Highbury junior school

[Brut33 20]

I've noticed that there is a heading for Highbury Boys school a little lower down this list, but there isn't one for Highbury Infant school, So now there is. According to what I have read, there used to be a swimming pool in the grounds of Highbury boys school. That and another building were demolished in the late 1940's to create the Highbury Junior School. The junior school was completely separate from the Boys school. I went there for a couple of years (Not sure exactly how long). My recollection is that I went to Cantrell rd school in Bulwell as a first year infant aged five that would have been in 1964. At some point the class was transferred to Highbury junior school which was on Albert Street off Highbury vale in Bulwell. Albert street is long gone but it ran down the right hand side of what was the coop (Not sure what it is now) so it was almost a continuation of Broomhill rd. As you walked down Albert street, you passed a club on the left (working mans clubs Possibly called the Zebra club but I may have remembered that wrong) after the club you passed Highbury senior boys school and a church. A little further down still on the left you came to Highbury Junior school. 

 

The school was on one level ie no stairs. The thing I remember most it that it had two air-raid shelters in the playground. You could get into a narrow part of each shelter and the girls used to play kiss catch in there, I don't ever remember being caught or kissed. There was a brick missing in the wall looking into the main section of one of the shelters and the rumour was that a dead German was hanging up in there. No one ever thought of bringing in a torch and putting that rumour to bed. The playground had outdoor toilets which were on the far end, they were pretty grim as I recall with that awful hard thin loo paper. The main part of the School was a central kind of hexagonal hall with classrooms leading off to several sides. I would love to see a photograph of inside that school, I have one below which shows a group from one of the classes but I can't remember the teachers. Across the playground from the school and passed the air raid shelters was another building where dinners were served and beyond that dining area was a room we used to go to to watch Schools TV. There were set programs on the BBC in those days what presumably were part of some learning process.

 

The questions I have apart from has anyone got any photographs???? are , who were the teachers around 1965 to 1968. Was it normal practice from the infants at Cantrell to be sent to Highbury Junior. And what year did the Junior school get demolished. The reason for my last question is that at some point I returned to Cantrell rd school and stayed there until eventually leaving to go to Alderman Derbyshire in Bulwell aged 11.  I was part of the first influx of pupils to go to Alderman Derbyshire when it became a mixed comprehensive school, the previous year it was an all girls school.

 

Finally the photograph below:-

That's me (Keith) on the far right of the photograph. The boy with blond hair bottom left I believe is Gregory Turner but I'm not 100% sure of that. The boy in the middle pointing at the snake is Adrian Hallam I'm 100% sure of that as he was a....well lets just say I didn't like him..at all! Not sure about the other kids in the photo I did know them but I'm afraid their names escape me. The girl bottom left probably went on to become a stunner wasn't she pretty, only just realised lol. Perhaps someone could help with the other names, I'm thinking maybe Kevin for the other guy but wild guess, the other girl lets say Julie, there were a lot of Julie's around then or and this could be my mind playing tricks was she Mavis or Maxine?  

[plantfit 7,569]

Some memories there Brut, my maternal grandparents lived in the last house on the left before the school, always had a good selection of tennis balls that had come over the school  wall into grandfathers garden

 

Rog

[Brut33 20]

They would have been from me, I didn't get good at tennis until I turned eighteen lol. To be honest I don't ever remember any tennis being played at the junior school, more likely the tennis balls were from rounders or some other small ball related game. Unless they were were from the senior school of course. All long gone now of course, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if the houses that replaced the school, factories and remaining houses are not about ready for a rebuild. 

Keith