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Loxton Street School

Bit late coming into this discussion as I've only just joined the forum, but I was at Loxton St Infant & Junior from 1951-57. I remember Miss Mary Lumsden very well, and Miss Benbow and the wooden huts, and also Jean Johns & Tom White. Other staff members who stick in my mind are Mrs Curtis, Miss Hewitt, Miss Powell, Mr Evans, Mr John, Mr Davies, Mr Cummings. When I started there Mr Hawkins was headmaster, and he was replaced by Mr Simms.

I also remember Bulganin & Khruschev in the black limo with the police motorcycle escort sweeping down Ashted Row; I don't think it was a schoolday, because I was with my mate Ronnie Porter on the way home with a newly charged accumulator for our "wireless", and we couldn't wait to get home & tell our families who we'd just seen.

Back in the UK I've got some photos from my Loxton days; in just over a week I'm coming back for a few weeks so I'll try to post a few of them.

Cheers
Graham
 
Oh - forgot Miss Venables! I also forgot to say that I too remember that fatal accident with the refuse lorry. I confess I don't remember the boy's name, but I clearly remember the incident.

Graham
 
Graham S said:
Bit late coming into this discussion as I've only just joined the forum, but I was at Loxton St Infant & Junior from 1951-57. I remember Miss Mary Lumsden very well, and Miss Benbow and the wooden huts, and also Jean Johns & Tom White. Other staff members who stick in my mind are Mrs Curtis, Miss Hewitt, Miss Powell, Mr Evans, Mr John, Mr Davies, Mr Cummings. When I started there Mr Hawkins was headmaster, and he was replaced by Mr Simms.

I also remember Bulganin & Khruschev in the black limo with the police motorcycle escort sweeping down Ashted Row; I don't think it was a schoolday, because I was with my mate Ronnie Porter on the way home with a newly charged accumulator for our "wireless", and we couldn't wait to get home & tell our families who we'd just seen.

Back in the UK I've got some photos from my Loxton days; in just over a week I'm coming back for a few weeks so I'll try to post a few of them.

Cheers
Graham
Click to expand...
Hello Graham,i,m with you mate my teacher was miss lumsden & miss benbow, also i remember the wooden huts do you remember the total eclipse of the sun when you were there i was there from 1953 till i left and went to Charles Arthur st into the seniors.
Mr white was our teacher towards the end and we had to march up by vauxhall dairies to the annex,he used to smoke in the classroom,and he would get one of us to put it down the loo when he had finished it.
i was there when Alan cook as you remember falling under the bin lorry that day sad,tell you what Graham i,d like a lot more people like to see your photos,and if you track back via the search engine at the top right put in loxton st school and there is the start of the thread if you have,nt already.. have a safe journey mate hope to here from you soon. regards dereklcg
 
Hi all

Currently back in the UK for a few weeks, and fished out a few old photographs. This one is Mr Cummings's class in 1957; our classroom was in the Co-op rooms in Gt Francis St, but we were marched back to Loxton St for breaks & special events, such as this photo. I reckon I can put names to at least half the faces. On the offchance anyone remembers me, I'm on the back row - but I won't reveal which one's me just yet.......
 
These are from 1953, Coronation year. The first is the folder that we got the photos in; I imagine it was a centrally produced job with individual school names overprinted. The Second is a pageant we did at school depicting the Commonwealth; I'm the rather un-PC little 'un in the turban & baggy shorts on the far right. The last one was taken on a coach trip to London; I can't remember the exact circumstances of that trip, but maybe someone else will. Was it a Birmingham-wide affair?
 
Graham. Lovely photo of Locco class. I was there between 1954-64. As you say you have more from our school, please feel free to put them up any time you can manage. Would love to see some more. Thanks. Barry.
 
Another from 1953; Miss Venables with her class outside the huts. I'm still not sure how I came to be on the front row surrounded by girls, but hey, who's complaining....? Not quite so many names remembered on this one, but still getting on for half, I should think.
 
Graham S said:
Hi all

Currently back in the UK for a few weeks, and fished out a few old photographs. This one is Mr Cummings's class in 1957; our classroom was in the Co-op rooms in Gt Francis St, but we were marched back to Loxton St for breaks & special events, such as this photo. I reckon I can put names to at least half the faces. On the offchance anyone remembers me, I'm on the back row - but I won't reveal which one's me just yet.......
Click to expand...
hello graham. i was in Mr Cummings class,although i was in the wooden huts and the annex above the co-op in Francis st i,m not on any of the photo,s you have posted,if you back up a bit on this thread as you can see i can relate to what you have said.
there are a few faces i think i remember,would you put the names on of who you remember is one of the faces the lad that had the tragic accident that day i think that he,s there ?? oh and by the way you gave the game away saying that that was you with the girls. regards and great photo,s Derek
 
This one's from Christmas 1955; I can't remember the name of the girl playing Mary, but Joseph is John Playdon, whose mother was the crossing warden in Gt Francis St; the 3 kings are, L to R, Alan Rushby, me (I seem to have spent a lot of my junior school days wearing a turban!) and Brian Tomlinson. I remember the faces of the three girls bottom right, but can't drag up any names; Sylvia Coombs is second from left on the front row, Maureen Wrench in the middle just behind me, and Margaret Byfield last but one on the right on the same row. Peter Matthews is peering over from the back, and I think that may be Yvonne Ingram just in front of him. I'm sure more names will come back to me the longer I look at the faces.....
 
This is the last of the "official" Loxton photos I have; after this it's a case of sorting through the boxes of assorted pics left by my mother, and that will be some job! I reckon this is 1956; it's a play called "Prince Florizel - Detective" which we did, as I recall, for the Schools Drama Festival that used to be held at Upper Thomas Street School. It had a 3-night run at Loxton as well! It told the story of how Prince Florizel (me, on the right-hand end in the picture) solved the mystery of the Queen of Hearts's missing tarts. We had proper costumes & props, hired from Astley's in Broad St; I can't remember now how we did at the festival, but I do remember the girl who played the princess, next to me in the photo - Lorna Grassick, who was a year older than me, I think, and who - though she never knew it - I absolutely adored; and I got to kiss her on the cheek at every rehearsal and every performance........
 
OK, these are the names I'm fairly confident of putting to faces in one or more of the photos I've posted; I'm about 99% sure - it is, after all, over 50 years since we were all together. As they say in Strictly Come Dancing, in no particular order:

Gary Watson
Brian Tomlinson
David Randall
Peter Matthews
Robert Haynes
John Playdon
Derek Holliday
David Gough
John Smith (there had to be one, didn't there?)
Alan Rushby
Vivienne Froggatt
Maureen Wrench
Sandra & Valerie Williams (the twins)
Peter Warren
George Warrilow
John Carrick
Mary Leach
Jennifer Hudson
Margaret Byfield
Brenda Waldron
Yvonne Ingram
Betty Trump
Sylvia Coombs
Janice Webb
Ronnie Porter

Oh, and me, of course!

The girl in the gymslip on the front row of the 1953 photo was called Charlotte, but I can't remember her surname.
I remember clearly the girl standing behind Mr Cummings but I can't for the life of me remember her name; I keep thinking "Veronica", but maybe not...
There are also a good half-dozen faces I remember as clear as day but can't put a name to.

Other names I remember but can't positively identify, whether because they aren't on the photos or because I just don't recognise them after all this time include:

Pat Sheasby
John Mills
Sheila Grocott
Susan Simpson
Peter Lewis
David James
Pat Sheard
Brenda Broome
Mary Hollis

Any of those people reading this, I wonder?
Graham
 
Hi graham you certainly lead a charmed life at locko, i was there then,and missed out.
i bet you wished you were there now?
mind you i wish i was in Cyprus on ladies mile beach.
regards dereklcg
 
Yes, they were good days. Mind you, I'm looking forward to getting back to Ladies Mile - we generally go there for lunch on our way home from doing the week's shopping at Carrefour. Especially entertaining in the Spring, when the Red Arrows are training.

S'tin yeia mas!
Graham
 
038.jpgHello ,

Found this photo recently and thought may be of interest loxton street school 1938ish. I think the school has long gone, but does the street still exist?
 
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shady

The School has long gone, along with all traces of Loxton St. I think it is now beneath Duddeston Manor Rd or in at least that locality.

Phil
 
Hello Graham,

One of the names you mentioned, Pat Sheasby, is a friend of mine, if it is the same Pat, she went on to Nansen Girls Secondary school, and we have been friends ever since.

Regards Trebor
 
Has anyone got a copy of the senior school magazine called the Loxtonian that they could scan and post please ?
 
hi im new ,and trying to get the old brain box working,i was at loxton st school 1948 till 1953,i remeber the penny bottles of pop,and the sweet shop just acoss the road from the school,i was never to hot about spelling and over the year i have got now better.i dreaded walking up those stairs to the head masters room,nowing the cane was waiting.i used to love the wood work class.all the best johnny
 
hi my sisters Mary Sandra,Doreen leech was in one half of lox ton st for the under 11 s,there was a wall with a door in that split up the play ground,one part under 11s the other for over 11s,at play time i used to keep a eye on my sisters through that gate and one time i was a play ground monitor,went to break up a fight between two lads and ended up with a black eye and that finished my time as monitor There was jack roger ernest,i have forgot a lot of them. once a year lads from the school used to go potatoe picking,for 2 or 3 weeks,on returning to school used to line up in the school hall to recive our money for the work so much to our parents,so much to school funds and we had what was left good days kind regards john
 
John. I remember those days potatoe picking and seem to remember it was some farm just through Coleshill along the A47.
 
GER22VAN and all you other old Loxtonians: I feel so lonely...! Whenever I read posts about Locko, they seem to be always directed at old schoolmates who attended the school around the Fifties...!

Isn't there anyone there who went to Locko at the same time as I did: from 1939 to 1942?

I know Peter Walker sympathises with the same "time" factor that I have - but then, his dad was one of my teachers.

Are there any of my old classmates knocking about in Heartlands? Where are you Colin Cotterill; "Nipper" Billington; Donald Green; Gerald De Roche; Ron Kingett; Georgie Baker, "Tucker Parrish, "Mousy" Heesom, etc.etc.?

Or are you all - like me - too ancient to believe that any of us are still in existence...?

Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
 
Hello John Leech, did you by any chance have red hair way back then? (leechrk)
regards dereklcg
 
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Pedlarman. Jim I do sympathise with you, I feel the same to a degree.
Is it they are no longer around, don't know about BHWR or just don't have a computer at hand?
I had not even started school on the dates you mentioned but we still have a lot in common Jim , Take Care mate and hope you get a nice surprise one day.
 
I've been reading this thread with interest but I can't find Loxton Street in the A to Z. Where was it?
 
Hello barryjohn. i,m afraid loxton st is know more,i,m looking at my 1988 a- z and loxton st was of little hall rd which is still there i believe,it runs parallel with melvina rd and are almost opposite duddeston mill railway station.
Bloomsbury st used to be at the other end of loxton st there is an old map i believe of how it was,if you can,t find it i,m sure someone else will pick up on it.
there is a lot of us on here that attended locko,i did from infants in 1953 till i then had to go to Charles Arthur st in the seniors, my first day was scary i hated it.
regards dereklcg
 
Thanks Dereklcg
I've driven down Melvina Road many times on my way from the M6 to Bordesley Green. Now I know where Loxton Street was.
Barryjohn
 
pedlarman. Like you, I havent made contact with any old school mates from Locco, and my time was a bit more recent than you. I was there from 1954-1964, and when I left they pulled the school down that year. I wish you luck with your request, but be like me and keep positive. Someone out there will see your message one day, and give you one heck of a shock when they get in touch. All the best for the future. Barry.
 
Hi, Ernie; Barry: I have just written a long, long, treatise embracing my memories of the "Old End", during which I thanked you both for your commiserations regarding Loxton Street schoolmates. When I clicked on it for a "Preview" I lost it...! I was informed that I wasn't "Logged In" to the page..!!! But I always log in when I fetch up Heartlands...

And I had taken the trouble to file my effort on my computer filing system. But when I clicked on the item, thinking I'd beaten whoever or whatever had pinched my essay, all I got was the Heartlands window telling me I wasn't logged in...!!!

So, obviously, all the time I was supposedly and cleverly filing my stuff safely away, all I was doing was filing away the page telling me I wasnt logged in...

I give up...

But thanks again to you both for your sympathetic comments.

Cheers,

Jim.
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