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Loxton Street School

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sircharles60

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Does anyone remember me Charles (Charlie) Ingram, I was at Loxton Street Junior School until about 1958 when I moved with my family to Handsworth Wood. My dad was the caretaker of Loxton Street and we obviously lived at No. 24 the caretakers house.

I was then a small blonde haired wimp [yes it is true], I still have the blonde hair :^)

It would be great to talk to someone who knew me then.
 
I think I remember your dad although I never went to the school, except because my dad was a teacher there from 1933 to 1957. You probably wouldn't remember him.
And how come you have had blond hair for over 50 years, then? Perhaps it was the scent from the gasworks.
Peter
 
Charles. Firstly welcome to the site. Now, if you click onto the Schools & schoolfriends section, and then go to page 7, you will find more about Loxton St. Maybe there might be a name there that you remember. I hope so. Anyway, enjoy the forum. Best of luck from another ex- Loxton Boy ( 1954-64.) Barry.
 
Peter Walker said:
I think I remember your dad although I never went to the school, except because my dad was a teacher there from 1933 to 1957. You probably wouldn't remember him.
And how come you have had blond hair for over 50 years, then? Perhaps it was the scent from the gasworks.
Peter
Click to expand...

Not really sure maybe it was the Gas Works bleaching it but blond it still is. Photo attached as evidence. :^)
Well dad was caretaker from 53/54 until 1958 when he applied for another position in Handsworth Wood and we moved.

I can not say I remember a Mr Walker, what subject did he teach and junior or senior school??
 
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hi ya sircharles60.
i went to loxton st from 53 onwards,from infants to juniors,then i went to Charles Arthur st, i can remember a miss/Mrs benbow,and a Mr white who,s class up vauxall way in the annex as it was called,he used to smoke in class and he always asked one of us to put it down the loo for him,
happy days regards dereklcg.
 
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Sircharles, My dad taught in the Seniors. Mainly music and art, I would think. Do you remember Harold Martin, the wood- and metalwork teacher, who had his own workshop on the right as you came in. He also got the lads to build a greenhouse and grow their own stuff. He was quite a good violinist too, often used to play with my dad in the evenings.
And wasn't that building wonderful? The assembly hall with the staircases at both ends going up two high floors, and the smell of the Staff Room - coffee grounds and ciggie smoke. That would have been in Sam Hartshorne's time. He was headmaster and used to smoke a pipe in his office, where my mum worked as secretary during the war.
Peter
 
I went to Loxton St school when I was 5yrs old in 1932. I remember there was a large assembly hall and class room doors around it. After I had been there a couple of years I had moved up to another class. One day we had to go into the assembly hall and sit crossed legged on the floor and listen to the head mistress play her Mandolin. Well I started talking to my friend sitting next to me and she caught me and sent me to the first grade class to play with the beads, she was an old grey haired lady I remember, but I forget her name,but this was 75yrs ago and we lived in Vauxhall at the time.
Have a nice day, Wally.
 
Peter Walker said:
Sircharles, My dad taught in the Seniors. Mainly music and art, I would think. Do you remember Harold Martin, the wood- and metalwork teacher, who had his own workshop on the right as you came in. He also got the lads to build a greenhouse and grow their own stuff. He was quite a good violinist too, often used to play with my dad in the evenings.
And wasn't that building wonderful? The assembly hall with the staircases at both ends going up two high floors, and the smell of the Staff Room - coffee grounds and ciggie smoke. That would have been in Sam Hartshorne's time. He was headmaster and used to smoke a pipe in his office, where my mum worked as secretary during the war.
Peter
Click to expand...

I remember Mr Martin the woodwork teacher, I was about 7 yrs old and overheard him talking to my dad about him and his wife adopting me because I was so 'cute', I immediately locked myself in the bedroom just in case my dad agreed, needless to say he did not.

I have fond memories of that school as I spent many an hour playing in there after the school was closed. The school was an impressive building with those cathedral arches rising above the assembly hall come gymnasium.

My dad also used to run the old boys club in the evening, which in most cases would end up with all the old boys chasing my dad around the building in a play fight.

I also remember a guy called Brian Stanton who I believe was head boy when he left the school and would regularly be at the old boys club and a guy called ............ Allen, can not remember his first name. One day they played hide and seek in the dark, everyone was found accept this lad called Allen, when the lights were put on he was hanging upside down clinging to one of those cathedral arches.

I remember looking at my dad and seeing his face turn white as he pleaded with Allen to come down, which he did but that really shook my dad, no more hide and seek after that incident.

Both of those guys even visited dad after we had moved I think Allen was an upholsterer as he had this lovely low-line consul convertible when he visited us.

I can visualise that school so much, I know it celebrated its 75th birthday while we were there. I also remember another lad who went on TV to draw a swallow on some kids TV program. Other names that come to mind are Miss Lumsden who even though I was just about 6yr old at the time I thought was lovely, I think there a Mr Hall who gave me an IQ test that the boys in the senior school had done and when he marked it he reckoned I had scored higher, I think he was in the annex which was just round the back of the house. So you walked in the school gate the house [caretakers] was on your right and you walked round to your right to the annexes.

I really do have fond memories of that place.
 
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hi sircharles i remember miss lumsden, also a miss or Mrs benbow,i sure she was in some wooden type building,off the playground.
i tell you what i do remember, there was a total eclipse of the sun when i was there infants or juniors scary,was you there then?
regards dereklcg.
 
dereklcg said:
hi sircharles i remember miss lumsden, also a miss or Mrs benbow,i sure she was in some wooden type building,off the playground.
i tell you what i do remember, there was a total eclipse of the sun when i was there infants or juniors scary,was you there then?
regards dereklcg.
Click to expand...

Yes! Miss Lumsden class was a wooden structure in the playground I seem to remember there were two classrooms in that structure.

I have vague recollections of an eclipse, I thought that had been my imagination. I think I was 5/6 then which would make it 1953/54.

I also remember a lad called Johnny? Hook, he had a mass of curls and very blond hair, he was killed in an accident with a dustbin lorry over by the flats. His funeral cortège was driven passed the school and we all went outside to watch as it passed.
 
Hello Michael, thank you for the welcome :^)

As for being related I don't know dad did have a brother called Fred he ran an electrical shop on Soho Road, Handsworth. As for any other Ingrams I do not know of any direct relations.

My cousins were all the Keay family, my mothers side were the Guest family I had lots of cousins on that side but lost contact with them all
 
hi sircharles,yes yes and yes i remember the accident well he was a pal of mine sad sad day i think his name or his surname was cook?it was as you say opp the school,one lunch time,it,s a long long time ago i hated school,i can remember when my mom took me and left me at the school i think i cried all day.
our paths must have crossed as we must have been there round the same time,
i lived in Cromwell st where did you live? regards dereklcg
 
hi sircharles it,s a bit early,i think it,s in the 30s
even so i remember the hall as it was in
this photo,as commented, the last time it was
put on the site they all looked well fit?
happy days dereklcg.
 
What a lovely picture, though the lads look a bit intimating to me. That assembly hall was a marvellous space - the sort of thing the Victorians did and took in their stride. There wasn't much waste or extravagance there. Everything was there for a good reason, not just for cosmetic imagery.
I remember it so well, although I did not go there all that often.
Peter
 
I have added an album to my public profile Two pictures of Loxton St.
one of the Maths room and one of the Pottery room taken after I left.
Also a photo of Miss Jean Johns who was a friend of Miss Mary Lumsden, I had a crush on both of them even at a very young age but Miss Lumsden was lovely.
 
great find sircharles sends a shiver down
my spine. i was down in the area on Saturday i was shocked
to the core to see what it is like now,i,m so glad i can, with the help
of this site and the net look back.
thanks for posting your pics for regards dereklcg.
 
I remember that assembly hall well, my dad used to mop it with some stuff called 'Bourn seal', I have no idea how to spell it, but he used to do it during the school holidays.

Then once dry I remember some of the old boys and me putting dusters on our feet and we sort of skated on it, as we did the floor started to shine and after a few days that floor would look wonderful.

You could see your reflection in it and when the school came back after summer break all of the teachers used to praise my dad for the hard work in polishing it up. I never knew if they were aware that it got its shine by the method he used :^)

When you look at the photo of the hall on the opposite side in that far corner was a room where they kept the gym mats, horse, etc. My friend Michael Leech and I used to play in that room tumbling over the equipment, having play fights. Michael Leech lived at the Swan Pub just on the corner of Loxton St.

Ahh! Great times
 
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hi sircharles. if you have,nt already if you click on main sites
and then heartlands history.
there,s a picture of the swan and some interesting pics and reading.
regards dereklcg
 
My distant memories of Loxton Street School are that it was superbly designed and built. I am sure the hardwood floor was never replaced or even sanded - just re-vanished. [Yes, I think the name of the stuff was 'Bournseal' as opposed to 'Ronseal', which may still be around]. It just lasted. And the treads on those spiral stairs consisted of hardwood cubes about 2" each way, set grain up in the cast-iron step frames. They would have lasted for ever, too.
Peter
 
dereklcg great reading on that heartlands thread, thank you.

Yes Peter my dad took a real pride in getting that floor just right.
I loved that school something about walking up those spiral staircases to the classrooms round the balcony.

Another name that has popped into my head is Johnny Mann, he may have been the guy that did the drawing on television. I remember him complaining to dad that when he sat down to draw his swallow, they had drawn an outline lightly on the paper so he did not mess up, he felt rather insulted I think. He would have been 14/15 yrs old.
 
sircharles60 said:
dereklcg great reading on that heartlands thread, thank you.

Yes Peter my dad took a real pride in getting that floor just right.
I loved that school something about walking up those spiral staircases to the classrooms round the balcony.

Another name that has popped into my head is Johnny Mann, he may have been the guy that did the drawing on television. I remember him complaining to dad that when he sat down to draw his swallow, they had drawn an outline lightly on the paper so he did not mess up, he felt rather insulted I think. He would have been 14/15 yrs old.
Click to expand...
sircharles. peter and every one who attended,would,nt it be great to have a time machine to go back for a day to your childhood if a day,would be long enough.
i have as you all do memories train spotting Malvina rd, the loco sheds, duddeston mill rd, Bloomsbury st library,cuckoo bridge,long acre, opp wrights rope,s bompecks,fetching coke from Windsor st, avenue rd saltley gasworks,happy days the rag and bone man,down the cut,when winter was winter,summer was summer,fog having to laugh at people getting lost in it.. good times bad times. regards to all dereklcg
 
I have this memory of the ice cream man outside the school and you could have a penny, tuppeny, ot threepennny ice cream, I used to but two penny ice creams and stick one in the top of the other, ; greedy yes.

I also remember going up to a shop towards Francis Street and being able to buy a penny bottle of pop when they made it they put a tablet in it to dissolve and that was how they got the flavour. Does anyone remember that?

Now do not think me stupid here but I seem to remember seeing a big black car one day driving along the main road and being told it was Kruschev on a visit to the UK, I think lots of kids from school had been allowed or taken out to wave??????

Or is this just early dementia :^)

Charles
 
sircharles i think i can remember the pop!can,t remember where from though, i remember the ice cream man,as for kruschev,i can,t seen to find anything to say it was him, maybe someone else will let us know? i remember the queen going down grt lister st, dereklcg
 
I have been doing a little bit of digging and I have found I am not going crazy apparently, The visit of Krushchev and Marshall Bulganin did take place in March 1956 and he was on his way to the centre of Birmingham to give a speach. So they were both in that car that day.
Just for information :^)
 
i can remember carting barrow loads of that hardwood flooring back to our house in gt francis street to burn on the fire when they demolished loxton st, made a great fire, parquet i think it was with bitumen on the underside...we had no coal
 
anyone remember miss rowes sweet shop gt francis st, not far from pitney st, we lived at number 10 just past the billiard hall i recall a little shop next to us run by a lady named joan who was always carrying batteries or accumalators i think they called them...i think she charged them up in the shop then delivered them to her customers
 
jonacs1 said:
anyone remember miss rowes sweet shop gt francis st, not far from pitney st, we lived at number 10 just past the billiard hall i recall a little shop next to us run by a lady named joan who was always carrying batteries or accumalators i think they called them...i think she charged them up in the shop then delivered them to her customers
Click to expand...

That may be the shop that sold the 1p bottles of pop, I remember walking up there with my sister with an accumulator battery to be charged, that is where we would buy the pop I am sure.
 
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