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Great Barr Schools - Aldridge Road And Great Barr Comprehensive

B

Biddy

Brum History
hannah1941 said:
Great Barr High School & Commercial College

Mrs Hunt was the principal
Click to expand...

Hi Hannah,
I went to Great Barr HS & Commercial College 1948-52. When did you go? Headmistress Mrs Fannie Hunt modelled it on Pitmans/Lawrence College, Corporation Street [where my father & mother went 1920's]. Remember the tennis courts in the back garden? We had navyblue uniforms with matching hats [which always had to be worn!] and white panama hats in the summer with blue & white candy striped dresses. The house is still there on Walsall Raod but is kindergarten or daycare centre. Before that I went to Arnold House Preparatory School on Heathfield Road, Birchfields. Miss Margaret Hailey was headmistress. The blazers were spectacular - green with thin red & white stripes - green gymslips, green hats, white panamas in Summer. Boys wore striped caps & blazers with green pants short or long. The striped material was hard to get after War. There was a special school uniform supply store on New Street.It closed in 1948. I started out at Wilson Road School, Birchfields. Remember being given the blue & red "Mickey Mouse" gas mask which I hated to wear - thought it would suffocate me!
 
Had a look through my photos and only two school photos have survived. The school started as Aldridge Rd Secondary Modern with boys and girls in separate buildings. In 1957 it became Great Barr Comprehensive mixed school.
VisitLondonZoo1947.jpg
We visited London Zoo, a long coach trip down the A5 one stop near Towcester. At least three boys in the photo emigrated to Australia with their parents.

GreatBarrComp1959.jpg
It is now a mixed school. My late wife is in this photo. The school now had a uniform they all look smart.
 
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oldMohawk said:
Had a look through my photos and only two school photos have survived. The school started as Aldridge Rd Secondary Modern with
boys and girls in separate buildings. In 1957 it became Great Barr Comprehensive mixed school.
View attachment 82010
1947 we visited London Zoo, a long coach trip down the A5 one stop near Towcester.
At least three boys in the photo emigrated to Australia with their parents.		 View attachment 82011
1959 it is now a mixed school. My late wife is in this photo.
The school now has a uniform they all look smart.
Click to expand...
Great Barr comp always seemed a better school than Beeches Road,I remember when my best friend from the road next to mine went to the comp and I ended up at beeches bug house, not very happy.
 
Beeches Rd was my first school, probably well before your time - In the 1947 photo I put on, there is a teacher who later became Headmaster at Beeches Rd.
 
I left one year before 1948 to go to Handsworth Technical School, but there is a 1947 photo of a group from Aldridge Road School in the thread click/here. Some of the teachers who would still have been there during your dates are in the photo.
 
I was in the girls school looking for any girl attending Aldridge Road between 1948 and 1954 My name is Margot
 
Sorry for assuming you were a boy. My sister was there between your dates, I will mention your name when I next see her. Have you got a class photo you can put on the forum ?
 
Biddy said:
Hi Hannah,
I went to Great Barr HS & Commercial College 1948-52. When did you go? Headmistress Mrs Fannie Hunt modelled it on Pitmans/Lawrence College, Corporation Street [where my father & mother went 1920's]. Remember the tennis courts in the back garden? We had navyblue uniforms with matching hats [which always had to be worn!] and white panama hats in the summer with blue & white candy striped dresses. The house is still there on Walsall Raod but is kindergarten or daycare centre. Before that I went to Arnold House Preparatory School on Heathfield Road, Birchfields. Miss Margaret Hailey was headmistress. The blazers were spectacular - green with thin red & white stripes - green gymslips, green hats, white panamas in Summer. Boys wore striped caps & blazers with green pants short or long. The striped material was hard to get after War. There was a special school uniform supply store on New Street.It closed in 1948. I started out at Wilson Road School, Birchfields. Remember being given the blue & red "Mickey Mouse" gas mask which I hated to wear - thought it would suffocate me!
Click to expand...

I went to GBHS&CC the same years as you. Do you remember the orchard before the tennis courts and do you remember the lunchtime concerts in the greenhouse? I went to Mrs Well's Kindergarten in Queslett road before then.
 
norridge said:
Looking foe any person that attended Aldridge road School between 1948 and 1954
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I left July 1948 so you could say I qualify. School Captain- played at the County Ground Edgbaston in the final of the Docker Shield. Team members I recall were Ballinger, Brandon, Seager, Prince, Carver. I would dearly love a photograph of the 1947 & i948 teams.
 
dimmy said:
I'm very glad you did join - my reason is a quest for our cricket team photos of 1947/1948. I have to say your photo reminds me of one of our team named Ballinger.Can you tell me whose class you were in and what house?
I was in Lichfield. Any of these names ring a bell? Leslie Jeavons, Derek Preece, Scholar Russell, Doughty or Doherty
(top of the class in maths) Donald Paul who defected to Aston Commercial. Kenny Brandon who went on to play football for Chester City. Stanley Carver my vice captain whose brother Gerald was our wicketkeeper. David Seager a very good bowler or the prince twins who were probably a year or two younger. I was 81 July 3rd 2014. Snap re the 1947 snow I haven't seen anything remotely like it (or been so cold) again. I read in another post that one of the teachers had been bitten by one of the pigs might have been Cockydick alias Mr Cox if the snow was too deep to reach their stye. You will remember as well as the pigs he was in charge of 4/4 the slow learners. Cheers Phil!
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Unfortunately I can't remember which school-house I was in and don't remember any of the names you mention apart from Mr Cox who I only saw from a distance and made sure I kept out of his way and I was quite amused when I heard that one of his pigs had bitten him.

With regard to which class I was in, I think it was either 2.1 or 2.2 when I left to go to HTS and Mr Derry (who I've mentioned before) was the class teacher.

One mate I had was Lawrence (Logger) Woodhall who is in my photo and later emigrated with his family to Australia. We somehow got the job of making tea and coffee for the teachers. We would leave the class 20 minutes before the morning and afternoon breaks to go to a small kitchen, make the tea etc and serve it in the smoke filled staff room. After the breaks we would collect the cups, wash them and return to the class about 20 minutes after the breaks. So we were losing about 80 minutes of teaching per day.

I seem to remember playing a very rough game called 'british bulldog' in the playground, probably wouldn't be allowed these days.

My sister has reminded me that we both went to piano lessons taught by a lady in Bradfield Rd who was so strict she would rap our knuckles with a ruler when we played wrong notes.

Sent from my iPad
 
Snap with the piano lessons although I had mine from a lady who lived in a bungalow halfway up Beeches Rd (hill) on the left hand side. Woodhall rings a bell
as I associate it with another lad off the Beeches named Aspinall. Your predecessors at the tea lark were two of my mates Geogie Gowler and David Pope which confirms you are younger than I. What I can't get my head round is the fact that if you were there in 1947 you would have been in the third grade. Alternatively
you may have left Beeches Rd in 1945 and not 1944 as we did. We used to play football with a tennis ball on the top playground so I have no memory of your British Bulldog, Winston excepted of course. Can you remember the lady's name in Bradfield Rd or if not which side of the road did she live and how far up?
Just had a memory recall, for Woodhall now read Woodroffe or something that sounds like that. P.S. Both my sisters are in Nursing homes, sadly only one of them recognises me. Cheers!
 
I've realised that I had mentioned the wrong playground game, the one I really had in mind was called 'Polly-on-a-Mopstick' and Googling for a description led me back to an old post on the BHF forum but with no description.

A rough description would be to have two teams. A person would brace with their back to a wall. The others would bend down a la leapfrog but engage with the boy in front like a rugby scrum. The person against the wall was basically there to stop the first boy in the line having his brains knocked out. The other team would then leap onto this mopstick one by one until it collapsed. Good for bruises and sprains.

It definitely would not be allowed these days.
The name of the piano teacher was Mrs Marchant if my old memory is ok !
 
I think there was a school on The Walsall Road (it was near Scott Arms end) called Great Barr High School, then became a private nursery, .
 
A photo of Great Barr County Girls School netball team in 1932. The school was on Aldridge Road and from 1945 until 1955, there were two separate schools; boys and girls. In 1955 they were joined to form Great Barr Comp. Below an extract from British History online. Viv.


GREAT BARR BOYS' COUNTY MODERN SCHOOL; GREAT BARR GIRLS' COUNTY MODERN SCHOOL, Aldridge Road.(27) Aldridge Road Boys' and Girls' County Modern Schs. became separate schs. 1945 (see preceding sch.).(21) Name changed 1954. Accom. 1955: 24 classrooms, practical rooms, 2 halls. Amalgamated 1955 to form the Great Barr Comprehensive Sch., q.v.(28)
 

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Love these two friezes on the front of Great Barr Comp School building. Hope they're still there. Viv.
 
I went there but don't ever remember calling it 'Great Barr County School' it was generally known as 'Aldridge Road Secondary Modern' or simply 'Aldridge Road School'. Other comments about the school are scattered in other threads one being 'Perry Beeches School'.

Generally we ended up at Aldridge Road if we had failed the 'eleven plus'. I managed to escape after two years by passing the 'thirteen plus' ... it was not a 'happy' school for me.
The girls school was on the upper floors completely separate to the boys, they did of course meet walking home !

One thing I am reminded of now is the number of lads in my class who emigrated to Australia with their families.
 
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Thanks Phil. Shall merge the threads into "Great Barr Schools - Aldridge Road and Great Barr Comprehensive". Viv.
 
Thanks Viv. The only photo I have of my time there is one I have elsewhere on the BHF but for completeness I'll show a copy below. Four of the lads in the pic are the ones who emigrated.
Visit_London_Zoo_1947.jpg


The second photo shows my late wife's class photo at the school in 1959 four years after it had become a mixed Comprehensive School.
Great_Barr_Comp_1959.jpg
 
Very good photos Phil. Be nice if people recognise themselves. You all look like you were enjoying the London Zoo trip. Thanks for posting. Viv.

Edit. Additional information about the school from British History Online:

GREAT BARR BOYS' COUNTY MODERN SCHOOL; GREAT BARR GIRLS' COUNTY MODERN SCHOOL, Aldridge Road.(27) Aldridge Road Boys' and Girls' County Modern Schs. became separate schs. 1945 (see preceding sch.).(21) Name changed 1954. Accom. 1955: 24 classrooms, practical rooms, 2 halls. Amalgamated 1955 to form the Great Barr Comprehensive Sch., q.v.(28)

GREAT BARR COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL, Aldridge Road. Opened 1955 by Birm. C.B.C. Formed by amalgamation of Great Barr Boys' and Girls' Cty. Modern Schs. N.o.b. 1961: 1,661.(28)
 
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This might stir some memories - a Great Barr Comp school trip to Snowdonia (from Birmingham Daily Gazette, December 1956). Viv.
 

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Watching the tv program about the history of a house in Liverpool reminded me of a long forgotten trip to Liverpool from Aldridge Road School in the late 1940s. I remember we went on an overhead railway along the docks, then through the Mersey Tunnel spending some time in New Brighton, and then returning to Liverpool on a ferry across the Mersey.
 
Did anybody go to Great Barr School between the years of 1974 and 1982 (I stayed on for 3 years in the 6th form whilst I improved on my very poor 'O' levels? It would be lovely to see some photos from these years. I was in Kenilworth house - K1 and my form teach was Barbara Kimberly. Does anyone remember any of the teachers from the 70s and 80s?
 
oldMohawk said:
Had a look through my photos and only two school photos have survived. The school started as Aldridge Rd Secondary Modern with boys and girls in separate buildings. In 1957 it became Great Barr Comprehensive mixed school.
View attachment 82010
We visited London Zoo, a long coach trip down the A5 one stop near Towcester. At least three boys in the photo emigrated to Australia with their parents.

View attachment 82011
It is now a mixed school. My late wife is in this photo. The school now had a uniform they all look smart.
Click to expand...
I still have that photo! I think the form teacher pictured was Miss Hunt
Not sure though. Sorry to hear about your wife. What was her name?
 
oldMohawk said:
Had a look through my photos and only two school photos have survived. The school started as Aldridge Rd Secondary Modern with boys and girls in separate buildings. In 1957 it became Great Barr Comprehensive mixed school.
View attachment 82010
We visited London Zoo, a long coach trip down the A5 one stop near Towcester. At least three boys in the photo emigrated to Australia with their parents.

View attachment 82011
It is now a mixed school. My late wife is in this photo. The school now had a uniform they all look smart.
Click to expand...
 
My daughter went there until we left Brum in 1965 when she was twelve, I'm told the the actor Martin Shaw was a pupil there at about the same time
 
Eric Gibson said:
My daughter went there until we left Brum in 1965 when she was twelve, I'm told the the actor Martin Shaw was a pupil there at about the same time
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yes eric i believe that is correct..think he lived in erdington so would probably have jumped the no 28 to get home..he also had ancestors living in villa st where i lived..before my time though

lyn
 
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