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I've just driven past the site -they've knocked it down!!! I had no idea and it has made me rather emotional. There is an Arnold Hill Academy in the grounds but our school is just rubble - I'm totally gobsmacked. Did anybody know about this? 

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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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Yup, brought a tear to my eye.  I was over in May (2017). So glad I was able to make the 2009 Reunion and savour that building that had so many memories, most of them happy.

 

Young Warsop and I watched it being built, from Crosslands Fields before it was a housing estate.

 

Just to add to my woes, not only ACHS and Mapperley Plains primary and junior schools gone, but down in Ashford Middlesex, the Remand Centre I worked at for six years 1967-1973, also gone.

 

From the 2009 reunion - L to R, half the original Roosevelt lads  Vaughan "Moon" Simons, Stu Stone (both ex-police...),  Graham Norbury, yours truly, Dick Warsop.  Amazing that 50% of the lads are still in touch.

 

What is also staggering is that the three of us on the right all failed GCE comprehensively in 1962, yet went on to careers of considerable responsibility. 

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Yes it's doubly disappointing that both of the schools I attended - Mapperley Plains Primary and ACHS are both no longer there. It makes it very difficult to show your family where you went to school when the sites are completely different and the actual buildings gone

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I'm afraid that's what they call progress ! An ever increasing population, yet schools and hospitals are continuing to close.

I must be missing something somewhere ! 

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Hi all, by a strange quirk I found this site...again apparently although I don't ever remember looking at it previously. Walked in on my partners mother watching Inn of the Eigth Happiness about Gladys Aylward and said I believed I had met her--said I thought she had visited the school and handed out book prizes and I thought it must have been around 1966--I was luck enough to have won a prize when in the first year and assume it was presented in the second year---anyway when I searched..had Gladys ever visited Nottingham, the site came up and lo and behold, someone else remembered that she had attended, great, not just my imagination.

  I was in the same year as David James, Pete Brett, Joe Jackson Chris Marlowe, Martin Thewlis etc--we held a reunion of the year back in about 2001 I think when Sonia Rockley came over from the US and had a good gathering at the Tree Tops and a group of about 4 of us attended the 50th anniversary in 2009, myself, Pete, John Pilgrim and David Leavesley and met a few others there we knew.

 Chris Marlowe, now living in Tasmania and has done for many years was over last year and myself, Rob Severn and Andrew Spowage(now married to Jane Richley) met up at the Bread and Bitter in Mapperley for lunch.

Anybody remember Benjamin Feitelson ?--well at the 2009 meet, Pete Brett had a photo of a school football team and they couldn't identify one player..it was Benjamin. a French lad I believe..anyway found him on facebook and he asked for a copy of the pic..he has been a successful film actor and producer.

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some of the teachers I remember..BILL DYNAMITE--W TN THOMPSON, THE GERAN TEACHER, MR HOLNMES, ENGLISH, MISS BENNETT, DEP HEAD, MR SPELMAN, MR HOWARTH, BIG JOHN, MR CHIDLEY, PE, REPLACED BIG JOHN WHILST AWAY FOR A YEAR I THINK, MR BARLOW, MR DOCKEREL, MR W DOUBLE O, DOUBLE L HARD, WOOLARD, GREAT BLOKE, GOT ME PLAYING RUGBY AGAIN AFTER LEFT SCHOOL, JIM BRIERS, MIS SULLY LATER MRS BRIERS, MR RING, MR BOND--WHO WASN'T SCARED OF MR BOND, MR BAILEY, MR BONDS CO TEACHER IN METTALWORK, , MR WILEMAN, MR POTHECARY, DEAR MR LITHERLAND, STILL SEE HIM WALKING AROUND GEDLING, MR SHIPMAN, MISS ALSEBROOK, MR HIND, BATHWATER---MR THOMPSON, MR PEDLEY

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Greetings Mick Smith from your old rugby team-mate Dave James (known at school as 'Jammy' - always hated that name).  Did you see my post on page 9 dated Feb 18th?  Still remember the big games against Carlton le Willows and England Schools player Jim Panter.  Also Newark Magnus and Dusty Hare.  Do you remember Big John Howarth saying 'don't give any penalties away in your own half' as Hare would turn it into 3 points every time.  If I recall correctly, we won 6-3 with two Pete Griffin penalties to Hare's one.  Although I've just thought, that might have been an U-19 match after you'd left.  We played a few games together at Mellish after we'd left ACHS.  I Remember you hammering me in a pre-season trial match when I was in mid air catching a high ball at full back!

Very many familiar names on your list - jaw dropped when I saw Andrew Spowage had married Jane Richley - she was in a group of us who had regular parties in our houses.  Rob Severn had one or more and I had one.  Ian Jones had one.  Used to buy 'Party 7's' from the offie on the way to the party and also drink a bottle of Woodpecker cider (dead cheap) on the way.  Messrs Pilgrim, Marlowe and I think Leavesley went to Australia on a £10 one way passage, and I think Pilgrim and Leavesley came back pretty quick but Chris Marlowe did very well out there.  

Gutted to have missed all the reunions - just lost touch with everyone years and years ago and didn't know about these forums.  Are there any others coming up?  Would really like to see Rob Severn again, we were good mates and I used to go to his house quite a lot.

I've been going to Mellish again recently (just spectating obviously) where I've met up with Colin Foster, John Saxton and Uris.  Would be great to see you again there (bring Rob's phone no. if you've got it).  Their next home games are 6th and 27th Jan. I'll bring a picture of the 1968/69 ACHS rugby team! 

 

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Hi David, I had stopped looking at this site as there didn't seem to be any new postings on it---I came upon it accidentally a couple of months ago--good to hear from you.

  I'm afraid I don't have a contact for Rob, Chris(who has lived in Tasmania for many years now) got in touch with me as he was coming over last year and we arranged a little get together on Mapperley top...Chris was in touch with Ian Jones and he came over to see him a couple of years before that to see him as he had been diagnosed with cancer, Ian unfortunately died before he saw him.

Rob is divorced from his first wife...ACHS girl--Ros I think her name was, but now has a younger partner and I think he has a child with her--Rob is a judge in family courts and lives in Derby.

  I don't go up the rugby club  and haven't done for years, but have been to a couple of reunions up there---glad to know John is still around, he has prostate cancer--was given not long to live a few years ago !

 I remember the parties, though never had one myself, remember going to one at yours and I think John Hancock, and yes the horrible party 7's. I will make an effort to meet up with you at one of the home games..will try and make the 27th...can't make the 6th i'm afraid.

Will write more of what I know on here again when I have more time...a quiz awaits me now !!

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Hi again Mick.  Shocked to hear about Ian Jones death and surprised about John S - he gave every impression of being fit and well when I was talking to him. Maybe he's beaten it?

I've put the 27th on my calendar and also put a reminder to bring the rugby team photo.  All the names are on the back so let's see how many you can remember!

Have a look at the facebook page I recently started - https://www.facebook.com/davidjames1965to1972/  loads of photos on there which I either took myself of the derelict buildings in 2016, found on the internet, or scanned from my own (including the rugby one).  There's one of Aylward House members from the early 60's.  If the link doesn't work, just search facebook for Arnold County High School, Nottingham.  Leave a comment, then I'll know you've seen it.

Look forward to seeing you on the 27th. 

 

 

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Hi to everyone who attended ACHS - I was there from Sept 65 to June 72 and have posted a couple of times on this forum, once in October and again today and yesterday exchanging memories with Mick Smith.  If you want to see some photos I took of the buildings just before they were recently demolished, plus some old ones I found on the internet, go to the facebook site I started at https://www.facebook.com/davidjames1965to1972/  If that link doesn't work, just do a facebook search for Arnold County High School, Nottingham.  Please leave a comment if you visit!

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On 30/01/2014 at 2:03 PM, Guest Phoenix said:

Thanks Michael and Trevor :-). I was browsing last night and some of the posts here have taken me back years to a Nottingham I've never forgotten. I moved there in 1961 and left in 1967 when my parents moved to another part of the Midlands right in the middle of my A levels.

Yes, I remember poor Helen. She smoked like a chimney and was remarkably tolerant. I know she went ballistic one day when it was a double decker. There was a pile of us on the top deck running from one side of the bus to the other trying, with some success, to get it to sway! After that there was a coach and one of the drivers had been roadie for The Dave Clarke 5. He gave us boxes of photos and posters. Heaven knows what I did with mine. Probably chucked them out because I wasn't keen on DC.

I lived on the outskirts just off the main road near Woodside Stores and a little post office. Roger Webb used to get on there. Next stop was for David Crook, then the village where Ralph Smith and some others got on. I only moved to ROT in summer of 61 so ACHS was the first school I went to in that area.

Looking back, I never really appreciated the value of the teaching there. A great deal of it was excellent and the school was at the cutting edge of best practice teaching. I saw Mr Jones name mentioned. Poor man, he nearly strangled me once, literally! Two of us offered to weed his little garden near the science block stairs. He was very pleased. Set to with gusto and after about 30 minutes was aware of a gargled shouting noise. I looked up and his head was purple, just about ready to explode. Of course, I thought that was funny, so my laughter didn't help the situation. Apparently the 'garden' was filled with special and some rare ornamental grasses. All weeds to unknowing 12 year olds. We'd pulled them all up! He thought it was deliberate but wetsuit thought they were like field grass; weeds!

Miss Bennett; seemed to suffer from a sense if humour by pass, but was actually very nice. Miss Roberts, taught maths and shouted a lot. And Mr Pothecary who also taught maths and amused many of us by arriving at school on a racing bike. He was short and inclined to plumpness, so quite entertaining..

It's been fascinating recalling many of these memories. I'll be 64 soon. Don't the years fly! I'm off to have another browse round the site. Catch you later maybe.

 

I'm not sure how to reply to the above message but it seems that what I'm writing is appearing at the bottom of the existing message.  Regardless, I can remember Charlie Phipps, wonder where he is now?  Also I used to sit with Sarah Neville in English class and she and her family left Nottingham to emigrate to Canada in the 70's I believe.  Her father was an actor/director and he passed away a few years ago in Toronto.

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On 18/02/2017 at 11:28 PM, David James said:

Hi Sharon Gee if you're there......please post reunion details if you go ahead with one.  I would have loved to attend the 2009 one but didn't know about it until today! Only 7 years too late!

Names I remember from my year or just below or above are: Mick Smith, John Pilgrim, Chris McGowan, Denis Shepherd, Billy Pinder, Andrew Boultby, Matthew Harris, Ian Wood, Pete Squires, Pete Griffin, Pamela Jones (1st real girlfriend!), Lynn Withers, Jane Fitch, Christine Binch, Robert Severn, Richard Loffill, Ian Jones, Jane Richley, Janet Leafe, Sue Pickering, Linda Zamyck, Stephen Terry, Anita Cast.  

 

I  remember being at school with Jane Zamick.  Her father was a famous ice skater or hockey player I think.

 

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"Chick" Zamick was indeed a top ice hockey player (Canadian?) and I think played for Nottingham Panthers.  I believe he built what was a squash club at the top of Gedling Lane.  In those days, I don't think we even knew what squash was!

 

It may have been mentioned on here before, (can't be bothered to scroll back) but the first head teacher, Dr J H Higginson, wrote a book about Arnold, entitled "A School Is Born".  We corresponded extensively around the time of the 1988 reunion and I started writing up my perspective of the school. That is, from an academic failure.  I was part of the very first intake via Bramcote and I left in 1962 with just 1 GCE in Art to show for it.  My Mum was the lady who was there to keep order on one of the infamous Roy's Buses, on the Eastwood run, whilst her sister Doris, struggled to maintain control of the bus to and from Bramcote. 

 

JHH signed himself as 'Harry of England' and was super helpful as I wrote and he passed on my ramblings to former teachers for comment. I suppose I should get back to it as he was very encouraging and  dare I say it, complimentary.

 

Someone mentioned Rob Severn.  He had two older sisters - Jill and Judith, both with flaming red hair and they lived on Barden Rd, as did my buddy, Mr Warsop, who married Jill, though sadly, the marriage didn't last.

 

Interesting looking at my school report for the first year at Arnold and we only had one female teacher.  The voluptuous Dorothy Carter - History. 

 

The three science teachers we dealt with, Jones, Cawthorne and Hind, Biology,  Physics and Chemistry respectively, got on like a house on fire and were known to wind up some unsuspecting first former, by sending him to borrow things such as a board rubber or chalk and send it back if it was the wrong colour or wasn't clean enough,  or asking for payment, much to our amusement! 

 

When Lady Chatterley's Lover was released, I seem to remember a huddle as someone read it out loud in the Chemistry Lab before Mr Hind arrived.  He was known to use a knuckle and thump your upper arm repeatedly, whilst calling you a stupid laddie or similar, when you had stuffed up an experiment.     

 

Hopefully I'll catch up with one or two of our mob again when I am next over, late August, but as we'll all be 72 by then, (gulp) we never know now who will still be around.

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On ‎21‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 0:00 AM, David James said:

Hi to everyone who attended ACHS - I was there from Sept 65 to June 72 and have posted a couple of times on this forum, once in October and again today and yesterday exchanging memories with Mick Smith.  If you want to see some photos I took of the buildings just before they were recently demolished, plus some old ones I found on the internet, go to the facebook site I started at https://www.facebook.com/davidjames1965to1972/  If that link doesn't work, just do a facebook search for Arnold County High School, Nottingham.  Please leave a comment if you visit!

David,  I have tried to leave messages on here and the facebook site but don't know if they get there so to speak---are we still meeting up at Mellish on Saturday

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Not sure where I copied this aerial shot from, it was possibly on Nottstalgia a few years ago.   It shows Arnold High School when it first opened.  The house I grew up in is also there, in the middle of the photo, Winthorpe Road, running left to right, sort of level with the school’s running track.  I can see my house too.  In the bottom left quarter of the photo is Kingswell Junior School where I went til aged 11.  Top right is Middlebeck Drive and top left is part of Killisick Estate.  On the opposite side of Gedling Road to the school are allotments which were soon to be turned into a housing estate.  

B0113_EEE-_D10_E-4_B3_D-91_E4-_E512_FFAD

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Yes I remember you saying you worked on house building in Arnold, it didn’t take long before those fields were swallowed up with houses but for a few years us kids had plenty of countryside to play in. 

Edit:  I would guess that this photo was taken around 1960.

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On ‎30‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 7:17 PM, FoxR said:

Yes it's doubly disappointing that both of the schools I attended - Mapperley Plains Primary and ACHS are both no longer there. It makes it very difficult to show your family where you went to school when the sites are completely different and the actual buildings gone

 

Were you in the 110th,  Mapperley Methodist  Cubs?  If so, just come across a photograph of a Cub outing to Barrow-on Soar in 1958.  Several names I can remember and one or two went on to ACHS. whilst others went to Carlton-le-Willows, Gedling or Robert Mellors.  You were sitting just in front of me!

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Yes I was in the Mapperley Methodist cub pack and I remember the outing to Barrow-on-Soar. I think that must also have been the year I started secondary school st ACHS

I remember there was an old off licence opposite the church which was run by an old crabby woman and her husband and she was not very keen on having young kids in her shop  buying sweets etc. I suppose the off licence was part of the Porchester pub which is not a pub any more although the building has survived

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I doubt you would have started at ACHS in 1958 as it didn't open until 1959 - and come to think of it, Mum must have dated the photograph incorrectly, as I was in Scouts February 1957!  

 

Yes, remember the crabby old couple in the off-licence - and the musty smell!  I don't think it was in any way connected to the Porchester pub though. 

 

Did you also work at A B Gibsons in Daybrook maybe in the Work Study Department, or is my memory playing tricks?   Ironic if so, given that I went on to a long career in Work Study, from 1977 onwards.

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Did you work at A B Gibsons socram ? i was there thru the 70s.........initially as a Retail Advisor ,then a Rep......finishing as Sales Manager in Peterborough.

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