Nicksmeister 9 Posted June 9, 2022 Report Share Posted June 9, 2022 CCF camps... I was a member of the CCF(RN) and attended the Easter camps in 1971 and 1972 at the Otterburn Training Area - part of the Northumberland National Park. I think we were there a full week and the camps were always well attended. Mr Hadwin (RN) was there in 1971, but the leading "light" that year for me was Mr Peter/Phil? Henwood (RA) - complete with ankle straps to his battle dress trousers. He was a fairly new teacher and taught us History (The Crusades or Elizabethan Britain - we had a choice!). A very approachable bloke... Easter camp 1971 was in blistering sunshine and heat. Most of the activities were centred on the army style of life in the field, erecting tents, army rations served in mess tins (including bully beef!), hardtack biscuits to go with your mutton stew and tinned treacle sponge pudding - that kind of thing. All using a type of primus stove - but instead of gas as fuel - the stoves used a type of firelighter and coal nuggets? I was sick of treacle pudding by the end of the week and to this day I still can't face the stuff. A couple of things stand out. 2 or 3 of us piled into the back of the school Landrover so that Mr Hadwin could take us to the nearby village to get some supplies. It was hot and before we went back - he stopped off outside a newsagent and bought us each an ice cream cornet - as we were now quite hot being cooped up in the back of the Landrover. He wasn't happy! Each ice cream cost him 3p. Remember this was only a few weeks after decimalisation and he swore blind he had been robbed and that the ice creams should have been 3d? He was fuming! We tried to work out the conversation rates and what the price difference was - but this was never my strong point? I remember Mr H and we spent a long while outside the newsagents whilst we all tried to work out what the correct price should be? It took ages and he eventually gave up and drove us back to camp. Safe to say he went to get further supplies later that week unaccompanied! Proper upset he was? Mr Henwood was the business that first camp. He helped set up a two man radio station high up into the moors/hills. We had a two man bivouac, equipment to erect a field army radio aerial - which was perched at the top of a small mountain, radio equipment (I learned the phonetic alphabet for my radio broadcasts back to main base), radio manuals, food and we were left there for a day and a half). 2x 15 year olds in the wilderness it seemed like, with nothing but the Cheviot Hills in the distance and a sea of purple heather all around Brilliant! I wish I could remember who was my bivouac companion? We erected the aerial - with some assistance from Mr Henwood - and once he was back (20mins in the same Landrover) we began radio broadcasts to him and the rest of the camp. Mr H had given us the channel number to use for radio communication but the cheeky s*d then told us first thing the next morning that he was going to switch channels - and he gave us a new channel number! We had to search for and go back to the manual to learn how to do that so we could keep in touch! But I was in radio broadcast heaven - I couldn't leave the equipment alone! I wandered off on my own a shed load of times, rummaging around the landscape, as much as a mile away, keeping in touch with my bivouac buddy...He wasn't impressed, truth be told! To this day I still roll my eyes in disbelief, when you see radio operators in war films saying "over and out" at the end of their message. It is either "over" or "out" - but can't be both! I learnt that! And the wildlife! I have never come across a grouse before - not one with feathers anyway! And they were everywhere! They are like silent assassins flying over the heather, so you don't notice them, but they make this awful, loud, gutteral sound when they land. I saw a bird - which my Dad told me later from my description - was a capercaillie. Just sat there at my feet on one of my solitary excursions. On the third morning, Mr H radioed us to let us know that he was going to strike the radio station camp after he had had his breakfast - as he been told that the army were testing some mobile rocket launches (I think or other missiles) in the area from early dawn. Had we heard anything - like loud noises and the like, he asked? Yes - we had - we confirmed... The blistering heat caught us all by surprise - and it was a relief to spend 60hrs or so in the cooler, fresh moorland air... Mr Henwood was also there the next year (1972) - when weather conditions were very different. 3 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Harper 6 Posted December 8, 2023 Report Share Posted December 8, 2023 On 10/10/2021 at 4:36 AM, Sharpee said: Anyone remember me, Mr Sharpe? I taught Music at the Mellish from 1970 to 1973. My greatest memory is having the privilege to conduct the School Choir, comprising 90 boys in ‘How Lovely are the Dwellings’ from Brahms Requiem. David Wilson who I replaced as Master in charge of Music, played the organ. It was David who had built up the choir to an amazing standard, as he was a organist and choir master at St. Andrews church on Mansfield Road. We performed at the local C of E church in Bulwell. The following year we did ‘Zadok the Priest’ which has a very high top F# for the trebles to start singing. Again, the choir was brilliant. Good times. I enjoyed teaching at the school. I never came across any ‘difficult’ boys! I remember you well, Mr Sharpe. You tested me to establish my 'tone-deafness' as a candidate for clarinet lessons. My ear was sufficiently well tuned and I spent happy hours in the school vestibule trying my best to emulate Acker Bilk. My not so positive memory was the day myself and another lad skived-off from games one afternoon and were making a Great Escape-esque run for it out of the gates adjacent to the music room. Sadly for us, you busted us. You then collared us and frog-marched us back into school and handed us over to the delightfully sadistic Mr Sutherland, who administered to us a fairly robust beating. We deserved it, I suppose - but I think I probably gave you the stink-eye for the remainder of my career at Henry Mellish. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 10,307 Posted December 30, 2023 Report Share Posted December 30, 2023 @philmayfielddo you remember a Stephen Barber at Henry Mellish? He was there from 1951 to 58, so a tad older than you. He's turned up on Nottinghamshire Lost School Friends. I've sent him a link to the Mellish thread, if he hasn't already found it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,144 Posted December 30, 2023 Report Share Posted December 30, 2023 I joined in ‘55. I vaguely recollect the name. The most informative site is the one run by my old contemporary Prof. Malcolm Peaker. ‘The Centaur’. hmgs.home.blog Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 10,307 Posted February 15 Report Share Posted February 15 Someone on Nottingham Lost School Friends is looking for anyone who was at Henry Mellish in the 1940s. Unless he was a child prodigy, that's a tad early for Mr Mayfield, I think. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,144 Posted February 15 Report Share Posted February 15 Yes, I saw that. I started there around ‘55 I think. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MargieH 7,601 Posted February 15 Report Share Posted February 15 Phil, I think it was 1954 !!! That’s when I started CLW Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philmayfield 6,144 Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 Yes, you’re right! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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