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York house school

Hi Stewart, lovely to hear from you. I live in Knowle these days and Denise lives in Stratford upon Avon, we're both well and enjoying retirement!
Hope life's been good to you and Alan.
Chris
 
I was there in Mr (and Mrs) Cooper's day starting before my 5th birthday, so that would put it late 1945, and left for KES (as did 6 or 7 of us that year) in 1951. Girls arrived during that period though the Porter's daughter was a pupil already. Fees were 6 guineas per term. I remember rolling Dinky cars down "the mound" during break and races were run on a circuit that took runners round the back of the toilet block. After just a day or two of being accompanied by bus and despite being barely more than a toddler, I was expected to get myself to school - from the No 11 bus stop at the bottom of Swanshurst Lane. The fare was 1/2d for kids. I missed the School Rd stop soon after this regime began and got off on Fox Hollies Rd totally confused about where I was. I don't remember how this was resolved. We littlies had to have an afternoon nap which I found excruciating as completely unable to settle on the camp beds. A big issue was tying my shoelaces which I hadn't mastered and found this rather mortifying. But I still can conjure the feeling of triumph when I mastered the craft. Near the sleeping area were enormous shallow sinks (or at least they appeared enormous) like in a medieval monastery.

The school blazer with its breast pocket York Rose badge came from a school supply shop (Bernard?) on a parade on Stratford Rd near the station drive. The barber likewise; he set a plank spanning the arms of his barber chair to bring us up to a convenient level. He applied, or offered to apply, something called "Bay Rum"; maybe the 1940s equivalent of "anything for the weekend sir". We lived somewhat in fear of the rough kids from Hall Green Junior a bit further up Stratford Rd towards Highfield Rd. I was also an occasional Saturday club ABC Minor at the Robin Hood cinema just by where Fox Hollies Rd joins Stratford Rd. I remember being intrigued by the "snuff" works wondering what on earth they did. It was just by the junction with Cole Bank Rd.

Mr Porter was very dismissive of "apparatus" allowing himself only one - a device to teach us about rhombuses. Very occasionally we went onto the lawn for calisthenics but I think Mr Porter had the same disdain for this Min of Ed requirement as he had for apparatus holding to the view that his education was to feed mind and imagination, not the body. Another terrible bus-related event was being told by a girl - surname Josephs - that she loved me. For weeks after I had to catch the No 11 at the next stop up Swanshurst Lane to avoid her. Another memory was football on the Fox Hollies Rd playing fields. The system was for two captains to be appointed who took turns in picking boys to make up their team. I was invariably either the last or last but one to be selected which was fair judgment of my lack of prowess at any sport. Mr Porter gave us a few Latin lessons just before 11-plus / KES entrance exam time. This enabled entry to Shell A at King Edwards, supposedly for la creme de la creme. It only took a term to discover I was not in that league and got demoted to Shell B. Yorke House School was a highly successful crammer; I think only Chigwell came anywhere close to Mr Cooper's success rate at getting his pupils into King Edwards.
 
boringmike said:
Hi, I went to Yorke House School with my brother between 1960 and 1969. The headmaster was Councillor James Millington who owned the school and lived on site with his wife and daughter Michelle. The teachers at the time that I remember wer Mrs Bristow, Mrs Mather, Mrs Ask or Aske, and a lady who arrived in a vintage Jaguar who was called Mrs Candy and who's daughter als taught at the school for a time, and the couple Mr and Mrs Pepper, the couple who worked as cook and caretaker. I remember pupils such as Robert and Rickie Edwards, Rennie Walker, Richard Aske, Dennine Elliot, Ashley or Ashleigh Mallett, Christopher Bayliss, Stewart Faulkner, Max Reeves, who I played rugby against years later, Geoffrey Burkett, Simon Kingett plus brother Nicholas, and many others who I will remember when not trying. The school struggled on but ran out of money in the year I was due to take my 11 plus so my mother who was a teacher agreed to teach our class for free until the exams where taken and the school was kept going with just one class. I believe the house was a private residence befor becoming a school and was rumoured to have an underground passage to the local church, there was indeed the start of a passage in the cellar under the cloakrooms which was bricked up but may still exist. After it's closure it was sold to a coffee vending company and then demolished and a housing development built which I believe may be age restricted. Perhaps I could start and finish my days there. No one enjoyed their primary school years more than me.
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I went there as well during that time remember maxwell very well andrew brown the blow twins. Mrs Bristow dragged me away from dunoon a kindergarten she and I attended.
Have been searching for pictures of the old school with no success
 
boringmike said:
Mr Millington also kept various game and exotic birds outside while his wife ket a Monkey in a large cage on the upstairs landing. Mr millington was not a fan and used to feed it chalk which it loved and seemed to have no affect on him.
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I was there around that time i rememer maxwell and the blow twins i think
 
SimonL said:
I went to this school for only two terms, starting in autumn of 1967 and finishing at the end of the spring term in 1968. I still have my school reports. I remember some of the names mentioned in previous articles (Simon Kingett, Max Reeves, and also a lad called Gopal Kalra and someone with the surname of Gregory. I also remember the exotic birds kept by the headmaster (Mr. Millington). For swimming, we had to go to the swimming baths on the Stratford Road (I think) and for football, we had to walk across Fox Hollies Road to some playing fields (now Ninestiles Academy??). I remember that the school didn't have a dining room so we had to eat lunch in the classrooms. My class teacher (Form 3) was a Mrs K. Blackwell. I also remember a car being left in the playground (not sure why) for us to 'explore'. Cadbury's Aztec chocolate bars were very popular around this time; sadly discontinued.
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I Was there around that time but left to take my 11 plus at lakey lane because of the raised fees we couldnt afford
 
Hi, my older sister Catherine and I were at York House in 1959 (I'm pretty sure that was the year). Our surname is Grisard and we now live in Australia. I'm told the school was run at that time by Mr and Mrs Cooper, though I don't remember them (I would have been approximately 7 years old and Catherine would have been 9). We had come from living in Belgium, spoke English, but didn't know the English currency so we were given separate lessons to learn pounds, shillings and pence. The whole experience of living in England and learning British ways was pretty novel to us but I remember enjoying it. Sadly, I don't remember the names of any of the other students and have no photos from that time. Does anyone remember us? Have photos of the classes we would have been in?
 
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