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Saltley Secondary School

On a different Saltley subject. Does anyone remember the big table? I remember it from 1967. It was in quite a large open space against a wall. There was a long corridor leading to it, a shorter corridor with a step in it and then a right hand bend, and also stairs coming down to it. The table was big and strong enough to seat around 4 to 5 girls one end, and the same number of boys the other end. It was a meeting place during free time, such as lunch breaks, for general chatting. I followed a 2013 reunion video a little while ago, and I knew exactly where it was, except it had gone. A little bit of me faded at that moment. Strange what can stick with you isn’t it. Cheers Andrew.
 
Spargone said:
..Moneo, Mones, Monent...
Mr Chipendale, a memory of a strong smell from whatever he put on his hair. I always felt sorry for him as I supposed he had gone from teaching respectful, young Indian boys to rude British Fifth Formers, most of whom were only there to get a quick O-level language pass to qualify for Northern Universities Joint Matriculation. That requirement was dropped the following year and so many of us dropped Latin too. I still have Kennedy's Shorter Latin Primer on loan. I wonder if the school secretary still has my extra exam certificates, those exams that the sixth form did to keep 'match fit'?
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I thought Mr Chippendale used bay rum on his hair, not that I know what it is, but it sounds old-fashioned!
 
Could this be at the end of the 'new' block'? It joined the old school just outside the girls' crush hall. Coming from the main school there was probably a step down to a vestibule containg lockers fot the upper school pupils. There was a door out to the play ground to the left and the stairs to the upper floor on the right. Going forward the corridor joggled to the right so as to run down the centre of the building. The lower school was barred from the school buildings during breaks. At lunch time boys would claim membership of the Chess Club in order to get in. Those lockers were a target for some of us. When they were left open we would whip off the locks and re-arrange the levers so as to take 'ownership' off them as we were the only people with a key that fitted. One of our 'gang' left his case in the boys' crush hall and we picked it up, raced around the playground and locked it up inside his locker before he got there. What a surprise he had! Probably M. Batts.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
On a different Saltley subject. Does anyone remember the big table? I remember it from 1967. It was in quite a large open space against a wall. There was a long corridor leading to it, a shorter corridor with a step in it and then a right hand bend, and also stairs coming down to it. The table was big and strong enough to seat around 4 to 5 girls one end, and the same number of boys the other end. It was a meeting place during free time, such as lunch breaks, for general chatting. I followed a 2013 reunion video a little while ago, and I knew exactly where it was, except it had gone. A little bit of me faded at that moment. Strange what can stick with you isn’t it. Cheers Andrew.
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Maria Magenta said:
I don't remember the table, but it sounds intriguing. I was at the 2013 reunion.
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Spargone: Your description sounds about right, especially corridors and stairs, but I don’t remember any lockers. Perhaps you were there a bit later than me, or more likely, they have been removed from my memory to fit something else in.
Maria: I would have loved to have gone to the reunion, I knew about it but circumstances prevented me from doing so. If you have access to the YouTube video, the space, but without the table (sad face, the table has a special memory for me) is at about 8 minutes, plus or minus a bit.

Cheers Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
Spargone: Your description sounds about right, especially corridors and stairs, but I don’t remember any lockers. Perhaps you were there a bit later than me, or more likely, they have been removed from my memory to fit something else in.
Maria: I would have loved to have gone to the reunion, I knew about it but circumstances prevented me from doing so. If you have access to the YouTube video, the space, but without the table (sad face, the table has a special memory for me) is at about 8 minutes, plus or minus a bit.

Cheers Andrew.
Click to expand...
Something I noticed that affected me in the same way was the absence of the case with trophies in the Red Hall. And the fact that the stage had gone. I'll see if I can find the video again.
 
The stage has gone!! There was a hatch on the side of the stage, left side I think facing the stage from the hall. That hatch led under the stage, amongst all the supporting structure. Quiet and dark. Teachers didn't like you going in there. (Cough Cough say no more). Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
but I don’t remember any lockers. Perhaps you were there a bit later than me, or more likely, they have been removed from my memory to fit something else in.
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6 Maths and the like had the new block physics lab as their form room and Mr. Douce as their formaster. As the labs didn't have desks there were lockers, some situated in the new block crush hall.
Totally unrelated: I remember seeing a green EMU approach from the direction of New Street once while in the new block physics lab. Later it occured to me that I had seen no other trains that period. It was only when I got home that I found that the train I had seen had crashed at Stechford.
 
As I was leaving, there were rumours about Mr Douce and Miss Miller, which I later learned were true. He was my physics teacher. Always in a black gown. Physics was one of my better subjects, It seemed to make sense to me most of the time.
A green EMU ! Ah, brain brings up option 2, makes more sense. In my train spotting days they were called yam-yams. Andrew.
 
One big change at Saltley was the demoltion of the new gym, the building of which caused much suffering to boys at the time. Temporary changing rooms were set up at various places as the building proceeded but they all meant that boys, dressed only in white shorts, had to run along corridors filthy from outdoor shoes and often wet from rain in the open quadrangles. To add to the experience the builders often left part-empty milkbottles to develop mould and smells in these rooms. Compared to my fairly new primary school the filth, both physical and pupils' language, was quite something. I never said anything about this as my parents thought they were sending me to a 'good school', which in many ways it was.
 
Spargone said:
One big change at Saltley was the demoltion of the new gym, the building of which caused much suffering to boys at the time. Temporary changing rooms were set up at various places as the building proceeded but they all meant that boys, dressed only in white shorts, had to run along corridors filthy from outdoor shoes and often wet from rain in the open quadrangles. To add to the experience the builders often left part-empty milkbottles to develop mould and smells in these rooms. Compared to my fairly new primary school the filth, both physical and pupils' language, was quite something. I never said anything about this as my parents thought they were sending me to a 'good school', which in many ways it was.
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That sounds grim.
 
If you look at the revisit video above, and get to the 8 min point, you will be walking along a long corridor. At this distance in time, I can make a confession without fear of retribution (detention). Myself and perhaps one or two other boys were walking up that corridor in the direction the camera is going. It was very close to the Christmas break. Tilley Thompson (RIP) was berating a group of girls, maybe 5 or 6 of them, coming the other way, possibly about walking properly, or telling them to wind their skirts back out of their belts or something. As I got behind Tilley, out came the sprig of mistletoe from my sleeve, waved in a suggestive way. This caused an outbreak of giggling in the girls, and Tilley swung round with a fierce look of detention in her eye. I was quicker in those days, and by the time she got round, totally blank looks on the boys and no sign of mistletoe of course. Phew, got away with that one.
Cheers Andrew.
 
Spargone said:
Could this be at the end of the 'new' block'? It joined the old school just outside the girls' crush hall. Coming from the main school there was probably a step down to a vestibule containg lockers fot the upper school pupils. There was a door out to the play ground to the left and the stairs to the upper floor on the right. Going forward the corridor joggled to the right so as to run down the centre of the building. The lower school was barred from the school buildings during breaks. At lunch time boys would claim membership of the Chess Club in order to get in. Those lockers were a target for some of us. When they were left open we would whip off the locks and re-arrange the levers so as to take 'ownership' off them as we were the only people with a key that fitted. One of our 'gang' left his case in the boys' crush hall and we picked it up, raced around the playground and locked it up inside his locker before he got there. What a surprise he had! Probably M. Batts.
Click to expand...
Re-reading this and being reminded by the video I think I have conflated the upper and lower vestibules of the new block, i.e. the door to the playground was obviously only on the ground floor while the lockers would have been on the first floor where there would have been less traffic and on the same floor as the Senior Physics Lab at the far end which would have been 7 Maths form room in my time. Opposite that lab was a prep. room in which an 'e/m' apparatus was set up. Beyond that, right at the end was a room with 'theatre' seating. The prep. room brings back two memories, the first of a boy who no doubt went on to get a 'first' at Sheffield who was asked to fit a plug to a little cheap Japanese motor for a ripple tank. He fitted a 13 amp plug, plugged it into the wall and bang! The other was of that 'e/m' apparatus that had something that was a cross between a chemistry flask and a CRT but with the screen inside and along the axis. We just couldn't get the 'right' answer because the best school voltmeter loaded the circuit too much. I brought in a 'Heathkit' valve voltmeter that my dad had made and physics was saved for another year!
 
Maria Magenta said:
I don't, but I think you were a few years ahead of me, though not many. Perhaps they had stopped doing it then?
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1961 to 67. The trampoline was quite large, filled a good part of the stage. I bounced on it a few times, but was never confident enough to land in the same place, and the border of elastic ropes made me nervous and seemed like a bad place to be. Some others seemed fine doing somersaults. My best landings were sitting down with hands braced, preferably after only one bounce.
Do you remember Mr Cherry ? He started the same time as me at Saltley, and was the form master for my first year. His subject was French, although no doubt other subjects as well. I learnt a while ago that he had been taken from us, RIP a good teacher. Andrew.
 
Mr Cherry caused some upset because he used to say "Have a penguin!", (the biscuit), when someone did something good when it was realised that it was only the girls that he praised in this way. He never actually handed out any biscuits though.

I would have thought that the trampoline would have been bought, (in advance?), to go in the new gym. I don't remember any of our regular PE classes getting to use it, seems more like something that the gym club would get to use. We never got to use all of the available apparatus. I do remember the assembly hall being used as a temporary gym. Mr Shakespeare used me to demonstrate doing a handstand. We were supposed to have a bit of a run up, then hands on the ground and our partner, (in this case Mr Shakespeare) would catch us. I must have pushed a bit too hard as I sailed over his shoulder, landing on my feet. I don't think he trusted any of us as he once said that when someone left the Army the best they could hope for was "...X years of undetected crime." on their record, i.e. we were all 'criminals', he just hadn't caught us yet!
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
1961 to 67. The trampoline was quite large, filled a good part of the stage. I bounced on it a few times, but was never confident enough to land in the same place, and the border of elastic ropes made me nervous and seemed like a bad place to be. Some others seemed fine doing somersaults. My best landings were sitting down with hands braced, preferably after only one bounce.
Do you remember Mr Cherry ? He started the same time as me at Saltley, and was the form master for my first year. His subject was French, although no doubt other subjects as well. I learnt a while ago that he had been taken from us, RIP a good teacher. Andrew.
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I started in 1965. Never used the trampoline myself, but I remember it being in the gym. I do remember Mr Cherry, who was very genial. His wife, Miss Windsor, was my French teacher and one of my favourites.
 
Spargone said:
Mr Cherry caused some upset because he used to say "Have a penguin!", (the biscuit), when someone did something good when it was realised that it was only the girls that he praised in this way. He never actually handed out any biscuits though.

I would have thought that the trampoline would have been bought, (in advance?), to go in the new gym. I don't remember any of our regular PE classes getting to use it, seems more like something that the gym club would get to use. We never got to use all of the available apparatus. I do remember the assembly hall being used as a temporary gym. Mr Shakespeare used me to demonstrate doing a handstand. We were supposed to have a bit of a run up, then hands on the ground and our partner, (in this case Mr Shakespeare) would catch us. I must have pushed a bit too hard as I sailed over his shoulder, landing on my feet. I don't think he trusted any of us as he once said that when someone left the Army the best they could hope for was "...X years of undetected crime." on their record, i.e. we were all 'criminals', he just hadn't caught us yet!
Click to expand...
That sounds terrifying! Mr Shakespeare always seemed very fierce. I was once sent down to the playing field where he was teaching to ask him to come into school (can't remember why, maybe a First Aid thing), and that was frightening enough.
 
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