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Yorke House School School Road Hall Green

York House School was a private school that closed in 1970 and had existed in 1920 when PA Allen aquired. He in turn sold it around 1938.
 
The House seems to have been a private residence and dates back before 1890, when WG Madeley was there. In 1908 it was a G Burns.
 
Ray J Knowles said:
Back in the sixties I attended a school in hall green, school road called York house. Does anyone remember it.. or knows what the building was before it was a school?
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Hi, I went to Yorke House School with my brother between 1960 and 1969. The headmaster was Councillor James Millington who owned the school and lived on site with his wife and daughter Michelle. The teachers at the time that I remember wer Mrs Bristow, Mrs Mather, Mrs Ask or Aske, and a lady who arrived in a vintage Jaguar who was called Mrs Candy and who's daughter als taught at the school for a time, and the couple Mr and Mrs Pepper, the couple who worked as cook and caretaker. I remember pupils such as Robert and Rickie Edwards, Rennie Walker, Richard Aske, Dennine Elliot, Ashley or Ashleigh Mallett, Christopher Bayliss, Stewart Faulkner, Max Reeves, who I played rugby against years later, Geoffrey Burkett, Simon Kingett plus brother Nicholas, and many others who I will remember when not trying. The school struggled on but ran out of money in the year I was due to take my 11 plus so my mother who was a teacher agreed to teach our class for free until the exams where taken and the school was kept going with just one class. I believe the house was a private residence befor becoming a school and was rumoured to have an underground passage to the local church, there was indeed the start of a passage in the cellar under the cloakrooms which was bricked up but may still exist. After it's closure it was sold to a coffee vending company and then demolished and a housing development built which I believe may be age restricted. Perhaps I could start and finish my days there. No one enjoyed their primary school years more than me.
 
boringmike said:
Hi, I went to Yorke House School with my brother between 1960 and 1969. The headmaster was Councillor James Millington who owned the school and lived on site with his wife and daughter Michelle. The teachers at the time that I remember wer Mrs Bristow, Mrs Mather, Mrs Ask or Aske, and a lady who arrived in a vintage Jaguar who was called Mrs Candy and who's daughter als taught at the school for a time, and the couple Mr and Mrs Pepper, the couple who worked as cook and caretaker. I remember pupils such as Robert and Rickie Edwards, Rennie Walker, Richard Aske, Dennine Elliot, Ashley or Ashleigh Mallett, Christopher Bayliss, Stewart Faulkner, Max Reeves, who I played rugby against years later, Geoffrey Burkett, Simon Kingett plus brother Nicholas, and many others who I will remember when not trying. The school struggled on but ran out of money in the year I was due to take my 11 plus so my mother who was a teacher agreed to teach our class for free until the exams where taken and the school was kept going with just one class. I believe the house was a private residence befor becoming a school and was rumoured to have an underground passage to the local church, there was indeed the start of a passage in the cellar under the cloakrooms which was bricked up but may still exist. After it's closure it was sold to a coffee vending company and then demolished and a housing development built which I believe may be age restricted. Perhaps I could start and finish my days there. No one enjoyed their primary school years more than me.
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I still have a copy of Solihull magazine with an article and photos on the school.
 
boringmike said:
Hi, I went to Yorke House School with my brother between 1960 and 1969. The headmaster was Councillor James Millington who owned the school and lived on site with his wife and daughter Michelle. The teachers at the time that I remember wer Mrs Bristow, Mrs Mather, Mrs Ask or Aske, and a lady who arrived in a vintage Jaguar who was called Mrs Candy and who's daughter als taught at the school for a time, and the couple Mr and Mrs Pepper, the couple who worked as cook and caretaker. I remember pupils such as Robert and Rickie Edwards, Rennie Walker, Richard Aske, Dennine Elliot, Ashley or Ashleigh Mallett, Christopher Bayliss, Stewart Faulkner, Max Reeves, who I played rugby against years later, Geoffrey Burkett, Simon Kingett plus brother Nicholas, and many others who I will remember when not trying. The school struggled on but ran out of money in the year I was due to take my 11 plus so my mother who was a teacher agreed to teach our class for free until the exams where taken and the school was kept going with just one class. I believe the house was a private residence befor becoming a school and was rumoured to have an underground passage to the local church, there was indeed the start of a passage in the cellar under the cloakrooms which was bricked up but may still exist. After it's closure it was sold to a coffee vending company and then demolished and a housing development built which I believe may be age restricted. Perhaps I could start and finish my days there. No one enjoyed their primary school years more than me.
Click to expand...
Mr Millington also kept various game and exotic birds outside while his wife ket a Monkey in a large cage on the upstairs landing. Mr millington was not a fan and used to feed it chalk which it loved and seemed to have no affect on him.
 
Ray J Knowles said:
Back in the sixties I attended a school in hall green, school road called York house. Does anyone remember it.. or knows what the building was before it was a school?
Click to expand...
Just remembered Ian Griffiths who lived with his grand parents Mr and Mrs Crowe opposite Swanshurst park and Martin Turner or Tyler, think Turner. Mr Crowe used to buy his cars off my father at R E Greens in Moseley, a Rootes dealership. Mr Millington used to drive a Bentley S1 or S2 in green and his wife drove a Bond Equipe. No money spared. Mrs Candy's Rolls Royce was just the best.
 
I attended Yorke House from 1955-1960. Mr and Mrs Cooper were the Head teachers. It was run very strictly and we all obeyed without questioning. However, many pupils passed the 11+ with good results. I remember Mrs Hill and Mrs Parkinson as teachers at that time.
 
Sunsaluter said:
I attended Yorke House from 1955-1960. Mr and Mrs Cooper were the Head teachers. It was run very strictly and we all obeyed without questioning. However, many pupils passed the 11+ with good results. I remember Mrs Hill and Mrs Parkinson as teachers at that time.
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I left the school in 1956 to go to KES
I well remember Patrick Cooper and his wife!
Cooper drove a pre war Wolsey and occasionally took us to a local park to play cricket!
 
I attended York House school probably between 1955 or 6 and 1961. I remember Mr and Mrs Cooper (he looked and sounded like Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady) and their daughter and a teacher called Mr Linnell. I remember a few of the pupils but it doesn't seem right to give names. I remember that in the very cold weather Mr Cooper would make a huge slide in the playground by chucking buckets of water down and pupils would queue up to use it. There was also a huge skipping rope being turned in the playground big enough for about 5 children to jump in again we would queue by each of the rope turners for chance to run in and jump according to the rhyme being chanted. When the hand bell was rung for the end of break we queued in our classes to go back in. At one stage two year groups were taught in the same classroom, you shared a double desk with someone from a different year group and were given work to complete while they were being taught, and then they were given work and my year group was taught.
 
I went to Yorke House 1955/6-1960. I remember the ice slide and skipping rope in the playground. I also remember climbing trees in the corner of the playground. I think we had a really good all round education. The school had wonderful 11+ results. There was also a lower set of steps down to a cellar and there was a rumour that it connected to a tunnel going under School Road. I am Jennifer and had long plaits and wore glasses. I occasionally see a old friend from my class.
 
We must have been there at the same time, my name is Enid, I don't think I had any distinguishing features, I had short blond hair. I could persuade myself I knew there was a Jennifer with plaits and glasses but that may be false memory/ wishful thinking. I remember two main staircases in the school, the food was always good and cooked fresh on site. There was a nice formal garden at the front of the house. I was hoping to find a photo on the internet of the house, but then it wasn't as usual to take photos as it is now. I don't know anyone from the school now but as you say we had a good education and were all very well behaved which may well have been a prerequisite. Its good to know there are some of us who remember the old school I was sorry when I realised a few years ago it was gone.
 
I vaguely remember someone called ‘Enid’. Do you still live in the area? I’m now in Hockley Heath but grew up just off Swanshurst Lane.
I also went to the June Tallett ballet classes on a Friday teatime in the Chatterton Hall opposite the school. A few class mates also attended.
 
I went to some dance classes, I thought it was in the church hall, we did country dancing, possibly ballet as well which I always thought was very slow, possibly I wasn't on that wave length. I grew up in Shirley Road and now live in Highgate London just on the fringes of Hampstead Heath and have no links now with the Birmingham area.
 
Oh amazing, well done, it was, I have a sister Marion who is living in New Zealand with her daughter and grandchildren at the moment. She is 2 years older than me. I was very shy when I was younger so you may not remember me much
 
I went to this school for only two terms, starting in autumn of 1967 and finishing at the end of the spring term in 1968. I still have my school reports. I remember some of the names mentioned in previous articles (Simon Kingett, Max Reeves, and also a lad called Gopal Kalra and someone with the surname of Gregory. I also remember the exotic birds kept by the headmaster (Mr. Millington). For swimming, we had to go to the swimming baths on the Stratford Road (I think) and for football, we had to walk across Fox Hollies Road to some playing fields (now Ninestiles Academy??). I remember that the school didn't have a dining room so we had to eat lunch in the classrooms. My class teacher (Form 3) was a Mrs K. Blackwell. I also remember a car being left in the playground (not sure why) for us to 'explore'. Cadbury's Aztec chocolate bars were very popular around this time; sadly discontinued.
 
I think this shows the school in the centre of the picture, I think when it was demolished it was replaced by an access to another development of houses called Larchmere Drive. Can anyone confirm this?
 

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boringmike said:
Hi, I went to Yorke House School with my brother between 1960 and 1969. The headmaster was Councillor James Millington who owned the school and lived on site with his wife and daughter Michelle. The teachers at the time that I remember wer Mrs Bristow, Mrs Mather, Mrs Ask or Aske, and a lady who arrived in a vintage Jaguar who was called Mrs Candy and who's daughter als taught at the school for a time, and the couple Mr and Mrs Pepper, the couple who worked as cook and caretaker. I remember pupils such as Robert and Rickie Edwards, Rennie Walker, Richard Aske, Dennine Elliot, Ashley or Ashleigh Mallett, Christopher Bayliss, Stewart Faulkner, Max Reeves, who I played rugby against years later, Geoffrey Burkett, Simon Kingett plus brother Nicholas, and many others who I will remember when not trying. The school struggled on but ran out of money in the year I was due to take my 11 plus so my mother who was a teacher agreed to teach our class for free until the exams where taken and the school was kept going with just one class. I believe the house was a private residence befor becoming a school and was rumoured to have an underground passage to the local church, there was indeed the start of a passage in the cellar under the cloakrooms which was bricked up but may still exist. After it's closure it was sold to a coffee vending company and then demolished and a housing development built which I believe may be age restricted. Perhaps I could start and finish my days there. No one enjoyed their primary school years more than me.
Click to expand...
I did 11 plus in '69 then left so must have been in the same class. I remember most of the pupils you name (plus some others) as well as the teachers/staff. Stewart Faulkner died at about age 15 in an accident, my gran spotted it in the Evening Mail. I remember Mr Millington being hospitalised round about '67 & his wife taking over his classes whilst he convalesced. On one occasion she took to playing very abstract jazz records to us on a wet afternoon then asked us to say what we heard in the music. I don't think any of our answers were correct but then there wasn't a correct answer anyway as we would all have heard different things. I have good memories of my time there. Much more so than the boarding school that followed which was unpleasant & soulless.
I spent time there about 8 years ago whilst making a multi-media project about the Outer Circle bus route. Though the buildings have been replaced with houses some pointers remain, especially the majestic beech tree that was next to the entrance.
I used to have a school photo that was taken during my final year but haven't seen it in ages. If it comes to light I'll see about uploading.
 
I went to Yorke House School until 1962 and remember chain tag in the playground and swimming at the Sparkhill Pool.
The attached photo has many faces I remember.
Names I remember are Barry Thompson, Denise and Christopher Bennett, Roger Murphy, Thomkins, Gray, Michael Dowler, Ruth Twyby, David Egginson, Miss Hands (teacher) and of course Mr Millington.
 

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brummy-lad said:
I think this shows the school in the centre of the picture, I think when it was demolished it was replaced by an access to another development of houses called Larchmere Drive. Can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...
Larchmere Drive was built approx 1965-67 & involved the school loosing a slice of the playground + toilet block. When the school building itself went sometime later it was replaced with a small group of detached houses.
 
Stewpot said:
I went to Yorke House School until 1962 and remember chain tag in the playground and swimming at the Sparkhill Pool.
The attached photo has many faces I remember.
Names I remember are Barry Thompson, Denise and Christopher Bennett, Roger Murphy, Thomkins, Gray, Michael Dowler, Ruth Twyby, David Egginson, Miss Hands (teacher) and of course Mr Millington.
Click to expand...
Great to see one of the old school photos. Does anyone have others they could post?
 
boringmike said:
Hi, I went to Yorke House School with my brother between 1960 and 1969. The headmaster was Councillor James Millington who owned the school and lived on site with his wife and daughter Michelle. The teachers at the time that I remember wer Mrs Bristow, Mrs Mather, Mrs Ask or Aske, and a lady who arrived in a vintage Jaguar who was called Mrs Candy and who's daughter als taught at the school for a time, and the couple Mr and Mrs Pepper, the couple who worked as cook and caretaker. I remember pupils such as Robert and Rickie Edwards, Rennie Walker, Richard Aske, Dennine Elliot, Ashley or Ashleigh Mallett, Christopher Bayliss, Stewart Faulkner, Max Reeves, who I played rugby against years later, Geoffrey Burkett, Simon Kingett plus brother Nicholas, and many others who I will remember when not trying. The school struggled on but ran out of money in the year I was due to take my 11 plus so my mother who was a teacher agreed to teach our class for free until the exams where taken and the school was kept going with just one class. I believe the house was a private residence befor becoming a school and was rumoured to have an underground passage to the local church, there was indeed the start of a passage in the cellar under the cloakrooms which was bricked up but may still exist. After it's closure it was sold to a coffee vending company and then demolished and a housing development built which I believe may be age restricted. Perhaps I could start and finish my days there. No one enjoyed their primary school years more than me.
Click to expand...
I went to York House from kindergarten to when it closed in 69. I met my best lifelong friend Nigel Race there. Mrs Candy had a Rolls Royce Phantom! I stayed in touch with Mrs Aske until she sadly passed a few years ago. I have a ripped school photo from 1965 ish and remember the Muteens who lived at the bottom of my garden! Paul Lowe also lived in School Road and is life time friend. I moved to Hall Green Junior on same day as Simon Kingett when school closed. I also remember Geoffrey Harris, Mahmoud Alan Ragg Nina Horne, Janet, Gillian Hipkiss born 10 minutes after me in Sorrento Sonia Williams. Richard Alan Clarke and many more. I still have school reports but sadly no pictures of the school itself. I was there when we took brake off Hillman was it Hunter and crashed it into Kindergarten, wasn’t me of course. Billy Amott sadly had his teeth kicked out by me when I came feet first down slide.
Peppers were good to me, got on well with Mrs Blackwell, Mrs Mather’s and Bristoe. Hated the French teacher Madame ? Scared the living daylights out of me!
 
I was at Yorke House from 1957 until 1963. I remember both Mr Cooper and Mr Millington as headmasters. The deputy head Mr Linnell used to terrify me! He’d appear in lessons in a black teacher’s gown, swishing his cane threateningly to maintain discipline. He had a slipper which was used regularly as punishment on recalcitrant pupils. However, I realise now it was probably mainly for show; I was a very shy and quiet little girl and the one occasion I received the slipper for forgetting my PE kit was just the gentlest of taps on my backside. It still made the point though! He was less gentle with some of the naughtier boys; for one individual who I probably shouldn’t name, Mr Linnell chalked the first letter of his surname, “M”, onto the sole of the slipper and threatened to spank him with it repeatedly until the letter wore off. No prohibitions on corporal punishment in those days! However, I am grateful for a good educational grounding which got me to Camp Hill Grammar School and then on to university.
 
Stewpot said:
I went to Yorke House School until 1962 and remember chain tag in the playground and swimming at the Sparkhill Pool.
The attached photo has many faces I remember.
Names I remember are Barry Thompson, Denise and Christopher Bennett, Roger Murphy, Thomkins, Gray, Michael Dowler, Ruth Twyby, David Egginson, Miss Hands (teacher) and of course Mr Millington.
Click to expand...
I was at Yorke House from 59 to 64 and remember peacocks on the front lawn. Great to see the 62 photo it brought back lots of memories! and I can remember David Brown John Walters, Nicky Richardson, Richard Jones, Stephen Hall, Julian Yabacinski, Linda Powell, Pauline Moon, Karl ? Alan & Stewart King and my sister Denise was in the year above.
 
Chris Bennett said:
I was at Yorke House from 59 to 64 and remember peacocks on the front lawn. Great to see the 62 photo it brought back lots of memories! and I can remember David Brown John Walters, Nicky Richardson, Richard Jones, Stephen Hall, Julian Yabacinski, Linda Powell, Pauline Moon, Karl ? Alan & Stewart King and my sister Denise was in the year above.
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Hi Chris, pleasantly surprised to read your post and see another old photo including you and my brother. It's about 60 years since days in The Hurst and YHS. We've both moved away from Brum. I'm just north of London, Alan's nearer Leicester. Hoping you, Denise and your families are well.
 
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