I was introduced to this site by a friend who lived in the area and is researching its history. Reading through the many entries it brought back so many memories and has spurred me to add my thoughts in the hope that others will find it of interest.
I started at GD in 1960 after passing the 12+ and spent my first year at Five Ways. After staying in the lower grades I spent an extra year in a special sixth form, S6, set up purely to retake ‘O’ levels in 1964 as there were so many wanting to get some better qualifications. I went on to sixth form, S4 and S2, before going on the University of Birmingham to study civil engineering in 1967 and retired from work at the end of 2008.
The entry is split into 3 sections, teachers, students and other memories with only a shortish bit on each, otherwise it could go on forever:
1. Teachers:
Rumsey (Head): He seemed to have a lovely old school presence about him but soon after I started he was taken ill and was replaced by DAD Dilworth,
DAD Dilworth (Deputy/Head): Once a week we would have morning assembly at St Germains church next door. There were two steps that DAD had to negotiate and there was always a pause as he felt for them with his foot, one day I thought....
Trout (Five Ways deputy): One of the reasons I stopped learning history in the second year. It’s amazing how liking, or not, teachers can affect your whole outlook on life.
Walker “The Pork” (??? ): Stood in the hall waiting to walk up City Road to the canteen at lunch time there would be a wave of silence envelope the room and you knew he had entered. He would walk diagonally across the lines until he reached the main noisemaker and then there was trouble.
Winson “Butch” (French): No one played up in class but he would hit students across the back of the head with a ruler if he thought that they may play up when out of his sight. He used to sit at our dinner table at Five Ways and one day before he arrived we had bought a tin of Butch dog food and put it on the table in his place. It was all taken in good part.
Buckley (Science): Great teacher but I think he died quite young.
Hannay (Latin): Never taught by him but remembered he was quite short and seemed to float around the corridors always wearing his gown.
“Gabby” Hayes (metalwork): One of my favourite subjects and he was a great teacher.
Lewis (English): First form master at Five Ways. A Welsh import and very likeable.
Little (French): Went on the school trip to Europe including Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. I remember on one occasion him asking for directions in French and the local could not understand him. Now I know why I never passed a French exam.
Brookes (Art): It was announced during an assembly in Five Ways that he had died, quite a shock. Later it turned out that my wife worked for his wife at an office also in Five Ways.
“Fingers” Johnson (Physics): A young teacher who taught the second “A” level group. He was someone who got the best out of his pupils and seriously embarrassed Les Summerton when the number of “A” level passes he achieved was better than Les’s. I think he left soon afterwards.
Siddle (Chemistry): Took “A” level under duress but everyone in that year failed.
Les? Paul (Engineering Drawing): Another one of my favourite subjects, his lessons where much more than just the subject at “A” level with discussions diversifying into any topic that took our fancy. Surely this is what education is all about. I also went to his evening classes in Bartley Green where I sat at the back of the “O” level class he was taking and studied for my “A” level.
Fletcher (Music): I will always remember him playing that very dramatic classic piece every time we left the weekly service at St Germains. Can someone put a name to it?
?? Proctor (Sports): A sad loss.
2. Students
Max McDonogh: Also joined at the same time as me and also went on to be a civil engineer.
Colin Bourne: Both of us disliked sport, never build for rugby and always got the stitch in cross country, so spent Wednesday afternoon’s installing the telephone system for the school by climbing ladders, stringing telephone cables, installing switchboards and phones. How long that lasted I dread to think but it was great fun.
? Nicholson: Loved motorbikes and had another classmate with a motorbike sidecar, which you may think was safer. However, that was not the case and he turned it over one day and was never seen again.
Michael Chalk: In the same engineering drawing class and has been a Redditch Councillor for many years.
Derek Larigo: Used to travel home with him sometimes, lived between Rose’s cafe and Bartley Green.
Lewis: Are you the Lewis from 2E in 1960/61 and did you live at a pub in Digbeth, if so I remember some of your stories which had a lasting impression.
? Twiss: we had this American in our class for a while, I think his father was a diplomat somewhere.
John Maxfield and Peter Busby: Joint in the sixth form from Harborne Hill? School. Peter made head boy.
Other names, but no details, include: Dave Shenton, Steven Dixon, Paul Hogan, Donald Grendon, Jonathan Wickens, Paul Lyndon and Ronald Hill.
3. Other memories
The first and last lesson read out in the assembly each term was I. Corinthians Chapter 13. Still is a lasting memory for me.
The sixth form common room was built just as I entered the sixth form and it was brilliant.
On the way back from lunch the boys had to run the gauntlet passed the girls who congregated in a pack. If only I was as confident then ......
The Quad was the only area where we had some female contact with the school next door as their loos overlooked it, in retrospect it seems a rather bad design!!
I was always keen on railways and after school at Five Ways some of us frequently went to “bunk” the Monument Lane shed. I still remember being sat in the office there having given a good telling off by the “gripper”.
I vaguely remember the mass expulsion on the last day. I used to drive from Bromsgrove then so may have taken some of the offenders to the pub.
We were given plastic tokens to travel between City Road and Five Ways and by walking one stop you could save one for travel home and get something from the shop with the extra cash.
At break time we played stretch. The two players stood facing each other and took turns to throw a penknife into the ground near your opponent to make him do the splits. The loser was the one who fell over first. No pupils were hurt in this game.... well not many.
I remember one day in the chemistry lab when someone sucking sulphuric acid into a burette sucked for too long and got a mouthful of the stuff.
Food memories include the usual chocolate concrete and potato puffs bought from the shop a break.
Although now out of print my friend tracked down a copy of the attached book through Waterstones:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Years-City-Road-Secondary/dp/0955344409
Looking forward to your observations in due course.
Peter Mann
