• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Gilbertstone Primary School

goose

New Member
Gilberstone dosn't seem to have a mention, so I thought I would be the first. I went there from 1958-1964 and loved it. It was a low, wooden building which apparently was only supposed to be temporary but was the same for many,many years. The Headmistress was Miss Ellis, and her secretary Mrs.Parton was also our pianist for assemblies. I also remember Mrs.Livesey, Mrs. Davies, Miss Whitehead, Mr.Beale, Mr.Narbutt. Attending that school was a great start in life and it had a lovely atmosphere. Anyone else remember it?
 
Gilberstone dosn't seem to have a mention, so I thought I would be the first. I went there from 1958-1964 and loved it. It was a low, wooden building which apparently was only supposed to be temporary but was the same for many,many years. The Headmistress was Miss Ellis, and her secretary Mrs.Parton was also our pianist for assemblies. I also remember Mrs.Livesey, Mrs. Davies, Miss Whitehead, Mr.Beale, Mr.Narbutt. Attending that school was a great start in life and it had a lovely atmosphere. Anyone else remember it?

Hello, Yes, I remember the school and Miss Ellis well,and I think Miss Whitehead.

If I remember correctly I went there as soon as it opened as I had a term or two at the the school near the Yew Tree.

Assuming I was about 6 that would have been 1950 or 1951. I remember going to the Coronation party that was held for the children and finding a jigsaw in the treasure hunt.

I had school dinners for a while which were brought in insulated containers. Mom was a dinner lady for a while.

We were taken on school outings and once caught a Paddington express at Acocks Green Station, we were told that it had been specially stopped for us with a reserved carriage at the rear. Don't get service like that nowadays! I'm guessing that we might have gone to Windsor or may be London itself as I also remember a visit to the Tower. I also seem to remember a trip to Liverpool and New Brighton.

What else to remember? The frog pond and having all that rough open area across to Linden Road rec to play in.

i must have have left about 1954 as we moved away to Alum Rock and I had a short time at St Saviours school before doing the 11 plus and eventually going on to Central Grammar

I hope this triggers off a few more memories

regards

Clive Sanbrook
 
Went to this school right from induction to the end after 11+
Remember being a milk monitor, and being in the cubs and Scouts there. Great memories. Oh the days trudging in the snow in the winters. I lived in Gilbertstone Avenue. I remember collecting conkers when it was conker season and taking them to school.
Used to play marbles a lot. Remember the school walking us through the cemetery at clay lane to go to the library too.. I'm sure in juniors we were taken swimming too. I'm not sure if it was the old Victorian baths that we're in Green lane or the modern one at Stechford..
Yes!!! Great memories and the teachers names ring bells. Still got my 1st placed certificate for the egg and spoon race sports day of 1966 too. I was 9. Where has the time gone.
Nice to see the school still going...
 
Last edited:
I was at gilbertstone from about 1960 until October 1966 when we moved. Fond memories of my friends June and Angela, also the brownie pack, I think it was 256 Birmingham but that may be wrong. I remember being taught by miss Morris who was Welsh and mr Morris who was no relation to her.
 
I was at Gilbertstone in the 1950s when Miss Ellis was head. Some of the classrooms were in wooden huts which were painted on the outside with lovely flower designs. I remember the day trips by train from Acocks Green (and South Yardley as it was called then) Station. We went to Colwyn Bay one year but the trip to London, I think it was, in 1955 was cancelled due to a national rail strike that summer and we had a picnic in the recreation ground instead. Also remember the waste land which surrounded the school which was great for adventures - think it's all been built on now.
 
I was in Miss Whitehead's class, the top class. I was always in the top class because I started there when it opened and as the pupils got older they just moved up a year. There didn't seem to be as much mobility as now so the population was fairly static and new school entrants relied on the birth rate in the area. We used to have warm cocoa drinks in the winter and I was the cocoa monitor, given the task of putting the cocoa powder into the cups before the morning drinks. Miss Ellis, the headmistress had a dog called 'Jinks' who lived in her office curled up on a mat under a desk.. The fields surrounding the school were composed of a large rough area, which had the remains of anti aircraft gun emplacements on. These filled up with water and we could go and look for frog spawn there. There was a further large field, which was mown and had a "dell" in it which we used to play games on. I remember Clive Sanbrook who was in my class and a friend of mine. I remember we had a waste paper collection, presumably for school funds and one of our storerooms was full of this.. The bottom fell out of the waste paper market and we were left with mountains of the stuff. Don't remember what eventually happened to it. The parents made a lot of "shops", which were situated along the corridor and we could go and be shopkeepers and customers. At the top of Clay Lane there were a small row of shops and one of the girls in my class lived there with her parents, I think her name was Sylvia Smith. I think they kept a newsagents and sweetshop. Sugar was rationed so sweets were a premium buy. Opposite the shops was an area of prefabs, which were built whilst I was at school there, I remember the crane used to erect the walls.
The school was a single storey wooden building in, I think, the shape of an L. At one end, the "top" class was situated and the other end was the "babies" class looked after by Miss Livesey. We had clean and new indoor toilets with hot water in the basins, a great improvement on the outside toilets at Acocks Green primary, which I was at for the first year of my school life. To the shame of Birmingham education Comittee it is still there if you look at Streetview.
We went on school trips, I remember going to London, Windsor and Liverpool. On the London trip we went into the tower of London and saw the crown jewels. The Windsor trip involved a boat journey on the Thames on a steam launch with a lower and upper deck. In Liverpool we saw the Liver building and had a ride on the overhead railway which ran round the docks area, I always remember one man there showed us a huge drum of liquid latex, which when rubbed between your finges went solid and rubbery, you can do the same with Copydex.
 
Some great memories! I also remember the cocoa drinks, which became orange squash during the summer term. Also the tadpole ponds and the 'dell' playing fields. Some years later the prefabs were pulled down and replaced by houses.
 
Went 1953 to 1958. I Remember Miss Roberts and Miss Lanes classes, Miss Ellis the headmistress and Mrs Parton (school secretary who played the piano at Assembly and Music lessons) and Mrs Livesey who i never had but her husband was the Woodwork teacher at Acocks Green.
The caretaker was Mr Evans.
We went on a school trip to London and went on the underground, visited the tower and saw the Crown Jewels.
In 1956 my Nan had her 60th birthday party in the hall.
 
Oddly, although I lived in Gilbertstone Ave and was born there. I didn't attend Gilbertstone School, I went to Wagon Lane (The Victorian building on the Wagon Lane side of the park), then moved across the road to the pre-fabricated school, called Wells Green. I'm not sure whether it is still there, but for many years the old school was used for football changing rooms.

I wonder if it was something to do with the city boundary? We lived on the park side of the road and the boundary was down the middle of the road. It moved a few times, so we dipped in and out between Solihull and Birmingham.
 
Gilberstone dosn't seem to have a mention, so I thought I would be the first. I went there from 1958-1964 and loved it. It was a low, wooden building which apparently was only supposed to be temporary but was the same for many,many years. The Headmistress was Miss Ellis, and her secretary Mrs.Parton was also our pianist for assemblies. I also remember Mrs.Livesey, Mrs. Davies, Miss Whitehead, Mr.Beale, Mr.Narbutt. Attending that school was a great start in life and it had a lovely atmosphere. Anyone else remember it?
My twin brother and I attended from 1964-70 when Miss Ellis was Headmistress, assisted by the rather expressionless piano playing Mrs Parton (not too sure what other responsibilities she had!). As a milk monitor, we would have to report to Miss Ellis' office at the end of the week, to collect 6d for delivering crates of milk to each class and collecting the empties each day. In our morning assembly, we would frequently sing "All things Bright and Beautiful" and "Morning Has Broken" and during Singing sessions (was that an actual lesson?), songs like "Shoo Fly (don't bother me)" and "We're sailing to Botany Bay" come to mind.
I recall Mrs Patrick was our teacher in the 'Baby Class' and towards the tail end of school, we had Mr Wright (who coached our then successful football team - in fact after various trials, my brother and I (both football mad) were duly selected to represent Birmingham Schools "The Birmingham Boys" against Wolverhampton Boys, Warley Boys etc ), Mr Greatrex and Mrs Davies, a formidable welsh lady who could shake the living daylights out of you....and did, me!
I remember when we, the football team, were taken on a trip (by coach and train) to Wembley Stadium to watch England v Wales at Under-16 level. When we reached Birmingham, I mistakenly thought we had arrived in London, thinking to myself, "Well that didn't take too long did it!". The return train ride was quite entertaining as someone had bought a giant balloon, that they boldly laid upon a sleeping passenger, before bursting it with a pin. Mercifully, the astonished passenger took it all in good part, and just smiled at the bunch of wide-eyed lads before him! He'd obviously been there before! All in all I have wonderful memories of a truly happy time at Gilbertstone, warm summers and snowy winters, before progressing on to Moseley Grammar School in September 1970.
 
Hi All,

I too attended Gilbertstone as I lived in Aldershaw Road at the time. I was there from 1963 to 1969 and it was the fearsome Mrs Davies who got me through the 11plus. From there I went to Moseley Grammar School which I think was a favourite recommendation of the Head Mistress Mrs Ellis to parents.

Can anyone remember which cub pack was based there? I went to it, lead by Mr Withers , but not the scouts. It doesn’t appear to be going anymore.

There were many a game of football on the tarmaced quadrangle but often we destroyed the doors of the Cub/Scout shed, next to Mrs Davies’ classroom, which we used as one of the goals!
 
Hi the cubs were the 190th South East group. I attended in the early 80’s and went through cubs, scouts and was part of the group that started Explorers. My parents Alan and Lynn became leaders of the cubs during that time and in the scouts the leaders were Alan and Brian. Hope that helps.
 
Hi the cubs were the 190th South East group. I attended in the early 80’s and went through cubs, scouts and was part of the group that started Explorers. My parents Alan and Lynn became leaders of the cubs during that time and in the scouts the leaders were Alan and Brian. Hope that helps.
Thanks so much that’s great. I remember now. Did your parent’s know the Withers?
 
Back
Top