Claremont Bilateral/secondary modern


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Regarding various posts about teachers, the ones I remember, fondly or not, from 1970-75 in no particular order are: Mr Laughton or Lawton (?) - A P.E. Teacher with a Comb-Over & a size 12 Dunlo

As usual I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but the names you have so far are correct. The other David (the bottle collector) was David Hamilton - he also got on Blue Peter with his collection.

Not Guilty.

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Third row second from left........David Smedley front row centre Romeo Dixon....second row third from right I remember him collecting bottles and having a display of them in the window of a building society in town and think his name was also David.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Trying to sort a reunion with classes that were at Claremont between 65 and 67, if you are interested, let me know.

Possibly a Saturday night in June, and poss at Bar Deux Sherwood Rise.

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  • 9 months later...
  • 11 months later...

Going back a long time but I was at Claremont 1941 to 1944, still remember a lot of the pupils and teaching staff.

Dennis

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Crikey Dennis, that was sometime ago!

Dennis, did you dig the foundations?................................. :):laugh:

No!, not the foundations but we did do some digging at Claremont. Claremont had a school allotment during the war, it was situated near to "The Fox" public house on Valley Road Basford. The metal work teacher was in charge of it and instead of doing metal work we used to be taken by bus to the allotment to cultivate it, it was purely vegetable growing carrots, cabbages, etc. and the produce was sold to pupils. Watering the garden was easy as a stream ran alongside the allotment (The Leen)?. I used to enjoy the garden trips out, I much preferred garden trips to metal work. We also could volunteer for potato picking, which I did. We were taken by bus to the farms we were working on, i was at Stoke Farm. It was back breaking work, a machine called a spinner was driven along the rows of potatoes throwing the spuds onto the ground and we followed behind picking them up and filling baskets with them, then emptying them onto a lorry.

Dennis

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Working on farms and allotment, the first I've heard of that but I'm not surprised as it was the war years.

The sign above the door on the Claremont Road building suggests the school was established in1844.

8337392048_372609a52f_d.jpg

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I was thinking more of zab than the stonemason... :tongue:

It always amazes me that the Burgesses of Nottingham didn't have that corrected in later years,obviously at the time there was a time element involved where it just had to be finished.I bet there was a right bollocking handed out over that.

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Hi Are we talking Claremont School Carrington (Hucknall Road) If so I was in the infants 1943 all the way through when I left in 1953. I do recall the Headmaster Oliver Barnett, He liked to use the cane, had this a few times.any one else remember these years. Brian Kirk

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I think they all enjoyed dishing out corporal punishment in those days Brian, A teacher Mr.Taylor once gave the whole class a belt with a yardstick (which he used instead of a cane or strap) for making a noise while he left the class for a couple of minutes after telling us to keep quite, which we didn't. Another teacher Mr. Ahib who used to take us for P.E. used a piece of rope with a knot in the end as a means of punishment. Other teachers I remember from that time are Miss.Newnes Science, Mr.Chapman, Mr.Windass and a Mr.Yarnall. Other memories of Claremont at that time are one of the pupils being knocked down and killed by a bus on Hucknall Road just outside of the school, and a fighter plane crashing down Hucknall Road up Teesdale Road. We all dashed down there when leaving school but the road was cordoned off so we didn't see anything.

Dennis

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I didn't know Oliver Barnett had been head at Claremont.

I discovered he'd taught Maths at High Pavement before he became head at Forest Fields.

He certainly was a strict disciplinarian and caned boys quite regularly. I was frightened to death of him and used to dread having to go to his study for whatever reason.

He never caned me but I came pretty close once when I picked up two detentions in consecutive lessons and he made it clear that he would cane me if I didn't shape up quickly. I think I was almost angelic for the rest of the week.

There's an obituary to his son John here:

http://www.rotary1220.org/not/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=130

I also found this:

http://www.gritquoy.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I14971&tree=001Master

Seems Oliver Barnett died in 1975

There's quite a bit about him including pictures on the Forest Fields Grammar section of Friendsreunited here:

http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/Discussion/947634

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  • 6 months later...

Hi all,

I was at Claremont Comprehensive School for Boys (as it was called when I was there) from '81 to '86. I think it was about '83 when it amalgamated with Manning Girls school - all downhill from there! Had a competition to name the new school and ended up calling it 'The Forest School'.

My first tutor was Mr Scholes (fascinating plastic eye, lived on Vernon Avenue) then Mr Macpherson (very tall, thick small glasses) and then possibly Christine Page (serious crush on her back then! music teacher, Mr Jones always leching after her).

I can't remember the other two years tutors! I do remember Eric Dibb though, what a character! He had a Jaguar when I knew him. In 1982 there was the 'Link Up' event with the local police force culminating in a display on Forest Fields (I think?) and in prep for that me and a couple of other lads got a lift in his Jag to help him pick something up from his home (big house in the grounds of Woburn Abbey). I remember on the way back he stuck his foot down and said 'there you go lads....we're doing a ton'.

He was a very eccentric character with a fierce temper (and I do mean fierce!) but of all my teachers I remember Mr Dibb with the most affection. But then I've always liked characters!

Friends at school were;

Stephen Mason - we sat together on the very first day as 1st years and that was it. We looked identical! Black uniforms and grey/blue canvas rucksacks - always stuffed to the gills with anything but school work. Mr Scholes called us the two snails (always late and carrying our homes on our backs).

Carl Freeman - paid him my lunch money in installments to buy a Dungeons & Dragons basic set off him. By the final payment we were mates. In the 4th/5th years he wore an ankle length flourescent green trench coat from H&M. Ahhh...the 80s..... He was a big guy and didn't take any crap so I was very glad he was my friend! I'm sure I dodged a few fights because we were mates!

Carl Eustace - he moved into the area and school in the 3rd or 4th year. I remember him growing his hair for weeks so he could have a wet look perm - remember those?!? - and it drove him wild while growing it! Every gust of wind got him swearing and wondering it it was all worth it. We were soul mates at school. A really lovely guy.

Tom Harrison - didn't know Tom long. We were 4th years and he was 1st or 2nd - and I can't remember how we became friends! But he was mature for his age and we played Dungeons and Dragons/ Carwars etc every lunchtime for what seemed like years! He was involved with the Central Television Childrens Workshop if I remember correctly. He was a bit upper class (I definatly not!) and I often wondered what his mum thought when me (older, long haired yitney) arrived with her fresh faced son to sit round her kitchen table for lunch.

Fantastic days at Claremont! Many, many happy memories. Anybody here there at the same time?

Stu

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re Eric Dibb, see my earlier post re him, never taught by him but recall him well, as regards my question where he lived at time I'm talking of (pre 1963) it was on the way to Matlock near where a canal went over the then main road somewhere near the later excavator pub the other side of Ripley, pointed out to us by a teacher when on an outing to Haddon Hall

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  • 1 month later...

GBM

Hi, My name is Guy Machan,

I now live in Australia but went to Claremont and left in 1960. Trying to contact old class mates but can only remember two names, Ralph Skinner and Stephen Kitch. Do these names ring a bell to anyone? Is there an old boys forum?

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