Were you at Berridge?


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Through this door...and it's the original, although painted black in my day...I walked with my mum one cold morning early in 1962. I was just 4 years old. The door led to Miss Smith's office and my mu

How many Berridge children have secreted themselves inside this niche situated in the playground which fronts the old infant building, hoping to be left behind when the bell rang at playtime's close?

Sitting on this exact spot, facing the stationery cupboard in Mr Parr's classroom, in spring 1969, I sat my 11+ exam.

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Certainly will, PP. It's something I'd love to do. Although I attended the 1984 centenary, there was no opportunity to look round. It was just confined to the hall. I'd have liked to see all the classrooms where I was taught, minus the wooden hut. That had gone by 1984!  I have so many memories of the place as I'm sure you have.

 

I'll sort it after Christmas!

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I decided to email Berridge and moot the idea of a possible visit in 2019. 

 

I will post any response and, if positive, we could think about planning a visit for any who may be interested. I know PP is keen and certainly one of my friends from 1962 to 69 would love to be included.

 

Watch this space, Old Berridgians!

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I have received a very positive email this morning from the Deputy Head of Berridge. A visit would be welcomed! Their year 5 will be working on a project relating to the history of the school in the spring term of 2019 so the two could complement each other.

 

Any interested parties please let me know. Should be an interesting project for us old girls and boys too!

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What a lovely idea Jill, hope you gather a few old boys and girls to go with you.

I feel sad that most of the buildings where I spent my early life have now been demolished.

1. The house I lived in for my first 8 years

2. Ashwell Street Infants School in Netherfield

3. Kingswell Jnr School in Arnold

4. Thorn Automation factory, Beech Avenue, N Basford, where I worked for 8 years before leaving Nottingham.

 

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Yes, it's rare, Lizzie, to get to your 60s and find your old school still standing.  Berridge was built in 1884 and so many from that era have been destroyed and replaced with modern tat which won't withstand a few decades.

 

Manning is no more, of course, :rolleyes: :rolleyes: and Peveril, which later became Manning, has also vanished.

 

Although my early school years were a trial...mainly because I was bored... my family has a fairly long connection with Berridge. My mum went there and, for a short time, my maternal grandfather also went there. So, several generations of my family were Berridge pupils.

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Well done Jill. I look forwards to the visit. I will bring my school reports and photo's.

 

All of my old schools are still standing. Bentink Rd, The Windley (not a school now), Berridge Rd., and Nottm Tech (now Trent Uni).

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Brilliant, PP. They are looking for photos, anecdotes, stories...anything connected with the history of the school.

 

Presumably, during your time there, you would have been housed on the second floor of the main building and also used the wooden huts.

 

If I close my eyes, I can mentally walk round the place. Even smell the carbolic soap! I'm eager to see what It all looks like now.

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Yes Jill, us boys were on the upper level. Ah! the wooden huts. They were the science lab with Mr Cheesman and the woodwork shop with Mr Kendrick. I will also bring a bread board that I made in that woodwork shop. We still use it 66 years on. It was made from the centre of a toilet seat :biggrin: So, a storey to tell the pupils.

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3 minutes ago, PeverilPeril said:

Yes Jill, us boys were on the upper level. Ah! the wooden huts. They were the science lab with Mr Cheesman and the woodwork shop with Mr Kendrick. I will also bring a bread board that I made in that woodwork shop. We still use it 66 years on. It was made from the centre of a toilet seat :biggrin: So, a storey to tell the pupils.

I’m intrigued PP, our toilet seats have a big round hole in the centre.  :biggrin:

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In the autumn term of 1967, in my penultimate year at Berridge, my class was housed in the wooden hut nearest the railings. I think we were in there for two terms before relocating to the second floor of the main buildings. The benches and gas taps were still there! There was a small area behind the teacher's dais which our form master, Mr Chandler, had equipped as a darkroom as photography was his hobby. We developed prints and used an enlarger...great fun.

 

Once the senior boys had departed, alterations were made to provide toilets inside the main  building and create a library on the top floor. A dining hall and kitchen was also created on the ground floor. It all seemed very swish and indoor loos were sheer luxury!

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Hopefully pp, you mean the lid ! I can't imagine anyone capable of making a bread board out of a hole !

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The toilet seat centres were given to the school as were lots of off cuts. The seasoned Red Deal was a pleasure to work with but is no longer available. I have a stock of old timber salvaged from old doors and frames. Can't buy that quality of wood nowadays. There was a glass case in the woodwork shop showing timber sample from around the world. The importer was Fitchett and Wollacott, a Nottingham company. In my days at Berridge 1948/53 the woodwork shop was next to the railings. My best memories of Berridge were the woodwork and science lab wooded buildings. I can recollect the interiors quite vividly.

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The little boy at the far right of the front row is Richard Sewell. He lived on Grundy Street. For some reason, I took a dislike to this lad and during a flashcard session with the teacher, from which I'd been excluded because in her words, "No one else gets a chance!" I gave his PE bag a very un- Christian burial in a large box of bricks. I ensured that no one went near it for weeks by inventing a terrifying tale about a tarantula which lived in the box!

 

Poor old Richard got into terrible trouble for having no PE kit and his parents had to buy a new one.

 

He moved to Highbury Vale. Perhaps the little girls were kinder to him there! :wacko:

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Oooooh!  that was mean.  :Shock:

 

That'd teach him a lesson.   Remind me not to cross you.  Lol.

 

Edited to add.  Glad to see the photo.  Did the girls move on to Saint Trinians?  :biggrin:

 

My late wife attended Nottingham High School for Girls.  we always used to kid her on that that was where the idea for the Saint Trinians series came from.  We could get her really wound up over at.

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A few years ago my wife and I went to have a look at Berridge as we were in the area. The school was turning out and a man who turned out to be the head asked if he could help. We told him we were both ex pupils and he treated us to a tour of the school spending some time with us. Considering to years it hasn't changed a great deal. Stage gone but still essentially as it was. That head was retiring so it will be a different one now. I still have the program for the school Christmas play, Aladdin, 1964 or 66 I think. I kept it as both myself and my wife appear in the cast list. We didn't know each other then, I'm a bit older but we met a few years later. Count me in on any visit please.

I was with a class of Berridge pupils only last week who were visiting St Stephens Bobbers Mill as part of the Armistice day celebrations. They viewed the film made about the letters my Grandfather wrote home in WW1 and saw the roll of honour.

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Visit is at the planning stage but probably around March/ April 2019. All those interested are welcome.

 

I don't remember a stage. Where was it?

 

There used to be a wall between the senior boys' playground and the infant playground. The two were on different levels with the latter being lower. When I was in the infant school, there was a flight of steps leading up to a wooden gate which opened into the senior playground, although the gate was always locked.  Around 1968, the wall was partially demolished and a ramp was installed to facilitate access between the two levels.

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2 minutes ago, letsavagoo said:

The lower playground is now a car park for staff I assume. The stage was what the teachers stood on to do the assembly every day. Proper stage I recall with curtains etc. 

Can't work out where this could have been as both ends of the halls had doors which accessed classrooms. I recall a temporary platform, of sorts, for Christmas plays, etc, but no actual stage with curtains. Which hall was it in?

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