[Henry Mellish]

Here's a picture of D B Sparrow taken from a staff group photograph on the Apsley Grammar School archive website just a year or so after he was at the Mellish. Apsley G.S., like the Mellish is, alas, no more ...

[Henry Mellish]

Hi Phil. Coming new to this site I've enjoyed your posts in particular - thank you! I was in fact in touch with Malcolm Peaker around the time of the closure because I had an idea to put together a book about the school based mainly on items that exhibition and in The Centaur, but nothing has come of it. However, we keep in touch occasionally. When Nigel Press died Malcolm had some entertaining memories, not least because Nigel used to prefer to take his morning coffee with the lab stewards rather than in the staff room! I remember Malcolm very well and have a vivid aural memory of his name being uttered by Mr Sparrow ('Peee-kuh'), He would be a great asset to this site! He was also a great admirer of Harry Hadwen (as was I) and HEH even features on Malcolm's website! As for DBS, he would make an impassioned announcement each year at assembly as winter approached for the continued consumption of ice cream from the tuck shop, 'otherwise', he ended, ominously, 'Walls will come and confiscate the refrigerator'. Once slightly unkindly described as 'the only man who can eat a banana sideways'.

I remember George Cansdale visiting but had forgotten it was at HMGS; I do remember a very large snake!

As to the decline of the school, where are the Malcolm Peakers and Neil Cossonses of today? Blame it on politicians who have a lot to say (and much influence) over things they know absolutely nothing about.

I mentioned earlier David Peberdy's 'day in the life of the school' film, but I also discovered in a commemorative edition of The Centaur mention of a whole series of photographs Peaker (as a member of the Photographic Society) took, possibly in the mid-/late-fifties, but have never been able to pin him down on what happened to them? Do you recall anything about this?

[Henry Mellish]

Bob McCandless was a dear. We used to look forward to his announcements in assembly about TEA on family day and how, to avoid disappointment (and the wrath of 'Missus Frorst', as he always pronounced it!), it had to be ordered in advance. Forty years on, after many years living in London, I was visiting Nottingham and realized I was quite near to his home in Carlton, and walked down the road past his house and, to my amazement, there he was standing in the window, waiting for a taxi to take him to church (it was a Sunday morning). I couldn't just walk on, so I went up to the house, rang the bell and introduced myself. He claimed to remember me! I'm so glad I saw him then, after so many years, for he died shortly afterwards, and I remember, after writing to his wife, I had a very nice letter from his daughter Janet.

Spud Morrow was always a bit of a romancer, I thought, even claiming that he was once a member of the IRA, blowing up bridges, etc.! When I left school and went to work at Nottingham Central Library he used to come in occasionally and I noticed that on his reader's ticket he was described as 'Flight-Lieutenant' R. S. Morrow. Despite this, he always used to refer to CCF members as 'playing at soldiers'. But he was my form master in the second form and always very fair and encouraging at a time when I was a bit downcast at having gone from 1A to 2C. Thanks to him, the next year I went up to 3B! He was the object of many practical jokes such as unwanted deliveries of coal, etc., to his house, as a result of which, it was his wife (Dorothy?) who was listed in the telephone directory, not him. I remember he came from County Sligo, a contrast with Paddy Brook (A. P. R. Brook) who came from Cork (and taught maths).

Somebody earlier refers to the lab steward and his connections with the CCF, but can't remember the name. This was Horace Lovett, always the most splendidly turned-out on parade days!

[Henry Mellish]

I attended HMGS from 1957 to 1964, therefore at the same time as several posters here. This site was drawn to my attention by Robert Dawson during a recent exchange of e-mails following the sad death of our friend Robert Newton. I last saw Newton in 2009 at one of the gatherings to mark the closure of the school - a bittersweet occasion, given the sad state of the buildings (though not as sad as when the whole lot was demolished). The school had moved from being a pretty decent grammar school sending a stream of boys to universities and into the professions, to a comprehensive and then a sports college, latterly in special measures. The archive displays were good, however, and much of this material is now in the care of Nottinghamshire Archives.

From our year I met Dick Hallam, Ian Talks, David Payne and Robert Newton and, on the previous day, Gil Stenson - Dawson was there too, but somehow we missed each other. Tried to upload photographs here but they are too big, apparently. Watch this space.

Good to see Rob Johnson here ('Hey, you, curly, sheep ...'), We were in the same form. Your profile says you are now in Melbourne, which I assume means Australia, not Derbyshire. Cliff Wragg, too: do you still live in Potters Bar, not far from me in north London? Your father was a non-Conformist minister in Hucknall, where I grew up. Visiting Handel House in London a few years back one of the members of staff was the daughter of John Chastney, whose father Alec was also a minister in Hucknall.

Picking up on some of the previous comments: Will anyone ever forget the Barry Fisher business? But surely he was not expelled? Pig Hutchinson was always supposed to have been doing something very hush-hush during the War. Nigel Press, David Lovibond and John Spolton have recently died. Roger Burton was a baritone (and a very good one), not a tenor, but I agree that his singing of 'Three Kings from Persian lands afar' at the carol service was very memorable - as was his annual Family Day duet, singing 'The Bold Gendarmes' with Jim Spolton!

Robert Dawson reminds me that when David Peberdy acquired a cine camera we did a 'day in the life of the school', which caused a certain amount of comment when David Sibley was espied processing around the school dressed as a Roman Catholic priest. I'd love to see that film. Anyone know the whereabouts of Peberdy, who at the time lived at Hucknall?