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George Dixons Grammar School

'Butch' Winson was a character, no mistake, and I actually quite liked him - he had a very quirky sense of humour, and he also struck me as being totally aware that hardly anyone had the slightest interest in learning French. He had a little trick we got to know as the 'Winson Touch', when between finger and thumb he would take hold of the short hair just in front of a youth's ear and raise him irresistibly to his feet, all the while conjugating a French verb. This would invariably reduce the rest of the class to hysterics - until he did his little trick on you, that is! 'Butch' also coached rugby, and in my opinion was better at it than most of the 'specialist' sports masters. For me at least, he made life at GD a bit more bearable.

Liked the anecdote of Wally Walker and the incendiary bomb - you just had to love him....! I remember a chemistry lesson when our usual teacher was 'indisposed', and Wally took his class. Great was the fear and trepidation, but it turned out to be a brilliant "hands on" lesson, and he had the gift of involving the entire class, rather than just standing up front and waffling away in a monotone for 45 minutes. I wonder how long he'd have lasted in a 21st century school......?

G
 
With reference to my comment earlier about City Road, I have just remembered that the road was built from Dudley Road to Sandon Road to commemorate the granting of City status to Birmingham in 1889. The road has an interesting range of buildings from the terraced houses at the bottom which look as if they were rather superior accommodation in their day to the "Gentleman's Residences" at the top, Edgbaston, end of the road although many of these are now multiple occupation..
 
'Butch' Winson was a character, no mistake, and I actually quite liked him - he had a very quirky sense of humour, and he also struck me as being totally aware that hardly anyone had the slightest interest in learning French. He had a little trick we got to know as the 'Winson Touch', when between finger and thumb he would take hold of the short hair just in front of a youth's ear and raise him irresistibly to his feet, all the while conjugating a French verb. This would invariably reduce the rest of the class to hysterics - until he did his little trick on you, that is! 'Butch' also coached rugby, and in my opinion was better at it than most of the 'specialist' sports masters. For me at least, he made life at GD a bit more bearable.

Liked the anecdote of Wally Walker and the incendiary bomb - you just had to love him....! I remember a chemistry lesson when our usual teacher was 'indisposed', and Wally took his class. Great was the fear and trepidation, but it turned out to be a brilliant "hands on" lesson, and he had the gift of involving the entire class, rather than just standing up front and waffling away in a monotone for 45 minutes. I wonder how long he'd have lasted in a 21st century school......?

G

'Butch' never coached my form at rugby - not even house rugby. However, I do recall vividly the occasional coaching we had from Mr Degge (inevitably he was 'Peg-Leg Degge'). His subjects were woodwork and metalwork, but he enjoyed rugby! He would run with the ball, giggling maniacally and encouraging us to tackle him. Usually, you only did that once because he would hand you off with some ferocity. I can picture him now, running with the ball with a series of schoolboys bouncing off him in all directions, giggling (there is no other way to describe it) and shouting 'tackle me, tackle me'. That aside, he was a friendly and approachable master.
 
Welcome BrumBrum. Hope others remember Mr Degge, sounds quite a character! Enjoy the forum. Viv.
 
Don't remember Mr Degge but 'Butch' as a nick name for Mr Winson is coming back to me now. Our rugby sessions were always conducted by 'Jake' Garden whose dress was always a black track suit, with a jacket over it when not actually conducting PE or games. The only time I saw him in a suit was at prize giving or the annual carol service when all the masters were in full accademicals. 'Jaffa' Orrin was also involved in rugby but was probably getting too old to coach; he was reputed to have played for Wales.

One master, I forget who it was, was made fun of for the mistakes he made refereeing a game against another school. He said that it was not his fault, he was the only one available and he was a qualified soccer referee.

While I was at GD there was a big fuss when our school captain played for English Schoolboys against Scottish Schoolboys. His England shirt was put on display in the ante-hall. In the road where I lived in those days there was a man who was an Old Dixonian who played for England.

Have to admit that I and two other boys had discovered an old shed behind the pavilion so skived off rugby. Cannot believe that we got away with it every week because Jake was not that daft but probably thought that if we were not interested there was no use forcing us.

Talking of sheds on the school field, we discovered a tattered master's black gown one day which we think the groundsman had been using as a cleaning rag. When we queried the name tag we were told not to mention that name again.
 
Hi David,

The only GD name that springs to mind regarding a distinguished rugby career is that of Keith Hatter, who played for Moseley. Whether he played for England at any level I wouldn't know.

Another sporty master I remember was called Pruitt, but I don't think he was at GD for very long.

Your last paragraph is very interesting..............!

G
 
Hi Laurie,

My name's Graham, not Bill!

Old Kipper was a man of many parts, mate. He never took part in any GD musical production so far as I was aware, but musical he most certainly was. Did you also know he was a World War 1 fighter pilot?

I was at GD from 1957 - 63. I was in the 'A' forms right up until the sixth form, when they figured out I was as thick as two planks and put me down into 6G. Not a bad place, GD. Very old-fashioned in many respects. Its motto STRENUE AGAS - Work Hard - could be picked up on today, in my opinion.

Different world then, though.

Big Gee
Hi Graham, I was at Five Ways until 1964, only spent the first year at City Rd. I could never understand why the "A" form had to go there, but enjoyed all the soccer and cricket in the yard. Remember having to climb over the wall to get the ball back from time to time. I certainly remember "Butch" Winson, he loved to grab anyone, who misbehaved, by the ear and lift them out of their seat!
I was member of the best cross country team that won every race in 63/64 and then in the first team at cricket in 64.
 
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Hi Steven,

I think I remember you - did your parents have a shop in Rookery Road? Unlike you I was never sporty, and avoided such pastimes as rugby and cross-country, but I did sometimes subject my puny body to the rigours of athletics.

I never liked Five Ways - always seemed dull and dismal to me, and stairs everywhere. Once after school when I was getting on the bus into town one the masters - I think he taught chemistry, can see his face but can't put a name to it - sat next to me and started complaining about Five Ways. So I wasn't alone in that respect.

IIRC there was a police-station next door to Five Ways, across the wide yard.

In my latter year or so at GD Five Ways we'd walk down Broad Street for an espresso at the cafe near the Register Office - was it called The Acropolis or similar Greek name - even though this was expressly banned by Dragseye Dillworth. Only at that stage of my GD career I really didn't give a monkey's......what I did after school was my business, not his.

G
 
I was never based at Five Ways but as I have mentioned in previous posts I would sometimes go down to Five Ways. We called Dillworth, Daddy because his initials were DAD, and he was appointed Head of Five Ways. We took over KE Five Ways during my time and the policy was that all First Formers would be at City Road so that they would get to know the 'Home' school. We also took in a whole cohort of 13plus boys at that time.
 
Hi Steven,

I think I remember you - did your parents have a shop in Rookery Road? Unlike you I was never sporty, and avoided such pastimes as rugby and cross-country, but I did sometimes subject my puny body to the rigours of athletics.

I never liked Five Ways - always seemed dull and dismal to me, and stairs everywhere. Once after school when I was getting on the bus into town one the masters - I think he taught chemistry, can see his face but can't put a name to it - sat next to me and started complaining about Five Ways. So I wasn't alone in that respect.

IIRC there was a police-station next door to Five Ways, across the wide yard.

In my latter year or so at GD Five Ways we'd walk down Broad Street for an espresso at the cafe near the Register Office - was it called The Acropolis or similar Greek name - even though this was expressly banned by Dragseye Dillworth. Only at that stage of my GD career I really didn't give a monkey's......what I did after school was my business, not his.

G
you are right, we had the grocery shop at the end of Rookery rd, next to the greengrocery shop. Do you remember us collecting money for Oxfam, standing at the front door of the school out front at Five Ways? We collected a lot of money from all the folk on the way to work in the mornings. Did you take the #11 bus? I always liked the real old buses, even collected #'s, like we used to do with trains. I still have my train spotting book and get nostalgic whenever I see one of the old trains on a TV show. I have been in Canada since 1967, 50 years, this summer. Hard to believe where all the years went, going by faster each year, it seems. When we were at school, the summers seemed endless, now they flash by. I spend my summers playing golf and get away to somewhere warm for the winter, how about you?
 
Hello Steve,

I thought I recognised your name! Have to say, I don't remember the Oxfam collection. I lived in Perry Barr, so could get the No 7 bus all the way home (to Witton Road) from both City Road and Five Ways.

I seem to remember that I spent my last term at GD at City Road, when my old man decided enough was enough and that I should leave and get a job. That would have been at the end of 1962. You may well gather from this that I didn't exactly shine academically.............

...........but having said that, I've done OK over the intervening years. I spent a few years living and working in the USA, but couldn't take the climate and came home to good old Blighty. I had friends in Canada and visited a couple of times - Windsor, Ont, and a place close to Toronto the name of which I've long since forgotten.

I always thought that GD was a good school but very much in the 'old style'. One or two of the masters should really have looked around for other means of making their living, but by and large I had no complaints.

G
 
David,

thanks for putting me right. Your memory's obviously a lot better than mine. You're correct - I did use the Ladywood Road entrance, and can't remember ever using the Hagley Road main entrance. I was at GD from 1957 - 63, the last 2 years being at City Road. City Road was plainly the lesser of two evils, if I can put it that way. Five Ways seemed a bit dingy and gloomy in comparison. I can remember Geoff Fletcher (music master at GD and choir-master at St Martins-in-the-Bull Ring) complaining that the acoustics in the hall at Five Ways were terrible - as if we cared. Anyway, it was a long time ago.

G
Big Gee,

I was at GD after both you and David (1960-67) but spent time (5th year I think) at Five Ways. I agree that City Road was the better site. Five Ways always felt like the poor relation. It was interesting though. Routinely we would enter from Ladywood Road but it was possible to enter from Hagley Road. Did you ever try crawling under the stage at Five Ways? Lots of interesting items abandoned there. It took you to some sort of void at the back from where you could climb on to the roof. The initials and thoughts of former KE pupils and workmen were scratched into the lead roof. We added our own, careful to protect our anonymity - just in case. During our time at Five Ways one of our number advertised Five Ways for sale in the Mail, describing it as 'a desirable Georgian residence'. The contact given in the advertisement was the estimable Mr Trout, using his home 'phone number. It perhaps helps to explain why my year never seemed to be his favourite!
 
I was introduced to this site by a friend who lived in the area and is researching its history. Reading through the many entries it brought back so many memories and has spurred me to add my thoughts in the hope that others will find it of interest.

I started at GD in 1960 after passing the 12+ and spent my first year at Five Ways. After staying in the lower grades I spent an extra year in a special sixth form, S6, set up purely to retake ‘O’ levels in 1964 as there were so many wanting to get some better qualifications. I went on to sixth form, S4 and S2, before going on the University of Birmingham to study civil engineering in 1967 and retired from work at the end of 2008.

The entry is split into 3 sections, teachers, students and other memories with only a shortish bit on each, otherwise it could go on forever:
1. Teachers:

Rumsey (Head): He seemed to have a lovely old school presence about him but soon after I started he was taken ill and was replaced by DAD Dilworth,

DAD Dilworth (Deputy/Head): Once a week we would have morning assembly at St Germains church next door. There were two steps that DAD had to negotiate and there was always a pause as he felt for them with his foot, one day I thought....

Trout (Five Ways deputy): One of the reasons I stopped learning history in the second year. It’s amazing how liking, or not, teachers can affect your whole outlook on life.

Walker “The Pork” (??? ): Stood in the hall waiting to walk up City Road to the canteen at lunch time there would be a wave of silence envelope the room and you knew he had entered. He would walk diagonally across the lines until he reached the main noisemaker and then there was trouble.

Winson “Butch” (French): No one played up in class but he would hit students across the back of the head with a ruler if he thought that they may play up when out of his sight. He used to sit at our dinner table at Five Ways and one day before he arrived we had bought a tin of Butch dog food and put it on the table in his place. It was all taken in good part.

Buckley (Science): Great teacher but I think he died quite young.

Hannay (Latin): Never taught by him but remembered he was quite short and seemed to float around the corridors always wearing his gown.

“Gabby” Hayes (metalwork): One of my favourite subjects and he was a great teacher.

Lewis (English): First form master at Five Ways. A Welsh import and very likeable.

Little (French): Went on the school trip to Europe including Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. I remember on one occasion him asking for directions in French and the local could not understand him. Now I know why I never passed a French exam.

Brookes (Art): It was announced during an assembly in Five Ways that he had died, quite a shock. Later it turned out that my wife worked for his wife at an office also in Five Ways.

“Fingers” Johnson (Physics): A young teacher who taught the second “A” level group. He was someone who got the best out of his pupils and seriously embarrassed Les Summerton when the number of “A” level passes he achieved was better than Les’s. I think he left soon afterwards.

Siddle (Chemistry): Took “A” level under duress but everyone in that year failed.

Les? Paul (Engineering Drawing): Another one of my favourite subjects, his lessons where much more than just the subject at “A” level with discussions diversifying into any topic that took our fancy. Surely this is what education is all about. I also went to his evening classes in Bartley Green where I sat at the back of the “O” level class he was taking and studied for my “A” level.

Fletcher (Music): I will always remember him playing that very dramatic classic piece every time we left the weekly service at St Germains. Can someone put a name to it?

?? Proctor (Sports): A sad loss.

2. Students

Max McDonogh: Also joined at the same time as me and also went on to be a civil engineer.

Colin Bourne: Both of us disliked sport, never build for rugby and always got the stitch in cross country, so spent Wednesday afternoon’s installing the telephone system for the school by climbing ladders, stringing telephone cables, installing switchboards and phones. How long that lasted I dread to think but it was great fun.

? Nicholson: Loved motorbikes and had another classmate with a motorbike sidecar, which you may think was safer. However, that was not the case and he turned it over one day and was never seen again.

Michael Chalk: In the same engineering drawing class and has been a Redditch Councillor for many years.

Derek Larigo: Used to travel home with him sometimes, lived between Rose’s cafe and Bartley Green.

Lewis: Are you the Lewis from 2E in 1960/61 and did you live at a pub in Digbeth, if so I remember some of your stories which had a lasting impression.

? Twiss: we had this American in our class for a while, I think his father was a diplomat somewhere.

John Maxfield and Peter Busby: Joint in the sixth form from Harborne Hill? School. Peter made head boy.

Other names, but no details, include: Dave Shenton, Steven Dixon, Paul Hogan, Donald Grendon, Jonathan Wickens, Paul Lyndon and Ronald Hill.

3. Other memories

The first and last lesson read out in the assembly each term was I. Corinthians Chapter 13. Still is a lasting memory for me.

The sixth form common room was built just as I entered the sixth form and it was brilliant.

On the way back from lunch the boys had to run the gauntlet passed the girls who congregated in a pack. If only I was as confident then ......

The Quad was the only area where we had some female contact with the school next door as their loos overlooked it, in retrospect it seems a rather bad design!!

I was always keen on railways and after school at Five Ways some of us frequently went to “bunk” the Monument Lane shed. I still remember being sat in the office there having given a good telling off by the “gripper”.

I vaguely remember the mass expulsion on the last day. I used to drive from Bromsgrove then so may have taken some of the offenders to the pub.

We were given plastic tokens to travel between City Road and Five Ways and by walking one stop you could save one for travel home and get something from the shop with the extra cash.

At break time we played stretch. The two players stood facing each other and took turns to throw a penknife into the ground near your opponent to make him do the splits. The loser was the one who fell over first. No pupils were hurt in this game.... well not many.

I remember one day in the chemistry lab when someone sucking sulphuric acid into a burette sucked for too long and got a mouthful of the stuff.

Food memories include the usual chocolate concrete and potato puffs bought from the shop a break.

Although now out of print my friend tracked down a copy of the attached book through Waterstones:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Years-City-Road-Secondary/dp/0955344409



Looking forward to your observations in due course.



Peter Mann
 
Hi Redpeter and welcome to the Forum. I was at GD 1955-1960 so our paths would never have crossed. Many thanks for your comments. My sister would have been at the Girls school about the same time as you were there but I think she is a year or so younger than you. She was the first girl to attend the Boys school in the first year 6th form and that was considered a success so the following year the sixth forms were merged. However the schools were not fully mixed until Miss Organ the headmistress of the girls school retired. I have a copy of the book you mentioned because I went along to the open day to celebrate 100 years at City Road.

You mentioned a Mr Proctor. I think you mean Mr (John?) Procter who died in a road traffic accident on the way to school. Mr David Proctor taught Latin at GD.

As you are new to this Forum and mentioned an interest in Railways, I hope you find much of interest in the railway threads on the forum and perhaps you can contribute to them.
 
Hello Redpeter,

some great memories of GD in your post. It's strange how, more than half a century on, some of us recall some of the teachers with affection, others with pure hatred. I always had a real respect for Wally Walker - he had that way with him that could silence 36 unruly fifth-formers with just a glance from his beady eyes. Yet he had a sense of humour, and he also had humanity - I posted before about how he lent me my bus-fare after I'd lost it (or had it nicked). The one teacher I do remember with something less than affection was Les Summerton, who was simply boring and uninspiring - something which Wally Walker never was. I'm surprised to hear that good old 'Chunky' Brookes died young, couldn't have been long after I left at the end of 1962. He was a great character and very likeable. I do remember 'Dandy Jim' Buckley, he of the booming voice, and seems he also died quite young. Does anyone remember a physics teacher called Ron Chadwick? And a French teacher called Michael Harrison who I think also ran the printing-club? In my last two years at GD there seemed to be a very large turn-over of teachers - I can still see faces that I can't put names to.

G
 
Just some comments on the form numbering. My progress was 1D,2C,3B good but then I hit a plateau as I then went 4B,5B and left at 16 after O levels (5 passes 3 failed). When I started, there was a mystery (to me) form called Upper 5G. I remember thinking how 'public school' that sounded to someone like me brought up on Billy Bunter, Jennings and Derbishire (on radio Children's Hour), and all the other school story books. (I even sneaked across to the girls fiction in the public library to borrow the Chalet School series). After a year it was announced that in future U5G would be renamed 6G and I found out that it was for those staying on to retake O levels. The main sixth form was divided into 6S (sciences) and 6L (arts) with further division into sets for choice of subjects. S1,S2,S3 for 2nd year sixth (sciences) and S4,S5,S6 for 1st year sixth (sciences) with a similar split into L1,L2,L3 and L4,L5,L6 for the arts subjects. You can imagine it took me a long time to work all that out.

Having said that I left at 16 with O levels, It came about that after four years I decided that I needed to get some A levels but having left school the choice of subjects was entirely mine and none of the subjects I took were taught at GD. I needed to find a place to take the exams so I asked permission to return to sit the exams at the school. I sat there at a desk in the Gym wearing a suit while everyone else was in school uniform. My A level results : ABB to get me on to a university degree course.
 
Hi David,

I too was in 6G, but only for one term, and at the end of 1962 my dad, in his infinite wisdom, decided the time had come for me to leave school and find gainful employment. Old Man Rumsby was quite concerned about this, and I was very upset at the time, but I don't think it ultimately did me any harm, as I gained further qualifications at various technical colleges. All in all, I did enjoy my years at GD, and it seems to me that those of us who left in the early-to-mid 1960's saw the last of the traditional English grammar-school. It didn't do me any harm, that's for sure.

G
 
Hi G

You would have been 2 years below me then. I never thought of myself as being very academically bright but as one of the masters pointed out to us on more than one occasion. we had passed the 11+ and therefore we were in the top 20% in Birmingham. However the grounding that I got at GD did stand me in good stead because after leaving school, night school studying got me two university degrees and professional qualifications.

I was with a group of friends recently, all grammar school educated, and we all said that the grammar schools had enabled us all to be upwardly socially mobile. I have a friend, public school educated, and he expressed the view that the traditional grammar schools were successful because they followed the public school ethos teaching self reliance and self discipline.

Do you remember, if a master asked you to take a message to another master he always said "My compliments to Mr.....and..." followed by the message. When we delivered the message it was always "Mr....'s compliments and...". I did that at work one day and everyone looked startled.

On the point about self discipline, I have seen schools with long lists of School Rules. The only school rule that I remember at GD was to walk on the left in the corridors. You were assumed to know how to behave.

David
 
Hi David,

Yes, I remember how we were expected to address teachers, and always to stand up when a teacher entered the class-room. I wonder if a lot of this discipline was a hangover from the War, during which many of the teachers in our years at GD served in the Forces. A few of the younger teachers were more relaxed (or less formal). We were always expected to dress smartly, too, and your tie (GD colours, naturally) had to be properly knotted to cover the top button of your shirt. Wally Walker was hot on this. Art teacher 'Chunky' Brooks (lovely bloke) always wore a bow-tie, and I think that may well have been his little thumb-of-the-nose at school regulations....he was that sort.

G
 
With permission from the master taking the lesson, we were allowed to remove our ties on very hot summer day. I think it was just fashion but we always then folded our shirt collars over our jacket collar. I still do this today if I am wearing a a jacket without a tie and when I see men on the TV without ties and their shirt collars scrunched up under their jackets it looks very untidy to me.

We had to stand when the teacher taking the lesson entered the room but if another teacher entered during the period we did not stand.

A few months ago I was in Stratford and went to see some of the new Shakespeare attractions. The schoolroom that Shakespeare attended is still owned by King Edwards Stratford but they now allow the public access. The guide role-played that of a schoolmaster so he greeted us with 'Salvete Pueri' (Greetings Boys), any puellae (girls) were told that they were pueri for the purposes of this exercise. We then had to stand face the front and say 'Salve Magister' (Greetings Master). At least we did not have to do that at GD.
 
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