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On 3/11/2019 at 11:46 AM, Cynthia Evans said:

Yes I started on 1st day of term in Sept 1959.  I was in Form 1F and in Schweitzer House.  I travelled to Arnold from Toton, near Beeston.  The girls travelled upstairs on a double decker bus with an open platform to get on and off by.  Freezing in winter.  Later on we travelled in a Skills coach, which was much more comfortable.  Only just found this site and will tell my good friend (from school almost 60 years ago) about it.  We travelled to school together.  My name then was Cynthia Tuxford, and my friend's Janet Redfern.  Would love to catch up with old schoolmates.

 

 

 

Reading this has got the brain cells working, I can remember a number of the inmates of Form 1F. Roger Smith, Geoff Smith, Geoff Whittle, Martin Wells, Stephen Wood, Pat Walker, Valerie Yarwood, Pat Winnett, Jean Walker - there must have been more!!  Any of them out there still or anyone out there remember these or more? Good times well remembered

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Hello,   I've only just discovered this site and have enjoyed reading the comments which bring back great memories from 60 years ago. I started at ACHS at the beginning,September 1959,a

Hello,   I'm glad more people are discovering this site. Dennis M above,was that Janet Britten?I seem to remember her from my time at ACHS from the first day in September 1959 to when I

Was on a bus trip in Sicily yesterday. Recognised a Midland accent behind us. He was bought up in Underwood and went to Arnold County High School. He started Sept 61. The small world gets smaller.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello,

 

I've only just discovered this site and have enjoyed reading the comments which bring back great memories from 60 years ago.

I started at ACHS at the beginning,September 1959,after one year at BHGS.I was in Cheshire house with Mr.Jones as form master.

I do remember  most of the teachers mentioned but will try to avoid repeating what has already been said.

Someone mentioned that pupils came from all over Notts.but I remember that it was down to parental choice as ACHS was deemed to be the best school in the county for those that passed the eleven plus.I lived in Bramcote and it was just a short walk to BHGS where I spent a year.I seem to recall that some pupils had two years at either Bramcote or Eastwood before moving to ACHS.

Not sure if this is going to post so I'll be brief this time.More to follow perhaps.

Ronnie Fox of March 25th 2017.I'm Jim Tubb and the others are Colin Humphries,John Tanner( a friend from junior school),Colin Wilkinson.

Others mentioned elsewhere include Dave Beardall and especially Gall who seems to be the main man on this site.

Cynthia Tuxford and Janet Redfern on the bus from Beeston,Chilwell,Stapleford,Bramcote where I got on on Derby Road.

 

Will add more if this works!

Regards to all,and good health.

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38 minutes ago, LizzieM said:

Welcome to Nottstalgia 36E JT.  Nice post but I need to tell you that Carlton-le-Willows GS was the best County Grammar School :victory:

 

Definitely  was Lizzie ...  but I suppose we're biased

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girlvboy     What criteria are we going to use to find out which school was the best?    I've a feeling that whatever evidence is produced, we will all still think our old school is the one...... bit like the Brexit debate maybe?      Oops!  Wrong thread.....

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No argument Margie, by the time ACHS opened Carlton-le-Willows was an established County Grammar School, opened in 1953, the first Grammar School to open after WW11.  Apart from new first formers the early year pupils were bussed in from West Bridgford Grammar and Henry Mellish.  We were certainly the best in all sports.

However, when I passed the 11 plus in 1961 I did choose ACHS as my preferred school as it was less than half a mile from home, but I was sent to C-le-W, I was initially disappointed but as it happened I wouldn’t have wanted to spend 5 years of my life anywhere else!  

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The actual school building was only ready for occupation by September 1954 when I started as a first year.... and even then, it was only part finished!   The second year pupils were - as you say, Lizzie -  mainly from HM and WB, but they only started attending CLW in 1954, not 1953.   They spent their first year at their original schools... (but knowing they were going to move to CLW the next year). 

 

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I hadn’t even started Infant School in 1953/54 so didn’t know most of those details Margie, thanks for clarifying anyway.  

I watched ACHS being built and used to play on the building site!  I drove past there recently and seen the main buildings haven’t stood the test of time (unlike C-le-W) and have been demolished already.   

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I started ACHS in 1962 and it was leaking and starting to fall apart then.

Several of the buildings had been replaced.

 

It was prefab, built using the CLASP system originally known as Consortium of Local Authorities Special Programme , of which Notts CC were a leading player.

Start to finish I believe was 18months.

 

but later known as, Collection of loosely Assembled Steel Parts, (which were full of asbestos.)

 

So in terms of fabric, it certainly wasn' the best:Shock:

 

Plus we used to get an oil slick in the Quad play area from the heating oil pipe that used to leak regularly.

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2 hours ago, LizzieM said:

I hadn’t even started Infant School in 1953/54 

 

Oh dear, Lizzie... now I feel even older!

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Hi

 

Spotted this site recently; always been slow off the mark.

I started with the first intake in 1959 in Year 1. I was one of the contingent from Annie Holgate Juniors, Hucknall which included Kath Stewart, Anne Pickering, Bernard Brentnall, Martin Ingram, Raymond Fish, Peter Ross (all Year 3 starters), Jennifer Williams, ???Britten (Cath's sister), Terry Palin, Roger Johnson and the irrepressable Carl Beeson (Year 2). Sorry if I missed anyone.

Carl lived next door to the Co-op dairy where his dad was the manager. He also had a Saturday delivery job (not milk!) with the Co-op.

More recently Kath Stewart organised lunch-time get-togethers mainly for those in her school year. I managed to 'gate crash' on two occasions via my acquaintance with Trish and Vaughan Symonds (more on this later). I recollect Jim Briars being there on one occasion.

 

More to come. 

 

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Hello,

 

I'm glad more people are discovering this site.

Dennis M above,was that Janet Britten?I seem to remember her from my time at ACHS from the first day in September 1959 to when I left in July 1965 after 2 years in the 6th form.

In this post I will concentrate on the travel to and from Arnold as I mentioned that I lived in Bramcote and others have talked about the buses.Our bus was owned by Leslie Smith of Hyson Green and was previously operated by Maidstone and District.It was a double decker with an open platform and the usual "conductor" was an elderly chap called Arthur.

Most days journeys went well but in the early 1960s Nottingham was notorious for pea souper fogs.On those days we left ACHS early and on one particular bad day there were so many abandoned vehicles on the Boulevards (the ring road) that progress was slow.I remember bailing out near Aspley Lane and walking home to Bramcote from there.No doubt others did likewise and remember there were no mobile phones so goodness knows what our parents thought!People were much hardier then!

In later years we had Skill's single deckers,some of those were really nice coaches.

A few people I remember from those buses are:

Colin Humphries,Colin Wilkinson,Janet Redfern,Cynthia Tuxford,Wendy Sells,Wilf Heard,Trevor Elliott,John Tanner and Alan Seymour.

While I'm thinking about the buses I recall Trent came from Hucknall etc.,Lamcote from Radcliffe etc.and I think Roy's also.

I remember a class visit to the old Playhouse and we had one of Roy's old double deckers and it seemed to struggle up the steep hill from school to Mapperley top,but we made it!

Anyway enough for now.More to come soon.

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Re Janet? Britten. I assume you started ACHS in year 2 which was the year for her. Our bus was the Trent service no. 67 which were pretty reliable. 

 

I mentioned previously Trish and Vaughan Symonds. We met up with them in Arboleas which is near where they lived in Almeria, Spain and close to the village where we have a property. This resulted from a chance remark to Terry Palin when he contacted me to enquire about my non-attendance at the reunion in 2009. Terry was living in Floida at that time.

Vaughan still had a badge from the school uniform. We met frequently whenever we were out there and joined their quiz team - 'the numpties'. Unfortunately they had to sell up and return to England as a result of Trish's illness from which she passed away a couple of years ago. We attended the funeral together with others from our school.

 

More soon

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Yes Dennis M I had one year at Bramcote Hills Grammar then started at ACHS in September 1959,see my post of November 17th for more details.

I am hoping to post more memories in the near future.

I remember the six houses being,spellings maybe not all correct,Aylward,Cheshire(the one I was in),Pandit,Makerenko,Roosevelt and Schweitzer.

Sorry to hear the bad news about Trish.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Good to see a few new posts.

 

Of course ACHS was a better school than CleW!  It wasn't just some aspects of the building design, but also the philosophy, driven by J H Higginson (Harry of England as he used to sign himself...)  To understand that, you have to read his book, as mentioned before, 'A School is Born'.  A real eye opener. 

 

Trish Simons (nee Thomas at school) was very much an instigator of several reunions, large and small over the years, and I managed several of them, even though it is a rather long bus ride from Auckland!  She was great pals with Glenda Scholtz (a brilliant artist at school), who also passed away some years ago, but after the 1988 reunion.

 

Vaughan Simons acquired the nickname 'Moon', or 'Moonshine', because of a, thankfully, brief exposure to Shakespeare whilst still at Bramcote.  We last caught up at the 2009 reunion held at the school.  Little did we know then that the buildings would be demolished within a decade.  (My 2018 visit was a sad one as ACHS had gone, Plains Primary School had gone and Ashford Remand Centre in Middlesex, where I worked for 6 years had also gone.)

 

I hope more will post on here.  I'm still in touch with Richard Warsop, Stuart Stone, Graham Norbury and hopefully, we'll catch up again later this year along with Stuart Brandreth, Sue Bish and hopefully, Ann (nee Pickering) Wright, who lost husband Lindsay Wright, a few years back, also Vivienne Pearson (nee Foy).

 

Bernard Brentnall.   A solid chap back then, before my growth spurt, as I seem to remember colliding with him whilst playing football in the Dutch barn, within a day or two of ACHS opening and coming off the collision with a black eye.  I may even have been the first casualty to visit the first aid room!  

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Not that successful. It’s listed as performing ‘below average’ in the recently published OFSTED results for A levels in Notts Schools. 
At least my alma mater, Henry Mellish, has been demolished. Prior to that, what used to be a first class grammar school, had been placed into ‘special measures’ in its latter years as a comprehensive. I went to the closing ceremony prior to its closure and it was a dump. The headmaster was a former PT teacher!

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Manning, too, is no more. After it moved into the old Peveril premises, it was the only single sex, state funded school in the city. It has, I believe, now become an academy in spanking brand new premises. A rose by any other name...? Whether it is still single sex, I don't know.

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I believe CleW had very good A Level results when it was a Grammar School.  Several students (including me) took 4 or 5 O Levels at the end of the 4th form so they could dedicate more time and effort to A Levels.  They missed out the 5th form completely and went straight into lower sixth.  I remember being told that 5 O Levels were plenty - it was A Levels that were important.

It's hardly fair comparing the GS  at that time to nowadays as there is a much broader curriculum now (which I think is a good thing)  and there are other avenues to success rather than going to University anyway - modern apprenticeships for example....

.... and it's certainly not fair comparing schools which are no more - for whatever reason - with schools which have had to  adapt to the times.

I walked round the school last year and was impressed with how clean and bright it was, with inspirational posters on the walls.   I know, I know, that doesn't necessarily reflect A Level results... just thought I'd mention it!

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On 2/8/2020 at 12:50 AM, Jill Sparrow said:

Manning, too, is no more. After it moved into the old Peveril premises, it was the only single sex, state funded school in the city. It has, I believe, now become an academy in spanking brand new premises. A rose by any other name...? Whether it is still single sex, I don't know.

Off topic - totally, but I was heavily involved with the first ever combined Scout & Guide Group, which started off in Nottingham 1963. One of the early members was Alison Gath from ACHS (who apparently thought I was a tough prefect/deputy...) but another very dear friend at the time was at Manning, name of Sue Dawes (from Ravensworth Rd Bulwell). If you or anyone else has any clue as to her whereabouts, I'd be very grateful.  

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