Mrs Harrison was the headmistress. I remember Mrs Bembow (she was my favourite teacher at the time). Mr Adkin was still Class 9. We had Mr Damon (allegedly the brother of Stuart Damon, the actor) in Class 7, and was it Mr Spate/Speight in Class 8? Damned if I can remember the other teachers' names as I passed through.
Then there was the time the Brook flooded and one of the pupils - Mark Darch - was drowned when he fell in it.
The photo posted earlier was in the Gym/Hall building - I recognised those shutters to the kitchen. Who remembers the liver they used to serve once a week? I hated that. Don't get me started on the lumpy mashed potatoes and lumpy custard, or that spicy sponge dessert they did. And days when you prayed it would be foggy, because that was pretty much the only reason they closed early and sent people home. Mrs Harrison would do that if she couldn't see the houses on Brooksby Lane from the top end of the schoolyard on that side of the school. I think it happened 2 or 3 times while I was there.
I can remember the fire in the 80s (I was watching an episode of the first run of The Young Ones when it happened). Apparently it was arson. By that time, I was either close to leaving Fairham, or had just done so.
As I understand it, the reason they didn't rebuild Brooksby was the same as why there is now only one secondary school in Clifton rather than the original three. When Clifton was first built, it was the largest council estate in Europe, and it was stocked with young couples with kids. That provided enough pupils to fill all the schools (we sometimes had 30 in a class at Fairham, and at it's peak there were around 2000 pupils there). The authorities expected a turnover of residents, but that didn't happen, so the population gradually aged and didn't move out, and all the kids grew up. Charnwood closed as a secondary school first a long time ago now. Fairham closed maybe 10-15 years ago, and by the time it did there were less than 200 pupils there. So now there's only Farnborough. Rebuilding Brooksby even in the late 80s/early 90s wasn't justified because of the falling numbers of pupils.
Fairham was demolished a few years ago now because the derelict buildings were repeatedly set on fire - the last time, it was quite a big one, so they demolished everything to stop it happening again.
Brooksby Lane School
in All other Nottingham Schools Discussions
Posted
I was at Brooksby from '66 to '71.
Mrs Harrison was the headmistress. I remember Mrs Bembow (she was my favourite teacher at the time). Mr Adkin was still Class 9. We had Mr Damon (allegedly the brother of Stuart Damon, the actor) in Class 7, and was it Mr Spate/Speight in Class 8? Damned if I can remember the other teachers' names as I passed through.
Then there was the time the Brook flooded and one of the pupils - Mark Darch - was drowned when he fell in it.
The photo posted earlier was in the Gym/Hall building - I recognised those shutters to the kitchen. Who remembers the liver they used to serve once a week? I hated that. Don't get me started on the lumpy mashed potatoes and lumpy custard, or that spicy sponge dessert they did. And days when you prayed it would be foggy, because that was pretty much the only reason they closed early and sent people home. Mrs Harrison would do that if she couldn't see the houses on Brooksby Lane from the top end of the schoolyard on that side of the school. I think it happened 2 or 3 times while I was there.
I can remember the fire in the 80s (I was watching an episode of the first run of The Young Ones when it happened). Apparently it was arson. By that time, I was either close to leaving Fairham, or had just done so.
As I understand it, the reason they didn't rebuild Brooksby was the same as why there is now only one secondary school in Clifton rather than the original three. When Clifton was first built, it was the largest council estate in Europe, and it was stocked with young couples with kids. That provided enough pupils to fill all the schools (we sometimes had 30 in a class at Fairham, and at it's peak there were around 2000 pupils there). The authorities expected a turnover of residents, but that didn't happen, so the population gradually aged and didn't move out, and all the kids grew up. Charnwood closed as a secondary school first a long time ago now. Fairham closed maybe 10-15 years ago, and by the time it did there were less than 200 pupils there. So now there's only Farnborough. Rebuilding Brooksby even in the late 80s/early 90s wasn't justified because of the falling numbers of pupils.
Fairham was demolished a few years ago now because the derelict buildings were repeatedly set on fire - the last time, it was quite a big one, so they demolished everything to stop it happening again.