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Cottesmore Boys School Teachers
In Lenton Times No.44 [June 2022] we launched a project to discover more about the teaching staff at Cottesmore Boys' School for the period 1947 to 1961. If you think that you may be able to help or you would like to see what has so far come to light - click here.
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1961 |
Friends Reunited 2005 |
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Friends Reunited 2009 |
Friends Reunited 2009 |
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Cottesmore Boys School Bell |
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In September 1947, in what should have been my final year at Middleton Primary School in Wollaton Park, along with five other boys, I had to take all my lessons at Cottesmore Boys School. Our new classmates were drawn from several different schools in Nottingham. Among them were about six who were considered quite capable of passing the 11+ while there were a similar number who could hardly read or write. These latter individals tended to have come from some of the poorer areas of the city. We were all taught in one classroom separated off from the rest of the boys school. I can only imagine we were there to help ease the pressure of pupil numbers in our former schools.
My friend, Howell Williams and I both won scholarships to Nottingham Boys High School while a further four or five took up places at Mundella Grammar School. The rest of the our class presumably stayed on at Cottesmore.
The same thing happened to my brother, Michael, a year later. He won a place at Mundella but my Dad chose to pay the £52 a year and send him to the Boys High School.
Of the teachers at Cottesmore the most memorable was Mr Hopkins, who lived a few doors from us on Harrow Road. He had written a special vocal version of The Lord's Prayer, which we sang at assembly every day. I have never since heard it done like that. I once got blamed for breaking one of the windows at school. Despite my pleas of innocence I was strapped on both hands. As I had, naturally enough, moved my hand sideways I had to be given another dose. It left me unable to do my piano practice and my mother subsequently complained to Mr Leaning, the headmaster, that there was a proper part of my anatomy intended for punishment i.e. my bottom. My mother was very keen on me learning the piano and her own piano skills were utilised at Forster Street Primary School in Radford where she played the piano during assemblies. Maybe the odd person still remembers Mary Dixon, my mother.
Anonymous Contribution
During the 1961/62 term when I was 13 years old, a 'Rock Climbing' trip to 'Tissington' was organised. Tissington village in Derbyshire had some sort of special relationship with Cottesmore and was used for outdoor trips. It possessed a disused railway station, the buildings of which provided our accommodation. On the first full day of our trip and while we were left unsupervised Alan Scattergood persuaded everyone to explore the associated disused railway line. This excursion exhausted most of the day and on return of the group Doug Scott (the Everest mountaineer but then an English & P.E. teacher at Cottesmore) made his displeasure very clear. But he calmed down and told us that we should be ready for an early start the next day. The rock face we were to climb was formidable and the last stretch of the climb was furnished with an 'overhang' obstacle. At the overhang and despite the fact that we were all 'roped up' I froze and started to moan claiming I couldn't do it. Doug Scott called down to me and said 'My wife climbed this same rock face when she was your age'. The potential humiliation was too great and I was out and over the obstacle in a flash. On the way back to our accommodation Doug Scott encouraged us all to climb a steep grassy slope that we encountered by chance on the route home. Half way up I grabbed an exposed rock for support which promptly became dislodged and hit me on the head on the way down. I survived with a slightly cut head but I don't think Health and Safety would allow such random adventurous activity to take place today.
I started at Cottesmore Boys School in 1965 and left when I joined the Army as a boy soldier in 1968. I was originally with the Sherwood Foresters when we were stationed at Lichfield in Staffordshire. We then became the Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters in 1970.
Among the members of staff I can remember are: Mr Happer, the headmaster; Mr Marsden his deputy headmaster; Mr Fletcher the woodwork teacher and Mr Gordon the geography teacher. My final form teacher was a Mr McPherson and our classroom was next to the Hall/Gym where we would have morning assembly. The hall was shared with the Girls School next door. I and some other boys were caught on occasions looking through the doors into the hall while the girls were having a PE class. On the last occasion we got caught by the Girls teacher who promptly dragged us into the lesson and we were made to do the class along with the girls who spent much of their time giggling at us. Needless to say once we suffered this indignity we never looked through the doors again.
I recall being a milk monitor in the Second Year (1966) and also in the Third Year (1967). In my third year my teacher was the arts master but I can't recall his name after all this time. Another year our form classroom was the science lab but which year that was I couldn't say. Among my fellow pupils there was a boy called Ian Brewster; the Kirkpatrick twins, and a very tall boy called Brian Smith. While I was at Cottesmore I was also a member of the Army Cadets, which operated from the classrooms at the top of the school near the Park. They also housed the metalwork classrooms where I made a shoe horn and coated it in plastic whilst it was still red hot.
I used to live on Ilkeston Road opposite the Skills chippy and Co-op shop in the stretch of properties between Norton Street and Garden Street. My older sister Margaret (Maggie) Bradshaw went to the Girls School but was a year ahead of me.
I once went back to the school some years later with the Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters Regimental Band in which I was the percussionist; that would have been in the mid to late 1970s. Mr Marsden was still there then and he remembered me, much to the amusement of the other lads in the band. Today I am a children's entertainer and DJ although I also have a proper job as a self-employed decorator.
I would be very interested to hear from anyone that attended Cottesmore Boys at the same time as myself, especially if they can actually remember me. If they happen to have any copies of our class photographs for any of those years that would be an added bonus.
My secondary education took place at Cottesmore Boys' School. Mr Leaming was head then and I was in Faraday House. Among the teachers I remember were Mr Henton (Geography); Mr O'Sullivan (French); Mr Mason (English) and a Mr Twelvetrees . At the outset of World War II we were sent for our lessons to classrooms at St. Mary's Church Wollaton near the Park Gates and later to St. Barnabus Church Schoolrooms on Derby Road out at Lenton Abbey. It was while our classes were taking place there that we were informed that we were to be evacuated to the town of Worksop for safety reasons. My foster home was a farm just outside of Worksop called Osberton Farm which was located on the Retford Road near the village of Ranby.
At the end of 1951 I moved to the Cottesmore Secondary Modern School for Boys. Thankfully it was within walking distance and I could still go home for my dinner. All my friends moved up together so we were never just the new kid in school on our own. What really worried us was the 'initiation' we were to get if a senior caught us. This was a painful experience that happened to us all, no matter where we hid. The rock garden that ran the length of the building between the classrooms and the playground had a few shrubs with tiny thorns and berries on them. These were infamously known as the 'prickly bushes', into which we were ceremoniously threw with a'leg and a wing'. Teachers frowned on the practice but it didn't stop.
The headmaster, Mr Leaming, died either just before we started the school or just after. I can't ever remember seeing him at school. With us being in the first year, a few of us were picked to sing in the choir at his funeral service at Holy Trinity Lenton Parish church. The headmaster I remember was a Mr Skilbeck. He used to administer the cane for more serious misdemeanours. Pete Bradley and I were both sent before him and received three strokes each. He was correct when he said we would remember this all our lives, but the trouble is I can't remember why we got them! I think it was for fighting outside school. Barring the corporal punishment (which everyone accepted as being deserved) I must say I enjoyed my time at this school. The teachers were friendly but strict and the only teacher that could not control us, (when we were in the 5th year) was a new one we called 'Baby face'. This was due to him being the youngest teacher we had and his face would go crimson in frustration when we got too noisy. It only took a passing teacher to look into the room to immediately restore silence and calm to the class. Baby face didn't stay long at 'Cotto'.
We also had an exchange teacher from America. He was a Mr Bennett from New York and was a complete waste of time. During his term, a sea disaster occurred when a ship named The Flying Enterprise foundered in heavy seas. The captain, a Swede opted to go down with his ship but was plucked from the sea by lifeboat crews. As a lesson we had to write or bring newspapers and cut out pictures and stick them into our books. HE, would sit either reading the New York Tribune with his feet on the desk, or type letters on his noisy typewriter. That term we all suffered in our English exams, a subject I usually did OK at.
Mr Files the P.T. teacher was one to keep the better side of. His method of punishment was to slipper you with one of his plimsolls He would make you bend over then take a run at you and whack the rubber soled shoe across your rump, usually just to the side, making your eyes run as you hopped around the gym or sports ground in agony. It only had to happen to one pupil to keep perfect discipline for the whole class for the whole lesson. Believe me ... it stung. But I still didn't learn and sampled it twice. Mr Gallagher, a Scot, taught English and maths. His classroom was the first as you entered the quadrangle, and woe betides anyone arriving late. Unless a perfect excuse was given, the victim was punished with his leather strap, which he named Charlie. Everyone in school was scared of Charlie. My lasting memory of Mr Gallagher was at a school concert. Access to the assembly room cum gym, was down a long tunnel. It was in this tunnel that he marched down and back playing his faithful bagpipes .On this occasion he played 'The Skye Boat Song' and in the echoing tunnel it sounded just great.
Mr Gill was the art teacher. He was a well-liked and he was a trumpet player in a jazz band. He would give us a blast at Christmas concerts, but this jazz, never rang my bell. Fifty years later I would read about him in a paper called Bygones, that he had fell over (drunk I think) and damaged his lip ending his musical career. Mr Fox ran the woodwork class and Mr Everett ran the metalwork class. We had the option of which class to take after we had tried both for a few weeks. I opted for woodwork, as it took too long to see a result of finished work in metalwork. 'Foxy' always cooked a hot meal on the glue pot gas ring. He'd peel spuds, cut up cauliflower and shell peas, and put all in the saucepan. Mr Dixon took the French class. He used to get you to read passages out of a textbook while he poked inside his ears with a pin stuck in the end of a pencil. He would lean back in his chair with eyes closed and I'm sure sometimes he nodded off. Just before the end of lesson he would wipe his pin over the paper on his desk, pick it up then blow the wax or whatever he redeemed from the depths of his ear hole, over the poor pupil sitting at the front desk ... 'Sacre Bleu!!! 'Pop' Mason took English and R.E. He must have been the oldest teacher there. He also had a pot leg that he used to tap with the blackboard rubber. That was if he wasn't throwing it at someone.
On a spelling competition/test on Goose Fair Friday (we always had that Friday afternoon off) the class was whittled down to just to lads. The prize was to be 6d from 'Pop's' own pocket to spend at the fair. I was one of the final two, but after we kept tying, he decided to give us 3d each. It would pay for one ride at the fair. I can even remember the last two words we had to spell. 'Paraffin' and 'sheriff'. We both answered wrong as we put two R's instead of two F's. Mr Hodgson (Gammy) taught English and had a deformed wrist, over which he hung a leather strap. One afternoon he called me to the front of the class. I thought he was going to praise me for being top of the class in our English exam, but I was painfully mistaken. He strapped me because I had inkblots and smudges over one page in my exercise book. Bastard!
Mr Davidson was a strict disciplinarian. He used to wear leather gaiters and looked a right twit. But we all made sure he didn't see us smirking behind his back. One time he called out my cousin Trevor to the front of the class. He tilted Trevor's chin up and gave him two of the most vicious hard slaps across his face I have ever seen. ALL the class gasped in disbelief. Trevor's face became swollen and a note was written to the headmaster from his mum. I don't know what the outcome was, but if it happened in today's society, the teacher would have been charged with assault and fired. Today, I believe in corporal punishment, but that was beyond reason. He was a sadist.
There were many other teachers of course, but these were just a few that will always be remembered.
One event that sticks in my mind as being funny now, but not at the time, was when 'Big Nobby' Whitehead asked to leave the room. Permission was granted and he walked to the door and the teacher turned his back and began to write on the blackboard. As Nobby reached the door he threw a piece of chalk at the teacher narrowly missing him. He shot through the door as the teacher turned angrily glaring at us as we sniggered behind cupped hands. He threw the book he was teaching from on his desk and demanded to know who threw the chalk. Silence reigned over the class. Three times he asked us then told us we were all getting detention immediately. A few minutes later Nobby walked back in and feigned surprise at the silence in the class. "It's all right Whitehead, you were out of the room so you can go home now," said the teacher. "Until the culprit owns up, the class will stay behind."Nobby turned and left the room and as he passed the window gave us a cheery wave, a big grin on his face. The next day he was duly thrown into the 'prickly bushes' and vengeance was wreaked.
May I mention a little more about two of the teachers at Cottesmore Boys School. Hans Tuchler taught us chemistry and was a very good teacher. He was also assigned to teach the boys about the human reproductive cycle. Were anyone to snigger at any point in the lesson then they would find themselves standing out in the quadrangle until the lesson was over. 'Jock' Smiley has been mentioned by others, but I recall he took our class to Trent Bridge to see Australia play cricket. I was not someone who was mad keen on sport and I recall I actually fell asleep at one point while supposedly watching the game. I did however thoroughly enjoy the occasional trip the school organised to a little theatre in Nottingham to watch Shakespeare plays or the like - they were more my cup of tea!
I was recently down at 'Anchor Surplus' in the Nottingham Cattle Market when I came across the bell which we used to sound at the end of every period. The bell used to be located just outside the science room and had the inscription TSS WAIMANA cast into it. The bell is unmistakeable as it has hammer marks on it where it has been struck on the outside. Surely there cannot be two bells bearing the same name? Does anyone know any more about this bell and how it has ended up at the Cattle Market? I was at Cottesmore Boys School until 1963 whereupon I went to work for Imperial Tobacco. I retired two years ago after almost 42 years service.
William (Bill) Pugsley - New York, USA
I was born in 1933 and attended Cottesmore Boys School leaving in 1948. At this time I used to live on Hermon Street at the top of Derby Road. Among the members of staff at the Boys School I can remember various members of staff including the headmaster C. W. Leaning, and the ogre 'Jock' Smiley with his blackjack taws. There was also Mr. Everett who took metal work (don't you dare put your work too high in the vice!); Percy Fox - woodwork, 'Pop' Mason who I seem to recall was deputy head; Mr. Hornbuckle - art; Mr. Hopkins - music; Mr. Tuchler & Mr. Collinson (?) - science, (who remembers the old bullnose Morris chassis and the airplane engines in the science room?). I later met up with Mr. Tuchler when I was working for Notts. County Council and he was head of a school in Mansfield. He was later awarded the OBE. There was also Mr. Hodgkinson; George Happer -geography; Cyril Green our A4 class master (he later became headmaster of the school on Bar Lane, Basford); Mr. Dixon - French (always cleaning his ears with a pin on the end of a pencil!); during my early years at the school there was a Miss. Silkstone. There was also a teacher from Canada on a training session and he introduced us to a new subject called 'Civics'.
The classmates I can recall were David Crown, Peter Barry Brown, Mike Pownall (who died in a motorcycle accident), Bert Butcher (who was up a tree in an orchard with me when a farmer and his dogs came into the area but never spotted us - I'm sure he will remember that!), Billy Dennis, Stuart Jarvis, Doug Wragg, Joe Sparham, Brian Bates, John Smith, who went with me to hospital when I fell and broke my arm, Alec Skelton - a great footballer, Stewart Coates, Ashley 'Spud' Tate, D. Eaton (Easom?), ? Greenfield, Derek Shooter, ? Weightman, Billy Kelvey, Stuart Skill (of bus fame), George Dabell, and 'Dickie' Bird.
My sister Ethel died of TB many years ago, but Doreen married a French Canadian and went to Nova Scotia. Now a widow, she has five children. Both of my sisters attended Cottesmore Girls School. I had two older brothers that were away fighting the war while I was at school, one in the eighth army, the other flying Lancaster bombers. Both are now deceased. Another of my older brothers, Raymond, is alive and living in Clifton while my younger brother, Walter, is a resident of Bestwood. I came to Long Island, New York. USA in 2000 to remarry but was living in Farnsfield, near Southwell until then. I still keep my cottage there and return twice a year for holidays.
I would very much like any of these people, but especially the first two names, to get in touch if they wish to, either by e-mail or snail mail at loupescoop@aol.com or 19 Bower Place, Huntington, New York. 11743 USA.
Steve Gilbert - Queensland, Australia
I was a student at Cottesmore Boys' School from 1950 to 1955. I have just found your site about my old school. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of the school. My class progression was 1B, 2B, 3A, 4X and 5X. My house was Faraday. I represented the school in Athletics, (Track) and Cricket.
Most of my time there, Mr. Skilbeck was the Headmaster. Since it is now 50 years on, I guess that most of the class teachers I had would have passed on. The only boy I recognised from photos was that of Ray Herbert who was well known because he was a tough guy. I have lived overseas all my life since then. I have been in Australia since 1969. Previously in S.Africa (Rhodesia). I am retired and live in Queensland. On one occasion I got my arm jammed between the heating pipes. All sorts of greasy substances were applied to my arm in a vain effort to free me. My arm then began to swell up which only made matters worse. In the end the heating had to be switched off, the pipes drained and a fireman brought in to cut me free. The heating could not be switched back on again until the pipe had been mended. So the following day we all had to sit in class with our coats on. No doubt I wasn't very popular with my fellow pupils that particular day. Across the road from the school was Grahams shop - something of an Aladdin's cave as it sold all manner of things. I remember being sent to the shop for a glass hammer and a tin of elbow grease. Given that both requests were made on April 1st I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions as to the answer I received.
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