Were you at Berridge?

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

As long as I don't have to go back to school!

[letsavagoo 963]

Jill will comment. 

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

This photo dates from 1957/8 and shows Berridge Junior children born in 1948. Thanks to Carole and Kathleen Sheeran for both photo and names.

 

Back row L to R David Sentance, unknown, unknown, Gerald Hazeldine, Tony Grainger, unknown, John Sutton, Derek Winstanley, Michael Goodwin, Stephen Cockram, Kenneth Merritt, Robert Wren, Neil York, unknown, Michael Allport.

 

Middle row L to R: Tommy Smedley, Sybil Applebaum, Susan Wyer, Josephine Jordan, Glenys Williams, Carolyn Pike, Kathleen Sheeran, Brenda Cooksley, Sheila Bond -Lindsay, Elizabeth Heason, Glynis Davis, Susan Harrigan, Veronica Knowles, Susan Smith, Sidney Chandler.

 

Front row L to R: Michael Jones, Brenda Barnes, unknown, Janet Stamper, David/John Gough, Caroline Lee, Colin Spick, unknown first name Thornhill, David/John Gough, Robert Taylor, Marilyn Towle, Roger Green, Elizabeth Hallam, John Freeman, Adele Wilson, Tony Spencer. 

 

 

 

[katyjay 5,091]

Is this all one year or all one class, Jill? If the latter, it was a big class!

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

It is one class, @katyjay. Photos from that era do show enormous class sizes. Berridge was always two form entry, two classes per year group. Nowadays, it's three but they are far smaller.

[Cliff Ton 10,467]

2 hours ago, Jill Sparrow said:

Photos from that era do show enormous class sizes.

 

My infants school photos from the late 50s-early 60s shows many classes of 40 - 42 - 44 pupils. Nobody batted an eyelid at those numbers.

[philmayfield 6,140]

As far as I can remember we never had any group/class photos taken at Arno Vale. Just the annual portraits. At Mellish we had the panoramic ones where it was possible to run to the far side and be on twice!

[MargieH 7,600]

@philmayfield  you are correct about our having no class photos during our time at Arno Vale.  I remember there being 3 chairs next to each other in the infant playground and 3 of us had our photos taken at the same time.  I thought I would get a photo  of all of us but we only got our own photo.

I wish we’d had a class photo in the top class (Mr Turner) so I could be reminded of everyone I was at school with (including you !!)

[katyjay 5,091]

18 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

 

My infants school photos from the late 50s-early 60s shows many classes of 40 - 42 - 44 pupils. Nobody batted an eyelid at those numbers.

Actually, I just counted the kids on my infants class photo, and there were 42. There were 2 infants schools at Crane. 2 classes per year in each. By the time we moved to junior girls and senior girls each with 4 streams per year, the classes were around 30 pupils. 

[letsavagoo 963]

Jill has been sent this which was said to be taken at Berridge in 1910. However looking at the building in the background it does not seem to fit in with being at Berridge. Any ideas?

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

I thought those members who knew the school might like to see this photo which was forwarded to me by a teacher at Berridge.  It is purportedly taken in or around 1910.

 

It's a fascinating image but I doubt it was taken at Berridge. The open-sided shelter was common to many school playgrounds at that time and, although there was a structure like this in the infant playground at Berridge which survived, in modified form, until the late 1940s, the image on the photo cannot be it.  Although the background is hazy, it clearly shows a road beyond the railings with a pavement on the opposite side and a low stone wall in front of a large building. That building is Victorian and has stone string courses incorporated into its structure. No building of that description exists now, nor did it exist then, in the immediate vicinity of Berridge. Behind the site where the open-sided shelter was known to have been are the gardens of the houses on Kenslow Avenue. The Kenslow Avenue houses were not built until the late 1920s. Prior to that, the land was not built upon.

 

 

The children are clearly not photographed on a typical school day. They are in their Sunday best and look far too prosperous for Berridge children at that time, on the whole.  Being 1910ish, I wonder whether there is a connection with the coronation of George V, (although he wasn't crowned until June 1911), but I'd have expected to see bunting and flags in evidence if that were the case.

 

These may be Berridge children but, in my opinion, they're not actually at Berridge. I'd be interested to hear what people think.

 

Thanks to Letsavagoo for posting.

 

[Cliff Ton 10,467]

The photo is rather small, so this might help things a bit.

 

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

I have been in touch with the lady who originally sent the photo to Berridge. I've established that what we are seeing is the entire image and not just a section of it. All that is written on the back of the mounting is her grandfather's surname. It clearly isn't Berridge but perhaps someone might be able to identify that building in the background. Tall order but you never know.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

There's a suggestion that the primary school where the photo was taken was Stanley Road Primary in Forest Fields (Now Forest Fields Primary School) and the building behind it High Pavement Grammar School.  High Pavement moved to Bestwood in 1955 and the building it vacated became Forest Fields Grammar School, subsequently it became Claremont Secondary School. However, both schools are still there and although Street view isn't much help since the road visible on the original photo has been pedestrianised, I think this may be where the photo was taken over 100 years ago. The architecture of what was High Pavement fits what is visible on the photo and, as I suspected, it was fairly close to Berridge so, whatever the occasion was, they didn't have far to walk.

[Mess 618]

I think you're nearly right Jill.

That does look very like the old High Pavement/Forest Fields Grammar school. You can see the rectangular wooden sign in the top left hand corner. I remember this reading Forest Fields Grammer School (sic) in the early 60s when I was there. It was corrected around the mid 60s.

So that  would make the cobbled street behind the railings Stanley Road. The shelter the kids are in would be part of what I knew as Forest Fields Girls Primary School when I lived in the area (1961-73).

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

I am now beginning to wonder whether the relatives of the lady who owns the photo actually did attend Berridge. People tend to think that because a family lived on Berridge Road, their children must have been Berridge pupils. Not so. It's a very long road. @katyjayhad cousins who lived on Berridge Road but I think they were almost certainly Stanley Road Primary pupils,  I've contacted the owner of the photo to tell her where we think it was taken.

[letsavagoo 963]

Having spent 3 miserable years of my life attending Forest Fields Grammar I maybe should have recognised this. I’d put money on it be being FFGS. In fact the shelter where the children are under may still be there, now modified with sides. The attached photo is from street view and I’ve drawn an arrow showing the direction where I believe the photographer was looking. The main Forest Field building is behind the trees.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

FFGS was within a stone's throw of Manning and Stanley Road ran out of the back access gates. I must have walked past both schools during lunchtime rambles round the area but I didn't spot it either. I suppose I was miserable enough with the school I was attending. I didn't go around looking at others. Not in those far off days, anyway!

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

I gather that it is by no means certain that the lady's grandparents did attend Berridge. They were probably pupils at Stanley Road all along! Puzzle solved.

[Cliff Ton 10,467]

Looking at FFGS on Streetview, using the controls to zoom around and change angles,  you can see walls which fit the old photo, and how it all relates to the surrounding buildings.

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JEZvgqBe1j9ZWUT16

 

 

[Mess 618]

On 11/9/2023 at 2:44 PM, Jill Sparrow said:

This photo dates from 1957/8 and shows Berridge Junior children born in 1948. Thanks to Carole and Kathleen Sheeran for both photo and names.

 

Back row L to R David Sentance, unknown, unknown, Gerald Hazeldine, Tony Grainger, unknown, John Sutton, Derek Winstanley, Michael Goodwin, Stephen Cockram, Kenneth Merritt, Robert Wren, Neil York, unknown, Michael Allport.

 

Middle row L to R: Tommy Smedley, Sybil Applebaum, Susan Wyer, Josephine Jordan, Glenys Williams, Carolyn Pike, Kathleen Sheeran, Brenda Cooksley, Sheila Bond -Lindsay, Elizabeth Heason, Glynis Davis, Susan Harrigan, Veronica Knowles, Susan Smith, Sidney Chandler.

 

Front row L to R: Michael Jones, Brenda Barnes, unknown, Janet Stamper, David/John Gough, Caroline Lee, Colin Spick, unknown first name Thornhill, David/John Gough, Robert Taylor, Marilyn Towle, Roger Green, Elizabeth Hallam, John Freeman, Adele Wilson, Tony Spencer. 

 

 

Jill,

I remember Colin Spick from when I lived on Russell Rd. in the early 1960s. IIRC he lived towards the bottom of Burford Rd.

There was a younger black lad who lived close to him known as Junior. He was a brilliant footballer. I think he went to Stanley Rd boys school. I often wonder if he made a career out of football he was that good.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

Perhaps Ben knew him?

[benjamin1945 16,160]

Spick rings a bell Jill.................but doubt very much its the same one......didnt come across 'Black footballers'.......back in the early 60s......

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

As far as I know, Colin Spick was an only child. It's an unusual name. 

[letsavagoo 963]

Here is another Berridge class photo. Jill has researched and will comment on the details below. I knocked around in later years with one of the boys pictured here and worked alongside another in the same job.