NEGS/Abbeydale Boys Grammar

[inessex 11]

There was a lad who played in a rock band. Went to see him at Crosspool. Think he played a Fender so I was impressed.  I was the manager of a furniture shop in the 70s. Cas came in with a complaint which I sorted. Couple of weeks later Vince came in asking for discount.  Must have had a conversation. Met Buzz whilst walking around Fox House Moors. Real Gent. Must have been. 1980ish as my son was about 4. Caveman Tomas. Rowdy Yates. Odd strict bloke who tought scripture. Each time he walked in the room he drew a map of the red sea area.  Which I had taken more interest.  Might know a bit about what is going on.  The guy who tought Geography. Got so mercilesly teased.  How must his life have been.  The French teacher who banged the door a shouted stand up when he came in the room. Sorry about the memory but 55 years ago

[abbeyedges 82]

11 hours ago, inessex said:

There was a lad who played in a rock band. Went to see him at Crosspool. Think he played a Fender so I was impressed.  I was the manager of a furniture shop in the 70s. Cas came in with a complaint which I sorted. Couple of weeks later Vince came in asking for discount.  Must have had a conversation. Met Buzz whilst walking around Fox House Moors. Real Gent. Must have been. 1980ish as my son was about 4. Caveman Tomas. Rowdy Yates. Odd strict bloke who tought scripture. Each time he walked in the room he drew a map of the red sea area.  Which I had taken more interest.  Might know a bit about what is going on.  The guy who tought Geography. Got so mercilesly teased.  How must his life have been.  The French teacher who banged the door a shouted stand up when he came in the room. Sorry about the memory but 55 years ago

'Odd strict bloke who taught scripture....' could that have been Mr Ramsbottom?

[fatrajah 10]

 

Mr Kurley (maths 1962 to 1965) was a student at a beginners' Spanish course I was attending about 15 years ago. He hadn't changed much over the years & I recognised him almost immediately. He had retired as Head Teacher at Meadow School about 10 years previous to that. I always remembered him as unstuffy & not pompous as some of the other teachers at ABGS during my time there.  He did not remember me but he said he only remembered his best & worst pupils, so I suppose that was ok! He said he still met up with Mr Mann ( Chemistry), Mr Marshall(Eng Lit) & Mr Ramsbottom (RE). Mr Ramsbottom was a Lancastrian with a booming voice & a fierce temper whom you didn't want to cross!

Edited November 1, 2019 by fatrajah

[Meltman 311]

I went to ABGS in the first new years intake after the school moved from Neather Edge, 1959 if i remember. I left in 1965 and remember several of the teachers  (see other topic on Neather Edge Grammar School) and the names mentioned by fatrajah. I havn't seen any for quite a while now, I wonder how many are still with us.

[Jcolediver 0]

I currently know Edward (Eddie) Hewison, often enjoy a pint with him in the local. Top bloke.

[cissie&grumpy 0]

On 31/10/2019 at 17:43, inessex said:

There was a lad who played in a rock band. Went to see him at Crosspool. Think he played a Fender so I was impressed.  I was the manager of a furniture shop in the 70s. Cas came in with a complaint which I sorted. Couple of weeks later Vince came in asking for discount.  Must have had a conversation. Met Buzz whilst walking around Fox House Moors. Real Gent. Must have been. 1980ish as my son was about 4. Caveman Tomas. Rowdy Yates. Odd strict bloke who tought scripture. Each time he walked in the room he drew a map of the red sea area.  Which I had taken more interest.  Might know a bit about what is going on.  The guy who tought Geography. Got so mercilesly teased.  How must his life have been.  The French teacher who banged the door a shouted stand up when he came in the room. Sorry about the memory but 55 years ago

I stumbled upon this by accident and it evoked a few memories and smiles.  I started at NEGS in 1957, leaving ABGS in 1964.  The only rock guitarist I can recall was Chris Spedding, who became a sought-after session man and, inter alia, a Womble.  “Cas” doesn’t ring a bell but “Vince” might be Vince Cooper, lanky PE teacher given to lobbing a wooden skittle at you if your attention wandered.  Can’t remember what “Buzz” Scorer taught - perhaps one of the sciences.  Monobrowed “Caveman” Thomas joined ABGS in 1962 to teach Economics - brand new on the syllabus - to a seventeen-strong A-level class, at the end of which I scored a magnificent Unclassified.  “Rowdy” Yates taught English, for some years editing the annual school mag The Torch.  Ken Ramsbottom did indeed begin every Scripture lesson by chalking a three-second sketch map of the Holy Land on the board; but beware, his ear-to-ear fixed grin of Christian benevolence could shut like a rat trap in an instant.  That Geography teacher was Bill “Claud” Raynes, who got increasingly agitated - to the point of sweating freely - whenever we made any noise in class.  His frantic mantra of “Stop TALKing!  Stop TALKing!” was unfortunately taken up by the class, followed by “says big fat Mr Raynes”, all to the tune of Manhattan Spiritual, leaving him in a speechless panic.  As you say, merciless.  The French teacher sounds like Charlie Simpson, who terrorised us in the early years but later softened because, as he once disarmingly put it, “these days, you boys are taller than me”.  Charlie had served in Burma during the War and could easily be tricked into reminiscing entertainingly for ten minutes at a time until he clocked what we were up to.  (Mostly) happy days!

[Rockers rule 673]

On 05/09/2020 at 18:25, cissie&grumpy said:

I stumbled upon this by accident and it evoked a few memories and smiles.  I started at NEGS in 1957, leaving ABGS in 1964.  The only rock guitarist I can recall was Chris Spedding, who became a sought-after session man and, inter alia, a Womble.  “Cas” doesn’t ring a bell but “Vince” might be Vince Cooper, lanky PE teacher given to lobbing a wooden skittle at you if your attention wandered.  Can’t remember what “Buzz” Scorer taught - perhaps one of the sciences.  Monobrowed “Caveman” Thomas joined ABGS in 1962 to teach Economics - brand new on the syllabus - to a seventeen-strong A-level class, at the end of which I scored a magnificent Unclassified.  “Rowdy” Yates taught English, for some years editing the annual school mag The Torch.  Ken Ramsbottom did indeed begin every Scripture lesson by chalking a three-second sketch map of the Holy Land on the board; but beware, his ear-to-ear fixed grin of Christian benevolence could shut like a rat trap in an instant.  That Geography teacher was Bill “Claud” Raynes, who got increasingly agitated - to the point of sweating freely - whenever we made any noise in class.  His frantic mantra of “Stop TALKing!  Stop TALKing!” was unfortunately taken up by the class, followed by “says big fat Mr Raynes”, all to the tune of Manhattan Spiritual, leaving him in a speechless panic.  As you say, merciless.  The French teacher sounds like Charlie Simpson, who terrorised us in the early years but later softened because, as he once disarmingly put it, “these days, you boys are taller than me”.  Charlie had served in Burma during the War and could easily be tricked into reminiscing entertainingly for ten minutes at a time until he clocked what we were up to.  (Mostly) happy days!

Mr Mann, Mr Cooper, & Mr Ramsbottom were still there in the late 60's/ 70's.

Mr Cooper was Head when we were there.

Didn't have much to do with Mr Mann but he was a strange character.

Mr Ramsbottom must have mellowed, or given up, as had most of the old Grammar school teachers on trying to teach us non

11+ strays from the other side of town anything by then- LOL.

 

Didn't know the Chris Spedding link to ABG.

Knew Seb Coe was there but he was always out running somewhere. 

 

 

[darylslinn 10]

Mr Cooper and Mr Ramsbottom were still there in the early 80's too.
I've got to thank Mr Ramsbottom for introducing me at an early age to the music of U2.... I still can't remember how it linked into the RE lesson, but we had  a week of listening to early U2 stuff.

 

[MichaelB 0]

I was at NEGS/ABGS from 1955 to 1962.

 

Would like to contact or hear from anyone else in my year 

[ping 11]

I started in 1959 in Mr Ramsbottom's class (1A I think). We had a maths teacher called V. V. McManus - very scary person. 

Other teachers whose names spring to mind, Percy Thompson who had a Bond Minicar and would sometimes give us a lift home towards Totley, Hugh Pashley (chemistry), Bernard Ansbro (english), Gus Platt (history, who incidentally also taught my Dad when he was at Nether Edge), Mr Wilkinson (headmaster), 'Noddy' Wiseman (geography).

Went on school skiing trip to Austria in 1964 or 5 with Mr Hinckley (french) and Vince Cooper (PE) in charge.

Plenty of school pics here:

https://www.chrishobbs.com/abgs.htm

[27001Ariadne 11]

Noddy Wiseman, to the select few of us who were also tram enthusiasts, had a totally  different significance. By the time I joined ABGS 1963 he'd moved to sunny Mansfield - just as Sheffield trams started appearing in books and magazines with masses of photos credited to R.S.Wiseman! He became a leading light in the Tramway Museum Society (Crich) & we were gutted  we'd never got to chat to him

[daveannjon 11]

On 01/11/2019 at 04:45, abbeyedges said:

'Odd strict bloke who taught scripture....' could that have been Mr Ramsbottom?

Would that geography teacher have been Claud Raines (might be spelt differently to the famous actor).  I always felt sorry for him but he just could not control a class. The Head used to patrol when he was teaching to make sure chaos didn't ensue.

Richard Wiseman did indeed form the Crich Tramway Museum. He was also one of the teachers who would take us railway nuts on 'shed bashes' i.e. loco spotting. There is film of him somewhere, and on his honeymoon he took his new wife on a tour of the Glasgow tram system! John Mann was another, he was my form master in 1C in 1959. He passed away a few years ago. Was Mr Ramsbottom also a PE teacher?

Dave Winter