1)
Teachers & other staff
2)
Rob McNabb
3)
Skating Rink Pipes
4)
JHM's Morris Isis...
5)
Visit to JHM's home in Cheltenham
6)
Hangers on at Sports Day
7)
Classical Music Evenings and Piano Tuition
8)
The Prefects' Room
9)
Israfil's Illicit Tuck
10)
Sheltered upbringing and the violence of caning
11)
Hay ride
12)
Mushrooms for the Cheltenham shop
13)
Go to work on an egg
14)
Just watching the cars go by
15)
Cinematography Attendants
16)
Pocket Money
17)
Tuck Shop provisions
18)
Prefects' cupboard
19)
Camp coffee
20)
Transistor Radio
21)
Produce for Cheltenham shop
22)
Grass of Parnassus
23)
Top Road Caff
24)
JHM treats the Prefects
25)
Post Office Shop
26)
Register A - Miss Green - Mr Shrewsbury
Preceeding Roy Dennis, there was a Maths master with family living in the Stable Block….can't remember his name, but they had loads of cats and he used to smell of them and was always covered in cat hairs! He used to drive an old Jaguar SS.
Margaret Gibson House Keeping. 1958-Didn't she marry Peter Thomas ?.
Miss Green. Maths. Say 1958 ish, she used to smoke like a trooper, and was about 5'1" tall.
Mr. Betts BA (Cantab)…..Geography, predecessor to Mike Airey…first teaching job from Oxford. Had the 'hots' for Volvo's and Scandanavia in general. Say 1956-1957 max.
Mr. Chadwick reappeared on the teaching scene for Autumn term 1955 and stayed until end of Summer Term 1956. (As a favour to JHM I recall we were told).
John Fair Games/Woodwork/Art, 1954-56. He was from Cheltenham and had a blue MG TF.
Miss O. Stensen-Stensen was Housekeeper for a few terms. She had an old Standard 8 motor.
Mr. And Mrs. White……He took art and games and she French. Probably only at school for a year…..say 1957-1958, they left when Mrs. W. was pregnant I recall.
Another French Master. Tudor Durston, I think he arrived in 1957, or Autumn Term 1956. He was from Wales and in fact Abersychan, Pontypool, which was the next village to where I was born. Tudor, I believe married our Nurse Kenny, an Irish lady. Think he only stayed about 1 year.
Nurse Zoe Chilcott 1956-1957, many should remember her, pretty young thing I recall. She was from farming fraternity in Bridgend South Wales. I was best man at a friends wedding (big do in Bridgend, farming fraternity) and lo and behold this lady grabs my arm and introduces herself as Zoe Chilcott ! This must have been about 1974.
Bob Wellings a pal of Adrian Noble, I think he arrived in 1959, and stayed for about 1 year, a great guy. In our latter days at King's he used to take us for the 'odd' beer at The Windrush Arms. He then moved on to become a regional presenter for Come Dancing, then as anchor man for the evening BBC TV news programme of the 70's and early 80's.
Peter Thomas and his family from Port Talbot were family friends of my fathers. Peter and my Dad went to the same grammar school albeit my Dad was in form 5 or 6 when Peter was in Form 1 or 2. I would believe that Peter arrived in 1957 ish. Peter had some classic cars too whilst at school, Alvis 14 coupe, Jaguar XK 140 and latterly a lovely 2.6 Lagonda. Of course these did not match Lord Sherborne's collection of new vehicles…RR Silver Wraith, Bentley Continental and a Citroen DS 19.
There was a History Master whose name escapes me, I recall he had a beard or bushy moustache……….had a Vespa or similar which he used to park under a set of stairs at a Stable Block entrance. Don't think he stayed long, 1956-1957.
We should not forget Reginald and Stanley of the Dining Room, Porterage, Gong Bashing, and Cocoa Urn, Bread and Butter suppertime too. Didn't Stanley move with JHM from Kingsholme School?
It was significant that ALL the Staff left the School at the end of the Summer Term 1957. Upon our return do you recall that the numbers had increased to 140 pupils and that bunk beds had been added to Dormitory 54 to accommodate the increased numbers.
Mike Abbott 14/9/2003.
Mike Abbott 18/2/2009
I once received a 'punishment' from JHM probably in my 2nd year at School 'for looking out of the window' during morning assembly which involved me having to learn a verse or two of a poem from 'the book' and secondly to learn part of the piece that JHM was reading from the Bible at Assembly. I was to attend the Study after lunch the following day to recite the pieces to him. Fortunately, Mike Henbest came to my rescue for the Biblical content which JHM had been reading, aided by I understand a couple of other staff members. I duly reported to the Study to learn that JHM was not at School, so Dennis Guildford heard me recite the first verse of the poem and sent me on my way!!!
Later on, as a Prefect, I used the book as a punishment to those who misbehaved....again the Ancient Mariner springs to mind. Didn't JHM take the School for poetry lessons on Tuesday afternoons, before or after his Current Affairs lesson??
Mike Abbott 30 April 2010
Mr. Shrewsbury: He joined the staff in September 1955, (same term as I
started) and left in Summer 1957 with ALL the other staff, including
Dennis Guilford who was the Headmaster. I think I remember Shrewsbury
telling me I was the first boy he had caned at KS; I actually had 2
canings administered by him in my first term.
Mike Abbott 16 November 2010
1)
Mr. Roy Dennis taught Maths. He had his wife and family with him at school, they were both good hockey players, they played for Bourton-on-the Water. He was around 1957-59. He actually took his Maths degree (external University of London) whilst he was at school.
2)
I read in one of the Reports associated with one of the Old Boys Reunions that none of the guys could really remember Rob McNabb*, I do, he played soccer for the school team and was also a great long jumper, I have a memory of watching him do something in excess of 18 feet…he nearly landed outside of the sand pit area! I also heard, as was reported, that he played for Arsenal back in the 60's. Another star player in the soccer team at the time was Petersen, I think he was Scandinavian. [*I recall Rob McNabb he was in my dorm when I left in 1957 - Conrad.]
3)
I can throw some light onto the need for the steel pipe requirement during the construction of the 'skating rink'. These were used as screeding rails which provided the level at which the concrete is placed to it's finished thickness and subsequently removed and the voids infilled with concrete.
4)
When I was still a student I had a Summer holiday job with Gloucester County Council, (nepotism helped here) and I was working on a road widening and realignment job on the B4058 at Bibstone Bends between Falfield and Wooton-Under-Edge, must have been 1963 and from time to time I would see JHM on the road still driving his Morris Isis and occasionally I would see his Secretary (of 1958-60) driving her Triumph Herald in the same area. I never had the opportunity to 'flag' either of them down tho'. The last time I think I met JHM was when I went back to school with John Reader to play in the Old Boys hockey match probably in 1964/65 season.
5)
Another funny story I remember associated with JHM. He took a few of us to Cheltenham on a Saturday morning, I am unable to remember the reason, maybe it was just a few of us Prefects for something….anyway he took us to his palacial home in Cheltenham, (1959/60), no KM around, she was at School with her dogs. Anyway, there was general chatter amongst us all and making all the right noises about his beautiful home, we were all expecting a drink of something to be offered when JHM announced 'that he would offer us a cup of tea or coffee but there was no one here to make it'. Nobody had the balls to offer to put the kettle on!!
6)
Was it really 1958 when we had our last Exhibition Weekend? If it was then I remember it being a washout with loads of rain on the Saturday and all the sports events were cancelled. I seem to remember my parents arriving at school around 2pm and then I think we then drove to Cheltenham for tea and had dinner in Greenways, Shurdington, Cheltenham where they were staying for the weekend. On Sunday, they collected me at 10:00 am and we went out for the day. As I recall most boys did the same, so how it could be claimed by JHM that he was planning to cancel further such events due to 'hangers on' baffles me to this day! Clearly due to the 'split' between KM and JHM to which we were all totally oblivious at the time.
7)
Remember JHM's classical music evening's usually on a Sunday when a fire was lit in the Great Hall, it was then and is still my opinion to this day that it would have been more to the point if music had been included in the teaching cirriculum. Although, just remembering in my early days we did used to have a lady who visited school to teach music, my recollection is that she sat at the piano in the Great Hall and taught us to sing sea shanties…..I wonder who gave these instructions? Great seamen come from Yorkshire! Needless to say that this did not last too long. Speaking of ships…
8)
The Prefects Room constructed by us under the Ship Hall Staircase. Permission for this was granted as a huge favour….when one thinks about it now, the number of available rooms in the building which were not used and we had the privilege of a place 'under the stairs'. Mind you, we did make a facility for making good coffee for ourselves in the evenings.
9)
Does anyone remember the incident concerning Israfil? I think it was something to do with 'tuck' which he kept in his dorm instead of the Tuck Cupboard. For this JHM assembled the whole school and staff in the Hall and caned Israfil in front of all of us. The spoils from Israfil's cache were then distributed amongst the school.
10)
Many of us had led quite sheltered upbringings and I for one found the whole thing pretty violent. Mind you in saying this I had the cane on 2 occasions from Shrewsbury…Duty Master on both occasions. I was doing pretty well academically in my first year and for some reason John Langham started picking on me after 'lights out'. I tolerated this for a while, he was the 'hard man' in our dorm but I'd had enough so I set about him, the noise attracted Nurse Thompson who reported the incident to Shrewsbury and of course I got 6 of the best there and then in Shrewsbury's room. A week or so later the boys in the dorm got fed up with Langham and suggested we gave him an apple pie bed complete with rotten apples, of course because of the previous incident I got singled out yet again by Nurse Thompson, so yet another 6 of the best from our Mr. Shrewsbury. What got to me the most was that I was Shrewsbury's best pupil in class!!
11)
Adrian Sainsbury, John Reader, John Revers, myself and others were JHM's Stalwarts. I recall the Summer of 59, JHM requesting the pleasure of JR and my company in the Study after tea that day. The task involved JHM driving the school van to a field adjacent to the A40 near Burford, where John and I loaded bales of hay into said van. The bales were then transported back to school and duly offloaded. This event was repeated on several occasions but notably to different fields along the A40. Was this hay pre-purchased or was it just thieved. We shall never know!
12)
The mushroom growing followed shortly after Mossman came to King's his father was a mushroom grower in Northamptonshire, so this was another item of produce for sale in JHM's vegetable shops in Cheltenham. He used to produce loads of salad items, carnations etc in the greenhouses at school for onward sale in his retail outlets.
13)
The 600 battery hens that we maintained for him used to be a good little earner too, with the eggs being sold weekly to Moreton-in-the-Marsh egg packing station. Don't remember getting too many breakfast eggs at School, although perhaps on Sundays we used to get some dried egg powder type scrambled eggs.
14)
I have some good memories of Brian Bolton and myself during 1959/60 taking regular walks at night up to 'Top Road' after prep., and sitting on the wall watching all the traffic traveling east and west. Of course such activities were not allowed, against the rules etc, but we did it and never 'got caught'.
15)
Do you remember sitting through (more than once) JHM's 16mm cine film of his long holiday in The Holy Land ? Talk about boring…..In reality who wants to look at anybody's holiday pictures at the best of times. I remember BB and I used to operate the school cine projector for the bi-weekly film's in the Great Hall, and the thing was so old that we used to take it in turns keeping our fingers on bits of the machinery during the showing to keep the thing going!"
16)
Receipt of our pocket money on Friday evenings on the Quarter Deck, in my time it was 1/6d for juniors, 2/0d for seniors and I think when I was a Prefect it increased to the princely sum of 2/6d.
17)
Tuck Shop provisions - I also remember in my last year being the Prefect responsible for making up the purchase order and quantities for the Tuck Shop provisions. I remember thinking at the time, the mayhem it would have caused had I under ordered and supplies ran out and the grief I would have had from JHM for still having a cupboard full of 'stuff' at the end of the Summer Term. It must have been luck rather than skill that got it about right!!!
18)
The Prefects Room (cupboard under the Ship Hall staircase was 'built' I recall by a few of the Prefects between the end of their GCE exams and EOT. So I don't believe that those lads would have had much benefit from their labours.
19)
In my final year we did better than Camp Coffee, we used to 'chip in' and buy Nestcafe, sugar, and chocolate digestive biscuits from the Village Shop.....couldn't stretch to milk though! Peter Thomas and Bob Wellings were occasional guests for coffee. Always alert, of course, that naked flames and timber staircases need to be kept well apart!
20)
Transistor tape recorders, I certainly remember Mike Harmer owning a smallish transistor radio circa 1957 which his father had bought for him during a business trip to Poland. It was quite something in those days.
21)
Greengrocer Shop in Cheltenham, yes, I remember this, lettuce (grown under glass) mushrooms(grown in the Summer House), various root vegetables, chrysanthemums and carnations also grown under glass. The flowers, root vegetables and lettuce production ceased when 'the gardener' left his employment.
22)
On the subject of poetry....I remember Grass of Parnassus poetry book very well and it's distinctive green cover. The memorable Ancient Mariner and its seven (?) parts springs to mind. In my days 'the book' seemed to be used primarily as a means of punishment to errant boys handed out by JHM and Prefects.
23)
* It's many years since I drove along the A40 when heading to Wales from London, but I remember very well experiencing the culinary delights of Windrush Cafe (Top Road Caff). I think the staple choice of most of us who used this 'out of bounds facility' was sausage, egg and chips swimming in the obligatory grease. I have no recollection of how much we paid for such a meal, but it must have been pretty cheap given the amount of pocket money we had available. I suppose these days, the nearest to this venue would be the Market Traders cafe featured in Only Fools and Horses, frequented by Del Boy and Rodney!!
24)
* On the subject of food, but at the opposite end of the scale of culinary delights, (Al Hawkes made a reference to this in his excellent school day memoirs). As custom dictated JHM took us Prefects out for dinner a couple of days before the end of the Summer Term and the venue was always (in my day) The Lygon Arms, Broadway. There were probably six of us who bundled into JHM's Morris Isis and headed off to Broadway. There was not much conversation in the car during the journey, except the undertone of complaint between those four of us stuffed in the back when we went around some tight bends between Sherborne and Bourton! I seem to remember JHM being a good host and conversation topics improved after the consumption of some wine. I have always remembered this....it came to the coffee time, JHM pulled out his packet of Senior Service and his filtered Dunhill holder, (remember, FJWinn copied the use of the same type of holder) he immediately offered us all a cigarette, Brian Bolton and I were the only ones in the group who did, JHM 'didn't bat an eyelid'. I have a recollection that he offered a second, but I think we both declined......Brian and I smoked 'tipped'. I only have feint memories of Dinner, but it must have been enjoyable event.
25)
* I have no recollection of the double decker bus cafe that Al Hawkes recalls during my time. I and a few others used the wall next to the telephone kiosk and War Memorial in the village for easy access to the Village Post Office to buy (in my case) a packet of McVite's chocolate wholemeal biscuits, the cost I seem to remember was 1s/8d, well within pocket money constraints.
26)
In response to Nick Sweet's points:
I was the only 'Abbott' to attend school during my time. I always
remember the School register when I first joined, Abbott, Ades,
Alexander, Allen 1, etc. On the subject of the diminutive Miss Green, I
think Nick is correct, she stayed for one Term and she taught Maths.
She was a chain smoker and mostly wore 4" heels too! I certainly
remember the plastic mac she wore when on swimming pool duty.