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Bordesley Green Grammar Technical School

Bordesley would probably have been closer for me but I went to HTS (52/55). Sounds like HTS was a better school. If you go to the HTS site you will read some stories about some abuse but I never experienced much and caning for missdeeds was par in those days but never saw much of that either and it was never administered in an overly zealous way. There was maybe one teacher who was a bit hard but even he had a human side and never caned anyone all of the time that I was there. By and large I would say that we had an outstanding bunch of teachers and they did indeed have a major influence on anything that I have been able to achieve in my life. After saying that I would say that the best mentor in my schooling was a Mr Cheshire who was the woodwork master at Leigh Road secondary school...a fine man and superbe instructor.
I found that although we had great teachers at HTS, the abuse for the most of us came from the odd sadistic bully or two who one found in ones class. They had no place in these schools and how these numbskulls came to be there was a mystery.
 
Rupert said:
I found that although we had great teachers at HTS, the abuse for the most of us came from the odd sadicious bully or two who one found in ones class. They had no place in these schools and how these numbskulls came to be there was a mystery.
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Coming from a mixed school to an all boys school ( H.T.S. ) was a bit daunting, no more dancing lessens in the hall, no more female teachers, no more girls. I was expecting to be picked on by older purples. It never happened. There was horseplay and water bombing but it never got physical. The teachers were on the whole a good bunch and really seemed to care that you were taught a bit more than the three Rs. All in all it was a good start in life.
 
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Hi db, yes both Polly on the Mopstick and that great huge (well it seemed big to me at the time!) ice slide still stay with me.
 
Thanks db84124, I remember polly on the mopstick but not the ice slide nor library. We used to play rugby in the quad with empty cans we got from the canteen, many boys got injured. There was talk about a third year while I was there, but no talk about the criteria. I see that you lived in Blake Lane, I lived for a while in Fifth Avenue, but with our age difference I would not have known you.
 
I have just looked at BGTS on Google maps and it so different from when I went there! It was a simple "U" shape, as I entered from Bordesley Green Road, the caretakers house was on the right and we turned left into the cycle park. One wall had holes in it from an aircraft cannon and the best memory was of the girls who worked next door sitting on the wall with their legs over our side. How could you concentrate on algebra?
 
Reading the threads is bringing back memories. I remember going by bus to Gospel Lane for sports, a ground we shared with a girls Commercial School. The bus ride was always hair raising, the drivers always seemed to drive fast, mount curbs and traffic islands. We some times played against the girls, rounders was OK but hockey was dangerous. The girls did not bother with the ball, but went for our ankles and shins. We always limped off. An ambulance was called twice. Once because a girl had swallowed a pen in class and it had moved. The other time a sport Master got harpooned. He stood too near to the javelin area when one of the bigger boys was throwing and he got him in the thigh. Some like me were just boys, but some were already fully grown men.
One day a Commercial School Teacher stormed into our change room and sprung a group of boys peeping through a hole they made in the door between their change room and ours. She was not happy!!
 
As it begins to warm up down here, I remember how bitterly cold it gets in the UK during winter and every time we used to do gymnastics or sport at the school, afterwards we had to strip off naked and run through the cold water showers. The Deputy Headmaster used to come into the change room to see that everybody did and watch us go through. Maybe he had a problem?

Maybe we are wrong to blame HB for the cruelty at the school, maybe he was bullied into it. I remember HB sitting with us and telling us how in WW1 he and another soldier sat in an artificial tree stump listening to chat in the German lines and relaying it back to his own lines.

He also sat us down for a fatherly chat about the facts of life, I wish I had taken more attention of him in the selection of a wife, instead of being influenced by lust. An action I was later to regret!
 
Killers name was Don Gilbert. We must have been there together. I was in 3E and 4E taught maths by Richards and drawing by harry Sandford. I was also caught smoking on the bus but got away with it.
Sid
 
Hi guys, Bordesley Green Tech, Brings tears to my old eyes, I attended this school between 1953-55, Happy days, I wish I had paid more attention, although the teachers were more minders than anything else. Polly on the mopstick, my infamous Crunch must have kept spinal specialists busy for years. Would any of you remember the unholy trinity, eustace, dingle, and clutt, all top students. Eustace spent more school time rubbing rust off Hard Blacks old Riley than on any other subject. I see no mention of one of my hero"s Mr Tommis what a great man, started on the broom at the BSA, educated himself to professor in three subjects, as well as an talented musician, ah happy times, I would like to do it all again, best of luck old BGT"s.
 
Great to see this thread being brought to the top again.
Almost every other posting mentions "Killer" Gilbert; obviously his name, reputation and methods struck terror into the minds of young secondary schoolboys.
Seven or eight posts refer to his spotless Sunbeam Talbot, but nobody seems to know that in fact he had two similar models of the same car: the one he came to school in was a very pale skyblue. But his favourite - almost identical as far as the model was concerned - was a girly powder pink, completely inappropriate to Killer's persona !
Does anyone else recall having seen Mr Gilbert's second Talbot? db84124
 
Just got back from a trip to Don Gilberts beloved Switzerland. I went on his school trip of 1960. I tried to visit as many of the same places that I could remember. We stayed just outside of Aeschi. On the school trip we stayed in the Hotel Blumlisalp. Unfortunatley it was demolished in 1984 and replaced with the Aeschi Park Hotel. The school was banned from the Blumlisalp after 1960 because of a small accident with the bar billiards table. I believe that subsequent years trips used the Hotel Friedegg, which is still there. Switzerland is a very expensive place to stay nowadays. A trip on the Niesen cable railway costs £35. A standard burger was about £12. Toured Bern and visited the Bear Pit and famous clock. Went to Luzern where I had my picture taken in front of the fountain that was used for the annual group photograph. Had a look at Grindelwald, the Grimsel, Firka and Sustan passes, and Interlaken. It brought back many happy memories.
 
hayward said:
Hi this is my first visit so be gentle with me.
I attended BGTS from 1973 until 1978. It changed to Arden if my memory serves at the start of my second year, ie 1974. This is when we were amalgamated with Cherrywood School. Nothing change initally as we seemed to run as two seperate schools. I think staff and pupils were happy to keep it that way. I loved my time there when it was a true Grammar school but in the last 12 months the school descended to become just another secondary modern. uniforms went out of the window as did the discipline. I got the impression that most of the original BGTS teachers gave up and so did I.
Teachers there during my time. Mr Grainger (Eggo). Mr Tapp.(my form tutor). Mr Eastman ? (Basil). Mr Stanton (geography) Mr Sandford (TD). Mr Brayley Willmetts our Football coach. Mr Jones (PE).Science teacher nicknamed Cracker cant remember his name but he kept setting fire to his sleeve on the bunsen burner. Mr Elm (biology) vicious with slipper in hand. Mr Burbage, Mr Hipwell, Mr Highfield (art) for some reason he hated me.Of course not forgetting Killer he frightened the life out of me and seeing picture of him on friends reunited sent a shiver down my spine.Although i now believe we need more teachers like him in schools today. My headmasters name escapes me for now but i have a clear mental image of him. Deputy Head was also fearsome and his name was Richards.............i have just remembered the Heads name I think it was Mr Massey (Top Bloke) even though he caned me on more than one occasion.
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Hello Hayward,
What you describe echo's my own memories, I was there from 70-75 and was in the fourth or fifth when the school was renamed Arden school.
The decline was rapid. Discipline became non existent due to the influence of some morons from Cherrywood Road. My maths teacher by this tiime was Mr Richards, we never saw him for more than 5 minutes per lesson because he was always dealing with the thugs lining up outside the headmasters office. I felt robbed because I started at an excellent grammar technical school and finished at a second rate mixed comp. I would have been better off starting at any one of the other Secondary Moderns, or whatever they were called then.

Richards didn't scare us much but Massey did. Massey went on to head Waverley School.
I could add some names...Mr Whiting - Maths, Mr Hurst - Chemistry, Mr Williams - Physics, Mr Thomas - Woodwork, Mr Capon - History, Mr James - visiting brass instrument teacher.
Basil Eastman was Music, really nice bloke, a Quaker.
Could Cracker have been Mr Whetlan with the vertical hair? He took us for Biology and could be No.31 in the old photo.

Heath
 
Hi
I passed 13+ and was at BGTS 1958-1960. Number 16 is E C LUNN, he ran the school football team when I was in it (1959-60 season) and we won the HMS Birmingham Shield. Star players were lads named Egington and Cooper in midfield. Number 31 was the Science teacher, can't remember his name but recall him setting fire to his hair with a bunsen burner on one occasion. Anyone remember Sid Screen (Geography) a super guy but hopeless at discipline. A lot of kids took advantage but it didn't stop him doing a lot of extra hours so we could stay and play basketball and stuff after school. I could go on but still catching up on all these fabulous blogs first.
 
I too remember the ice slide. I have scars on both eyebrows sustained in falls on it. Later used to tell people I got the scars boxing - got me out of trouble once or twice. Polly on the Mopstick - what a great game! Anyone remember playing mini cricket in the playground with a tiny wooden bat fashioned in woodwork class and using a ballbearing as a cricket ball - how tough were we!
 
Johnny Matthews said:
..... Number 31 (in Post #24) was the Science teacher, can't remember his name but recall him setting fire to his hair with a bunsen burner on one occasion ......
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If I remember correctly, his name was Mr Whetnall. He was given the job of teaching us Biology, although it wasn't his proper subject. The white coat he wore over his ordinary clothes was always speckled down the back with blue and black ink which pupils used to flick from their fountain pens as he walked up and down between the laboratory benches.
Enthusiastically, he once called me into the Biol. lab and held up a beaker of green, slimy algae which was for inspection under the microscope in the hope of finding amoebae and spirogyra. He, like an eleven-year-old, told me (I was sixteen) it was microscopic seaweed and that there was a shark's egg case suspended in the filaments ....... it was slime from a local pond and his incredible find was a privet leaf. I hadn't the heart to destroy his joy. David
 
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On August 10th, 2007, in Post #24, Sparky took the time to name a lot of the members of the BGTS teaching staff; here is an update.
This isn't the final, complete product, and help is needed in filling in some gaps on the named photographs and, too, in my memory.
Please feel free to correct, criticise and improve.
I know that there are at least ten former BGTS pupils on this Forum (and more than four who were there in 1961 when the original panoramic photograph was taken); this request is directed at them.

Staff_1961_Right.JPG


Staff_1961_Centre.JPG



Staff_1961_Left.JPG


Thank you. David
 
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That's a great idea, labelling the photo's, David.
I can see now who is who and realise that a lot of them were there when I started in 1970 but, although I remember their names and nicknames, many of them must have left in my first couple of years.
Interesting to see three french teachers, all with names starting with B.
Heath
 
Thank you for your posting, David. It must be a quality of our generation that we still refer to our teachers as "Mr.". If it were possible to meet them now I would still call them "Mr."! Mr. Burditt was a true gentleman - but as French was my best subject (although pronounced with a Saltley accent) - I was his pet. We also had Mr. Cole for French. I was also his pet - I was the only person to be referred to by my Christian name! As I was not a sporty person I was certainly not Mr. Price's Christmas card list. I think he was a not so closet Communist. A little story about Mr. dash - one of my classmates was chewing his satchel strap and Mr. Dash said "You know they use dog sh*t to process leather?". We thought he was joking - but of course he was correct. I had forgotten Mr. Hatton's name - I remember his smoking his pipe in class - it was a different world - of course 95% of my form have died of respiratory illnesses!!! Paul
 
Good morning, Heath,
I'm pleased you like this idea; it's so much easier than cross-referring to photograph, number and name. Can you please help out and add missing information to any of the gaps in my memory? A couple of subjects taught are missing, and, I'm sure, some nicknames have yet to be added.
A difference of nine years will certainly render your ability to help somewhat restricted, but, as they say, ever little helps. I'm convinced that through a concerted effort by our fellow Forum members who went to The Tech, most of the missing information can be regathered.
Thank you, David
 
Hello David,
I believe I have a couple of things to add....
Mr Jones - English, we called him Cod, possibly due to the green sheen of his greased back hair.
Mr Richards - Maths, I'm sure we called him Dickie Richards, he was deputy head by 1975.
Mr Williams (Bill) i wonder if he could have been my physics teacher who retired around 1974, I don't remember him having a nickname.

Anything sound right?
Heath
 
Excellent, Heath! "Cod" rings a very loud bell! ...... but I seem to have a half-recollection that it was used for the other Mr Jones on the staff, i.e. the deputy-head, due to the fact that he wore bottle-bottom spectacles and his glare resembled that of a cold-eyed fish peering through the thick glass wall of an aquarium.
Interesting the better-known nickname of Mr Brown's - and later Mr Goodfellow's - right-hand man, Mr D.H. Jones. I can well recall his having been referred to as "The DH"; was this 'handle' due to his initials? Or to the fact that he was Deputy-Headmaster? ...... never realised until I typed his name for the very first time late on Sunday evening. What's your theory?
Please keep your suggestions coming .... I will add "Physics" to Bill's profile and "Cod's" to that of Mr Jones. Thanks, David

Umm, but Heath, wasn't "Dickie" the geography teacher, Mr Dash? In 1961, Dickie Dash was one of the best-known nicknames in the school. D.
 
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David,
When I read your post saying DH Jones was known as "The DH" I assumed it was due to the dual circumstance you described and not because of either one on it's own.
I don't really have any memories of DH Jones but he looks so familiar I wonder if he was headmaster when I first arrived in 1970. I am fairly certain that Cod was our English teacher but if DH Jones also taught English then it could well have been he that we had.

I know there was a Dickie Dash about in my early years and he certainly wasn't the teacher who took us for maths in the 5th year. I think our Mr Richards was called just Dickie, he is also a good bit fatter in the face in my memory, more like Mr Dash looks in the photo oddly enough.

My problem is that I remember many of the names in the photograph being bandied about in my early years, while motars and capes were still the norm, but I don't know if they were legend or if they were still there when I started. Most of them were certainly gone by the time I left.
Add to that confusion the haziness of the whole memory and it becomes very difficult to be specific.
I will have to dig out my old school books, and any other stuff I have, to see if there are any clues.

The teachers from the photo that were still there when I left were...... Gilbert, Sandford, Churchward(en?), Richards, Whetnall, and possibly Jones (English) and Thomas (Woodwork).
Heath
 
hi all I attended from 1973 to 1978 loved seeing the teacher gallery. from the photo i remember Cracker , Eggo , Killer, Cod, Mr Sandford. Bill Williams took us for woodwork and Dickie Richards was our deputy head
 
..... well, Jean ..... this post is for you.
I've posted a photograph of the Bordesley Green Boys' Technical School cap badge on the appropriate thread: School badges.
I believe this is something completely new to the Forum - and perhaps I should have started a new thread: a photograph of the BGTS's sixth-form scarf ......

May_2011_056.jpg

View attachment 67979

..... and this is a very silly snap of us all together ...


Cap___badge.jpg

View attachment 67980
 
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.... lots and lots. I've been doing research now since mid-January. I have a complete list of all boys in the September 1957 entry together with their nicknames, initials, houses, photo taken from the 1961 panoramic school photo, the 1964 school photo and in many cases a recent photo. There are also columns saying whether my former colleagues are on Facebook, Friends Reunited, Skype, and other sundry information .... it's been five months' hard work.
 
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Good morning, David,
Have you tried Friends Reunited at

https://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/

...... I came across the site almost two years ago now and I've been in touch with 42 former pupils of Bordesley Green Tech. during the last 22 months. Unfortunately fewer and fewer people log on as the site's been going for nigh on ten years.
Good luck and best wishes, David B.
 
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