Confession - When I left Handsworth Tech I didn't hand in the Mathematical Tables book shown below. Someone named T.J.A. Reading had it before me and there is another name crossed out. I didn't cause the large ink blot on it.
One of my uncles bought me a Biro (early ball point pen) which was a novelty but the ink tended to smudge, and Ozzie nearly exploded when I used it for my English homework - had to rewrite it with proper pen and ink.
It's funny how I've kept the book for 60 years - don't know why !
I've just looked inside the book at logarithms and antilogarithms and can't work out how we used them.
Just think - Spitfires were probably designed using log tables and slide rules !
Hi, have been reading forum for a while, was at HTS 60-67. Walked up from train every day including incredible winters 62/63 remember fug of wet macs in the cloakrooms. Watching steam trains, milk crates stacked outside main building. Mr Morris maths, Mr Fryer music, Mr Griffiths biology, Mr Birch history, Mr Hollingsworth German. Mr Mottishead ran the chess club. I took all the photographs for the land yacht project and went to London to see the show recorded.Great stuff, Charl. I'm guessing that the German master you refer to was Dorman (predictably enough nicknamed 'Dormouse'): tallish, black hair and black thick-rimmed glasses. He was my joint form-master when I started, sharing the job with Bedford; I think both of them were fairly new to the school. I hated Dorman, he was most things a teacher shouldn't be; vindictive, mostly. Once he took a dislike to you, you had no chance. I always said he'd have been better joining the Gestapo. In years 2-5 I got lucky and had Harry Plowright as FM. The only other one that fits (another unpleasant character) was, oddly enough, named Neale; bit older than Dormouse, tubby, fair-haired.
I certainly recall the land-yacht, it was always parked in the hall and many a ticking-off was issued when anyone went too close to it, or dared to sit in it. I have a mate who was with me all through the HTS years (he's the only one I'm still in touch with, but he's not on the net) and I told him about your joining the forum and what you'd said. He remembered the tv thing and said he thought it was Nationwide. I have only vague memories of it. We often talk of those days but we hadn't mentioned the land-yacht for many years.
As soon as I read 'glue-pot' in your post, I, too, could smell it! It was always on the go, being surrounded by a water-jacket, and everything within a foot-radius of it was sticky. Animal glue isn't the nicest of odours.
A few names to conjure with that haven't yet been mentioned on the thread (and may only be recalled by us latecomers): DAVIES (GEOG), BATTS (MATHS), I'ANSON [himself a former HTS pupil] and SKELDING (WOODWORK), FISHER and FISHER (METALWORK), RAY COXON (MUSIC), HAMILTON (ART), JENNY HUGHES later ADAMS-HUGHES (GERMAN and FRENCH), PAGEL (GERMAN), STEVE GATELEY (CHEMISTRY), RUDKIN (R.E.), THOMPSON (FRENCH and GERMAN), MISS THOMAS (SECRETARY). I may yet think of more.
When I started, the head boy was Poultney, one of his sidekicks was Green. They and their clan were called 'deefs' , shorthand for defects, to rhyme with prefects.
Do you remember a lad named Graham Stokes? He was killed by a landslide while playing in a quarry. I think this was about 1967 and he was about 14.
Well, there's a bit to be going on with!
Regards, Mohawk.
Hi, have been reading forum for a while, was at HTS 60-67. Walked up from train every day including incredible winters 62/63 remember fug of wet macs in the cloakrooms. Watching steam trains, milk crates stacked outside main building. Mr Morris maths, Mr Fryer music, Mr Griffiths biology, Mr Birch history, Mr Hollingsworth German. Mr Mottishead ran the chess club. I took all the photographs for the land yacht project and went to London to see the show recorded.
Hi Jimster, Glad you can remember all those names, I too left in 58.
The teacher we had for Physics I remember was a Mr Store. we always had to queue up outside his door before his lesson, I remember one lad saying "I wonder whats in Store for us today" much to everyones amusement.
Goffy
All I remember of the house system was the colour of my games kit..YELLOW. mom used to moan about getting it clean.
I think that was Murdoch
Green for Murdoch! When I was thereAll I remember of the house system was the colour of my games kit..YELLOW. mom used to moan about getting it clean.
I think that was Murdoch
I too had a yellow games shirt which I believe was Faraday.Green for Murdoch! When I was there
Hello TimHi Reg, Don't know what age our Mr Stokes maybe only his 50,s but to a 13 year old that is OLD. Maybe I should google to see if there is anything about him, or maybe I should get a Life?
A bit of my missing memory has surfaced, the lad whose name I could not recall was Robert(Bobby) Pritchard I think.
Another ex Stratford Road School boy was Keith? (Willy) Abbott, very athletic he was expelled from HTS for knocking out a teacher who picked on the wrong boy. From the top of the Gym building you could see into Mr Bryant's office and the procedure ( which seemed to take hours) was watched and reported to all and sundry. His father came in from Solihull (?) to fight his case and take him home. He was a hero for a few days and a bit rubbed off onto us who knew him.
Cheers from Down Under