Concord Middle School 1972-73

[stevo]

I have posted a class photo of Mr Firths class of 72-73 at this address:

 

http://groups.msn.com/photodump/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=31

 

Mr Firth was a Canadian who had a liking for Neil Diamond and was pretty nifty at using a shoe, to leather us! Mr Roch was our headmaster and was nifty with the cane!

 

Teachers I remember well are Mr Cox, Miss Kirk (dishy and wore a mini skirt), Mr Pauley, Mrs Gwynne and there was one who used to run a film club in the mobile classroom.

 

Miss Warwick still gives me nightmares!

 

I can remember the old quarry and the chimney being demolished. We used to run around the flooded quarry in PE. What would health and safety make of that today? Also remember the old air raid shelters being demolished, just before the classroom in the photo was built.

 

Also the playground near the quarry which was quite rough ground, where we played footy, the bike shelter and the outside toilets.

 

Jane Rhodes told me I was ugly and she was so cute for 9 years old. She told me I'd be good looking when I grew up and that she would then be ugly. Jane you were right about me, but what about you? :~)

 

I lived at Wincobank on Standon Crescent, so although we caught a bus to school, we sometimes used to walk home through Concord Park and spend our bus fare in a sweet shop on Bellhouse Road. We'd also pocket a few free of charge, until my brother got caught and the lady in the shop slapped his face good and hard. We nenver went back after that.

 

Is there anyone on the photo you recognise, or are you on there yourself?

 

I am third from the left on the middle row.

 

Who am I?

[timo]

I know who you are! However, as I don't want my true id "outed", except in the case of private emails to certain contributors, I will not openly give your name on the forum. However, in a private message to you I have given my real name. I was not in your class, but I was in your year. I have studied the photo, and these people I recognise:

Front Row- 1 is Mark Woodhead

3 is Craig Wilks

4 is Steve Rumbelow

5 is David Tomlinson

6 is Colin Bennett [a good mate of mine]

8 is, I think, Kevin Storey [we were mates too]

9 is David Jones

 

Second Row- 1 is Stephen Peace

2 is Richard Hall

4 is Theresa Murdoch

7 is Dawn Evans

8 is Alison Windle, I think- lovely girl.

10 is, I think, Andy Glaves- likeable guy.

11 is Chris Holmshaw

 

I've done my best there! Regards,

Timo

[stevo]

You've done well there!

 

Darren Buck - he was pretty good at soccer,

David Hunt - used to live just off Standon road,

 

 

no 3 on the middle row is me, Stephen Eblet (I don't care who knows!)

 

Denise Liversedge

Michelle ???????

Dawn Betts (not Evans- she lived on Standon Crescent just opposite me) Dawn Betts was the first girl I ever saw in hotpants!

Alison? so you had a crush on her then?

Stephen Molloy

 

Cheryl Widgoose

Vicky Taylor?

Wendy ?????

Paul Bates?

David Walker

Peter Brookes

Alison???

Glynis fearnley

Alison Cox? she was cute!

 

Do you remember Jane Rhodes? She caused me to have conflicting and unrecognisable psychological problems! But they felt OK.

 

 

 

I definitely know your name, but if you can narrow down your location on Standon Road, maybre it will help me picture you mentally. Kevin Storey was a nice guy at school. I always thought he was OK and Colin Bennett.

 

David Tomlinson was also a mate and Chris Holmshaw was easy going. I once saw Andrew Glaves on tv, back in the 70's when he invaded the pitch at Hillsborough.

 

I always remember having the TB jab at school. Peter Brookes was first and he cried! I was second in alphabetical order and I was quite nervous when I saw Peter's reaction!

[timo]

Steve,

Glad you think I did well. No, I didn't have a crush on Alison, but she was a lovely girl. Actually, as I make clear on another related thread, I was more of a Christine Siddall man [three years or more older]. My lissom, fragrant wife is eighteen months older than I am, so I have always gone for the older woman.

Yes, Colin Bennett was a great guy with a wicked sense of humour. I haven't seen him for years but we used to go drinking together in the late 70s, early 80s. He went into the RAF. Colin enjoyed a degree of well-earned fame and attention at Concord when he ruptured Kevin Toyne. I always liked Andy Glaves, although we weren't mates as such; he had a certain rakehelly style about him, even if he did support the wretched Owls. Kevin Storey was another good lad [we became pals later at Hinde House], and he went into the Fire Brigade. Don't know much about the rest. I would like to think that dear Peter Brookes is well and happy. He was a gentle, vulnerable type and I always tried to treat him kindly. People generally did. In a way he always reminded me of Stan Laurel. Bless him.

Speak to you soon, all the best.

[stevo]

I didn't think you were on my class photo, so you remain a mystery man to me. I recall the name well, but not your face.

 

Peter was a vunerable type and i used to feel sorry for him at school. I was pretty quiet myself at that time. I don't recall Christine Siddall at all.

 

Andy glaves always had a mischeivous aura about his person. Never got into real trouble but was always 'involved'.

 

I often wonder what became of my classmates.

 

My wife is 4 years younger than me so I go for the younger woman obviously.

 

Who was Kevin Toyne?

 

I have a lot of cherished memories from my time in Sheffield and I still pop back to Wincobank occasionally for a look at my old home ground. Things are chaging though. The old playground is still on Wooley Wood Road, but the pub on the corner has been demolished now I see.

 

I don't think Concord School exists anymore either; I believe it is part of Shiregreen School now.

 

Wonder what happened to old Roch, the head?

 

Good to speak to you; I had a hunch that we would know each other. Maybe you'll become clearer to me as I scan the depths of my fogged memory bank!

 

[timo]

Stevo,

I lived half way up Standon Rd. My mates there included Gary and Andy Barrs, Alistair Winter, Steve Askwith, Alan Taylor etc.

Roch died in the early 80s. He was supposed to teach us "the facts of life", as sexual congress was known in those innocent days. In the first week, he discussed churches. In week two, he discussed rabbits. In week three [by now our appetites were truly wetted for an intimate discussion about coitus], he discussed, of all things, The National Trust. He never did complete his series of lectures. As a result, there has always been a nagging doubt in my mind that I know the full story of human reproduction.

Do you remember the History teacher, Kemp with his tedious papier-mache models of Iron Age Wincobank Hill, and his insufferable children who, he would assure us, were always miles in front of us with their studies, and reading several library books at the same time?

Warwick had a ferocious aspect, but a kind heart underneath. She and I got on rather well, and she encouraged me to read more widely than Marvel comics and Shoot! magazine.

Mrs Harrison was a good English teacher [she lived near the Botanical Gardens], and could be great fun. I recall her incredulity when reading out T.Rex lyrics that I'd included in a project on music;"You can twist and shout- let it all hang out" sounded quite shocking to a lady of her delicate sensibilities.

Miss Rees was a nice, tall Welsh teacher [i have a photo of her in pigtails standing proudly next to our class]. She was a great story-teller, holding the class spellbound as she read aloud.

Ron Barrett was a young, Liverpudlian teacher with a moustache. He would tell of sectarian times in his native city, when there were Catholic and Protestant streets. It is not the case these days, thankfully. He brought two catholic, female teacher friends to talk to our class to give us an appreciation of another form of Christianity. He was a kind, thoughtful guy and I remember him with affection.

Rupert Cox was Deputy Head [an ex-POW of the Japanese], and a wonderfully dry man. He seldom used his "Shandy" and "Double Diamond" canes, but the threat was there. The pupils loved him, and wished he was the Head rather than Roch. He was such a wise man, the kind that you can really respect. He never allowed his horrendous war experiences to impact upon his teaching, and seemed to be completely at ease with the world.

I remember Allott, the male music teacher [female one was Bingham]. He once had around thirty of us practice singing "Jimmy Crack Corn" around twenty times, until we were nearly weeping with laughter. He was obsessed with getting it right, but the repetition rendered the song utterly absurd.

Happy memories, eh Stevo?

[stevo]

You possess such an eloquent flair for the written word and use of the English language. Not bad for a boy who thwacked me with a cane (allegedly).

 

I remember Mr Cox fondly. He was a gent. I didn't realise he was a POW; in fact your memory puts mine to shame. I seem to remember Mrs Kirk who had red hair and a penchant for mini skirts. It was Steven Hill who convinced me that Mrs Kirk was in fact 'cute' and easy on the eye, only I was so naive I wasn't quite sure why.

 

The threat of being put in Mrs Warwicks Class was always greater than the reality of it and she wasn't a bad sort really, once the illusion of this fire breathing dragon had been dispelled.

 

I remember Mr Kemp and his lunchtime film club. I quite enjoyed those to be honest and can't really ever remember him inflicting his own sprogs and their achievements upon me. He was of course responsible for the dreaded cycling profficiency test and was most bemused when my brother David and Steven Sanderson became his first ever failures.

 

now I'd really love to see the class photo that you possess and not just because of Miss Rees and her pigtails. There could be another amazing coincidence about to occur, as the head of Filey school until 2003 was in fact a certain Welsh lady called Miss (Kerin) Rees. I really DO need to see your class photo, as she must be around 50+ years old now, so it kind of fits that it could just possibly be her.

 

I recall Mrs Gwynne, who congratulated her class on reaching double figures (10 years of age), in the mobile classroom nearest to the quarry playground. She was in charge of the house rounders and made me a reserve. Damn nerve!

 

Recalling Andrew Glaves again, I'm sure it was he who fell victim to the Roch cane, for looking up girls skirts in the playground. Maybe it was worth it, but I wouldn't have understood back then.

 

 

Do you remember Mr Pauley, the hairy guy with the black beard. I can't remember what his speciality subject was, but he was a fairly easy going hippy dippy liberal type?

 

I vividly remember that we still received free school milk in our first year at Concord. Those dreaded one third of a pint bottles, with milk that always seemed to have bits in it. I was situated in what I recall was the library at the time and I sat near Jane Rhodes.

 

And on that note - sweet dreams my friend.

 

[timo]

Stevo, thanks for your kind words. The Miss Rees at Concord is not the same one as the Filey teacher. Our teacher [1st year 1969-70] was called Janice Rees. Miss Warwicks christian name, incidentally, was Sue.

I remember Pauley not as a laid back, hippy but as a hair-pulling, free with the slaps type. He never taught me, but I recall him laying into kids.

See you.

[Timbuck]

I don't remember Concord School, But I went to Shire green school in the 40's and 50's..can someone enlighten me on it's history.

[timo]

Concord began, I think in 1969. At least I think we were the first intake in the same year. What appears to have happened is the old Shiregreen school on Bracken Rd was divided into two- one was Concord, and the other retained the Shiregreen name. I went there from 1969-73, and then was sent to an SS Order Castle called Hinde House, run by Untersturmbannfuhrer Edwards.

When myself and my fellow contributor Stevo attended, the catchment was from largely Wincobank and Brightside First [or Junior] Schools. We were let out at hometime ten mins early to avoid "the Shiregreeners" who largely came from, well, Shiregreen. They tended to be a more martial group than we were, and their techniques of throwing [or "cobbing", as it was known] stones easily outstripped our feeble efforts. One of our number, a ginger haired boy named Watts was cornered by a pack of Shiregreeners whilst he was dressed as a Dalek for the Xmas Fancy Dress competition. The sight of his weeping, bruised and bloodied form, with the torn remnants of his costume hanging about him, still gives me pause for thought. Like the cruel Pathan tribesmen of the North West Frontier, the Shiregreeners hunted in packs, and showed no quarter to any unfortunate Concorder who fell into their savage hands.