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Handsworth Technical School

I went to he re-union (might have mentioned it earlier). Reversed my car into a bollard went forward and darn me if I did't hit the self same bollard.
 
Hi Mikes (both), You must be right about G.R.'s time there although I didn't notice him. Strange because I was aware of him at Beeches Sec. Mod. where our mothers worked together at the school canteen.
Bernie - Anything to report from the reunion? Any Old Masters show up?
Speaking of canteens, a much earlier post sugested that the masters cooked the school dinners at Goldshill. Could this have been a wartime measure? I'm pretty sure that they were shipped in from some other school kitchen in stout oblong aluminium boxes/trays in my time. Remember the chocolate concrete? Temporary trestle tables were set up as a servery in the corridor just along from Bryant's office and meals eaten in the two end classrooms. The smell of boiled cabbage would remain to plague afternoon lessons.
 
diamond said:
I'm pretty sure that they were shipped in from some other school kitchen in stout oblong aluminium boxes/trays in my time. Remember the chocolate concrete? Temporary trestle tables were set up as a servery in the corridor just along from Bryant's office and meals eaten in the two end classrooms. The smell of boiled cabbage would remain to plague afternoon lessons.
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Yes the food came in in large ally boxes, I think wehoever was on dinner duty ( mostly Osborne? ) used to unpack them.
 
Yes the masters did cook meals early on at Goldshill. I thought that it was in the uppermost/attic room though. Can't immagine this happening or what the meals would have been like. I wonder how many boys would have been in classes then.
 
Funny that I can't recall a master on dinner duty but there must have been someone maintaining law and order. I'm sure that there were dinner ladies serving so I assume they washed up too. Hey, Rupert, I'd love to think of Ozzie washing up - pink frilly apron, marigold gloves, and half an inch of ash on his fag. Could explain why he was like he was in our day!
 
Might have got the ash in your dinner. We had to make submissions for the school magazine and I wrote a poem that was included. I wish that I had kept it up over the years. Who knows I might have had talent but it was off to real work in industry. Poems and short stories were a thing of the past. Pity.
 
The School Mag! I'd forgotten all about that Rupert. Was it just an annual thing; I tend to think so. And did we all have to submit "copy"; I can't remember. I do recall that a mate of mine, Mike Iddon, had a piece published on choosing a bicycle frame: inside leg measurement v. crank length and all that. Strange thing: he and I had the same birthday yet he came to HTS with the next intake which makes me wonder if there could have been more than one entry date, maybe an April start?
 
I know that you could make two attempts at the entry exam. Wether that would have been a year apart I don't know....rather think not.
 
I took the '13 plus' to spend just over 2 years at the school. I was puzzled in the first math's lessons about something called Algebra. I had come from Aldridge Rd Secondary Modern where they had not bothered to teach us anything about it. I had a very torrid time in maths and perhaps that is why I can't remember much about the school - too busy struggling with maths homework.
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Hi

There were I beleive 3 entrance points.
Each term the 3c term moved to 3b.
A new entrance point for a new 3c.
So i was a Summer Term(3c) then a Winter Term(3b)
to Xmas then a Spring term to Easter(3a).
I think im right

Mike Jenks
 
OM - Glad I was not the only one for whom Algebra was previously unknown. Only decent maths teacher I had was in the final year (term?) - he was the first who did not look at me as if I had crawled from a piece of cheese if I asked him to explain.
 
Rupert said:
Yes the masters did cook meals early on at Goldshill. I thought that it was in the uppermost/attic room though. Can't immagine this happening or what the meals would have been like. I wonder how many boys would have been in classes then.
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Surely that room would have been too small Rupert? I recall having Geography up there and the cooker was a simple domestic style cooker. I was told that is used once to be used by a caretaker and his wife.

May I take this opportunity to apologise to anyone who was a recipient of the water bombs that me and a few friends used to chuck out of that window onto the queuing pupils below.
 
Apologies from me also, I also dropped paper bag water bombs from the attic. Slightly off topic I remember in my first job, as an apprentice, rolling a 2ft dia snowball with others on the flat roof of our 3 storey office. We dropped it off and just missed the Managing Director by a few yards. Nearly one of those life changing events!
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Bernie D'Boult said:
OM - Glad I was not the only one for whom Algebra was previously unknown.
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The maths teacher made me feel as if I was responsible for the Sec Mod not teaching me algebra and made sure the rest of the class knew it. Nearly put me off maths for life, but when I later went to Aston Tech night school in my own time (had to miss a night at the Ice Rink) I got HND with distinction.
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The first Maths Master did the same for me OM - it was only the last one who cared as he wanted everyone to enjoy maths as he did. Mind it was his first teaching post so may have changed later on.
 
Was it a famous politician who said "Never apologise"? Bernie and OM, you may have dampened one or two but you delighted dozens! Now I believe that only PREFECTS were allowed in at breaktime, so were you "white badge wearers"? You could apologise for that!
That reminds me (I'm off again), at the pre-entry interview Woody asked if one had been a prefect or monitor at the previous school and ticked a column acordingly. Lads who followed me who had been so honoured all became prefects. Was this just a coincidence?
 
mike jenks said:
Hi

There were I beleive 3 entrance points.
Each term the 3c term moved to 3b.
A new entrance point for a new 3c.
So i was a Summer Term(3c) then a Winter Term(3b)
to Xmas then a Spring term to Easter(3a).
I think im right

Mike Jenks
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Have just checked with another old HTS boy (Davies '52-54) who confirms your post,Mike.
 
diamond said:
if one had been a prefect or monitor
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I was never a prefect at Aldridge Rd school, but at Beeches Rd Junior school, I was a milk monitor - an important job which would puzzle the young ones of today. I've just remembered I saw my 1st Slide Rule at HTS.
 
=oldMohawk;243625 I've just remembered I saw my 1st Slide Rule at HTS.
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I've still got mine, tried to use it when I uncovered it moving house. I'm glad they invented the calculator.
 
I don't remember those entry regs at all. The HTS that I remember (52) had streams A,B, and civil...presumably C. You started say in 1A or !B and went on thru the numbers to 6 Aor B. Always staying in the A or B stream that you started in.
Anyone who failed the first entry exam and re-took it would be a class behind as my pal would have been who failed the first exam. He re-took the exam at Bordesly and failed that one too...pity he was a bright kid.
As for prefects...what can I say...they made a prefect of one guy in my class who had been caught cheating on an exam. A good example for the rest of us.
Not everyone made use of the training there. I was in touch with a car salesman in Texas who had gone to the school in my time...he did a lot better financially at that than bothering with industry and anymore industrial academics. HND was a waste of paper outside of the UK...they should have awarded a piece of paper with Degree printed on it. No one knows what HND is in the rest of the world and cares less. No dissrespect ment. It was equivalent to a degree anyway and with the apprenticeship...better than. For a lot of us though I think HTS was a bit of a leg up from the back to backs.
 
Slide Rules were useful for writing exam 'crib' notes on the inside before they started inspecting them. I remember an early calculating machine at work called a 'Curta' which was small, cylindrical, with a handle. Very accurate if I remember correctly.
 
oldMohawk said:
I've just remembered I saw my 1st Slide Rule at HTS.
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Me too! I think we were introduced to them very early on as an extension of LOGS which were also new to me. Mine was (is) "Unique" brand and even as a cheap job it had more scales than I would ever use. Being of a guilt-ridden disposition I painted over the formelae secreted beneath the slide and on the back even though they were of no relevance to our work. It was bought from Popes Corner in Corporatoin St. where a whole window was given over to a bewildering display of 'em. It's maroon box has long since disintegrated and some of the printed scales have started to peel. Sad!
 
Anyone else while away their breaktime admiring the better machines in the bike shed at Goldshill? One or two stood out from the rest: the lovely "lugless" Claude Butlers with their sensuous smooth joints (one enamelled white); the ornate fretwork lugs of the Holdsworths; and the wierd "curly" chainstays of the Hetchins. One bike even sported bamboo rims! Mine was a mundane New Hudson, rather heavy, and with a headstock badge showing a strong right arm wielding a hammer (cribbed from the Birmingham coat of arms). For my 16th birthday I got a Freddie Grubb frame onto which I transferred all the other bits off the old 'Hudson. I joined the Elite!
 
Just opened this thread, and suprised to see "Goffy" remembering my name and other class mates. I am in touch with Thynne, and can recall all the other names mentioned,and add Dennis Ellis, Tony Jarvis , Peter Clark, Tony Martin, Mortiboys, Emms. The gas engine by the way was a Tangye.
The hold up at the shop in Rookery road I believe was only carried out by one lad who became known as "Buggsy". It was the ladies lingerie shop on a corner, and when the sales lady told him to clear off he paniced and snatched a bra off a nearby stand. Very useful ,The police came to the class with the sales woman, and he was identified by his nevous twitch!
 
Re slide rules, still have mine in pristine condition. Faber Castell for mechanical engineeers. Price 84/-
 
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oldMohawk said:
Later on I attended night school for ONC and HNC at Aston Technical College, a fine old building then, wonder if its still there?
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Hi OldMo, Someone mentioned spotting Aston Tec on Google Streetview but seemed unsure. I'm afraid it's horribly true. That lovely Victorian redbrick building has been replaced by the glass and steel eyesore you can see on "the net"; completely out of place among the terrace houses. I ventured over there this-morning but felt that I should have taken my passport! Having wasted a couple of years on City+Guilds, I also did ONC/HNC there but it left non of the fond memories I have of HTS.
 
mike31 said:
The gas engine by the way was a Tangye.
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Ahh what a lovely word - Tangye ! Strange that I didn't note it then, maybe my delight in odd words has only developed of late. I do seem to remember that the make of the tensile test machine which stood beside the Tangye was a Dennison, same as the firm then on Soho Hill; Dennison Watch Case Co.; but probably no relation. We had covered "strength of materials" in physics and were led once more to the engine shed. A round bar of mild steel had been prepared by turning its middle section down from about an inch to about 7/8. Centre pops were made about 3" apart in the reduced area. This "specimen" was set vertically in the jaws of the Dennison and we recorded the spacing of the dots very precicely. Sir started the machine which groaned a bit and registered several tons on a dial.The machine was stopped; the tons noted; the increased spacing of the dots recorded; machine allowed to relax; bar's return to original length observed. This repeated several times at increased force until the bar refused to go back to its original length - "limit of elastic deformation". The pull was increased further until the middle bit was seen to go rather thin. We were invited to touch it - it was HOT. A few more tons and our specimen snapped with a bump which seemed to shake the fillings out of our teeth! I think the specimen and the machine jaws all rattled free at that point adding extra dramatic effect. We carefully placed the bar back together and measured its "ultimate extension". Kids to-day, they don't know the meaning of the word "fun".
 
Was the gas engine and test machine at Aston Tech.? I don't remember them at HTS but memory not what it was. I remember making PV diagrams on the gas engine and calculating mean effective pressure and such. There were a couple of super teachers at Aston Tech back in the mid to late fifties. Wish I could remember the names...ah Grafton, a whiz with miniature radios and great mechanical science teacher and real nice guy. Maybe others will come to mind.
 
diamond said:
Anyone remember doing a "Long Essay" meant to fill an exercise book?
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Yes Willie Whetton's history project. I did Matther Boulton. Plenty of words not much meaning. Could do better now I have an interest in one of Birminghams greatest.
 
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