Riland Bedford High School for Girls and Boys.

[Jenniewren]

Re: Riland Bedford High School for Girls

I went to the boys half at the same time. Whoa betide any boy caught looking into the canteen when the girls were using it, or at their gym. The corridor between the two halves was I swear, mined. You came out a few minutes earlier than us in order that you could be well away before the animals were let out. I think Miss Lemon believed immaculate conception was the only way to go. Our Head at one time, a real oafish bully called McGinn said in assembly that he had "noticed that boys liked girls" ,catcalls from us 5th formers at the back, "good old Jim, nothing gets past him"
I always thought your school uniform colour, a sort of washed out red was about as unflattering as possible but many of you made even that attractive, Lyn Cleve where are you? Mind you the Girls Grammar sludge Brown was pretty dire too. happy days!
Some names, Jennie Senior, Sue Wilson, Janet Strathdee, Lyn Cleeve,Rosemary Bird

Whoa betide any girl looking at a boy too! I got caught waving at a boy(friend) across the canteen and was up on stage the next day at assembly with '3 black marks' as I remember it. Never forget that!!! Miss Lemon was unbelievable and so narrow-minded. I went on to be a 'secretary' and remember Miss Dean well. Think she had been engaged but he had died. I too remember Jennifer Senior, Susan Wilson - a year above me.
As for our uniform - maroon, baggy knickers for sports. Not nice at certain times of the month!

 

[Pete R]

Most kids from my Primary school went to Riland Bedford. My brother Andrew was there 1969 - 74. (Well, he used the school bus to get in and out of Sutton, but was rarely at school !

Bill Roberts - what a legend. He came to B.V.G.S. in '68 to teach English. He immediately took a shine to me as I was from a Naval family and he spotted my copy of the Sir Francis Chichester book in my bag. The best way to treat him was to draw a submarine on the blackboard. He'd see it, comment that it wasn't correct, redraw it and totally forget about teaching. We'd then get 1/2 an hour of his War memoirs, punctuated by his throwing Extra Strong Mints at you, from a huge bag he kept in his pocket. He NEVER once had to shout or punish any of us, indeed, he got several of us off detention from other Teachers, he was a bit of a rebel at heart. "No-one does that to my lads! Have a Mint !"
In the 80s, I met his family. They were really nice people. I reckon that he was being 'watched' at RB and Fairfax because he could be pro pupil and anti Teacher, thus he was strict, but as a retired / returned teacher, the shackles were off.
Oh and as a teacher ? Despite our tactics, our (bottom grade) class did 60% more work in one year than the other three classes of our year put together.

 

[pipmk]

Couldn't agree more, the 60's and 70's senior school generation in Sutton has much to thank Bill for. His tenure at Bedford ensured that within a few years there was little or no difference in opportunity at Bedford, Willmott and BV,with "A" levels etc. He set up Willmott and handed on a very well regarded school to his successors. He might have seemed a funny old stick on occasions, but lets not forget that being a "character" was something a teacher strived to establish and he struggled to understand the female of the species,but his commitment to his charges was never in doubt. He earned the undying gratitude of many of us. We will not see his like again.

 

[Pete R]

Thanks pipmk, Yes, his sort of Teacher were dissappearing fast when I left in '71. Already the 'never been out of the academic stream' type were coming in. Most Teachers at BVGS had been in the Services, many had fought in WW II, so had a wider vision of life than that of adhering to Gov't imposed targets. With the 'League Tables' came another evil, Schools intent on spewing out high exam results to gain some form of superiority over other schools. The Pupils ? they didn't count, pawns in a game....! When PC came in in the '80s, the level of intelligence dropped, so 'dumbing down' of Exams, GCSEs, etc., were resorted to in order to keep the figures artificially high.
I've seen 'A' level questions, these were the same as my 11+ ones ! We now have several generations of people undereducated and brainwashed into believing falsities.

 

[ChrisM]

What wonderful tributes to Bill Roberts. He was at BVGS, first, in the mid 1940s and probably immediately after war service, before he moved on elsewhere. To my regret I cannot recall now whether he taught me or not - he probably did for a while....geography, wasn't it? - but he is always remembered as a larger-than-life, somewhat swash-buckling character with more than a passing interest in naval matters!

Chris

 

[Bradbury]

Re: Riland Bedford High School for Girls

Greeting fellow gladiators (Yea who are about to die). I think that I started the same day that Jim McGinn became head in 1962. Jeeze that was a horrid winter. I lost the balls off two brass monkeys that winter.
This headmaster was the Bill Sykes to Burt Hickin's Fagin... My first encounter with falling fowl, was in the first month at school with Punch Brown (RE). Always know thine enemy, sayeth I. Something to do with the slaves (Exodus) never seeing the sea side, and finding some wet boggy marsh ... Needless to say, a 12 year old was marched off for six lashes from the slave master, McGinn. I was the founder and leader of the atheist party, or you'd have thought so. I'm told that the electric chair and gas chamber rooms have now been bricked up, at least for the time being. Members of 3G -4G were all classed (you can't make this up) as founders of the Mafia or our parents were ... Peter Day screams as a blackboard rubber whistles past at 741MPH. I duck, thus allowing the missile to hit Barry Peace, sitting behind me. I sat next to Trevor Foster, now a drummer with a Brummi band. We were all thick as two short planks, except Trev, because he could draw and count to 10 (on a good day). We had the best football team (unbeaten), but I was excluded because my game was the sack race)), 3rd then 4th years of the 1960's, but that's just an aside.
Class members as I recall: Harry Basham, Malcolm Bradbury, Barry Peace, Philip Bee, Barry Stinton, David Roe, Trevor Foster,
Me, David (the grass) Broughton, Paul Edwards, Robert White (died of Lung cancer I'm told), A boy I called silver sleeves, oh, yes, he was David Telling. Keith Henan, Greg Hernden. There were three others who's names I cannot recall.

Earton was a pottery master and was taken over by a spiteful man, whose name I cannot recall. Eastwood was metalwork; and I got my own back by screwing both his twin daughters (honest). Elliot (a Scot?) was gym master, but he left and some other more sociable chap took over his roll. Can anyone recall the name of the chap that took technical drawing? He aways seemed to scartching his crotch and shrugging. Perhaps its just me. A guy we called 'Smiler' took us for physics, and was really nice guy and I learned a great deal from him. I guess that's, in part, why I took up electronics in later life. He was a very stimulating chap. Who was the chap with the corduroy pants that took us for art? He was laid back.
After 1245 years wondering in the desert, I married my third wife (glutton for punishment) and moved to the US, bought some land, cheap and built a farm. Three children, vis: two daughters, eldest girl (43) is a midwife, youngest (38) a graphic designer, and my boy (45), a psychiatric nurse (clinical). So, all in all, they have done well for themselves. I'm retired now, set up and writer Novels and Novelettes and short stories, well, it's an income, as well as one of my hobbies.
Oh, I nearly forgot ... If anyone remembers Peter Bradbury (my brother, three years older than I), he died in 2012.
If anyone knows the location of the graves of, massa Burt Hickin and the headmaster, Jim McGinn. Drop me a line, so I can go piss on their graves.
Well, that's all for now. If you have news, email me at g6ypk1@yahoo.com (Tony)

Bill Roberts went on to be Head at John Willmott mixed grammar where he proved just as inept with the female of the species according to my wife and our friends. however he did have two sons so I guess he knew something about females. Bert Hicken, couldn't stop a pig in an entry, I've never seen a man with such bowed legs or such a violent temper. Punch Brown, he even taught my Uncles, nice old duffer but his RE lessons reminded one that at that time the Church of England was the Tory Party at prayer. Jesus was white, probably English and certainly voted for Empire and the Conservative Party, comparative religion was admitting there were things called Catholics. The staff generally thought " Suffer little children to come unto me" meant they had to give the children a good beating first.
To be very fair to Bill, funny old goat that he was, he did introduce A levels etc. and the school became very well equipped.
Barlow, Davies, Eastwood, Thomas, Elliot, do those names ring any bells? Teaching was an absolute doddle in those days. Pupil Welfare was restricted to ensuring nobody actually died of wounds on the premises, pupils either learned or they didn't and the thought of actually being interested in your charges would have brought them out in hives.

 

[Mike Bond]

Riland Bedford was not my school but I did play rugby for Sutton Coldfield in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The club captain was a chap called Roger Smolden who was a teacher at Riland Bedford. Mike.

 

[Gerry Cannell]

Hi Brenda,
I went to Riland Bedford...... but long before you did (I left Dec.1955)

i recall, affection, Mrs Havelock-Davies, our form mistress and MISS Davis the science mistress.

Throw a few names at me as I seem to have forgotten any other
names (it's me age you know:biggrin

Brenda, My wife went there the same time as you. 1952 thru 1955. Jeannette Morton. Get in touch if you want to. Thanks.