Claremont Bilateral/secondary modern

[fewkeste 8]

Brillo, your post with details of all the teachers was excellent - you seem to know so much more about them then I ever did. I'm still in contact with Dave Croucher and Steve Newbold.

 

I was at Claremont from '69 to '74 - if I remember correctly were you and Dave one year later than me?

 

Zab - are you any relation to Ben Zabulis by any chance? - he was in my class during my time at Claremont. I  made contact with him a few years ago when there was a school reunion at Llyods Bar in Hockley in 2003 ish. He is or was working somewhere exotic in Asia I think.

 

All of these memories are brilliant - I also remember Eric Dibb's film club. I think when I was there, we were only at the Claremont Road site (and the Seeley Annex) for one year before being totally based at the old Forest Fields Grammar school site on Stanley Road. At the Claremont site we squeezed into his room for the after school film club to watch whatever film he had hired.  Also I really used to look forward to the end of term films he'd put on. Down to Gilberts for a quarter of pineapple chunks and then to the hall to see what delights he had for us.

 

When you think what Eric Dibb did for Claremont pupils he certainly deserves some recognition. Presumably  he's no longer with us. Did he have any children does anyone know?

 

The postings from other (older) contributors make me realise just how talented some of the Claremont teachers were. For example I never knew Mr Turner was an Oxford man (incidentally, he was on East Midlands today in the not too distant past - I can't remember why though.)

 

Anyway, having read this thread from beginning to end it's been a great trip down memory lane - thank you to all who have contributed their memories.

 

Steve Fewkes

[fewkeste 8]

Reading all of these memories has reminded me of a story my friend Steve Newbold told me. It concerns Mr Naylor the science/chemistry teacher. It may or may not have happened at the Seeley annex. Apparently Mr Naylor was demonstrating the differing levels of reactivity of the alkali metals and was using a pneumatic trough (a big glass bowl) filled with water.  You drop a piece of an alkali metal into water and the reaction gets increasingly lively depending on which alkali metal you use.  Presumably he started with Lithium, then Sodium and then, when he got to Potassium, apparently he put a slightly too big a piece in and the whole lot exploded sending chunks of glass into the classroom embedding them into the benches where his class was!! I think this happened at the Seeley annex but I can't be sure. If it was it would have probably been '69 or '70. Anyone else remember it or was there? Health and safety - pah!  Steve would have probably been in 1B or possibly 2B when it happened. I never saw him (Mr Naylor) from roughly that time on - I wonder.....

[Frank Johnson 22]

Hello! My name's Frank and I was at Claremont 59-64, before going on to High Pavement. I also attended Claremont Juniors between 56-59. Finding this thread really interesting.

Does anyone remember the day the cup winning Forest team came to an assembly in 59. Jack Birkett's son was a pupil at our school?

[Frank Johnson 22]

Unless there were two "potassium" incidents, both at the Haywood Annexe, this happened in the academic year 61-62 and I was in the lesson. I don't remember shards of glass, but do remember pieces of potassium ' out of control' racing along my workbench, searing the top.

Most exciting Science lesson of my school career!

[fewkeste 8]

This was definitely in '69 or '70 because we only used the Seeley Annexe for one year because then we moved into the old Forest Fields Grammar School (and so presumably no longer needed to use the Seeley Annexe.) I was at Claremont from '69 to '74 so the incident you describe pre-dates this one by years.

 

[zab 46]

On 27/01/2018 at 2:16 AM, fewkeste said:

Zab - are you any relation to Ben Zabulis by any chance? - he was in my class during my time at Claremont. I  made contact with him a few years ago when there was a school reunion at Llyods Bar in Hockley in 2003 ish. He is or was working somewhere exotic in Asia I think.

 Hi Fewkeste, sorry for the late reply, only just noticed this!  Yes, I am, Ben is my younger brother, he came make to the UK briefly but emigrated back out to Hong Kong in 2015.  He's on Facebook if you want to make contact or I can provide an email address.

 

I've also recently heard that David Wheatley (famed maths teacher) is still going strong, he's in his nineties and is now a vicar!

http://nottingham-north.org.uk/?page_id=396

 

[GrumpyOldKev 2]

On 3/5/2014 at 12:02 PM, GrumpyOldKev said:

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. It was class 2G, our first year full-time at the Forest Fields site. As 1G we had been based at the Claremont Road/Hucknall Road site. The year (for 2G) was 71/72.

Here's my version of the photo with more of the names filled in. At the time I couldn't remember the tutor's name, but someone got it earlier when the said Milne.

I can't believe it's taken me 4 years to get this right.

 

My original post said it was David Hamilton, it wasn't, it was David Hampton. Sorry David.

Simon was also correct about me confusing Pete Bott and Pete Boot, they were two different people and the one above is Pete Boot.

 

Glad to that David Wheatley is still going strong.

 

Anyone know what happened to any of the other teachers, Marcel Hudon (seem to recall he was a heavy smoker), Eric Dibb, Turner, Milne, McPhereson, etc. be nice to think some of them were still around.

[Patrick Humphreys 0]

I attended Claremont School when it was on Claremont Road, 1963-67

[Patrick Humphreys 0]

On 8/19/2016 at 3:55 PM, Simong W said:

My father Michael (Mick) Wright used to go to Claremont Secondary Bilateral Modern, he would have left in 1964. Does anyone know which building it would have been then? I believe the family lived on Tissington Road. Perhaps some of you may remember him?

that would have been the site on Claremont Road. I was there fro 1956-67.

[Patrick Humphreys 0]

On 2/9/2016 at 10:11 PM, zab said:

There's also quite a few photos on Facebook, some featuring Mr Dibb.

https://www.facebook.com/Claremont-Boys-Comprehensive-School-376500869043880/timeline

that's mainly the forest fields site around 1970s

[Patrick Humphreys 0]

On 1/2/2013 at 7:50 AM, zab said:

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.

do you know who the architect was?

[Patrick Humphreys 0]

On 2/4/2009 at 5:28 PM, zab said:

Craig - you mentioned the woodwork and metalwork teacher, was one of them Mr Shooter? For some reason the name rings a bell. Other names that spring to mind are Salter (English?), Capper (Chemistry) and Green. Up until a couple of years ago I used to see Green around Sherwood - I think he used to teach the kids that had learning difficulties.

Pryce was the other one.

[katyjay 3,943]

The architect was T. C. Hine.

[Patrick Humphreys 0]

2 minutes ago, katyjay said:

The architect was T. C. Hine.

Thank you for your prompt reply. I thought is was, but on his "wiki bio" Claremont isn't mentioned, but a lot of Nottingham properties are.

[katyjay 3,943]

Found it on a Notts history page for Carrington.

[Patrick Humphreys 0]

On 7/17/2009 at 1:04 PM, Craig Strongman said:

Mr Pidd......now if I could only remember what he taught there........... Im thinking he was the Cooper driving PE teacher.........

Mr Riddel I think. Yes PE and games, took me for swimming. I was in the school team.

[IAN123. 5,646]

My two neighbours went there..early 1960's.