Central Technical School

[TimeBandit52 10]

Anyone remember my brother Mick Downing who attended late 50s early 60s.

[John Heeley 10]

I am John Heeley, and I was at the Central Technical School for five years, leaving in the summer of 1969. There was too much corporal punishment and silly rules at the place, but latterly I had three wonderful teachers (Knight, Hill and King) and left with 3 A levels (two at grade A). Career-wise, I never looked back from that point onwards, and for that reason feel most grateful to the Tec.

 

My hazy school-day memories have been jogged by reading the threads. Names like Chris Pryor and Nobby Clark have suddenly come back to me, while the posts by David Theaker really do resonate! I remember you well, David, and it would be good to hear from you and any other long-lost friends who can remember me!

 

P.S.On leaving school in the summer of '69, I worked for 6 weeks at a Butlins Holiday Camp with my Central Tec matey, Richard Ellin - anybody know what happened to him?

 

---------- Post added 17-11-2016 at 13:48 ----------

 

Hi Dave, remember me, Chris Pryor, we were in the same class, I seem to recall you lived in Woodhouse off Station Rd

 

Hi Chris, remember me, John Heeley. Unsure we were in the same class, but I seem to recall you were a Wisewood lad.

 

It looks like you are now living in Lodge Moor. I am just down the road!

 

I see 2 old Tec mates for a drink at Christmas - Alan Curtis and Dave Salt. Let me know if you want to join us.

 

Best, John

 

---------- Post added 17-11-2016 at 14:05 ----------

 

Hi Oldm,

I was there from 64 to 68 we moved from the town centre to Gleedless and I remember most of my time there. We used to go to the Punch Bowl pub to have a fag and of course we had Hurfield girls at the side my first love I met over the fence while we were playing rugby. Those were the days, but Pop Gregory caught ut at the punch Bowl smoking and I remember I had a pack of 10 Gold leaf, he made me smoke the rest in the school playing fields where I was sick. Then I got 3 strokes of his cane.

 

My name is Dave Theaker the ones I remember are Steve Nicholson, Brian Chapman and many more.

Very fond memories

 

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

Maybe you remember me - John Heeley? I think we may have shared a route through 2 schools - Wisewood and Central Technical. I remember you well. In one of your posts you also mention K.Harrison - well, she was the focus of my first real 'crush', though you are the first person to whom I have ever owned up!

 

The education I received at the Tec set me up for life and a career which is still rumbling on.

 

I get up to Scotland quite a lot, so who knows we may meet up again after all these years.

 

All the best, John

 

---------- Post added 17-11-2016 at 14:28 ----------

 

Was there 63-66 & avoided him like the plague. Certainly he had a horrific persona. I did not like Mr Howell (Sportsmaster - He was a B*&S?£&d !). Survived & so happy on last day. Spent 1.5 years at Gleadless (Wadge retired during that time & replaced by Peter Dixon - he was ok) - I was luckier than you (I think!). Take care.

 

Yes, Wadge was 'old school' and unforgivably sadistic. I recall shortly after the move to Ashleigh, the whole school was abruptly summoned to witness some poor boy being ritually humiliated by Wadge for prising a small marker disc off a chair. He sobbed abjectly as he was caned ferociously by a seemingly incensed Wadge. to this day I cannot say whether or not the man's anger was theatrical or genuine, all I do know is that this awful spectacle is stamped indelibly on my mind.

 

---------- Post added 17-11-2016 at 15:01 ----------

 

Ah, dear Hilldweller and Sandie - Wisewood in the early ’60s!

 

I too look back on those days with a certain fondness – through (I have to say) rose-tinted spectacles because my overriding feeling is that I was a reluctant scholar. But now? The opportunity to learn! I see how wonderful that was - the opportunity “to learn how to learn”, Russell Ackoff might have said.

 

A W Goodfellow (the immaculately suited, proud, straight-backed head teacher);

Miss Ballard;

Miss Revill (do I remember her or have I merely picked up the legend);

Hodgkinson and cross-country over Wadsley Common;

Croft (and the white slipper incident);

Richardson;

Mossingdew;

Turton;

Haydock (famed for the phrases, “You’ll get some of my peppermint stick!” or “You’ll get a big dig, lad!” or for forgetting to put out his pipe before putting it in his thick tweed suit jacket pocket. The “peppermint stick” (you will recall) was a short, stiff cane. And the cat in his imagination that walked on the corridor roof below the clerestory lights! – that always got the point of his lesson, whereas (he believed) it went over the heads of us dummies. He was wrong (he was not a teacher in vain);

Miss Dexter;

Holmes;

Moffit;

Hartley (seriously ill perhaps, drinking soothing warm milk from a glass science beaker, but entertaining us with the pops and wheezes of some practical science experiments).

 

Cycling Proficiency!

 

It was at Wisewood in the playground there, I saw a teacher lead with a flat-handed left and connect with a flat-handed right. It made quite an impression and I was just a spectator. Seems like yesterday!

 

Croft (maths and football) and, in particular, Charlie Haydock (English) were certainly my making (into little more than a bag of nails) - fearfully strict but fair and with senses of humour. There was one other to whom I owe special thanks - Mrs J E Jarvis from the junior school. It was in the very last moment of leaving that institution. She and I were the last out of the J4 classroom and alongside each other in the corridor, and it was no more than a word of encouragement. She said the Big School was a new opportunity (that I should embrace). She praised my slight arty-crafty “skills” (I’d obviously given her next to no reason to think I might have academic ability) and we went our separate ways never to meet again, but I still remember the good in what she spoke.

 

At the Big School, the bright kids - including (I dare say), even then, the odd ones coached for the 11+ and the even odder one who had had elocution lessons (though I think we were all “working class”) - had been skimmed off to the Grammar Schools. Suddenly at the Big School my like had risen to the surface.

 

A sad sack like, Prescott, who endlessly moans that he failed the 11+ (and yet he still, for obscure reasons that escape me, became Deputy Prime Minister) castigates the Grammars. They were the best thing that ever happened to me. There was the half-day holiday after the exam, for a start. What I can’t understand is why there is not an 11+, a 12+, a 13+, a 14+, a 15+, 16+, 17+, 18+. In other words, I cannot understand why there is not Opportunity, Opportunity, Opportunity created at every level in Education, Education, Education - and in life in general.

 

I despise Education being used as a political football and I do firmly believe that it has stood still for the best part of fifty years – or gone backwards and forwards without making any significant progress.

 

Society’s expectation of Government is, that with a steady hand on the tiller, we shall see slight improvement – year on year. We don’t ask for much, but what a disappointment in large part!

 

Who was the woodwork teacher there? I think I owe him too. At Wisewood we might make the odd teapot stand - long cherished or not by our mothers.

 

At the Tech we made joints – all manner of halvings and dovetails and even a tusk tenon or a corner of a window frame. It was years later and once only that we were allowed to make something useful – a fishing stool - under the firm direction of “John Henry” Hunter – who would be respected (and is, in my mind even now) - or his less intimidating colleague, Mr Jarvis.

 

And downstairs in Holly Street (below the pavement lights, now gone, and the shadows that fell), the brickwork shop where Sam Crisp had a lengthy cane with the girth of a broom handle and was often heard to say things like, “5X, you’re getting in my hair! And you’d better get out of it!” Paints a strange picture in my mind as I think of us standing there in our boiler suits! Was there a bigger figure in the school, there in his grey smock, large brick trowel in hand – shoulders raised in anger? I grant you, Ron Underdown and Mr Hill were tall and made an impression in their black gowns.

 

The cane as, others have commented, was there – not much used, but used nevertheless. It was never used on me and I think I looked away at the point of contact when others got it. I saw tough kids cry sometimes, some deservedly - although I dare say, occasionally, by Sir’s mistake. I am reasonably sure that a more liberal education would have failed me. I don’t think I would have done the homework, if the teacher hadn’t had some sanctions. I think perhaps we are failing generations of scholars in the absence of discipline.

 

The Merit/De-merit system worked of course. The very best education would, in my opinion, be predicated on no more than encouragement.

 

As it happens, I’m writing on an historic day – Blair before Chilcot. The radio is playing in the background and I’m reminded of Albert Bun’s comments in the margin of my misguided essay which said something like, “You can be clever and still wrong!” I scored a zero. An uneasy peace rests on the Battle of the Boyn - even 400 hundred years passing. How long shall we be obliged to remember the lesser cause, and the folly, of Iraq? In my too easy acquiescence (to the likes of Blair) I find blood on my hands.

 

We were brought up on Crispin, but this day should be for ever remembered as Gilligan’s Day.

 

My recollections of Charles Haydock are less favourable. He rapped the knuckles of girls for the most trivial of matters; he slung blackboards at pupils; and it was nigh on impossible to judge what his mood would be. His 'jokes' were puerile. He caned me twice, on separate occasions, for spelling mistakes. On the first occasion my hand was so sore and swollen I could not hold my knife properly at tea later on that night, though thankfully Mum and Dad did not spot anything untoward.

 

I hated him so much that on my last day a fellow-sufferer (Keith Dungworth) and I stole his legendary cane and burned it on a bit of wasteland near the school. That little act of rebellio felt mighty good!

 

---------- Post added 17-11-2016 at 15:12 ----------

 

I was at CTS 1962 to 1965 and I detested every single day. The day that I left was without doubt the greatest day of my life, even better than getting married or the birth of my children.

 

The staff were only interested in making you 'ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL'. Your education was of secondary importance to making you conform to their very narrowly defined dress code. I was actually sent home one day for wearing trousers that were an inch too narrow at the bottoms.

 

As for that evil man Herbert Wadge, all I can say is that the world is a far better place for his no longer being with us.

 

What finished it all for me was the day at Gleadless Road when I refused to be caned by Thornton the science teacher for something for which I wasn't responsible. Having been sent to see Wadge I was told by him to apologise to the teacher which I refused to do. The colour of his face lives with me to this day. He went purple with rage but I stood my ground and was sent home with a message for my mother to be at the school next morning.

 

That was probably the biggest mistake that old Herbert ever made. My mother gave him a right old rollocking and at a volume that I was assured could, quite literally, be heard all over the school. Herbert suffered a severe dent in the credibility stakes that day and I believe that he retired shortly afterwards. Good riddance! I never went back and was given early release by the Education Committee in February 1965.

 

I would love to know what became of my two best mates from the time that I was there. One was Derek Poole who lived in the Pitsmoor area and always wanted to join the Fire Brigade. He was affectionately known as Fred because of his striking resemblance to Fred Flintstone. The other was William (Billy) Harling who lived on Gleadless Road near the Carlton Club and was my best mate from our days at Hurlfield Boys School.

 

New to this thread, but I was at CTS 1963-70 and had a few years of Wadge and all of his rantings and ravings, so I just love this story!

 

---------- Post added 17-11-2016 at 16:18 ----------

 

Further to my last post, four of the class of 1969 (myself included) are meeting up for a drink in Sheffield shortly after Christmas Day. Let me know if that is of any interest to other reprobates from the class of '69 who might be out there and more or less alive and kicking!

[Dave_01 10]

Further to the above message for an informal get together after Xmas. Details are as follows. Date and time: Tues 27th Dec, about 1pm. Location: The Kelham Island pub. My name is Dave Salt and I was at CTS 64-69. There should be at least 4 ex-CTS there so just turn up and make yourself known by asking for myself of John Heeley. We met up same time last year for a first re-union after donkeys years and had a good laugh

[bertiemarsde 10]

CT Jan 51-Dec52 head Wadge Evil man,

Parkin Plumbing very pleasant good teacher

Dove gentleman French teacher.

Palfreyman OK.

Mainwaring Bully

 

In my class Harry Churchyard good at maths.

Gabby Haines full of fun, my mate

Lomax

Lowe is dad owned a painting decorating business

 

The City Grammar School music room overlooked our play yard. The girls would flash their legs at us mere mortals some of us probably died on the spot.

I am Albert Marsden born 28/4/1938 started in 3x then 5y then off to join the Royal Navy as an Artificer Apprentice at H.M.S. FISGARD, TORPOINT Cornwall. Now living in Torquay Devon I play saxophone and Clarinet and am an old Yorkshireman and proud of it. Merry Xmas to y'all

[Gethro 10]

Ey Up Bert'!, long time no see or hear from anybody who was with us in 3X/5y. Thinking about it, it's a bloody lifetime ago!. It's your old mucker Geoff Smith, originally from Wincobank, but now living in Rotherham for the past 55 years, (but still a Wendesdayite!! ). If it's ok, I will private message you and have a rabbit about old times. Nice to know their is still at least a couple of us left !!!.

[bertiemarsde 10]

Ey Up theesen Geoff,After all these years it is great to hear from you. We are often up/down the M1 and when we are passing Wincobank I always tell my wife "that's where my old mate Geoff Smith lived". She is sick of hearing it.

 

We live in Torquay now and I would love to see you again so come and stay with u. Please send me the Private message and I will tell you how to contact me, by phone/email.

Tek care of these and Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Bertie Marsden

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:17 ----------

 

Geoff, I have only just found out about this site and I cannot send private messages until I have 5 posts? whatever that means. If you can send then send the private message you mentioned.

After I departed CT I was educated enough by then to be able to sit and pass with very high marks the examinations for Artificer Apprentice. After 4 Years training I was set loose on the Fleet as an Ordnance Artificer 5th Class. 6 months later into Gunnery and Torpedo schools for advance training to qualify to be a Chief Petty Officer Ordnance Artificer. That rank was bestowed upon me in Jan.63. I left the R.N in Oct 68.

Went to work for International Aeradio Ltd in Southall. I was then seconded to the Kuwait Civil Aviation Department where I maintained radars and teleprinters. We were paid directly by the Kuwaitis. No income tax, free housing/electricity/water.

we were allowed 2 months leave /year and flew 1st class to London and back. The Arabs in general were and are very nice people contrary to my original thoughts when being posted to Kuwait. Don't worry I am not a convert to Islam. I am a Yorkshireman who speaks as he finds. Merry christmas to all my readers. Bertie M

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:37 ----------

 

I was at CTS 1962 to 1965 and I detested every single day. The day that I left was without doubt the greatest day of my life, even better than getting married or the birth of my children.

 

The staff were only interested in making you 'ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL'. Your education was of secondary importance to making you conform to their very narrowly defined dress code. I was actually sent home one day for wearing trousers that were an inch too narrow at the bottoms.

 

As for that evil man Herbert Wadge, all I can say is that the world is a far better place for his no longer being with us.

 

What finished it all for me was the day at Gleadless Road when I refused to be caned by Thornton the science teacher for something for which I wasn't responsible. Having been sent to see Wadge I was told by him to apologise to the teacher which I refused to do. The colour of his face lives with me to this day. He went purple with rage but I stood my ground and was sent home with a message for my mother to be at the school next morning.

 

That was probably the biggest mistake that old Herbert ever made. My mother gave him a right old rollocking and at a volume that I was assured could, quite literally, be heard all over the school. Herbert suffered a severe dent in the credibility stakes that day and I believe that he retired shortly afterwards. Good riddance! I never went back and was given early release by the Education Committee in February 1965.

 

I would love to know what became of my two best mates from the time that I was there. One was Derek Poole who lived in the Pitsmoor area and always wanted to join the Fire Brigade. He was affectionately known as Fred because of his striking resemblance to Fred Flintstone. The other was William (Billy) Harling who lived on Gleadless Road near the Carlton Club and was my best mate from our days at Hurlfield Boys School.

I agree entirely Wadge was a scumbag were I big enough I would have smacked him in the kisser. He was a child abuser I left CT dec 52 so he was still at it for years afterwards.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:44 ----------

 

to hagardriley from bertiemarsde. I agree wholeheartedly with your thread Wdage was a child abuser and should have been in jail.

During a visit to sheffield some years ago I saw a Blue plaque on the old school wall telling the world about how wonderful this moron was. I should have ripped it off the wall. I departed SCTS Dec52 so from other threads it seems that Wadge went on beating children for years after my departure. Hope somebody forgives him I certainly do not.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:48 ----------

 

Hopefully there are old school boys who remember how sick Herbert Wadge was. I would like such old boys to put their memories of him on air

[PetePal 10]

Ey Up theesen Geoff,After all these years it is great to hear from you. We are often up/down the M1 and when we are passing Wincobank I always tell my wife "that's where my old mate Geoff Smith lived". She is sick of hearing it.

 

We live in Torquay now and I would love to see you again so come and stay with u. Please send me the Private message and I will tell you how to contact me, by phone/email.

Tek care of these and Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Bertie Marsden

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:17 ----------

 

Geoff, I have only just found out about this site and I cannot send private messages until I have 5 posts? whatever that means. If you can send then send the private message you mentioned.

After I departed CT I was educated enough by then to be able to sit and pass with very high marks the examinations for Artificer Apprentice. After 4 Years training I was set loose on the Fleet as an Ordnance Artificer 5th Class. 6 months later into Gunnery and Torpedo schools for advance training to qualify to be a Chief Petty Officer Ordnance Artificer. That rank was bestowed upon me in Jan.63. I left the R.N in Oct 68.

Went to work for International Aeradio Ltd in Southall. I was then seconded to the Kuwait Civil Aviation Department where I maintained radars and teleprinters. We were paid directly by the Kuwaitis. No income tax, free housing/electricity/water.

we were allowed 2 months leave /year and flew 1st class to London and back. The Arabs in general were and are very nice people contrary to my original thoughts when being posted to Kuwait. Don't worry I am not a convert to Islam. I am a Yorkshireman who speaks as he finds. Merry christmas to all my readers. Bertie M

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:37 ----------

 

I agree entirely Wadge was a scumbag were I big enough I would have smacked him in the kisser. He was a child abuser I left CT dec 52 so he was still at it for years afterwards.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:44 ----------

 

to hagardriley from bertiemarsde. I agree wholeheartedly with your thread Wdage was a child abuser and should have been in jail.

During a visit to sheffield some years ago I saw a Blue plaque on the old school wall telling the world about how wonderful this moron was. I should have ripped it off the wall. I departed SCTS Dec52 so from other threads it seems that Wadge went on beating children for years after my departure. Hope somebody forgives him I certainly do not.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:48 ----------

 

Hopefully there are old school boys who remember how sick Herbert Wadge was. I would like such old boys to put their memories of him on air

 

Only just discovered this CTS thread and not read all 33 pages yet. Was there 1957 to 62 the year before it moved I think. Pop Gregory (chemistry) is one teacher I remember along with Bee (maths I think) who I witness getting nutted by one of my classmates.

[biker 10]

Ey Up theesen Geoff,After all these years it is great to hear from you. We are often up/down the M1 and when we are passing Wincobank I always tell my wife "that's where my old mate Geoff Smith lived". She is sick of hearing it.

 

We live in Torquay now and I would love to see you again so come and stay with u. Please send me the Private message and I will tell you how to contact me, by phone/email.

Tek care of these and Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Bertie Marsden

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:17 ----------

 

Geoff, I have only just found out about this site and I cannot send private messages until I have 5 posts? whatever that means. If you can send then send the private message you mentioned.

After I departed CT I was educated enough by then to be able to sit and pass with very high marks the examinations for Artificer Apprentice. After 4 Years training I was set loose on the Fleet as an Ordnance Artificer 5th Class. 6 months later into Gunnery and Torpedo schools for advance training to qualify to be a Chief Petty Officer Ordnance Artificer. That rank was bestowed upon me in Jan.63. I left the R.N in Oct 68.

Went to work for International Aeradio Ltd in Southall. I was then seconded to the Kuwait Civil Aviation Department where I maintained radars and teleprinters. We were paid directly by the Kuwaitis. No income tax, free housing/electricity/water.

we were allowed 2 months leave /year and flew 1st class to London and back. The Arabs in general were and are very nice people contrary to my original thoughts when being posted to Kuwait. Don't worry I am not a convert to Islam. I am a Yorkshireman who speaks as he finds. Merry christmas to all my readers. Bertie M

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:37 ----------

 

I agree entirely Wadge was a scumbag were I big enough I would have smacked him in the kisser. He was a child abuser I left CT dec 52 so he was still at it for years afterwards.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:44 ----------

 

to hagardriley from bertiemarsde. I agree wholeheartedly with your thread Wdage was a child abuser and should have been in jail.

During a visit to sheffield some years ago I saw a Blue plaque on the old school wall telling the world about how wonderful this moron was. I should have ripped it off the wall. I departed SCTS Dec52 so from other threads it seems that Wadge went on beating children for years after my departure. Hope somebody forgives him I certainly do not.

 

---------- Post added 15-12-2016 at 16:48 ----------

 

Hopefully there are old school boys who remember how sick Herbert Wadge was. I would like such old boys to put their memories of him on air

Herbert Wadge read everybodies end of term report.If there was something that he didn,t like you had to see him. The queue used to stretch from his room up the stairs to the lab.You might have to wait days before he saw you and caned you. Pop Gregory often caned the entire class to get the guilty person.We had a lot of 6 footers and he was about 5 foot tall.!!!! I wonder if that TV series Wacko was based on the Tech. The Tech,s reputation was such that it got me a job as an apprentice electrician at Brown Bayleys and a lifetimes full employment.Brown Bayleys took a lot of Tec boys .

[Janner 10]

Bertiemarsde, from your post it would seem we are probably about the same era. I was at the Tech. from 46 to 49. If my memory is correct were RN Apprentice Candidates taken before the age of 16 (2nd year at the Tech.). I completed the full course at the Tech. I wanted to join the MN but there were long waiting lists, so off to the RN recruiting office, too old for an Apprentice I joined as a Junior Stoker. I did the Mechanicians course in 55 to 56. Was promoted to S/Lt ME, Special Duties List in 1963. I left in 72 as a Lieut. placed on retired list, own request. I seem to remember one lad called Hatherly from my year who joined the RN apprentices. Does any of this make sense?

[KathS 10]

Just wondering if anyone remembered Bill Peatfield who went to Central Tech until 1946. He then did his apprenticeship at Davy United followed by National Service in Malaya. He worked at several firms including Firth Browns before becoming an instructor at the Rehabilitation Centre at Handsworth. Bill sadly died recently and we were trying to trace people who knew him.

[johnlittle 10]

Having attended CTS (Engineers) and leaving in 1963, I have very mixed and mostly disappointing memories of the place.

Coming from a less privileged background, as many did, after failing the 11+ largely as a result of comparatively poor teaching, lack of coaching and family loss, it was at least a slight second chance but nothing more. It certainly didn't suit my educational needs which were not practically inclined at all. I largely view my years there as a wasteful sadness with little motivation to keep on, other than what came from within based on the rather naïve belief that hard work would be rewarded.

Perhaps this saved me from further discouragement and the alleged sad treatment that some report. I was glad to leave.

Ironically, I simply went across the yard and started work at the old Education Department which was a much happier place.

The reform of education which introduced technical schools was itself socially naïve but was well meant as an effort to tap lost potential.

I did, eventually succeed but it took a long time to gain the postgraduate and professional qualifications to do so and no thanks to the old school.

Now, looking back, what a waste of the potential which must have been passing, unseen or ignored, through the school apart from those who did achieve, luckily, as a result, or in spite of, the education given there.

A few years ago, whilst looking round the old school site, I met another old pupil who suggested joining the old boys' association. For some, it must have been a gainful experience, but not for me. I feel sad that the education received there failed so many like myself but it was the system and not necessarily the school which should be blamed and, sadly, state education has continued to fail us for the last fifty or more years.

[David Ra2 10]

Having attended CTS (Engineers) and leaving in 1963, I have very mixed and mostly disappointing memories of the place.

Coming from a less privileged background, as many did, after failing the 11+ largely as a result of comparatively poor teaching, lack of coaching and family loss, it was at least a slight second chance but nothing more. It certainly didn't suit my educational needs which were not practically inclined at all. I largely view my years there as a wasteful sadness with little motivation to keep on, other than what came from within based on the rather naïve belief that hard work would be rewarded.

Perhaps this saved me from further discouragement and the alleged sad treatment that some report. I was glad to leave.

Ironically, I simply went across the yard and started work at the old Education Department which was a much happier place.

The reform of education which introduced technical schools was itself socially naïve but was well meant as an effort to tap lost potential.

I did, eventually succeed but it took a long time to gain the postgraduate and professional qualifications to do so and no thanks to the old school.

Now, looking back, what a waste of the potential which must have been passing, unseen or ignored, through the school apart from those who did achieve, luckily, as a result, or in spite of, the education given there.

A few years ago, whilst looking round the old school site, I met another old pupil who suggested joining the old boys' association. For some, it must have been a gainful experience, but not for me. I feel sad that the education received there failed so many like myself but it was the system and not necessarily the school which should be blamed and, sadly, state education has continued to fail us for the last fifty or more years.

 

I was not practically inclined and Ken Westnedge gave me a kick up the backside when working on a lathe, I was poor at technical drawing, foundry practice, physics and chemistry.

I joined the school in 1963 and left with 5 GCE'O Levels, we were perhaps fortunate as Wadge was only there for a year and retired.

I do not feel Central Technnicalt failed me in any way, it just made certain I would not be doing a job working with my hands.