| A big welcome to two more New Members ... Albion and Ian Baldwin ... I wonder if we can get to 150 before Jim gets back from Holiday ??? ... Albion, I am not sure who you are, but 'Welcome' none the less ... Ian, I do know you and I trust all is well in the Land of the Big White Cloud and I am sure you will recognise a couple of other people from our era. I trust Easter is being good for everybody... please take care. Doug Clews in West Oz |
A place for ex students, or their families, to meet up with other ex students from Peter Symonds' School, Winchester, to share memories, stories and photos
11 April 2004
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Hello pevs, I see that you have just joined the club. So I welcome you and hope that you enjoy your stay. You may see that the group is not very active at the moment but that is the nature of the subject I think. Could you tell us a bit about yourself, when you were at the school and maybe what you have been doing since? best regards, jim wishart,
ReplyDeleteNew member David Jackson has written the following email to me introducing himself. Welcome David! I'm not sure whether you meant me to reply to your mail, but here it is: 1965 - 72. (Johny Ashhurst was the head for that time. Boarded in Kelso and Barton Seagrave (Housemasters were Mr Adams (Poggo), a guy with a beard who was killed, Then Mr Woolmore, and Mr Hurst the woodwork Teacher (Brick)). Mr Dearnly the chemistry teacher referred to the duralex glasses as Durex, which made us snigger. I believe it was him who dropped a block of sodium into a bucket of water, and nearly blew up the laboratories. The words COOK SMELLS were written immaculately in the centre of the tarmac square behind the library, and though this had been painted over in black by the time I arrived, it was always clearly visible in the reflection when it rained. David.
ReplyDeleteDavid - havent checked the site for some time - but see that you joined around March this year. I sort of keep in touch with a couple of my contemporaries (when I was 'doing time' in Wyke Lodge up until 1971) who were also ex Kelso-ites and in the year above you - Jock Parry; Steve Atkinson; and Martin Fowler
ReplyDeleteI am sure that you can recount a few stories about life in Kelso (without being too libelous) about 'Pog' - I can still remember his trade mark phrase "Oh come on now . . . " spoken in his french Canadian accent or whatever it was.
I had forgotten about COOK SMELLS on the quad . . .
Mark S (West Oz)
Hi Jim Wishart and David Jackson ...
ReplyDeleteIt is GREAT to see new members joining the site, all of whom have their own memories relative to the period they spent at Peter Pips ...
David mentions the "Tarmac Square" behind the Library, which has memories for him ... although not "Tarmac" in my time (Sept 1944 to July 1950), more a dusty cinder sort of finish, the Library Wall has significant memories for me ... it was where the School Photos were taken and it was where about 20 of us used to play "Body-Ball" at the 10.20am 'Break" period and again at "Lunch-time" ... the 'Object' of the game was to throw a ball at the legs and feet of boys lined up along the Library Wall ... if you hit someone, you stayed in the queue of those throwing the ball ... if you missed, you joined the line of boys against the Library Wall being thrown at ... the ball, was normally a tennis ball, but occasionally, it was a slightly larger rubber ball, that had been used earlier in the 'Break' period for playground soccer ... whichever, when it hit you, having been thrown with great force and 'gusto', it HURT ...
The area behind the Library wall, was also the area where George Yaldren would often park his car ... one day, his car was raised on 'blocks' just above ground level, so that it appeared to be parked as normal, but when George got in it to drive away, the wheels were not actually touching the ground, so, as you realise, the car went nowhere at great speed !!! (George Yaldren was the 'Caretaker' who was responsible for keeping the boilers working for the heating system in the School and also mowed the playing fields ... doubtless, he had other duties, which were less obvious ... his car was a 1930's Austin Seven)
David, thank you for bringing the Library Wall back into my memory bank and hopefully into that of others of the same era ...
Take care all ...
All the best from West Oz
Doug Clews
Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies.
Mark, Some names with memories in your piece. I was in School House at the time and had completely forgotten about the 'Cook Smells' incident. Really has made me chuckle this morning. Wasn't the guilty party someone in our year? Seeing Steve Atkinson's name in print has taken me back to a very enjoyable exeat weekend at his parent's pub in Twyford. I was petrified as pillion passenger on his scooter - think we went round to Geoff Lee's place. This really has started a chain of memories but I must go - my son is about to play rugby & the KO's in 5 minutes. I was really sorry to miss the reunion last year but did catch up with some of the Guy's over dinner in Winchester a few months ago. Had a great evening; little to drink (drove back to S. Bucks the same evening) but loads and loads of laughs. Good to see your name on the site. Regards to all OSs Ian Hale
ReplyDeleteWho was the bearded one who died? I thought Jack Woolmore took over from Pog, though I left in '69, so missed what happened. Tony
ReplyDeleteIan - Good to hear from you. Steve A. and I went to Cardiff Uni together to 'do' Architecture and shared a room in Halls of Res for the first year - he brought his purple Lambretta to Cardiff and when he went home for the weekend I used to 'borrow' it - all you needed was a screwdriver to turn the ignition and the steering lock was broken. I can remember that if it didn't fire up first kick - the only way to get it going was bump start it in on down the nearest hill - fortunately the Res car park had a good slope! Drop the clutch anything more than gently and the front wheel used to just pop straight up in the air. Steve's in Bristol and I am in Perth - Oz (been here for 15 plus years now) and live just a few Klms down the road from Doug Clews who keeps the wheels of the site turning.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I remember the tarmac square was known as the 'quad' and we used kick a football around there whilst waiting to go into 'prep' in the red-brick bungalow class rooms. Tom Pierce (in his old grey suit that couldn't be buttoned up across his expansive girth) used to tend the rose garden alongside the 'quad' and understandably got pretty narked when the ball got into the flower bed and knocked off a few of his sacred blooms. Tom P used to extract retribution with his favorite slipper for caught offenders - and for sure his wrist action from delivering devasting off spinners on the cricket pitch would have caused a sting or two.
Cheers - MarkS
The bearded one was Mr Woods, a youngish guy who
ReplyDeletelooked after Barton Seagrave. He also ran The Crusaders, a young Christian group
in Winchester, which to my shame I joined a) to get out of the house & b)
for the free food!
He left to get married and was killed in a road
accident in France during summer holidays.
Tim
The bearded one who died was Archie 'Fidel'
ReplyDeleteWoods. He used to teach French and took over as Housemaster at Barton
Seagrave whilst I was there. I seem to remember that he got married
whilst resident there, and that they had one baby boy. As a result of his
Christian faith, he instituted evening prayers at 8.00pm, for which we all had to line up (by year,
of course, youngest at the front) in the Common Room. If we were quick,
we could be ready for him on the dot of 8.00 and still see the current No.1 on
Top of the Pops on the black and white TV which was in the same room! He encouraged
a number of us to go to Crusaders on a Sunday afternoon: the main attraction
for me was to get out of "House Cross Country", though I found the
lessons learned more thought-provoking than I had expected, and I suspect that
it formed the basis for my own Christian faith, which I discovered in
1972. Archie died whilst driving a minibus on a Crusader holiday in the Pyrenees (in 1966?), in an act of
self-sacrifice, because by taking the hit on the right hand (drivers) side, he
swerved and missed the oncoming car. It was a rock wall, if I remember
well. By the time we returned from our summer holidays, his widow and
child had left, and his place was Bob 'Brick' Hirst, who used to teach woodwork
and rugby. He told us that it was as a result of an injury sustained in a
lose scrum that damage to his testicles was so severe that the only option was
to remove them. We often wondered if it was true, but nobody ever really
found out. How could we?
I left Kelso/Barton Seagrave in 1969. At that
time I was known (for better or for worse) as Joe Brown. These days, a
significantly reformed character, I am known as Andy Brown.
Hi Joe (aka Andy) ...
ReplyDeleteWell, as some people will know, my time at Peter Pips was well before yours, but, even so, there is a 'common link', which in turn has sparked memories ... I too was a member of the Crusaders (I still have the lapel badge in my collection of memorabilia) ... I went to the Chandler's Ford Branch, which was held in the front room of a house in Bournemouth Road, near Velmore Road, owned by a Mr. Hudson ... it was at the time that Billy Graham was visiting England and I remember attenting a Rally at a large property in Bassett, somewhere near, what was then called, the 'Home of Recovery' (I have a VERY vague memory of it changing its name to 'The Fred Wooley Home', or something similar) ... one of the other C/Ford members at that time, who was also a Symondian, Graham Long, was, I believe (although I am by no means certain), later 'called to the cloth' ... maybe Phil Lovegrove knows more ... I personally had no such aspirations, but I am thankful that 'Crusaders'
and Peter Pips, under the guidance of 'Doc' Freeman, quite definitely gave me a sound basis of Christian values ...
Take care all and keep smiling !!!
All the best from West Oz ...
Doug Clews
Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies.
You guys from "West Oz" might be interested in a venture that's currently underway there.... http://www.realtennisonline.com/rto/content.asp?s_search=14 Richard Adams (Wyke Lodge, '67 to '74).... and (now in Seattle) >3000 miles from the nearest (Boston) Real Tennis Court. Also, while on the subject of Kelso.... I read in the OS newsletter (Mike Conlan's rag) that a "Pete Gates" had died.... I think he was in the year above Mark S.... as a first/second year I remember playing "go between" (carrying notes to/from my sister then a fifth former resident in Rotherly) in return for Chocolate Digestives or some other tuck.... These days, kids probably exact much more valuable "rewards" I imagine....
ReplyDeleteG'day Richard
ReplyDeletere: the site link to Perth - is this a 'Real Tennis' story or is Simon Withers who seems to post most of the messages on the site an ex-PS lad?
Can't say that I have heard of Real Tennis here in Perth - isn't the name a mis-pronunciation of Royal Tennis - aka the Elizabethan sport for the upper crust . When I caught up with Steve Atkinson a few years ago in Bristol seems that he was a very keen player of R/T - its obviously a game that has taken off in UK in the last few years but hasn't made it down under yet.
So what are you doing in Seattle - is this a permanent home or are you in a temp work / residence situation?
Cheers
Mark S
Hi Mark... "Elizabethan sport for the upper crust"... Elizabethan, yes. Sport, yes. Upper crust, maybe but not necessarily.... Anyway at the risk of boring you completely.... I used to play (there's a court in my home town of Hayling Island. There's actually over 20 in UK, 10 or so in US, 4 in France and (at the last count) 6 in Oz (Melbourne (2), Sydney, Hobart, Ballarat, Romsey). It's true the game's enjoyed some resurgence in popularity... mainly due to good marketing... an injection of cash from the lotteryt and, of course, additional upper crust participation (The Wessex's - Edward and Sophie - actually met on court at our club in Holyport, Berks). The current world champion (of the past 10 years) and arguably the greatest player ever is Australian (Robert Fahey, a pal of mine) - google will tell you all you need to know (well, apart from the personal stuff...) Nope.... Simon Withers (as far as I know) is not an old symondian.... it was the Perth connection I though people might be interested in.... I'm in Seattle working for Bill Gates (well, I don't actually report direclty to him doncha know)... arrived here in late 96 ostensibly only for "a year or two".... Green card, plus horrendous UK tax system, cost of living, "new-town" oiks, etc. makes it very difficult to return to blighty.... and Seattle is a wonderful town with stunning scenery all around (erupting volcanoes notwithstanding) Of course.... the Real (some say derives from spanish for "Royal") Tennis might bring me back...... or.... what's the emi/immi-gration situation like in Oz these days ? Could I make it there in time to see our boys win back the Ashes ??
ReplyDelete