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Camden Street Primary & George Dixons Grammar

T

the doc

Guest
:cool: G'day and greetings from "down under".:cool:

I'm Jeff Holloway and I was born in Brookfields in 1943. We lived in College Street until around 1961 when the Council cleared the area for redevelopment (the standing joke was that they didn't have to knock the houses down, they just had to tear off the wallpaper !!) and we were "relocated" to Kings Norton.

I have been living in Australia (Melbourne) for almost 40 years and although I have made quite a few business trips to England over those years, I never had the opportunity to walk down memory lane back in Brum. I would like to try to fill in some of the gaps from my past and perhaps share a few memories with old friends.

I went to Camden Street Primary School from around 1948 to 1954. I think Miss Bagley was the Headmistress, Miss Cartwright taught the "littlies", Miss Roberts and Mrs Morgan taught mid-school and Mr Davis (he always took off his watch before he hit you !!) taught Class 8. I was in Class 9E with Mr Hickman and my closest friends were John Howard and Roy Jones, both of whom lived in New Spring Street. I also found my first true love with Pat Morgan, the daughter of Mrs Morgan, the teacher. I think they owned a shoe shop just up from "The Flat" in Hockley. Pat passed the 11+ and I think went on to King Edwards Grammar and then to read classics at University.

I went on to George Dixon's Grammar School from around 1954 to 1959 (one of the red badge "Britons" house). I have a photograph of the entire school on the wall of the study taken in 1957 and it brings back so many memories. Mr Rumsey, was the Headmaster and his 2IC, Mr Walker, had a unique and rather brutal form of punishment - he would wrap the front of your hair around his fingers and shake your head from side to side, a pracitrce he referred to as "raising your forelock". I'm sure many ex-students suffered premature baldness after a session with Mr Walker. I played rugby throughout the years at GD. Mike Reynolds was School Captain and also played rugby for England Schoolboys. My closest friend was Mike ("Mickey") Cooper who lived up by Monument Road Baths (cannot remember the name of the street - Vine Street ???). Quite often we used to catch the bus back to his house at lunchtime for a slice of toast and a Park Drive.

I went to Ladywood Boy's Club (Roy Breakwell?) and started a band that had more name changes than I can remember. I think our original name was The Mysterians and we went through the major part of our "illustrious" musical career as The Impacts. Stalwarts of the group were Alan Davis (drums), Clive Davis (rhythm guitar) and Mike Southern (lead guitar).

Ah, those memories.

And so I would really love to hear from anyone from the past or know their whereabouts.

I would also like to learn what happened to College Street, Camden Street Primary School and George Dixons Grammar School and any photographs anyone might have.

Thanks for your indulgence in sharing some of my memories and I hope that I can reach a few of the people through your terrific site.
 
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Hello Jeff :) Great posting Brummie m8,, good memories too,
Zee leetle grey cells still ticking over very nicely,,

George Dixons Grammar i know,,used to play them at Cricket & Football ,
its changed to "Dixons International" or something like that, the Buildings
still there but i think your re-run nostalgic trip back there may be,,Urmh, crappo :(
Sorry m8 but best you get to know from your mates than be surprised, Ok.
Eh just enjoy your trip anyway, theres lots of Good ol Brum left to see +
some modern that you will find interesting too,, as befits the "Forward" motto,
Best regards Jeff,, cheers JohnY:cool:
 
Hello Jeff, and welcome to the forum. Birmingham is much changed, and if we put you down in New street you would be hard pushed to know where you were. The old back to backs and yards have all gone and all the old neighbourhood spirit, but I still love to be back 'home' from time to time.
 
Hi Doc.

I started at George Dixon Grammar School in 1957, so I guess you were in the 5th or 6th form when I was in the 1st. I remember Mr Rumsby very well, and "Wally" Walker even better... Wally was able to bring a rowdy room full of kids to dead silence within 0.0005 seconds merely by standing in the doorway and glowering! He was certainly a strict disciplinarian, but he also had a very kind side to him - one evening I realised I'd lost my bus-fare money and was standing in the ante-hall looking glum when old Wally asked me what was the matter. I told him, and added that as I lived in Witton I was in for a long walk home. Without further ado, he asked me how much I needed and gave it to me out of his pocket but with strict instructions to pay him back next day...or else! Needless to say I paid him back! He'd have made mincemeat of today's unruly youth.

Do you remember other teachers such as "Fap" Percy, "Polly" Worthington,
"Kipper" Print, "Chunky" Brookes? Characters all, and big kids themselves, by and large.

Big Gee
 
Hi Jeff and welcome aboard.
In your superb 'write up' you mentioned Mike Reynolds. I new Mike after he left school. We used to drink together at the Garden Gate pub. He played football for the pub side for a time, centre forward, not too skillful but very quick and very rough. I haven't seen him for a good few years, possibly since 1973 '74 time, but it must be the same MR as I know he was at GD and had trials for England. He played for a good standard local rugby side, can't remember name though, only filling in at football when needed.

Good luck in your seach mate.

Ron
 
Good to hear from you, Ron.

It certainly sounds like the same Mike Reynolds. Perhaps it was Mosely Rugby Club he played for - they were certainly the powerhouse union team in Birmingham at that time. We used to play in the Schools 7-a-side knockout championship every year at their ground. It was a gruelling days sport having to play around 6 full games in the day if you reached the finals.

Regards,

Jeff
 
Well, Big Gee, it was great to hear from you and those names brought a flood of memories.

Yes, I remember those old masters

-"Kipper" Print taught chemistry. He was a short guy and all you could see was his trilby hat over the steering wheel when he was driving his green Rover.

"Polly" Worthington taught maths and was my teacher in my very first lesson at GD as a "Fag" in 1C. I finished top of my class in those first mid-term exams and was moved up to 1A. That was my only moment of glory !! In the end of term exams I finished bottom of the class and spent the rest of my years at GD in the B stream

Other names you might recall are

Orritt (Geography)

Proctor (Latin) He was a chain smoker and stood at the front door getting the last from his cigarette then fumbling in his pocket for another as he dashed down the corridor to the staff Common Room. He used to stand in front of you waving his nicotine stain fingers as he declined Latin nouns and the aroma was as if he had a lighted cigarette in his hand

Terry Giblin (Latin) A real larrikin

"Noddy" Partridge and "Sandy" Robertson (Chemistry)

"Bant" Lewis and "Spanner" Baines (French)

"Leo" Olver (Maths)

Sandercock (History)

Fisher and Day (English)

Fletcher (Music)

Mercer and Gardiner (??) (PE)

"Gabby" Haynes (Woodwork)

Other names come to mind - Trout, Dutton, - but I can't remember what they taught

Were you at GD when they took the school photo in May 1957 ?

I have so many memories of life at GD.

- the walk to the church next to the school every Thursday for a service and sermon by a visiting "celebrity"

- the rivalry between houses. As I said, I was in the Britons (red) which was generally the strongest house followed by the Saxons (yellow), Normans (blue) and Danes (green). In my time the Danes' only claim to success was in the chess championship

- the walk up to the canteen each day for lunch. The food was surprisingly good and I think the little cook (Mrs Morgan) made the best cheese pie I have ever tasted. And of course it was a good time to get to know the girls at the school next door.

- the traditional singing of "Lord behold (or dismiss) us with Thy blessing" at the start and end of each term. In fact it was this hymn that prompted this walk down memory lane.

A few weeks ago, for no reason this hymn came to mind

"Lord dismiss us with Thy blessing, those who here shall meet no more
May their seed times past be yielding, year by year a richer store
Those returning, those returning, make more .... (?) than before"

And suddenly I felt I would dearly like to know what has happened to those school friends of many years ago

- the lecture theatre. It was a room steeped in atmosphere and the venue for the film club evenings

- walking down the corridor ("keep to the left") passing the "Role of Honour" boards on the walls recording the success of past students


I lived for the rugby during my time at GD. Did you play? There were three pitches - two relatively flat and one on a sharp incline which was always referred to as the "under 14's" pitch. Our great rivals, of course, were Kings Edwards, Five Ways whose playing fields adjoined GD's.

I never returned to GD but a friend told me some years ago that he though it had become a primary school. I found the link to GD International through John Young on this site and I was surprised at the courses they offer. It has completely changed (after 50 years why am I surprised?) however from the photograph on their web site it seems as though the original building has remained immune from the questionable march of progress and modernisation. I wonder what happened to those wooden "Roll of Honour" boards that hung proudly on the walls of the corridor, their gold lettering recording GD's history of human achievement?

Ah, memories.
 
Thanks for directing me to the Ladywood site, Dib44. It has filled in a few more grey areas of my memory

Regards,

Jeff
 
Doc,

Blimey, you've got a better memory than me, mate! But here's a few of mine:

"Kipper" Print was in the RFC during WW1, and when chemistry got boring all you had to do was ask him, for example, what engine the Sopwith Camel had, and he'd be off. He was a decent old stick, and what I just wrote notwithstanding he was able to make 'stinks' part-way interesting. His forte was producing mini-explosions using sodium.

The geography bloke was "Jaffa" Orrin, and he used to talk out of the side of his mouth, much copied to his amusement. I can still do it!

Terry Giblin was an absolute star. He played double-bass in various jazz-bands around Brum. His son was at GD, so Terry was always "Daddy" Giblin to us. When I left GD (in 1963) I bumped into Terry in The Salutation Jazz Club, and to this day remember how odd it was supping pints (in my case rather under-age pints) with a former teacher.

Geoff Fletcher not only taught music at GD, he was also the choir-master at St Martins-in-the-Bull Ring, and anyone with a decent voice got roped in. I well remember one day in music he'd found out that the mother of one of the kids had died very recently, and he gave this really great little speech and played a passage from Faure's Requiem on piano. He always reminded me of an owl with his big round face and big round glasses. One of the good guys.

Graham Trout taught history, and he sometimes got off on politics if he had the opportunity. He was also given to extended nose-picks during his lessons. He could never understand why I selected physics in preference to history (see below).

Remember Les Summerton who taught physics? He spoke in a constant stream of cliches, and he couldn't have made a bottle of scotch interesting to an alcoholic. He just droned off an endless list of the most boring facts imaginable and then expected us to use them to pass exams.

I started at GD in September 1957 and left at Christmas 1962, courtesy mainly of my dad who thought I was wasting my time at school. Dads were like that, then, but that's another story. I didn't play much rugby because I was too much of a bean-pole, but was a mean sprinter and long-jumper.

I las visited GD at the time of its centenary in 1983 or thereabouts. The head then was (I think) "Toffee" Sharp. He must have retired soon afterwards, as he taught English Lit. to me, and instilled in me my lasting love of literature.

My big mistake was, I think, selecting science rather than English and History - again, under pressure from my old man. But there you go - you did what your dad told you to in those days.

As you say...memories.
 
G'day again, Big Gee,

Yes, I remember Les Patterson. He was a heavily built man with domed forehead and lumbering gait. His lessons were as inspiring as watching paint dry.

One of my endearing memories of “Kipper” is the sight of him behind the raised bench in the chemistry lab throwing one of his “just for effect” tantrums. He would literally clench his fists and almost jump up and down on the spot. But his lessons were still an improvement on Walker’s clinical deliveries.

Was Mr. Norman the laboratory technician ??

Never had Trout for history, only Sandercock.

I have been trying to think who taught biology? I seem to remember he was a very mild guy, mot too big, wore glasses. He was fine as long as we were only dissecting frogs but I will always remember his acute embarrassment when it came time for him to explain the “birds and bees”

Yes, it was “Jaffa” Orrin. He tended to hold his lessons in Room 5 (?) complete with hand wind projector.

Looking back I think many of the teachers had served in WW2. As you say “Kipper” was RFC and “Bant” Lewis’ rank in the Army was subject to change depending on the story he was telling. I often wonder now if “Jaffa”s face was a natural problem of the result of WW2?

Fancy “Toffee” making Head. I remember him as a rather tall, beanpole guy with long, thin face and glasses. Again, I never had him for English, mainly Day and Fisher

And the memories continue ………..
 
Hi Doc,

It was Les Summerton, mate. Les Patterson was Barry Humphries' alter-ego. But I agree - fifteen minutes on one of Les's lessons and you could feel your life-forces draining away.

Old Kipper was really quite a star. One morning in the lecture-theatre at Five Ways he suddenly heaved a sigh, sat down, and said something to the effect that he, too, found chemistry boring, but at least he had the advantage that he was paid to teach it. There was a faint cheer from the ranks. I really liked the old bugger.

Geoff Sandercock fell from grace in a manner that I think cannot be discussed in these open boards. I also liked him - he was able to bring history alive - but history was always my favourite subject anyway.

The only biology teacher I had was a very nice bloke called Harry Tipping, who was away with the fairies most of the time. I honestly and truly loathed biology, and I wasn't the only one, and Harry appreciated this. He didn't last long.

"Toffee" Sharp was my favourite teacher by a mile. He had this terrific knack of making Shakespeare interesting - he it was who told me that literature was my forte, and he was genuinely disappointed when I had to tell him that my dad wanted me to concentrate on science. It may sound unbelievable these days, but old Toffee could sit at the front of the class and read 'The Merchant of Venice' and he'd have just about 100% attention. I always thought he was wasted as a teacher, and the old boy would probably agree. I do hope he's still with us. God, I wish I'd listened to him rather than my dad, but there you go.

Big Gee
 
G'day Big Gee,

Why "Patterson" came to mind when I was writing my last posting I really do not know. Probably a result of my years of Australisation I'm not even a fan of Barrie Humphries.

I,too, liked Sandercock and was surprised and somewhat intrigued with his fall from grace.

The biology teacher I had was not Harry Tipping. Try an I might I just cannot remember his name - but I'll keep trying !!
 
HI THERE DOC
How Are You Keeping Since I Last Spoke With You About The Coledge Arm And Coledge Rd You Got My Old Brain Reviataliised
Whe Yoy Lived In The Coledge Rd Do You Remember A Bloke Called Fred Wakelin On The Spring Hill Side Of The Colledge His Miss,s Kept A Little ShopSelling Little Bits And Bobs And Pototoes He Kept n Old Ford ANGILA
ItWas A Green One , Whilst On The Subject Of Cars , Did You Or Not
At One Time Have A Big Princess Car In The Sixty,s
Because I,VE Just Remembered I Think My Mate Ireson Borrowed Off You
For A Day Or The Week end And We Went Down To Vauxall London In It ,
And Did,nT YouAt Some-Time Wear A Sheep Skin Coat ,
Best Wishes ASTONIAN ,;;;;
 
G'day Astonian,

Sorry about the delay in replying.

As usual your postings opened a wealth of memories. I knew most of the pubs you mentioned (which was the one almost opposite Dudley Road Hospital?) and I was surprised to hear the Barford Road Club had become the Amateur Gardeners Club. I had quite a few memories, mainly when I went to pick up my dad when he was relief manager there. The name of the pub was, indeed, the Lee Bridge Tavern. Did you know the landlord there - Billy (?) Nicklin?

Reading your posting I realised that Pat Morgan at Camden Street School was NOT my first love. That was in fact Sonia Sanders whose father was landlord at the Coach and Horses. Ah, those romantic dreams of a nine year old !!

Your last postings seems to have disappeared from the site but I think I can remeber most of the content.

Yes, I did drive a big, black car but it was an old Jowett "Javelin". And , yes, I did wear a sheepskin jacket - it was one of those false suede jackets with the thick, white fleecy lining that were popular at the time.

I remeber Wakelin's green grocers very well. We didn't have electricity when I was young so it was my job to take the accumulator batteries for the radio up Spring Hill to a shop close to the "cut" where they had a battery charger. They would exchange them for the flat ones and I the family could listen to Radio Luxemburg, Dick Barton, PC 49, Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future etc for a few more days. Other shops I remeber on my walk up the hill were Luckman's, Carmichael's faggots and beautiful mushy peas, Verrachias ice cream, a sweet shop called Russells after the owner and a toy shop.

Do you remeber the old bonfire nights, Astonian? :steamingpile:

The groups of kids would go "plundering" for stuff to burn and spent a few hours making a Guy Fawkes. But you had to watch your plunder hoard carefully because rival gangs (particularly from Myddleton Street) would try to creep in at night and steal it. Mind you, we did the same to them !!

But the night itself was a real party night for the families in the yard. Plenty of fireworks - catherine wheels, jumping jacks, roman candles, sparklers, rockets launched from empty milk bottles (no "bangers" allowed), writing your name on the brew house wall with your penny squib and "enjoying" a few burned potatoes and hot chestnuts from the fire. Looking back, with the price of antiques rocketing in Australia, on current day values we must have burned many hundred of thousands of dollars of furniture.

Ah well, the wisdom of hindsight.

Talk to you soon
 
Re: George Dixons Grammar

I went to all the George Dixon schools (Saxon House, the yellow band on the blazer pocket), and remember most of the masters mentioned above.
I remember Mr. Rumsby telling us of the day a bomb destroyed some of the houses opposite the school during the war, and Mr Walker 'lifting my forelock' a couple of times. Mr Thompson was our chemistry teacher, and ran the model railway club (when the old King Edwards Five Ways school was the GD annexe) and the film society (which introduced me to the Ealing Comedies).
FAP (Mr Percy) taught French and Latin, 'Tom' Long, Messrs Tipping, Sandercock, George, etc.
I've still got the 'year' books they gave us tucked away somewhere, and the pocket of my last blazer!
 
hi there, thought i would throw a few names at you who you might remember from brookfields, tierney family, terry peter paul gene kathy to name a few, peter had a group cant remember the name of it at the minute, then there was kenny holms, susan & john leatherbarrow (my cousins) my mom kept the outdoor on the corner of new spring street and crabtree road but i think you may have left by then, roger blower and roger and trevor thompsons just sprung to my mind.
 
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Great to hear from you, Lloyd.

I had totally forgotten "Tom" Long but as I read your posting his face came back so very clearly. Thanks also for the picture of the blazer badge and more memories of "Strenue Agas". You must have attended GD after my time as we didn't have house ribbons on the pockets of our blazers, just a coloured metal shield to pin on the lapel.

Still trying to remember the biology teacher's name !!

Regards,

The Doc
 
Hi, Lindev

Those names certainly started my head buzzing but I confess that the only one I recognised was Peter Tierney. I'm sure he was in a band around the same time (late 50's - mid 60's) but, like you, I cannot remember the name of his band.

At the end of my "career" in the rock business I joined a group that called themselves The Plazents. They were the brainchild of Mrs. Regan who owned three dance halls - two were called the Plaza (hence the name of the group) and one I can't remember the name. One of the Plaza dance halls was in Handsworth I think (on the No. 8 route). We were the warm up / backing group for the main acts she had booked. The drummer was David Mountney (also from College Street). All I can recall was the lead guitarist was Roger and we had a terrific sax player called Paul who was renowned for his fancy waistcoats.

I'm trying to think of other groups around at the same time and all I can reall at the moment is Mickey Jay and the Jaymen and another group called The Corsairs (?) and this band was perhaps the first in Birmingham to feature an electric organ as part of the line up. It was a monsterous thing

Let me know if you remember name of Peter Tierney's band. By any chance did he like to be called "Buddy" and drive a blue van?

Regards,

The Doc
 
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Hi all,
I attended Nelson Street, Ladywood, Primary & Junior school (1946 until 1953) and then GD from 1953 until 1958. Started in form 1B (master: Mr. Wragg) had a very brief spell in form 2A (master: Mr. Sandercock) and subsequently spent my GD experience in the B stream. My form masters were Mr. Orrin (he was also my housemaster - Normans) and for the last two years Mr. 'Butch' Winson (a great 'bloke').
Other masters I remember are:
Rumsby (headmaster and taught Divinity).
Walker (Deputy head and disciplinarian par excellence! I had my forelock tugged a couple of times for not raising my cap to him when I greeted him and the other occasion was for running to the canteen).
Brookes (Taught fine art which was my favourite subject).
Fletcher (Taught music and Divinity - he played the organ at St. Germaine's and St. Martin's in the Bullring. His gown made him look like a bat when he played the organ. He played everything with gusto, particularly Te Deum).
Fisher (In charge of the school orchestra - I have always regretted not taking up the opportunity to play a musical instrument).
Moore (Taught Physics - a hard man)
Worthington (Taught maths and was affectionately referred to as 'Polly' - his gown was so old it was turning khaki, one side was on his shoulder and the other hung from his elbow! He showed us how to fill in the identification stamp in our text books and always used the word 'Spivvins' as the example surname. A boy named Roberts actually filled in the space for his surname with 'Spivvins', he was called 'Spivvins' from then on).
Miss Sale ( I think she taught Biology, she is on the 1957 photograph)
Reeves (Taught woodwork but lost his patience with me as I couldn't plane a piece of wood flat).
Haynes (Taught Metalwork, down in the bowels of the school - I made a mild steel coat hook and a wrought iron poker!).
Robertson ( I always thought he taught Biology but it could have been Chemistry).
Can anyone remember a master by the name of Bultitude?
I had a wonderful time at GD due, largely, to superb masters and a great group of fellow pupils: Alford, Billington, Blundell, Burlison, Clegg, Dawson, Evans, Fishwick, Flavell, Green (M), Green (PC), Jackson, Johnson, Kilminster (my best mate), Lawler, Mills, Parkes, Pearce, Peyton, Roath, Roberts, Rosser, Stace, Teague, Turton, Upton, Waldron, Ward, Weekes, Yair.
Happy days.
 
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Hi Doc, well you set me a task to find out what Peter Tierneys group was called yeeeeeeeeeeee iv done it iv found out it was Pete Tierney and the Nighthawks, thought my memory had gone then i woke up in the early hours of this morning and it came to me. I went to the Plaza every saturday, cant say i remember any of the groups that played there, but i did see the Beatles there and many other groups, after the Plaza ended it was over to the chip shop across the road for a bag of chips then the long walk home to get to lozells, without a care in the world, how times have changed,
 
It was great to hear from you, calcbird,

Just mentioning the names of those old masters brought back a wealth of memories and nostalgia.

We must have been at GD around the same time but from the names of some of your school friends, I think you may have been one or two years ahead.

Weren't there were two Alfords at GD - Colin and Peter - at that time? I can remeber Peter Alford who was our champion shot putter and I think represented Warwickshire. I think Billington went on to be School Captain and I'm sure Evans' sister (Eileen?) married my friend Tony Chatterton. The name Flavell rings a bell - did he have a very bad complexion?

Fletcher was a terrific teacher and a keen follower of the school's rugby team. In fact it was he who gave me my nickname "Stanley" (quite obvious when you think about it) when I made Warwickshire county team together with "Gaudy" Parsons. He talked me into learning the violin but, to my everlasting regret, I gave up very early in the classes.

And "Polly" Worthington's gown should have made it to World Heritage Listing along with his infamous friend "Spivvins Q.Q."

And I THINK you may have given me the name of my mysterious biology master - Mr Bultitude. He was a rather young guy, quite slim , wore glasses and was very shy and softly spoken.

Talk to you soon, calcbird
 
G'day, lindev.

Sorry to have caused you insomnia but thanks for the name of Peter Tierney's band. I can remember the Nighthawks but there were so many bands around at thattime the names and faces seem to blur.

I gave you a false lead on the other band - it was The Modernaires and not the Corsairs who had the electric organ.

Can you remeber where Mrs Reagans dance halls were? There was one Plaza in Handsworth and another in ??? I can't remeber the name of her third dancehall but it either began with "B" or was in a district beginning with "B".

Mrs Reagan was a very shrewd business woman. She used to book artists over a year in advance and she could really spot emerging talent. We played on the same shows as The Beatles, Rolf Harris, Marty Wilde, Johnny and the Hurricanes and many others.

Talk again soon
 
This months Brummagen Magazine has an article on Ma Regan, she died 12 th March this year aged 95. They had 3 dance halls The Ritz in Kings Heath, and halls in Handsworth and Old Hill, both known as The Plaza.
It also tells of the time The Beatles played all three venues in one night, and the number 11 bus route was disrupted as two of the venues were on the route, and fans were rushing from one to the other in time for their performance.

Colin
 
Colin,

would you happen to know the date when The Beatles played the Plaza, in Rookery Road, Handsworth? Like hundreds of others, I queued up trying to get in, but failed; my wife of 38 years was also in that queue, years before I met her, and she did get in (she always beats me at anything...)

Regards,

Big Gee
 
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