Old Arnoldonian

I quite liked Walter Weddle, he was a bit distant, but I guess not intrusive. He encouraged me in theatre, before it was popular and in my drawing as well. For years after I left Red Hill he had a map of the county that I and someone else drew framed on the wall outside his office. I guess he was also instrumental in getting me into Digby Avenue College, by working with the county to allow me to stay on at school after the Christmas holidays when I should have left because my birthday came just into the new year. I think that someone actually wanting to go into further education from Red H

I was there from September 1958 to June 1962, then Digby Avenue College. Walter Weddle was the Headmaster and Miss love the Headmistress. Misters Pilgrim, Fowler, Pettit, and Misses Dabell, Hough, Ball? were there then as far as I can remember. I had to take evening classes to qualify for Digby Avenue, because Red Hill didn't do things like exams in those days. Mr. Fowler lived not far from us and used to give free extra lessons at home for boys who were good at technical drawing. He couldn't do enough for anyone who tried, but could be harsh with those he thought were slackers.

Gilbert's Tea Gardens (or tea rooms) was situated between Mapperley Top and Haywood Road and didn't seem to have a street frontage. The buildings on Mapperley Top and Haywood Road backed onto a grass lawn, with the tea room building in the middle. There was a driveway entrance from Haywood Road and I suspect some sort of passage from Mapperley Top, but I don't remember seeing one. The building was, I think, a wooden structure and I have a mental image of it, but the last time I went there would have been in the early 1950s. We had a sort of family connection with Gilbert through an