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Cockshut Hill Secondary Modern Boys' School

B

Barry Worrall

proper brummie kid
Does anyone remember Cockshutt Hill Boys school between the dates 1961 and 1967.I remember certain names like Bill Griffin ,Robert Hilditch,Trevor Wigget.We had a mini football team whereby we used to play football in the playgrounder of the school with make shift goal posts.I remember the Deputy Headmaster was Mr wicksteam. Does anyone remember the school at this time.I remember playing Rugby for the school and I remember the Science teacher Mr Franklin.I also remember one teacher Mr Morgan and he had a cane called Sylvester.Anyone with memorits from this time.
 
There was also a Science teacher called Clarke who had had been seconded to another school for a while. The Metal workshops were amongst the best equipped in the country,and if you showed interest Mr Barnard would go out of his way to help you. When we started Mr Roberts an ex PTI was the Gym Teacher, he was okay again if you tried!
 
Time Traveller 66 said:
Remember Mr Wickstead Deputy Head. Mr Morgan TD teacher Mr James French Teacher Mr Webb Art Teacher. Remember Sylvester.
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For those of us that attended Cockshut SMB during the Sixties when Morgan was teaching will all remember ‘ Sylvester ‘. Morgan wasn’t just a one off, I would never advocate that his administering of discipline or actions were right, but he like many of the others had endured the hardships of the war and were used to a stricter regime. It’s funny you hear the terms ‘barbaric’ and ‘ unreasonable ‘ being bounded about today, but to be honest none of us came to any real harm, or can anybody tell me different ?
 
Pete B said:
For those of us that attended Cockshut SMB during the Sixties when Morgan was teaching will all remember ‘ Sylvester ‘. Morgan wasn’t just a one off, I would never advocate that his administering of discipline or actions were right, but he like many of the others had endured the hardships of the war and were used to a stricter regime. It’s funny you hear the terms ‘barbaric’ and ‘ unreasonable ‘ being bounded about today, but to be honest none of us came to any real harm, or can anybody tell me different ?
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As long you were not recieving the punishment. Then again if you told your parents about being disiplined they would have said serves you right. No complaints.
 
Pete B said:
For those of us that attended Cockshut SMB during the Sixties when Morgan was teaching will all remember ‘ Sylvester ‘. Morgan wasn’t just a one off, I would never advocate that his administering of discipline or actions were right, but he like many of the others had endured the hardships of the war and were used to a stricter regime. It’s funny you hear the terms ‘barbaric’ and ‘ unreasonable ‘ being bounded about today, but to be honest none of us came to any real harm, or can anybody tell me different ?
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While a brutal regime may have been acceptable to yourself, do not assume it was acceptable to others. Those others did not have a choice and had to suffer at the hands of people who should have known better. The had to accept it in silence.

It really depends on what type of society you wish to live in. In my opinion, brutality and abuse only serve to teach the younger generation that this type of behaviour is acceptable, and then people go one to complain of the youth today.

Its also worth considering that a lot of school age children did not have the privilege of a loving family, therefore where school should have been the one safe place where they should have been treated with respect and dignity, quite often it was not.

When you consider that teachers were paid to teach and inspire young people, those who chose to operate abusive regimes were depriving young people of the lifelong education they deserved and the life of respect and dignity they were as human being entitled to.
 
Interesting comments in the last response,if you were a pupil of Cockshut Hill boys school in the 1960s you wouldn’t have considered that discipline was unduly excessive unless you were a regular offender. This was after all a secondary education school and obedience was expected there is no mention of abuse being acceptable, but we lived in different times
 
Morturn said:
While a brutal regime may have been acceptable to yourself, do not assume it was acceptable to others. Those others did not have a choice and had to suffer at the hands of people who should have known better. The had to accept it in silence.

It really depends on what type of society you wish to live in. In my opinion, brutality and abuse only serve to teach the younger generation that this type of behaviour is acceptable, and then people go one to complain of the youth today.

Its also worth considering that a lot of school age children did not have the privilege of a loving family, therefore where school should have been the one safe place where they should have been treated with respect and dignity, quite often it was not.

When you consider that teachers were paid to teach and inspire young people, those who chose to operate abusive regimes were depriving young people of the lifelong education they deserved and the life of respect and dignity they were as human being entitled to.
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I did not agree with that type of punishment at all and it was brutal . Around those years we the pupils took it as the norm and those in authority let it carry on for a number of years. Over time things have got better but like i said at that time it was all we knew but did not agree with.
 
On a slightly more positive note does anyone remember the craft workshops?. A good percentage of the pupils were destined for the industry’s of the Midlands and the workshops ( particularly the metal ) were well equipped with lathes , milling machines etc in fact all the equipment to teach and develop skills for what was to come. I was a bit wary of the head of workshops ( Barnard ) but he along with Mathew were excellent teachers if you showed interest.
 
Pete B said:
On a slightly more positive note does anyone remember the craft workshops?. A good percentage of the pupils were destined for the industry’s of the Midlands and the workshops ( particularly the metal ) were well equipped with lathes , milling machines etc in fact all the equipment to teach and develop skills for what was to come. I was a bit wary of the head of workshops ( Barnard ) but he along with Mathew were excellent teachers if you showed interest.
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Thanks for post could not remember Mathews name. Yes they were well equipped .I remember the forge and doing casting and polishing . Woodwork making a chisel rack which was in our shed for years with one chisel in it but i made it. Dove tail and Mortice and Tennon joints. Those skills Engineering or Carpentry if you enjoyed them would stand you in good stead.
 
Typical of predictive text the Head of Woodwork was Mayhew, and the other Woodwork teacher was Jones, who could be extremely sarcastic as I seem to remember. You mentioned the Forge and Casting in the workshops, I remember making a fireside Heath set which involved intricate forge work with a ‘rope twist’ in the handles, and casting a handle for a screwdriver which involved lathework, I was fascinated by being shown how to do this, henceforth a career in engineering. Now happily retired and occasionally meeting up with lads from my year for a drink in Solihull.
 
Time Traveller 66 said:
Thanks for post could not remember Mathews name. Yes they were well equipped .I remember the forge and doing casting and polishing . Woodwork making a chisel rack which was in our shed for years with one chisel in it but i made it. Dove tail and Mortice and Tennon joints. Those skills Engineering or Carpentry if you enjoyed them would stand you in good stead.
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Funnily enough reading your comments on Mortice and Tenon and Dovetail joints you must have made the obligatory ‘ singles ‘ box for your 45 rpm records, I kept mine for a good few years, and the customary fruit bowl which was turned on the wood lathe. Happy days
 
Pete B said:
Funnily enough reading your comments on Mortice and Tenon and Dovetail joints you must have made the obligatory ‘ singles ‘ box for your 45 rpm records, I kept mine for a good few years, and the customary fruit bowl which was turned on the wood lathe. Happy days
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Pete B said:
Typical of predictive text the Head of Woodwork was Mayhew, and the other Woodwork teacher was Jones, who could be extremely sarcastic as I seem to remember. You mentioned the Forge and Casting in the workshops, I remember making a fireside Heath set which involved intricate forge work with a ‘rope twist’ in the handles, and casting a handle for a screwdriver which involved lathework, I was fascinated by being shown how to do this, henceforth a career in engineering. Now happily retired and occasionally meeting up with lads from my year for a drink in Solihull.
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Yes remember the singles box also made salt and pepper condements which were trimmed with Formica. Remember the smells the Suds Engineers Blue. Glad to hear you had a career in engineering. A couple of my mates went on to do Toolmaking etc. Glad you are enloying retirement . As you say happy days.
 
Time Traveller 66 said:
Remember Mr Wickstead Deputy Head. Mr Morgan TD teacher Mr James French Teacher Mr Webb Art Teacher. Remember Sylvester.
Click to expand...
Barry Worrall said:
Does anyone remember Cockshutt Hill Boys school between the dates 1961 and 1967.I remember certain names like Bill Griffin ,Robert Hilditch,Trevor Wigget.We had a mini football team whereby we used to play football in the playgrounder of the school with make shift goal posts.I remember the Deputy Headmaster was Mr wicksteam. Does anyone remember the school at this time.I remember playing Rugby for the school and I remember the Science teacher Mr Franklin.I also remember one teacher Mr Morgan and he had a cane called Sylvester.Anyone with memorits from this time.
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Yes
Time Traveller 66 said:
No i started in 1969.
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Yes I remember all those teachers,I was there from 1964 ,I think.
 
Pete B said:
There was also a Science teacher called Clarke who had had been seconded to another school for a while. The Metal workshops were amongst the best equipped in the country,and if you showed interest Mr Barnard would go out of his way to help you. When we started Mr Roberts an ex PTI was the Gym Teacher, he was okay again if you tried!
Click to expand...
Pete B said:
Interesting comments in the last response,if you were a pupil of Cockshut Hill boys school in the 1960s you wouldn’t have considered that discipline was unduly excessive unless you were a regular offender. This was after all a secondary education school and obedience was expected there is no mention of abuse being acceptable, but we lived in different times
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Hi Peter,I Do Agree, thankyou for introducing me to this forum.
 
I was there as a pupil, 1961- 67, then as a teacher, 1970-1975.
I owe the school a lot, it gave me "success", that was the principle of the staff and Bert Jolley and Wicksted.
I remember sylvestry well and even got taught how to use it, by Morgan himself!!!
I am still in touch with Andy Pollack and Micky Jones, sadly my best mate there, Colin Appleby died some while ago, and Jim Williams died recently.
Steve Walker
 
I was a pupil at Cockshut Hill from1966 -1971 and can remember some of the teachers; they were Mr Roberts /Mr Woods PE, Mr Williams or Wilf History, Mr Webb Art, Mr Pugh Mr Franklin Science, Mr Enderby who drove a Lotus Cortina mk 11, Mr Emerson, Mr Wroxbrough , Mr Marsh , Mr Morgan who I found OK (it did help when he found out I was half Welsh) so I was put into the school choir. One of my best memories are of the school cottage in North Wales and the times there.
 
I didn't attend the school, but I played Rugby against them several times in the early 70s for Perry Common. I always remember the games to have been very hard fought and close between us. CH had two brothers with silver hair (I think, it's been a long time ;) ) They were big lads and one of them played tight head prop and came up against me on each occasion in the scrum, as loose head. I still remember neither of us and neither team, gave up the games until the final whistle. Happy days!
 
Probably answered before but the teachers i remembered were Mr Franklin (Science) Mr Hewlitt (Science). Mr Enderby (Maths) Mr Curtis (English) Mr James (French) Mr Challoner (Music) Sam Carpenter (PE) Mr Jones (English) Mr Reeves (PE) Mr Bashford Mr Morgan Mr Barnard Mr Crompton to add to Dave the cyclists list. Playing Football on the football pitches behind Digbeth in the Fields Church off Moat lane.
 
Hi there everyone,and yes Barry you were an excellent cross country runner,I was second fastest to Brian Biggs,he was fast.I was always in the A stream and first teacher was Mr.Pugh(Puggy)If I recall it was an excellent teacher at French a Mr. Chiltern or was it Mr.Marsh,Boggy,then George Welford also our football coach,some names you may well recall,Goal keeper Tommy Lawton,Royston Wood,Steve Mason,Chas Jones,Pete Brueton unfortunately dead,John Smith,Rodger Wriggly,Tommy Davies and lastly myself John Wood Woody.
This without doubt was a brilliant start in life,also any one remember Mr.Hardy and Mr.Mason gym,as all of these contributed to my working life but at 15 1/2 decided to leave myself and Donald Neal worked for a time a Lucas,Gas Turbine,Equipment.
I was lucky to go on a motor engineering course and land a great job working for Jaguar Cars,just when they were putting the first V12 in the E-Type,I worked my way up to what was then Experimental still at good old Browns Lane and finished up what they now call R and D,Whitley and it was never the same.
Because of my interest in canals Mr.Williams got me and some others to make a model which didn,t turn out to well,so hope I have rekindled some pleasant times as I now live on The Isle of Wight,take care all.
 
I was there in the 50s, Then I remember going to MSA. I remember the big glass widows overlookng the now parking space. may have made this in wood working class
 

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