Masters
Is it our imagination or did Jim Knoyle really wipe the board with pupils? He certainly wiped it with his gown and he had a mean aim with a flying board rubber!
Tick (Creeth) ran Geography Club in Wednesday afternoons and some of us surveyed every inch of the field using triangulation with a chain (a real one!) along the cricket pitch. We also had 16mm films from round the world and the film of Petra in Jordan ("rose red city, half as old as time") inspired at least one of us to want to go there - ambition now achieved.
I seem to remember an aero modelling club (excuse to sniff balsa glue and dope) in the attic - but I have no idea which master ran it.
French assistante? What can we say?
Sport
Some of us were good at sport, loved it, got picked for the school team, played sport after we left school, went to matches round the country and still follow sport.
Others were useless at sport, were last to get picked, hated it (cold, wet, miserable), never played after leaving school, don't know one end of a football from the other and never talk about sport. The sort that picks cross-country and tries desperately to find ways back to the finishing line that don't involve all that silly running about.
It takes all sorts.
Trips
I recall getting soaked to the skin climbing Helvellyn while staying in a hut in Brathwaite - mountains of marge were consumed making sandwiches. The village Dandelion and Burdock was OK though. (Fascinating pencil museum in Keswick!)
We made regular trips to Stratford and we saw Dianne Rigg at a talk to sixth formers in Cheltenham in her Avengers days as Emma Peel - most recently she was in The Detectorists (outstanding!) shortly before her death.
Some of us still enjoy a drive down to Stratford, a walk round the town, early dinner at Vintners then a performance in the (newly renovated) main theatre, the Swan or the Courtyard.
What about the trip down to the England v Wales Schoolboy International at Wembley complete with scarf, rattle and flag? Some of us couldn't stand the crowd ("baying mob") and sneaked out until it was time to come home - and we have never set foot in a football stadium since.
We did a great school trip to the south of France - Avignon, Arles, Orange, Nimes, Pont du Gard etc.
What other trips did we do?
Other events
Faint recollections of a Christmas "do" at Coombe Hill followed by scooter ride home clutching a large empty bottle of type used to make lamps. The evening ended with bottle, scooter and me going through a hedge somewhere beyond Newtown.
For some reason George Brown objected to me bringing bottles of Perry into school at the end of summer term. He poured the lot down the drain and said "I don't mind you drinking this stuff - out of school - but, be warned, never touch spirits." I remain a beer drinker to this day. Thanks George.
Please don't talk about school plays at the Watson Hall theatre on Barton Street: "A Man For All Seasons" etc. Jim Knoyle tried to beat the Gloucestershire rolling of "r"s out of me - and failed. You can educate the man but he remains a peasant!
Anyone recall the midnight raid on the school at the end of the Upper Fifth? I think they were waiting for us but some of us managed to escape and were all butter-wouldn't-melt, sweetness and light the following day. Lesson learned: "don't get caught."
What was the milk bar called in town - between the High School and the Cross? Was it the Kardoma Cafe?
Sea Cadets
Turns out that at least three of us were in Sea Cadets: Gordon McDonald, Neil Gwillim and Mike Lake. That involved what you would expect: weird uniforms, lots of marching about, lots of knots, .22LR and .303 shooting and racing up the Severn on a picket boat to frighten the Brummy fishermen.
It also led to some trips.
Competitive scootering
Apparently Mike Lake on his trusty Lambretta (the one he almost wrote off by driving it straight into the wall of the Black Bear) roared past Paul Bate's weedy Vespa after some post exam "do" at The Mount in Stanton.
The Lambretta below has been given the same painstakingly accurate painting that Mike did on his Lambretta. Purple was the colour for 1964/1965.
Mike has had bikes all his life - six in the garage at one time - now all gone alas.
v
From the magazine
Click an entry below to see a page from the school magazine
School map
This map is from memory. The library was upstairs as was George's flat.
The terrapin, swimming pool and physics/biology room were built in our time. Was there also an extension (northwards) to the dining room (not shown.)
Woodwork and ATC huts not shown.
Where did the upper/lower sixth fit in?
Corrections, improvements, comments to the usual place please.
