Central Technical School

[lummers]

My time was 1960-63. (Andrew Morris) Sally Hughes put together a group during my last year and the guys who played in it made their own guitars. I wrote some music for them which I called 'Town Hall Steps' and they played it at the Speech Day which was held in those days at the Victoria Hall. Stewart Oldfield I remember was one of the group.

Herbert Wadge was very keen to record Speech Days. I wonder what became of the recordings?

 

When I left, Mr. Hunter, who amongst other things was the Careers Master got me a job as a trainee Supervisor with Amalagamated Asphalt who were based on Woodbourne Road. (Long gone) One of the first jobs of proper responsibily I was given was supervising the surfacing of the roads and playgrounds at the 'new' CTS at Gleadless.

 

I assume from the job you took after leaving you must have been a builder from 1960 - 63 ?

[curlie]

I am new to this forum, but I would like to say that I attended CTS from 1963 to 1966 after taking the entrance exam at Hinde House comprehensive. I was in the building side if the school, learning bricklaying from Mr Crisp, woodwork, and all the other diciplines you needed to be a builder. It stood me in good stead, because after leaving there, I have been a mechanical engineer for the last 40 odd years! Still, the building skills have come in usefull over the years. I remember one friday afternoon in the brickwork workshop, in the new school on Gleadless road, when Mr Crisp was called out of class for something or other, and we had a fine old time throwing mortar about the workshop. When he came back, (he had obviously been watching) the six of us who had been throwing the lime mortar were made to clean away not only our own bits of brickwork but everyone elses as well. The following monday we were then summoned to the brickwork workshop again and dutifully caned six times! Needless to say, since that time I have never thrown any mortar around! I also remember an english teacher who seemed to be a giant of a man called Mr Edwards. It's nice to know that there are old boys out there who remenber these years so fondly, like going into Thornetons on Leopold street and buying rum and butter toffees for the afternoon, then playing shove-ha'penny upstairs on the benches in the assembly hall.

[weemorris]

I assume from the job you took after leaving you must have been a builder from 1960 - 63 ?

 

Sorry for not responding sooner...!

Only just got this.

 

Yes, not that it did me much good. I spent most of my working life in Financial Services and now run my own business selling arts and crafts stuff based in Scotland.

I see you're in Dronfield. My wife and I lived there until 1983.

[Oldguy]

I went to the Tech 1952/55 can't remember many of the teachers now but two of them still stick in my mind, Herbert Wadge and the physics teacher Mr Mcmanus he scared the s..t out of everybody. I finished in 6b when I left, don't know if anyone remembers me. I can only remember a couple of names my mate Roger Foster and Tony Palmer, I haven't come across anyone in all the years since. Sad in a way we had some good times.

Terry Perrett

 

I went there too and was in 6b. Left in 1954 I think.

I remember Tony Palmer and Billy Beech

I got on well with Mcmanus though. I thought it was great.

[Tooeg]

I didn't go to CTS but my brother did so I followed its fortunes.

I was recently at a meeting in the Leopold Hotel, in a small room opposite the bar.

There was a photo on the wall of a class in the late fifties or early 60s. It included a young Joe Cocker.

[Joe Marshall]

I don't really know where to start! I passed my 11+ to go to King Edward's Grammar School, but illness forced me to drop back to Shiregreen Secondary School. There, an excellent teacher (Mr. Broadhead, whom I will never forget), put me in for the 13+ entrance to the CTS, where I ended up in either 1956 or 1957.

 

My first year (1A) form master was Sally Hughes - an excellent guy! I remember that when he asked us to deliver talks on our past, we insisted that he did the same. He then told us quite frankly and in detail about his experiences as a conscientious objector in WW2. We loved him!

 

The teachers were a very mixed bunch. My initial inclination was to go for a university place in chemistry. Pop Gregory (who was, I think, a converted arts teacher) obtained VERY high success rates at O-Level, mainly by inflicting corporal punishment upon anyone failing the weekly tests. However, at A-Level he was way out of his depth - I recall being thrown out of a class for contesting his assertion that ferrous and ferric iron were different elements in the periodic table!

 

At about the same time, the old (and apparently increasingly senile) deputy headmaster and main physics teacher (would that be McManus?) retired. He was replaced by a younger and VERY good guy, whose name I have again sadly forgotten. This caused me to transfer my interests to physics, and I eventually gained a State Scholarship (To my amazement, Herbert Wadge gave the whole school a half-day holiday for this!).

 

More than any of the above, I remember the little things, some of which are mentioned in other postings. One was the discovery that if you opted for cross-country running, you could choose to go either way around the course (and thus just lie in the bushes or go swimming until the committed athletes passed in the other direction (with occasional snowball ambushes in the winter)). I also remember our 6th form attempts to disrupt the end of year leaving assembly events. These included putting an alarm clock under the rostrum (me - failed - it went off 12 hours early!), designating the staff parking area as "Herbert's Used Car Lot" and putting sale prices on all the cars, and "fixing" the piano (two guys in workmen's outfits went in at lunchtime, opened the piano and put rubber bands across the strings plus safety pins in all the key hammers, then replaced the lid and (impressively!) drilled and secured it with countersunk screws - Sally had quite a time with it!).

 

When I became a prefect, our head boy was Tony Mooney, the grandson of the leader of the infamous Mooney gang (aka "the cellar grate gang", due to their habit of announcing their arrival by throwing the coal grate through your front window), involved in the 1920's Sheffield gang wars (n.b. surprisingly little found on the web regarding this!). Tony used to collect small amounts of money from us, and then place a multiple-horse bet at outrageous odds. The rules, displayed on the notice board in the prefects' room, were that if we ever won (which of course we didn't), then the proceeds were to be used to buy up the houses on either side of Herbert's, and provide them rent-free to tramps and other undesirables.

 

The story of the great fireworks catastrophe can also be recounted, if anyone is interested enough to request it!

 

Joe Marshall (subsequently Professor of Electronic Materials, Swansea University - now retired but still very grateful for what the CTS gave to me!)

[Joe Marshall]

That's him Alf Simpson.

 

I think Pop lived on a farm One of the stories was that he had a big mound at the gate where he stood guard with a shot gun!!

 

You are the exact opposite to me I enjoyed the practical side and naturally went on to be a practical engineer, gradually working my way up the ladder into management.

 

I then went into social work for a few years also did some IT lecturing, but for the last 5 I have been in an admin roll (a wiz with spreadsheets). I have also developed a number of websites, including an e business site for a friend selling Motox gear.

 

My practical skills now directed to maintaining my youngest sons motox bike.

 

Pop Gregory was certainly into shotguns, and used to find occasions in chemistry lessons to explain to us how to set one up for a nice symmetrical distribution of pellets. On one occasion he recruited us to act as beaters for one of his rabbit and pheasant shoots. He never did it again, since we felt sorry for the rabbits and found ways to let almost all of them escape between us.

[muntjac]

Pop Gregory was certainly into shotguns, and used to find occasions in chemistry lessons to explain to us how to set one up for a nice symmetrical distribution of pellets. On one occasion he recruited us to act as beaters for one of his rabbit and pheasant shoots. He never did it again, since we felt sorry for the rabbits and found ways to let almost all of them escape between us.

 

Possibly a silly little memory of Pop Gregory that sprung out of a corner of my mind when I read your post-did he use to make his own ink ? was it not a sh***y brown colour ? or am I imagining it ? Any one else remember it ?

[sandie]

Possibly a silly little memory of Pop Gregory that sprung out of a corner of my mind when I read your post-did he use to make his own ink ? was it not a sh***y brown colour ? or am I imagining it ? Any one else remember it ?

 

Yes I remember it well he had the ink in jars and it was a sh***y brown.

When we moved out of town to Gleedles I as many joined the chemistry lunch time club where we has access to the chemicals on the shelves in the back room and at the back was Pop,s Ink.

 

There was a younger teacher who also took chemistry when I was in the 6th form but his name escapes me, he was at least less abrupt and brutal as Pop Gregory

[Joe Marshall]

Not sure about the ink!

 

What I do know is that his marking of A-level homework was in pencil. This turned out to be very convenient! He believed in setting massive amounts of homework, and then could not cope with the resulting flow of completed stuff. We first discovered this when someone's homework was returned with the ticks upside down. Then someone's geography homework was handed in by mistake and also marked, with the memorable comment "Put more equations" (You won't believe that, but it is true and has stuck in my mind ever since!.

 

After this, we decided on a test and drew straws. The "winner" then submitted a homework essay with various bits of "Mary had a little lamb" scattered through the text. It came back marked without any comment! After this, we just often used to rub out his marks (which is why I remember the use of the pencil) and re-submit them.

 

A useful side effect of all this was that it was very easy to request new excercise books from him, on the grounds that the others had not been returned. I got through most of my undergraduate university course using the resulting accumulated exercise books, and still have them somewhere!