Recommended Posts

You're quite right Bing it was Bradstock and the metalwork teacher I couldn't place was Mander.

I remember Mr Wallace and his habit of adjusting his gown, usually accompanied by nodding his head and poking his tongue out.

The only memory I have of Burns is breaking up a fight up a fight in the playground and mentioning him a poem like wot I wrote. Won the poetry prize 'n' all it did.

I think the R E teacher was Dawkins?  Never paid attention, didn't believe a word and did next to nothing in the way of work -  somehow I was given top marks and I still have the New Testament with my name gold blocked on the spine that they gave me.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 232
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

I was at Fairham from 65 to 73. Fleming house. If you do the maths and notice I was there 8 years. When my fifth year spectacularly failed en masse to achieve the five O levels required to go on to ta

Attended Fairham Comp'  September 1960 to July 1964.  Managed to keep my head down for the 4 years. Escaped the floggings though.  Made my first and last theatrical appearance having a two word bit pa

This is the photo I mentioned. I think I grabbed it from Friends Reunited. I had no involvement with the Penny Farthing; it was a few years before my time.   The location is still reco

Posted Images

Having found this site recently decided to become a new member.

Did not attend fairham but played them at football many times when representing my school Glaisdale. The best teacher I encountered was Ron Hailey PE master. I believe he left Glaisdale  mid to late 60s to become head master at fairham but have not seen his name mentioned in any of the posts. Maybe I have it wrong but I'm sure he became head in Clifton. Could it have been Farnborough? Would love to find out where he went.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

I remember PE teacher Ron Hailey. During my time (late 60s - early 70s) he was just a teacher at Fairham; I don't think he was ever headmaster there. Maybe he went on to become head somewhere else later on.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Ayup, I am not the wishbone Riddo mentions. I was at Fairham 61-68 in whittle house. My mates called me wishbone because I was a bit thin and my surname. There was a wishbone on the telly in wagon train at the time. Not that we had a telly at the time like. My best mate then was Raz who left us decades ago, I missed the reunion because they thought I was dead! (mixed us up). Anyone remember him or Wixy (Jeff)? also sadly passed away a few years back. Sad to hear the old place is a wreck, there's a lot worse out there.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

ayup 2mortar1. I had hawkins as well. He taught in my sunday school as well (methodist on rivergreen) I even went to his house in wilford with a few others. He gave up trying to teach us and let us do homework in his lesson! Before this he tried to get us interested in odd things he must have picked up from readers digest. He once said "you will never remember nonsense words" and wrote "so how the when on who" on the board, to tell us we will soon forget it because it was nonsense. That was 51 years ago...... mind my sister was impressed with the church, married the ministers son who was in the year below me, still happily married.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I can remember the Vicar of Holy Trinity at the junction of Farnborough road and Southchurch drive,Father Evans,he had two sons but the one I remember most was Hugh,a right toe rag,smoking,drinking,chasing girls the lot and we were only about ten years old,happy days

 

Rog

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 02/09/2017 at 9:30 PM, wishbone said:

 He taught in my sunday school as well (methodist on rivergreen) 

 

In the early 1960s, the minister at that church was a man called Bell. I wasn't a church person, but his son Stuart was at Greencroft Infants during my time there.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Jopip asked about Ron Hailey. He was head of PE and my tutor. Not your average PE type. Very smart, always wore cavalry twills. He used to plead with me to let him  know was at school because I never went when he took the attendance register but never got heavy-handed. He had me sussed.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I  lived on Greencroft 1953 - 1960 near  to Wishbone and was at Greencroft Primary and Fairham 1955 - 1968 with Wishbone, Rob Underwood, Anth (Ginn) & Phil Barradell. Another fan of Georgina Taylor - one among many it looks like from the comments here. My mum (Mrs Clarke) was a dinner lady at Greencroft Infants about 1957 onwards.

 

I saw Chris Perry the runner and PE  teacher only about two weeks ago on Central Avenue in WB. He must be 70+ but never changes. Richard Warren still lives in WB as well. Pat Smith the maths teacher also used to be around in Bridgford and Burley the German teacher - another runner. Not seen either for years.

 

I knew Olive Taylor the tea lady at Fairham who married Robert Thom. The Taylors lived on Southchurch in the fifties and sixties.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you Sputnik for your response to Ron Hailey. Not only was he a great PE teacher but a gymnast & Rugby player. He once tried to get us interested in Rugby but all we wanted to do was play football & get spotted by a scout from a league team. I wish I had shown an interest at school because years after leaving I swapped codes & played Rugby. Always thought I might run into him on the field & pay him back for the times he gave me the slipper! I often wonder what happened to him.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

He replaced Sid about 1964 and was still there when I left in 1968. I remember his first day at Fairham. He stood out. Richard Warren might know because he was in the same house. I've got a contact. The other guy to ask would be Chris Perry, another PE teacher, who I saw the other week. So, stand by.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 5 months later...

No mention of this comp. that I can find. First comp. in the area: 1800 lads from Clifton , organised in a 'house system'.

My first 'proper' job. I taught there for 18 months, before following my girlfriend ( now my wife of 45 years) to Liverpool.

Enjoyed it and taught some great, talented kids.

Mr Thom was the Head. He had a glass eye.

Mark Wallington, ex Leicester City goalkeeper, had a brother who taught there.

 

Glad to hear something about Fairham. I knew Chris Perry. He used to run to work. Eddy Latham was a maths teacher I worked with again later in Liverpool. I taught mainly German. Can't remember the names of the "houses".

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
  • 4 months later...
  • 5 months later...

Did you live near or at the bottom of Summerwood lane Albert and were you in Fleming house (FC)

 

Rog

Link to post
Share on other sites

Attended Fairham Comp'  September 1960 to July 1964.  Managed to keep my head down for the 4 years. Escaped the floggings though.  Made my first and last theatrical appearance having a two word bit part in the opening scene of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. (1961)

Drama teacher at the time was a Mr Cox, (Penny House) Tall thin bloke as I remember. 

Music Lessons, a  Mr Evans  and a Mr Moore(?) went by the name of "Hiram" due to his resemblance to a character called "Hiram Holiday" in an American series on the TV at the time.  Any way, first or second lesson Hiram and Evans had the whole class singing and walked around the class assessing each pupils vocal capabilities.  There were about six of us out of a class of many who were told to stand and go with Mr Evans.  I suppose pride comes before a fall,. The six of us were deemed to be in need of remedial singing lessons.  It was the Grunters group.

The Eisteddfod: Annual event. The best event in this was the Soap Box Derby.  Start in large Playground. Up the path by the Cook House, down through little playground an return via the covered way. Only remember it lasting a couple of years. Neve took part but great to watch.   I was threatened with death or something similar if I didn't enter one of the other events by Mr Thorpe. As time was tight before entries closed, nipped into Woolies purchased an Airfix kit, quick dab of paint and entered it into the Hobbies section. Didn't win but saved me from an early death.

Diligence: No one escaped, an early version of a Performance review. Held on a monthly basis all competitors would retire to their "Tutor set rooms" and your set Tutor or nominated person would read out the results subject by subject for person by person.  Score 1 if you did very good, +half you did OK, zero, just did enough.  minus half, didn't do enough,  3 Abysmal.

After all the results you added up your score.  Anything on the plus side, breathe again.   Anything with negative score you landed yourself in the laps of those in charge.  On one occasion I qualified for a two week period on a Daily Report.  Could have been worse.

Best Lesson: Automobile Engineering.  Was this run by a Mr Britten (Brittas?) Drove a big American set of wheels.  

Annual Cross Country:   Great if you liked running. best part having to swim across the brook.  This was pulled in later years as the brook was dredged.

Some names: Mr Caborne, Ran the U14 City boys football team, Syd Boulton, Ok once you got to know him. Mr Shelmerdine, PE staff, Ran a Monday evening Football training session.

Fred Ridell, an exponent of psychological terror for the younger person.

All in all it wasn't a bad four years. Was never going  to stay on. Although I did stay an extra term as I hadn't a job sorted. Parents needed my earnings.

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

How come everyone remembers their teachers names? I went to five schools, the last being Fairham, did A level at evening classes, have attended two Universities and can recall maybe four names out of that lot - and that's on a good day!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mr Meeseeks,you are spot on with your description of the Clifton house of correction,I started there probably in your third or fourth year, like you I enjoyed the engineering with Mr Britten,he was an inspirational teacher and gave encouragement to those who showed an interest ( and those who didn't) in the subject,thats about all I can say about the place,but I did enjoy reading your post,bought back a lot of memories and names from the past,the fear and floggings I try to forget

 

Rog

Link to post
Share on other sites

The metalwork class (as it was called in my day), was I think, a Mr Mander (although the name Britten rings a bell). We disliked each other intensely. Take a two inch square of mild steel, file it till perfectly square and braze a hook on it, voila! a coat-hook. Wrong!. At least one corner was always out of square by a couple of thou and 'do it again'. A whole term doing nothing but file until it was about half its original size and never completed the project.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
14 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Music Lessons, a  Mr Evans   

 

He taught me in my first year at Fairham. Welsh bloke; had a great singing voice (as you'd expect with being welsh). At the end of the first year we all had to play something somehow, to demonstrate an understanding of music. I did the Z-Cars theme on a recorder.  

 

You had to be there.

 

The other music teacher at the time was Stephenson, and possibly (might be wrong) Mr Holt.

Link to post
Share on other sites

We made such useless things in metalwork. I remember making an ornate shelf bracket with a forged, twisted cross support but we made only one so it was bugger all use to support a shelf!

There were three or four lathes but nobody was allowed to use them. I’ve no idea what they were there for.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Brew, did you have to put a quarter inch chamfer around the edge of the square key hook, we had to rivet the hook for the coat hook project,

Phil, I think I've got the other shelf bracket,

The lathes were there to fill in empty spaces in the room,

Funny thing about filing Brew,I spent many,many hours at work filing cast steel plates to fit into a die with only one thou clearance all round,so in a way it came in useful for me

 

Rog

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...