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Sorry Mick2me but I have been looking for your post and cannot find it, so I thought I would start one. I don't know if Firbeck started one has he said he would, but I have searched and can't find anything.

Does anyone know when Firbeck school was built?

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Well, I did start to reply to Caz last evening, but had to abandon it as my son wanted a lift to a Ska and Reggae gig at Witham, thats Witham in Essex, I was impressed, 14 year old Goths aren't supposed to like that sort of thing, but he thought it was COOL.............

Firbeck School was opened in 1950, prior to that, the local kids were sent to a variety of schools, my brother went to the Russell School in Wollaton village, then was transferred over to Firbeck shortly after it opened.

As was suggested, go on to the Friendsreunited website and look it up, it's free. There are some great photos, and lists of former pupils, you may see yourself in some of the pictures as well as recognising former pals. Personally, I feel that since the site was sold on and changed, it's more difficult to navigate, they've got it all wrong, it don't work for me. Don't expect much response from pals either, I was involved with the site in the early days and it was instant communication, nowadays, I think it's just something to hopefully look at.

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Why "GROAN" ? Did you not enjoy your time there?

I had a mixture of good times and bad, but I still look on that time with affection.

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Oh, I LOVE ska and regae! Well done your son for having good taste! haha

I think Firbeck is now a school for the deaf.

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This site is getting more replies than I expected.

I'll tell you about my first day, I have an excellent memory.

I started as a four year old in September 1955.

While being a bit shy and apprehensive, I had a couple of friends on my road, Park Crescent, they were Linda Tagg and Jennifer Horrocks, I also had an older brother, who left the year I started, for Mundella Grammar, but he had friends that I still knew who were up there.

My mother took me up Plantation Road and I took my Dinky Toys Sunderland Flying Boat with me for comfort.

We went into the main entrance and I had to be introduced to the headteacher. Now this is my problem, I mentioned it before, I have bad memories of this person, I am aware of the possibilities of slander by the relatives of people, I know it's dead, but it must have had relatives, or thinking about it , possibly not, who would want to admit to being related to it.

Anyway, I was asked to go to my classroom with a bit of paper, there you go, a terrified 4 year old, introduced into a brave new world, and this evil person dragged me back into the heads office by my throat and demanded that I apologised for not saying Thank You, for what, a peice of bloody paper, who employed these perverted useless gits in those days. My mother did nothing, well such people were legendary then, they were obviously right, quite frankly if same piece of filth had done this to any of my kids they would have been left bleeding on the floor, quite rightly too, evil scumbag.

The nastiness aside, I ended up in Grade One, with the lovely Mrs Madden, I was seated next to the window with John Peck, Fiona Mc Farland and I think Valerie Hawley, it was great, I had a great day, it even wiped out the memory of the 'One that Got Away'.

I recall being introduced to the Withey twins, anyone remember them, they were identical, well not so when you were their mates. They had a mysterious speech impediment, which quite rightly so, Mrs Madden informed us all about, and we all pitched in and helped them out. They ended up being my greatest friends into University days, our adventures together were legendary.

I have so many tales to tell about Firbeck, but I have things to do now, if you want to know more, let me know.

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Absolutely brilliant I do think I can’t talk for the rest of the ingrates so please lets have more……by the way Plantation road is where I lived from 1963/70 and my late wife lived on Firbeck road at the very top where it joins Plantation across from the very said skool.

Bip.

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I went to Firbeck and kinda liked it there although Mr Lomas the head was...well lets say i have nightmares about him,I used to have a lotta mates around Plantation Road etc and spent most of my time around there

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Please do not have nightmares about Mr Lomas, he had his faults but he was sincere in his own way, unlike previous wierdos, stop it, I keep going on about it.

The thing about Mr Lomas was that he loved his art. He encouraged me with my efforts and actually had one of my paintings exhibited at an exhibition of childrens paintings on the embankment in London. I recall visiting the school a few years after I had left and visiting him in the hallowed office where he had my painting of the 'Sinking of the Titanic' framed and hanging behind his desk, I was quite honoured about that, perhaps it's still there!!!!!.

I recall one year, we were due to be paid a visit by the Lord Mayor and all the accompanying multitudes and press.

Mr Lomas decided to produce a book on the history of the school for the mayor and because of my artistic skills and ability to produce 3 dimensional pictures, I was let lose to paint a watercolour of the front of the school to put on the cover. It was great, I sat outside for a couple of days, sketching and producing this drawing in pencil which I eventually colour washed. I was excused from all lessons until it was completed, he was very impressed with the results, but, no favouritism, quite rightly so, I was back to being one of the 'erks' afterwards.

Amusingly, the Lord Mayor was Sir Sydney Hill, and later in life his grandson became my best mate.

I recall going round to 'Sids' house and he found and showed me the presentation book that I had illustrated many years before, it was a very strange experience to look at so many years on, thought it was pretty good actually, what a lovely man Sir Sid was, probably the best Lord Mayor the city ever had, even though he couldn't manage to get me on to the last trolleybus, I never forgave him for that, not really, he was a love.

Do you want to know anymore, the school PE display team, Mr Galloways cunning plan, the gorgous Miss Snapes much revealed amazing chest, my role as the school aircraft identifier, what happened with Mr Lomas and my Ian Allan combined volume, and the not so dreaded school bullies and how I dealt with them.

I loved it, it was good fun, some people hated their school days, I didn't, it carried on when I went on to Bilborough Grammar, what fun we had there. Cest la vie.

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Try again.My last effort vanished into the ether.

I used to deliver groceries to Firbeck estatefrom the Co-op. The only family I remember was the Smiths, mainly because they had a very pretty daughter called Anne.

At Bilborough you may have known Daphne Place,Graham Brandon and his girlfriend ,Judith? Also Kennedy.

You may have known Keith Hardy as your brother was at Mundella,-a very fine cricketer.

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...what happened with Mr Lomas and my Ian Allan combined volume...

Recently noticed a 1956 combined go for £130 on eBay!

Sir Ronald Matthews, Sir Murrough Wilson, Andrew K. McCosh, William Whitelaw et al...

Cheers

Robt P.

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the thing that really bugged me about Mr Lomas was that creepy vein on the side of his head that stuck out sometimes..apart from that he was ok

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Recently noticed a 1956 combined go for £130 on eBay!

Sir Ronald Matthews, Sir Murrough Wilson, Andrew K. McCosh, William Whitelaw et al...

Cheers

Robt P.

Mr Lomas had a really big lack of enthusiasm for my interest in railways, why, I don't know.

We were encouraged to produce projects, so, what did I do, started writing up a project on railways.

I was using my combined volume as a reference work, what did he do, throw a fit and bang on my desk so hard that the ink well shot out of it's slot and spilled all over it, I still have the combie today, no chance of it aquiring fortunes on E-Bay due to the ink stains though, stupid man, I should have demanded a new copy.

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Your teacher should have been sacked on the spot, and charged with sacrilege!

My school was the ideal vista for a mass of railway lines, elevated position too....

Recall our Geography master Guy Richards once saying saying words to the effect of:

"Right, now the South Yorkshireman has gone can we get back to the Nile basin?... hang on there's an O1 on an empty Woodford..."

Still possess around half a dozen combined's...most are repro's, but some are originals...

Cheers

Robt P.

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If it was now, I would have gone up to the school and demanded a new copy on the spot, in those days, I didn't even bother telling my parents, I've no doubt that they would have had another go at me for causing the problem in the first place and messing up an expensive birthday present (10/6d I recall, though we used to collect coupons from Ian Allan publications which knocked the price down a bit).

Sorry to say that I have a similar number of combies but they are all original. The oldest is a first edition dating from 1948, it's a bit battered and used, but it belonged to Graham who lived across the road from me when I was a kid, when he got a bit too old for spotting he passed it on to my brother who in turn passed it on to me when he a got a nice new shiny one in 1958, I still have that an all.

Where was your school. At Firbeck you only see the midland line in the distance by looking down Plantation Road from the front entrance and catching a glimpse before they went under Trowell Road bridge.

In 1957 my father was forced out on strike by the National Union of Printers, the strike originating from the greedy workers on Fleet Street who earned far more than people such as my father in provincial companies, who had no sympathy for them whatsoever. The Unions up north sympathised and a blind eye was turned to those seeking temporary employment elsewhere.

My old man, being a bit of an enthusiast himself, managed to get a job as a porter at Midland station, quite frankly he loved it, but the pay was rubbish, I think he only made a living through tips from wealthy passengers.

The advantage was that he recorded the numbers of anything coming off the Trowell Line. The teachers at Firbeck never twigged why we used to make an excuse to go to the main entrance or the various rooms at the front of the school at 11:30, or in the afternoon so we could see the Waverley in the distance, happy in the knowledge that the old man would have recorded the number, which he always did.

Actually, I think I know why Mr Lomas hated trains. One year he organised a trip from Firbeck to see the Lord Mayors Show in London, followed by a trip to Madam Taussards and the Planetarium.

A number of schools were involved and a special train from Midland was organised.

I recall it being a rather grimy and sad Jubilee class on the front, I can't even remember which one it was, Frobisher? but right from the start it had problems. In those days we went down the direct route through Plumptree and Melton Mowbray. By the time we got to Melton, our engine had expired.

There was an 8F in the sidings on a frieght at Melton and this was eventually put on the front of the train, including towing our dead Jubilee. I recall that the driver, happy to be in charge of a passenger train, really went for it, we managed to sneak out of our compartments and hang out the windows, it was brilliant being pulled by a thrashed 8F, the only time it ever happened to me and we were all trying to work out the speeds by timing the quarter mile posts with our Mickey Mouse watches. We reckoned a max of 90, but crap watches and childhood enthusiasm probably got the better of us. Eventually, we had to stop at Kettering as engines were changed and we ended up with a Class 5. By the time we got to London, an apologetic BR staff whisked us all off to a mysterious restaurant at St Pancras and we had a free feed, they were very good, but we missed the Lord Mayors show, Mr Lomas was furious.

Eventually, we had a quick run round the Tower of London, Taussards and the Planetarium, we returned home in darkness, the staff weren't happy, but I think we preferred being pulled by an 8F than seeing the Lord Mayors show, having seen it in later years, there's no comparison.

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...Where was your school. At Firbeck you only see the midland line in the distance by looking down Plantation Road from the front entrance and catching a glimpse before they went under Trowell Road bridge...

The now defunct High Pavement, situated on top the hill at Gainsford Crescent...

The windows looked down on to the GN at Bestwood Jct in the near distance and to the GC in the miiddle distance as it crossed Arnold Road down to Bagthorpe Jct in the far distance - taking in the famous 'rat hole', as it climbed to the main line.

Our Bells Lane area gang had regular after-school excursions to the Robert Shaw playing fields on Western Boulevard to play football - armed with the mandatory bottle of water. Prime reason for the venue was to see the two '6 o'Clockers', and if our stamina allowed the 19.30 Leeds!

Staple daily diet of Holbeck, Kentish Town and Millhouses Jubilee's until, on one memorable evening, the up Waverley produced Corkerhill's Lord Rutherford of Nelson and within minutes the down Bradford was hauled by Kingmoor's Ocean...

Rocking horse droppings x 2!

Cheers

Robt P.

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We used to go to Netherfield level crossing to get the "Royal Mail" , I am having difficulty remembering the time of evening it came through ,any ideas?? (Circa 1971/2)

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I know it was late (I was only about 10 at the time) for my mum to let me stay up

I had 10.15 pm in my head but in hind sight it couldn't have been that late as it was light when walking home.

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I think you mean the famous 'Tamworth Mail', we used to have days out at Lincoln and travel back on it, it was an amazing train, I have a picture of it in my archives double headed by a class 5 and a B1 which was leaking fire from a dodgy firegrate.

Such fun.

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  • 2 years later...

just to let you know my family are firbeck legends, the salt family, other firbeck legends include:

manhole mick

shoveller len (smith)

the smith family

the lowe famly

the moss family

the mcteage family

the hutchinsons

the cliffords

mr gibby

mr parkinson

dorry and bunny (ballo0n hotel)

jack the butcher

mr oscroft(paper shop)

Reg at the grocers

the malin family

firbeck park

rossy the local copper

and now dippy.....the lying grocer

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