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Oh no, that’s so sad.  I knew him well when he first started teaching at Arnold High, he spent a lot of time with Eric Fenwick (English) and his wife who were our neighbours.   Don’t think I’ve seen him for over 40 years, difficult to get my head round the fact that he must have been pretty old by the time of his death. RIP Jim.

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Hello,   I've only just discovered this site and have enjoyed reading the comments which bring back great memories from 60 years ago. I started at ACHS at the beginning,September 1959,a

Hello,   I'm glad more people are discovering this site. Dennis M above,was that Janet Britten?I seem to remember her from my time at ACHS from the first day in September 1959 to when I

Was on a bus trip in Sicily yesterday. Recognised a Midland accent behind us. He was bought up in Underwood and went to Arnold County High School. He started Sept 61. The small world gets smaller.

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On 16/03/2018 at 11:56 AM, David Goodall said:

Hi Gall Times certainly change! Did you go to Eastwood Tech? I remember being in a class teaching Chemistry, and the teacher, who was, I think Mr Whitaker instructed us to use an ignition tube to heat Mercuric Oxide up and notice the mercury being distilled at the top of the tube. Talk about health and safety! I guess the standards were completely different then. The chemistry teacher at ACHS was Mr Hind, who used his index finger/fist to press into your arm to enforce discipline. Good teacher though. Some pupils I remember: Pete Pelling, who I last saw around 23 years ago, when I owned a ZZR 1100 bike - I gave him a ride, but lost contact soon after. John Humphries (Cello). John Hearson. Ian Fraser. Alan Mottershaw (Rock Band). That's enough for my memory for now, after 55 years! One other guy, I can't remember his name, but he was a mate at school who loved Beethoven. I would describe him as having thick, curly hair and significantly, kind of noticeable "protruding" eyes. Do you know his name, I have completely forgotten. Bye the way, I went to Kingswell from 7 to 11, before Eastwood, while ACHS was being built. My teacher at Kingswell was Mr Ellis, who I found out recently was a WW2 war hero. He was my favourite teacher of all time, and I recently read his book "The Last Hussar". Google Quote: Ray Ellis – the brave and daring desert rat hero, the only surviving soldier of the 107th Regiment of South Nottinghamshire Hussars which fought one of the bloodiest battles of WWII, the 1942 ‘Battle of Knightsbridge’ and the last soldier to fire at incoming German troops – has died last February 18 at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.

Hi David, you're right, I don't think H & S existed in those days though I don't remember anyone getting seriously damaged!  Can't remember Chemistry teachers, it was never my strong subject (not that many were) but I remember Dr Jones and Brian Thompson from Biology, both unforgettable characters.  Pupils - of those you mention, I remember Pete Pelling (Paling?), Colin Humphries (celloist) - a good friend at Bramcote Hills Grammar School, though our paths diverged as we got older through ACHS, John Hearson - yes, Ian Fraser certainly (great Billy Fury and Eddiie Cochran fan), Alan Mottershaw also - I tried learning guitar ftrom his example and failed miserably!.  Others have posted on here at various times: Trev Stainforth, Carl Beeson to mention but two.  I often wonder what happened to Dave Wells, Bill Bugg, "Jess" Jennings, David Beardall, John Tanner (I still owe him 10 bob) (my mind's getting fuzzy now) and others from the "Smoke Room".  Cannot remember the Beethoven fan you describe, sorry.   Now..... Ray Ellis, the name is certainly familiar tho' I'm not exactly sure where from. I should do from my Royal Artillery Association connections if nothing else - I'll have to come back to you on that.  Cheers my friend.

 

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I remember the 3 science teachers very well,plus Brian Thompson,they were all great teachers,Mr Hinds was our form teacher in the schools first year in the classroom on the top floor above his chemistry lab

 

I see the actor Bill Maynard died today,remember going to the old playhouse to a Shakespeare play he was in,a group of us organised by Miss Bennett,can't remember which play

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On 09/03/2018 at 9:26 PM, benjamin1945 said:

John taylor had moved tp peterborough as general manager and was instrumental in getting me to move down there, sadly attended his funeral about 7 years ago in Peterborough, i don't use my surname on here,but you'll remember me as Paul,

And yes many happy lunch times playing snooker at the conservative club down there,

Yes I thought it was you Paul

i remember you got some of the lads from the estate in Bulwell to to join Oriel FC

goodvtimes

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On 10/03/2018 at 1:01 PM, David Goodall said:

My first post. My name is David Goodall and I was at ACHS from 1959 when it opened, to 1963. I attended Eastwood Tech until the school was ready. Anyone remember me?

 

Hi Gall

I was in  Aylward house

i remember you as quite a tall guy always getting into trouble - am I right in thinking you were once banned because of your haircut?

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Yes Ron good times indeed,and some decent players,  started a thread on here some time ago  ,didn't get much response, type in under search A.B.GIBSONS,

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On 31/03/2018 at 3:13 PM, FoxR said:

Hi Gall

I was in  Aylward house

i remember you as quite a tall guy always getting into trouble - am I right in thinking you were once banned because of your haircut?

No, not me.  I spent most of my 3rd year AWOL but never actually got barred/banned/expelled/suspended.  Wrote a few thousand lines "I shall not smoke" (or words to that effect) over the years though after being caught on school grounds by prefects or teachers

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So sad to hear about the passing of Jim Briers.  This is an extract of the book I started so many years ago, regarding French at Bramcote:

 

The comedians in the class and those who were a bit more cheeky than I dared to be, would see Jim Briers in the distance and at the top of their voices would yell out "Jeeeem", or use one of those funny noises that teenaged boys seem to delight in.  Ours resembled the squawk of a half strangled duck.  Having delivered this yell, (commonly referred to as "wick, wick, wick....") the guilty and one or two innocents not wishing to be caught would then duck (how appropriate) or hide.  Poor Jim probably knew roughly who the culprits were but couldn't really do much about it - normally.  During our second year, we were waiting in a fairly orderly group, waiting to enter the locked but now functioning physics lab just after lunch, whilst Jim was teaching in an adjacent classroom.  One or two of our number would sidle up to the door and adapting a line from the Everly Brothers song, would yell out, "Jimmy is a joker - he's a bird......" and then scamper back to the main group.

 

After about the fourth instance of this cheek, an irate and red faced Jim came steaming out of the classroom, just as one of the stragglers arrived at the group. This unfortunate straggler, my pal and buddy of many years, Dick Warsop (again) was of course one of the known cheeky ones.  Despite his protested innocence and much to the delight of the group, young Warsop copped a clip around the ear with the words, "Warsop. I might have known it was you...."  It probably made up for the many times that it was him.

****

We really did think a lot of him and many years later, he admitted that whilst our mob were cheeky, there was never any malice and he could probably recall all our names, but he wasn't too impressed with the pupils he had to put up with in later years. 

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I remember Jim Briers - he taught me French for most of my time at ACHS, so it’s sad to hear he is no longer with us. He was quite shy in the early days so the girls in the class liked to try and embarrass him - he used to go very red. A very likeable man.

Having said that in my final year I was taught French by Mr Dockerill (not sure if I’ve spelled that right). He was ok but prone to throwing the board duster at people that weren’t paying attention (he wasn’t too accurate as I found out to my cost on a couple of occasions)

Does anybody remember the metalwork teacher Mr Tomlinson (I think that was his name). He was very unforgiving to people who were no good at metalwork and was known to throw poor quality work out of the window. In my first year at the school he also taught our class maths. He was very hard on boys that didn’t pick things up straightaway - he was far more tolerant with the girls

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As we never did metalwork at Bramcote, (the metalwork shop wasn't ready) just woodwork with Mr Laker, so I don't think Tomlinson had much time for us at all as 3rd years, knowing nothing and I never did get a grasp of metalwork of any sort.  For our 4th and 5th year, at ACHS, I don't think we even had the option - in fact, our choices seemed to be irrelevant and we just took the subjects we were told to do.  From memory, Tomlinson was the only teacher heard to swear, when one hapless pupil instead of cutting a square piece of copper from the corner of a larger sheet, for some strange reason, cut it out of the middle!

 

Rather baffling that in those final 2 (GCE) years, the Arts side were denied music (not that we were too bothered), but those studying sciences could do it.  We never did technical drawing either.  Having scored my best science mark in Biology,  in the 3rd year, (a rare pass!) quite why it got dropped in favour of Physics with Chemistry as my 1 science subject, for the 4th and 5th is yet another ACHS mystery.

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We had a woodwork teacher named Tomlinson at Chandos school during the fifties.  Commonly known as  'Tommo'. I was not in his class, thankfully, but you could hear him yelling from the class next door.  Not too many Tomlinsons so I'm wondering if he changed his teaching to metalwork after Chandos closed.

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I have only just found this forum.

 

 I started at Arnold in 1959  when it opened and was in Mr flint`s class and in Schweitzer house.

 

 In a much earlier post somebody mentione s a blond tall skinny boy who lived in the crescent above Woodside Road in Radcliffe on Trent.

 

 Well that was me and my name was ---- still is --- Graham Witton..

 

 I well remember many of the teachers and two of my favourites were Mr moore ( chemistry ) and Mr Adler .I got on well with these two as chemistry was my favourite subject , Some friends  of mine has a lab in their back garden .

 mr Moore went mad at me after I turned up to school with burns and a yellow face s

after some picric acid  I was making exploded in my face .!

 Mr Adler told me that he had done judo for many years and I scoffed at this . He with great ease grabbed my arm twisted me and gently threw me to the floor ---- never doubted him again.

 Difficult to remember a lot about the school days ------ getting old !

 Nice to read all these posts though.

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10 hours ago, Graham Edward said:

I have only just found this forum.

 

 I started at Arnold in 1959  when it opened and was in Mr flint`s class and in Schweitzer house.

 

 In a much earlier post somebody mentione s a blond tall skinny boy who lived in the crescent above Woodside Road in Radcliffe on Trent.

 

 Well that was me and my name was ---- still is --- Graham Witton..

 

 I well remember many of the teachers and two of my favourites were Mr moore ( chemistry ) and Mr Adler .I got on well with these two as chemistry was my favourite subject , Some friends  of mine has a lab in their back garden .

 mr Moore went mad at me after I turned up to school with burns and a yellow face s

after some picric acid  I was making exploded in my face .!

 Mr Adler told me that he had done judo for many years and I scoffed at this . He with great ease grabbed my arm twisted me and gently threw me to the floor ---- never doubted him again.

 Difficult to remember a lot about the school days ------ getting old !

 Nice to read all these posts though.

Hi Graham, welcome to the Forum, I joined in December 2017. I went to ACHS for two years before moving to Rushcliffe. When at ACHS I remember you being called "Ed". 

Do you still like baseball?

 

Regards,

 

Will2017

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19 hours ago, Graham Edward said:

I have only just found this forum.

 

 I started at Arnold in 1959  when it opened and was in Mr flint`s class and in Schweitzer house.

 

 In a much earlier post somebody mentione s a blond tall skinny boy who lived in the crescent above Woodside Road in Radcliffe on Trent.

 

 Well that was me and my name was ---- still is --- Graham Witton..

 

 I well remember many of the teachers and two of my favourites were Mr moore ( chemistry ) and Mr Adler .I got on well with these two as chemistry was my favourite subject , Some friends  of mine has a lab in their back garden .

 mr Moore went mad at me after I turned up to school with burns and a yellow face s

after some picric acid  I was making exploded in my face .!

 Mr Adler told me that he had done judo for many years and I scoffed at this . He with great ease grabbed my arm twisted me and gently threw me to the floor ---- never doubted him again.

 Difficult to remember a lot about the school days ------ getting old !

 Nice to read all these posts though.

I remember Mr Adler - didn’t he have a glass eye?

He tried to teach me German for two years but I couldn't get to grips with it

 

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Yes I was sometimes called Ed because of my middle name being Edward..

 

 Used to play baseball with the Canadians who lived on the Canadian estate in Radcliffe .

 

 

 There was a baseball diamond on the "Reck "

 

 The Canadians left probably 50 years ago so don`t play now .

 

 

   Graham

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Gunner .

 

 Would your Beethoven loving friend be Michael Welbourne who lived in Radcliffe - on - Trent.

 

 He was a good friend of mine and the description matches .

 

 

   Also a teacher who seems to have been missed here was a Miss Coulson ----- very young and attractive who caused lustful thoughts in many lads !!

 

     Graham

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Hi Graham Edward, yes you could be right - I remember the name but very little else unfortunately.  David Goodall originally asked if I remembered who it was so I expect he'll comment in due course.  I think Dave Beardall was in Schweitzer House, any memories?  

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I remember David Goodall - he played a number of instruments including the saxophone ( I think he actually played in a dance band)

I remember  him learning to play the double bass and he roped me into trying to accompany him on the piano, but I was so bad it didn’t help him at all

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On ‎17‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 3:07 PM, Gunner297 said:

Hi Graham Edward, yes you could be right - I remember the name but very little else unfortunately.  David Goodall originally asked if I remembered who it was so I expect he'll comment in due course.  I think Dave Beardall was in Schweitzer House, any memories?  

Hi Gall Yes, Could have been Michael Welbourne, but not sure! The name seems vaguely familiar after 55 years! Someone mentioned Paling, it was Terence Palin, who lived in Hucknall.

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On ‎19‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 3:40 PM, FoxR said:

I remember David Goodall - he played a number of instruments including the saxophone ( I think he actually played in a dance band)

I remember  him learning to play the double bass and he roped me into trying to accompany him on the piano, but I was so bad it didn’t help him at all

Hi FoxR  Yes I did play the Double Bass, and the Sax for a short while. I did gigs with the Bass. What is your real name?

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