Were you at Berridge?


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The top hall for sure. The class rooms were accessed as the stage finished short of the wall on the right looking at it. It wasn't a temporary structure as I went underneath it a time or two. You could come off the stage right, into one of the classrooms without being seen from the hall. 

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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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I think the stage was probably a casualty of the revamp of around 1967. It certainly wasn't there when I was in the juniors. PP was in the senior boys on the top floor so he will probably remember it. Junior assembly in my time was taken by Mr Baugh who stood on the floor and the class teachers sat around the edge of the hall.

 

Do you remember Mr Griffiths who was the previous head? He was there in my sister's time. Mr Cook was deputy head and still there for around one year when I entered the juniors.

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P-20181121-121955.jpg

 

Class of senior Berridge boys in 1958. Source:  Berridge, the Schools' First One Hundred Years, 1984.

 

The senior school closed in July 1964, just as I was leaving the infants. There followed a lengthy period of alterations in many areas of the school.

 

Apparently, the single storey building which housed infants in my day is now used as an international centre for adults learning English and as a kitchen facility. It should be available for us to see during the visit.

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Always remember one particular lad from Berridge school,, surname of Gregg or Greig,,very good at football and cricket,, he would be my age Jill.......don't suppose you remember him do you ?

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What strikes me about the boys photo is how we all looked much the same at that age.  At the Chandos Academy we all wore uniform but many of those lads look just like we all did.  Even to the teacher standing at the extreme right.

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56 minutes ago, benjamin1945 said:

Always remember one particular lad from Berridge school,, surname of Gregg or Greig,,very good at football and cricket,, he would be my age Jill.......don't suppose you remember him do you ?

The only person of that name known to me was at The Manning and is otherwise known as Pickleface!

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7 hours ago, Jill Sparrow said:

I think the stage was probably a casualty of the revamp of around 1967. It certainly wasn't there when I was in the juniors. PP was in the senior boys on the top floor so he will probably remember it. Junior assembly in my time was taken by Mr Baugh who stood on the floor and the class teachers sat around the edge of the hall.

 

Do you remember Mr Griffiths who was the previous head? He was there in my sister's time. Mr Cook was deputy head and still there for around one year when I entered the juniors.

The only head I recall was Mr Baugh and Mr Cook was one of my class teachers, my penultimate year at the school. I bumped into Mr Cook when I was in my 20's when for work I visited a school at  Bulwell where he was the head. 

Incidentally Jill,  I have spoken to my wife and she confirms it was a proper stage, curtains and all.

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The teacher on the right of that photo was there a few years before and was my form teacher for a year. I think his name was Mr Lee, or Leigh. Nice, no nonsense man and well respected.

re the stage in the main hall. It was about a metre high and a class room door was at the back right hand side. On the stage left were cloakrooms and another exit to the playground. Staff room was up stone steps and above the main entrance from the playground.

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Have spoken to a friend who went all the way through Berridge with me and she recalls no stage. I know where it was, however, and have a school photo taken on the site of it.

 

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This was taken in 1967 in the upper school hall.  The classroom behind us belonged to Mr Kemp who retired the following year. He never taught me but I gather he was a multiple ruler merchant when irked!

 

To the left was the cloakroom and stairs descending down a stairwell corresponding to that on the other side of the hall where Mr Baugh's office, the staff room and the school secretary's office was situated. She was Mrs J Davies and worked there for years. The staircase to our left wasn't used but passed a door which bore the sign 'Girls' Headmistress' and had been empty since the girls' school closed in the 1930s. 

 

I went down there several times and right at the bottom one emerged into the tunnel which led to the infants' building.

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For no particular reason, this is Berridge School (top centre-ish) and the surrounding area in the 1930s. The school itself and the housing haven't changed much. The big difference is the empty triangular area on the right - that is where the shops on Alfreton Road would later be built. The bottom of Churchfield Lane is just visible on the right.

hpZQXpL.jpg

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Brilliant, CT. You can see the gate in the wall between the two playgrounds and those damned outside toilets!  Also the two wooden huts, eh PP?

 

That view is as my mother remembered it. She recalled the shops being built. She was born in 1926.

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Thank you CT. That is exactly as I remember it 48/53. The wooden huts on the left were two small class rooms. Mr Jewitt for maths and Mr Read for RE. The large huts were the science lab and woodwork shop. The space between the hut and the railings was called the Gauntlet. All new boys 'ran the Gauntlet'. If they refused then they were stuffed into a dustbin and rolled down the playground. Character building stuff :rolleyes:

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When you say two small classrooms, PP, do you mean the structures in the background of this image?

 

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They were used for storing sports equipment in my day.

 

Source- Berridge- The Schools' First One Hundred Years. 1984.

 

Don't know what the white things are, CT, unless some kind of sports equipment.

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I recognise a few on that photo. Colin Dunn back 2nd from left,  seated right floor Richard Sheard a 2nd cousin of my wife. Ann Hutchings seated front 4th left.Others are familiar, amazing after 55 years.

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That does not look like one of the huts Jill. It looks more like the Nuthall Rd annex. We did tech Drawing and gardening there. Oh! and football.

 

The white painted squares on the playground were not there in my time. Classes used to line up on the playground prior to being let into the main hall for assembly. Maybe something to do with that?

Assembly was 1st year at the front and 4th year at the back. The Head would say a few words; usually a warning about behaviour, then we would sing a hymn, displayed on the projector screen. GCE's were introduced when I was in the the fourth year but only two pupils had stayed on until they were 16. They worked the projector. Must have been tricky teaching a class of two. I had no choice but to start work at 15 to bring some money home. Even 27/6- a week made a huge difference. 

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1 hour ago, letsavagoo said:

Lady Jane looked and says it can't be Ann as she was younger and was no relation to hairdressers afaik. Correct on the others though.

I think Jane has confused the child with Anne Hutchinson who lived on Lynmouth Crescent. Anne's mother was a family friend. Anne was born in May 1957 and was in the same year as your wife.  I can see why the confusion arose. They do look alike.

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1 hour ago, PeverilPeril said:

That does not look like one of the huts Jill. It looks more like the Nuthall Rd annex. We did tech Drawing and gardening there. Oh! and football.

It is taken in the playground at Berridge, PP. The structures backed onto the gardens of houses in Kenslow Avenue and, I believe, at one time they served as some sort of canteen.

 

You had a projector for hymns?  We had a massive flip chart which hung on the wall but we only ever had one hymn because it was all Mr Parr could play!!

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26 minutes ago, Jill Sparrow said:

I think Jane has confused the child with Anne Hutchinson who lived on Lynmouth Crescent. Anne's mother was a family friend. Anne was born in May 1957 and was in the same year as your wife.  I can see why the confusion arose. They do look alike.

It's me that said it was Anne. Jane correctly said its not so any confusion was mine not Janes. I know Anne lived on Lynmouth and her family moved to Skegness we think. We know the family who bought the house on Lynmouth from the Hutchings, Steph and Len Collishaw. It does love like Anne to me but with the age it can't be.

The hymms were a large flip pad when I was there too. I concur with Jill. The backdrop to the photograph is the huts at the top of the playground. Some of my school photos are taken in the same spot, possibly the same day too.

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