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Introduction.
This will be memories of my schooldays but I may wander off the subject, down cul-de-sacs etc. rather in the style of Tristram Shandy. It is split into three sections.
Schools
Clubs etc.
Part time Jobs
Return
Schools
1947 to 1949 5 to 7 years old Hawtonville Infants School (now Oliver Quibell Infants School)
 
Maypole dancing in the playground The dancing group (me back row 2nd from right)
School Photos
 
Aged 5 years Aged 6 years
Miss Chambers was head teacher
The school was virtually next door to our house, just our neighbour’s semi-detached then a strip of rough ground and then the school. This strip of ground extended from Bowbridge Road to Quibell Road and was used by the children of the area to play on. Many a fight between Cowboys and Indians took place there. The boundary with the school had a luxurious privet hedge which was popular with bees when in flower. At that time of year the hedge would also attract lots of boys with jam jars catching bees. Not a very nice thing for the bee population but boys will be boys. I can't remember anyone being stung.
The school hall was used on Sunday by the Methodist Sunday School and I do remember sitting on the floor, singing no doubt “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know”, in front of the lovely stain glass window at the end of the hall.
Cannot remember much about the lessons apart from writing rows and rows of letters on ruled paper.
I remember some of the games at playtime though.
Whip and Top - This game was seasonal from what I remember, about Feb/Mar
The whip was a leather thong or string attached to a short stick with a knot at the end of the free end.
The top was wooden, shaped like a mushroom with a pointed metal capped tip. The
top was often chalked with several different coloured chalks. You wrapped the thong
of the whip around the shaft of the top and holding the top in one hand and the whip in the other, with a flick of the wrist cast the top to the ground. At that point it should have been spinning away on the ground, tarmac playgrounds were especially good surfaces.
If you had chalked the top with different colours it could look quite spectacular. To keep it spinning you thrashed (whipped) it like a mad thing and it would keep spinning away along the ground until it hit a bump, you missed with your whipping or it hit something or somebody. Good fun really!
What time is it Mr Wolf? “Mr Wolf” would stand by the school fence with his back to the group of children who would call out “what time is it Mr Wolf?” He or she would then answer 1 o’clock, 3 o’clock etc. The children would then advance in paces the number called. This would be repeated until “Mr Wolf” answered “Dinnertime” and turn and chase the children. The one who was caught would become the new Mr Wolf
Cigarette Cards - “Farthies” This was the simpler of the two cigarette card games. The
idea was that you threw an agreed number of cards as far as you could and the one who threw the furthest won all the cards. There was a set way of throwing, you gripped the card across one corner, with the bulk of the card facing your body, between your first two fingers then with a flick of the fingers threw it as far as you could. As easy as that assuming no side winds or other influences. The more dog eared your cards got though the less aerodynamic they were and the less distance they travelled, at that stage they became more suited to "On Topies".
- “On Topies” This version was played up against a wall and the idea
was that with the same action as above you threw them against the wall, from an agreed distance, Bouncing off the wall your card hopefully landed on one of your opponents cards covering it by a traditional amount i.e. on top This card was then yours and off you went again leaving the rest of the uncovered cards there.
The Farmers in his Den The old childrens game/ song that is still going today.
You know the one - The Farmers in his Den.......
The Farmer wants a wife......
The Wife wants a child........
The child wants a dog......
The dog wants a bone
Etc.
Kings and Queens
Cowboys and Indians
Snobs
Tig
Hide and Seek
Piggy backs
Conkers
1949 to 1950 7 to 8 years old Guildhall Street School
School Photo aged 7 years
A very old school formerly The Jersey School until 1901. My mother and my two elder sisters also went to this school. There was quite a controversy surrounding children from our area attending this school until the new Bowbridge school was ready. The trip for me was about a mile walk with a crossing of the main A1 road through Newark to negotiate twice a day. As the following extract from the local paper relates there was a strike by a number of parents.
Newark Advertiser August 31, 1949
The Guildhall Street School strike is now in its second week. Attendance figures yesterday showed that the number of strikers has dropped by one, from 39 to 38.
The strike, which began on Monday of last week, has been organised by parents living in the Hawtonville area who feel that their children have been directed to a school too far away from their homes.
They say the boys and girls have to cross dangerous main roads to reach their school in Guildhall Street.
I seem to remember that some of the teachers were possibly as old as the school building. I think I remember my mother saying that she was taught by “Polly” Golland who also taught me. I cannot remember much about my time there apart from two memories. The toilets were outside, across the playground from the main school building. I remember we had “music and movement” sessions on the first floor. I think the music was broadcasts on the BBC. I will not forget Mr Daniels who was fond of using the ruler across your knuckles if you made mistakes or, in his eyes, misbehaved.
1950 to 1953 8 to 11 years old Bowbridge Junior School School Website
School Photos
 
Age 8 Age 11
The land on which this school stood was part of the old Army camp and was called by the locals for a time anyway “the camp school”. The army camp began next to our neighbour at 172 Bowbridge Road and extended to the junction of Simpsons Lane and Bowbridge Road. This school was, I think, converted from one or more of the original army buildings. Adjacent to the school was the old parade ground which served as a sort of sports field where we did PE etc.
I can remember the army camp when the army were still in residence. The camp hospital was in the corner of the camp next to my neighbour. The army patients used to lean out of the windows and chat with the local girls who used to congregate by a gap in the hedge next to the perimeter fence. There was also a rifle range on the Bowbridge Road side, just to the left of where Bailey Road now is, where we used to play after the camp had closed. There used to be a watchman who was supposed to look after the camp and keep us children off but it was so big and we were so many he was not that effective. There was also a gymnasium which was a magnet for us kids, of course we had to get in by unofficial means but once in there were climbing ropes, wall bars and other goodies to enjoy ourselves on. There would be a mass exodus if the watchman and his greyhound were spotted.
Some of the old buildings were used as temporary housing for a while, from what I remember the were wooden and were probably the barrack huts. The Methodist Sunday School moved from Hawtonville Infants School into a wooden army building beyond, I think, the end of Gopher Road.
I seem to remember that Bowbridge Junior School was built round the old Officers Mess. I have a feeling that the original school kitchens were the old Mess kitchens.
Mr Gascoigne was the headmaster in my time and my class teacher was Miss Marsden. Again I don’t remember much apart from getting the slipper for fighting the school bully and getting kept in class in disgrace for pricking the boy in front of me in the bum with a penknife as we were making our way to the parade ground for PE.
I Remember being in the school play playing the king in The Princess and the Swineherd dressed in mother’s white stockings and having to say to Margarita Pinkney 'come to me my poppet'
Complete embarrassment in having to say that to a girl brought a premature end of my acting career
Also remember the school choir in which I was a boy soprano coming next to bottom in a school choir contest in Derby - Non Nobis Domina was one of the pieces. Funny the things which stick in your memory!
I do remember the dreaded 11+ exams which I took after coming back to school after being off ill. Although I was under no pressure to pass, probably because Mum and Dad could no way afford the costs involved in going to Grammar School, I knew children who had been promised bikes and that sort of thing. There were parents who were so certain that their child would pass that they bought the school uniform before the results came out. Some of those parents were very disappointed and their children must have felt real failures.
1953 to 1955 11 to 13 years old Sconce Hills Secondary Modern School
The school uniform jacket and cap were a horrible shade of purple.
We had “houses” just like a public school, I was in Warburton house.
I remember several incidents from my two years there.
The time Mr Blagg tied a boy's hands behind him to stop his constant fidgeting. This of course would not be allowed in this enlightened age.
The time a boy whispered to me “Kathleen Fasey is wearing a bra” which didn't mean a thing to me then.
The woodwork projects I made a complete hash of, like the cigarette case I made which you would need to break the cigarettes in half to get them in. Hence the comment on my school report of “must take more care” Also the photograph frame I made that would have required flexible glass to insert between the grooved uprights. i.e. One upright leaned one way and the other upright leaned the opposite way. Thankfully my woodworking skills have improved greatly over the years.
On one occasion when we had a gardening lesson I was working under the window of one of the classrooms where a D stream music lesson was in progress. I was shocked to see absolute mayhem going on, chairs flying, boys fighting etc. whilst in a corner the teacher was playing away on the piano ignoring the chaos behind her. So much for the old chestnut of “ of course discipline was much better in the old days”
I believe it was during my time at Sconce Hills that we were taken to see Julius Caesar starring Marlon Brando at the local cinema. The fact I remember it means it must have impressed me. I firmly believe that because I did not study for external examinations such as ‘O’ level etc. while at secondary school the foundations were laid for a lifetime of enjoying Shakespeare and literature in general rather than shunning it because of the distasteful association with cramming for exams.
1955 to 1957 13 to 15 years old Newark Technical School
School Photograph May 1956 I am 10th from left on the 2nd row
Faces I remember in this section Graham Carlisle, Michael Holland, David Lane, Colin Smith and Mr Morse English Teacher
Mr Bishop Form Teacher, Dr Bowen Principal, Mr ‘Pancho’ Palin Geography Teacher
Brian Smith, Michael Catley Alex? Campbell, Lawrence Riley, Edwina ?
Although called Technical School there were three streams, Technical (all boys), Commercial ( all girls) and Art (mixed).
Whilst as a Secondary School pupil you were considered to be suitable for unskilled or semi-skilled work, by passing the 13+ exam and going to the Technical School you could aspire to technician jobs (Technical stream), office jobs (Commercial stream) and commercial art ( Art stream).
There were, however, no ‘O’ Level/GCE examinations since the likes of us would not be going to university! Only Grammar School pupils would need university entrance qualifications.
It never entered my head that the system was unfair, university was not for the likes of us. Society was more stratified in those days and everyone knew their place.
On the other hand Tom Courtenay in his book ‘Dear Tom’ gives a spirited defence of the 11+ and Grammar Schools. He came from a poor working class home and could have been destined for the fish docks. He saw passing the 11+ and his subsequent entry into university as opening up life opportunities that, he thought, would have very difficult if not impossible to attain and conquer had he had a Secondary Modern background.
We had the distinction of having Mr Robert Kiddey, who for some reason is not on the school photograph, teaching us sculpture for six months. I made an elephant, albeit a slightly drunken one, it leaned alarmingly over to one side.
In general I enjoyed my time at this school. There was a bias towards maths and science with a little bit of history and geography thrown in. Of course English was important too but Mr Morse the English teacher was hopeless, he just could not keep 20 boys in order. Mr ‘Pancho’ Palin was the geography teacher and could easily get diverted from whatever we were supposed to be doing to the art of selling tea to the arabs. The only useful thing I remember from his geography lesson was that if you happen to have occasion to try and sell used loose tea to arabs always remember to put a little fresh tea in the packet first, then the used tea and then a little fresh tea at the top. This is so that if an untrusting potential buyer tries to catch you out you are ready for him.
Mr Winfield the science teacher was very interested in radio and had a collection of old radios at home which I went to see. This was one of the factors that led me to take an interest in electronics. One of my friends was an civilian apprentice with the REME and used to mess about with making radios in his dad’s shed. I used to go and watch and learn and eventually started making my first crystal set.
While at this school Rock and Roll and Skiffle took off. I remember someone bringing a record player in with Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ Lonny Donegan’s ‘Rock Island Line’ and some Elvis for good measure.
It is interesting to speculate that around the time I left school, Britain was beginning to emerge from the grey post war era into the time of revolution in popular culture, increasing affluence and many other aspects of life that were the 60’s. Many more things became possible for young people as time went on compared with our parents youth. I often think it a coincidence that the introduction of colour TV mid 60’s was a watershed between the grey austere 40’s and 50’s and the promising colourful future.
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My Secondary School Reports
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