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Aston Commercial School Holte Grammar

ciscoagent said:
I remember Miss Chatwin but not as headmistress. I was there from 1956 to 1959 when the head was C Normington Mitchell and Mr Mordecai was deputy (with Miss Chatwin perhaps). The wooden huts where we went camping were at Bell End near Belbroughton.
I have school photos for some of those years.
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Dolphie said:
My late cousin was there also, Sheila Gray (born 1932)......I have one of those very long school photos (with her in it), where it featured the whole school (over 2')
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I'm rather late to this thread, but I am trying to track down a Sheila Gray mentioned on the back of a photograph.
 
dirtyden said:
One of the founder members of the group Terry "Geyser" Butler went to the same school as myself and was in the next year up. The school was Holte Grammar Commercial School in Whitehead Road Aston. I have a website for it at https://members.lycos.co.uk/holte61

good luck with the research, I am still in touch with some of Geyser's old classmates
:D
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His nickname was actually Geezer and he was in the above me too when Mr Mitchell was the headmaster with Mr Mordecai and Mrs Chatwin as deputy headmaster and mistress respectively.
 
I went there from 1970 and I loved it. Mr Ashworth was our form teacher and also English too. Viona Hawkins nee Brace form 1 Alpha!
 
albertpowell said:
I am not on Facebook but have had a lot of contact with the Group. I was at Holte 1958-1965 and my three sisters Lesley Simpson/Georgina Simpson and Deborah Simpson followed me. In fact my middle sister Georgina went to Warwick University ( Coventry ) and after obtaining a BSc returned to teach at the School ( Married and became Georgina Glover ). You may wonder about my different surname! My father died before I was born and I was brought up as a Simpson but my surname was never altered. When school friends visited it always caused confusion when they addressed my " dad" as Mr Powell!!. Let me if I can help with any further info.
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If my memory serves me well, Lesley was the same class as me. I recall her as a friendly, somewhat shy girl. She was always with another girl but I can't recall her name.
 
My connection to Aston Commercial...our mom used to work in the canteen, and also, there was a clinic there where I was once taken to have an abscess on my neck lanced. It was a traumatic experience that was unsuccessful and I eventually had to go to the General Hospital. I was 12 years old at the time and still have the scar, mentally and physically.
Dave A
 
adap2it said:
My connection to Aston Commercial...our mom used to work in the canteen, and also, there was a clinic there where I was once taken to have an abscess on my neck lanced. It was a traumatic experience that was unsuccessful and I eventually had to go to the General Hospital. I was 12 years old at the time and still have the scar, mentally and physically.
Dave A
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Wow! I can feel your pain….
 
I attended HGCS from 1962 until 1969. 1969 was the final year of the Grammar School Designation, HGCS became a "bilateral" school for the next two years. It then morphed into Broadway Comprehensive school. Mr C Normington Michell was the headteacher of HGCS and he transferred to Broadway. I remember messrs Chatwin, Mordecai, Woodward, Provulovich and Morris with great affection and I later made the social acquaintance of Mr Colin Russell (dec) who taught me mathematics. People have mentioned Georgina Simpson, miss Foo and others who were my contemporaries. HGCS was a wonderful, happy place where a very broad range of education was delivered.
 
Great photo. They're wearing 'gymslips'. In the 1920s, they were worn for sport activities, but also became a part of everyday school uniform.
 
Back to Aston Technical College as it was called when I went there, Whitehead Rd/Ettington Rd, I have to say, I hated the place. Not that it wasn't a highly respected place of further education, I just disliked any form of schooling. I was on day release as an apprentice at GEC Witton 1960-1965 and always couldn't wait to get back to work the other four days. I think I also did one evening per week in the Ettington Rd extension (and also in the Berners Street building, Lozells, an old chapel) and it took me the five years to get ONC Electrical Engineering which should have been a three year course, S1,S2 and S3. It didn't help that I had failed to get maths 'O' level at school so I wasn't allowed to immediately start on the ONC course but had to do a C&G course in the first year. The quality of the teaching staff at Aston Technical was first class and I remember we had a Mr Poynton for the electrical engineering subjects who was very good. Academically I was just thick. I did find the old building rather miserable which added to my dislike of the place.
I remember the "refectory" which was an extension on the Ettington Road end.
Looking back, it was a wonderful opportunity as a grounding for my career and stood me in good stead for the whole of my working life.
 
Yes, that's it Lyn. I had an immediate recall when I looked at that photo. It bought back memories. Do you know the date of the photo?
Judging by the cars and scooter outside, it could be the sixties when I went there and they could belong to students. In fact, one of my fellow GEC apprentices had a Reliant three- wheeler identical to the one in the photo. It might be too much to think that it might be his! To be a bit of an anorak, that model of Reliant was from the early fifties but the sports car looks like an MG Midget/Austin Healey Sprite from the sixties which dates the photo. I used to park my three-wheeler (not a Reliant) in the same place.
The lecturer we had there was a lovely Irishman named Mr Keavey. Being silly teenagers, sometimes when he left the room, one lad would write "IRA" across the blackboard. When he came back he would just smile and wipe it off in good humour. The daft things young lads do!
 
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morning alan yes i would think about the 60s the photo and others was posted on the berners street thread..you may find it of interest..click on link below

davidfowler

Thread 'Berners Street, Lozells'

I've just found a new relative on the 1891 census living at 12 Court 6 House Berners St, Lozells (joins Lozells Rd). I can see it on myBartholomew's But wondered if anyone could pinpoint (or close!) this house.
Thanks in advance.
 
That fellow GEC apprentice that also attended Aston Tech Berners St. was Don Finnemore. He's labelled in this line up of apprentices c1962 with me with other shorties on the back row (to keep to thread topic, most of these would have gone to Aston Tech.)GECmachine schoolc1961TEXT (1).jpg
 
Thanks Lyn, I've read through the Berners St. thread and I'm impressed by the activity it generated. A typical Birmingham suburbian street,. Just think how much potential interest every street has!
I can't recall that meeting room building next door to the chapel but it must have been there. I see it has "Concert Hall" engraved near the upstairs window.
 
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