretentious names. Both The Cross Scythes and The Stag involve walks up incredibly steep hills.

Did anyone on here attend Gosforth School in Dronfield in the late 60s/early 70s? If so, do you remember it as being like a Stalinist labour camp staffed by corporal punishment fetishists who were totally incompetent at imparting useful knowledge?