My schooling and college days

By Philip Evans

15th Apr 2021 | Local News

My father's early years

My father went to the St Mary's Roman Catholic School in Axminster at primary school age. Most children at Colyton Grammar School were fee-paying, but entry could also be gained by way of an exam, which Tim passed in 1932 (although the 11 plus as we know it, did not come into operation until 1944). My grandparents were exceedingly proud that Tim had passed his exam to go to Colyton and as a reward Tim was given a piano accordion, which had a significant effect on his future life. (More on Tim's musical life in a further edition of Moulding's memories).

The journey to Colyton Grammar School in the 1930s was by train from Axminster Station to Seaton Junction and then on to Colyford, with a lengthy walk to school. Tim told several stories of the antics which took place on the train. Apparently the station master at Seaton Junction was a Mr Carter, who was a bit fierce – and would annoy the children. The kids wanted to get their own back and took it out on his daughter, Phyllis Carter, who went to Colyton Grammar and travelled on the train. On the occasion in question, as the train travelled through Seaton Junction Station, Phyllis Carter's knickers were displayed triumphantly out of the train window, on the end of a hockey stick!

The head-teacher at Colyton Grammar School at that time was Mr Mackay-Ohm. Two notable teachers, Billy Jowett and Billy Massam, taught my father and also taught myself and my sister more than 20 years later!,

My mother went to school in Kent. I imagine that she was a good student – particularly in English, as she was a writer of short plays for many years. She attended the Wrens' training school in Chatham before joining the war effort, stationed in Gibraltar where she met and married my father.

Axminster Primary School

At five years old, as mentioned in "Moulding's Memories – the early years", I entered schooling at Axminster County Primary School, which in the early 1950s was on part of the site which is now the Axe Valley Academy.

The headmaster of the primary school was Mr Howard Blackburn, a strict disciplinarian. I remember Miss Hatchley in the first form, then Mrs Hill, followed by Miss Carter and Miss Hunt, who lived in Alexandra Road for many years.

My mother became great friends with Miss Joan Carter, who we kept in touch with when she moved to North Devon. These ladies taught us in the old brick buildings on the lower part of the primary school. We then moved to the "upper" part of the school, where I remember Mr Mitchell, Mr Paine, Mr Wally Parnham and Mr Bill Pirie. The buildings in this part of the school were the old aluminium classrooms, which former students of both Axminster Primary School and Axminster Secondary School will remember well – they were swelteringly hot in summer and bitterly cold in winter, as they were all glass – no double glazing in those days!

Colyton Grammar School

I passed my 11 plus exam, and it was off to Colyton Grammar School in 1957. Those who also transferred from Axminster Primary to Colyton included Martin Beavis, Geoff Everett, Dennis Grabham, Tony Kent, David Mitchell, Barry Newbery, Monty Perry and Ron Thresher. Amongst the girls were Teresa Arnold, Juliette Carey-Potter, Jackie Love, Jane Shepherd and Marlene Taylor.

We all travelled together on the school bus, which was a bit daunting, with the back seats always occupied by the older students. There were two buses from Axminster – one went from Trinity Square – straight to Colyford. The other had already picked up some students from Chardstock, All Saints and Millwey Rise – and travelled via Kilmington, Shute, Whitford and on to Colyford, arriving somewhat later than the early bus.

I didn't get off to a very good start at school. For some reason I decided to try out the point of my new compasses on the base of a plastic beaker hanging around in the physics lab. The news of my misdemeanour had found its way to physics teacher, the fearsome Billy Jowett!

Apparently, the beaker belonged to one of the prefects who had their breaks in the physics lab. It was quite a laugh imagining the prefect with her punctured beaker, trying to drink her orange squash – but not quite such a laugh, facing Billy Jowett and my parents at home, culminating in the loss of my pocket money, to enable the purchase of a new beaker for the prefect. Billy Jowett was renowned for writing on the blackboard and if someone chattered during the lesson, he would swivel round and fire the piece of chalk at the unsuspecting student – he never missed!

I soon made good friends within my year group at school, outside of those who joined the school from Axminster - Les Bennett from Seaton, Terry Denslow from Tytherleigh, Chris Dymond from Beer and Richard Cameron from Musbury. Amongst the girls were Jane Cawley, Wendy Enever from Musbury and Susan White from Dalwood.

During my five years at Colyton, the head-teacher was Patrick (John) Morrison – a quiet unassuming man, who seemed well-respected. Billy Jowett (Physics) was deputy-head and others I remember who taught me were Billy Massam (Geography), Frank Howard (PE, Sid Bradbeer (Latin), Doug Henwood (Chemistry). Ray Hemmings (Maths), Fred Collop (French), 'Elvis' Cox (Music), together with Eddie Bond and John Pumfrey (Games). Pat Goate (Domestic Science) was the senior ladies teacher and others I remember were Miss Sollars (History) and Mrs Smith (English).

I particularly remember Ray Hemmings as a brilliant maths teacher, who helped me to develop my love of maths. It was usually Martin Beavis and myself who vied for top marks at maths at the end of each term.

Frank Howard, our PE teacher, was affectionately nick-named "Bogo". Heaven knows where he acquired that name – but he was never known by anything else. He was a well-built man – but for a PE teacher, he never seemed particularly fit.

When we were pounding away on cross-country runs, Bogo would always be following behind on his bike - to round up any stragglers. On one occasion, Bogo was trying to teach us various PE activities in the hall. One discipline was the "upward-circle" on the beam. Although some students were quite adept at this, we decided that none of us could do an upward circle and tried to persuade Bogo to demonstrate. He tried to resist, but we insisted that we needed him to show us exactly what to do. The outcome was that Bogo got stuck on the beam – halfway through the exercise. He had slipped a disc and was off work for several weeks!

Pat Goate was also a teacher that should never be crossed. I had a girlfriend for a while who was in the year above me. We had been caught behind the bike-sheds. The following day, at morning assembly, in front of 250 students, the head-teacher finished his address and then passed over to Miss Goate who pronounced – "I wish to see Moulding and Miss Hilder after this assembly". It was not something to look forward to.

At the school, the older students and prefects seemed like adults. In my first year, Michael Marsh (later to become a teacher and deputy head at the school) was Head Boy and I believe Angela Massam (daughter of geography teacher Billy Massam) was Head Girl.

As a young impressionable first-year student, the school's football and cricket teams had stars-a-plenty. In football there was Mike Marsh (an excellent half-back), Martin Leach and Dick Sturch (of 'Sqatters Write' fame) who banged in the goals, David Pavey in midfield and Alan (Greasy) Griffin in goal. At cricket, there were similar star performers – Mike Marsh, Martin Leach, Dick Sturch and Keith Ham. There weren't many opposing opening batsmen who looked forward to facing Dick Sturch and Keith Ham with the new ball.

Although I left school after the fifth form, I had found my way into the school's football and cricket teams by the time I had reached the fourth year. The teacher looking afer football at that time was John Pumfrey, who actually played football with me at Axminster Town. My great friends at school were playing together with me in that school team: Terry Denslow, Roger Hurrell, Tony Kent and Terry Newbery. At cricket, the teacher looking after the team was dear old Sid Bradbeer, with the same group of school-mates playing in the cricket team.

Following my progress through the Grammar School, my sister joined me two years after. It never seemed great for a younger sister to be there in the background. However, as she grew older and the girls in her class matured, there was more of an attraction in having a sister in school. This was highlighted in the year that I was about to leave school, when two new girls arrived in my sister's class – they were twins, they were pretty and soon became popular, especially amongst the boys! One of the twins soon became my girlfriend although she was two years younger than myself. The usual arrangement was to wait for your girlfriend after school and walk down to the bus-stop. However, I was party to a trick the twins played on me one day. I had walked my girlfriend all the way to the bus-stop, when she admitted that she was the "other" twin. Somewhat embarrassing!

North Gloucestershire Technical College

I mentioned in a previous edition that I left Colyton Grammar School to study Building and Surveying at the North Gloucestershire Technical College (NGTC). Together with my parents, I had looked at possible locations for OND and HND courses – four years in total. The nearest college which offered this course was at the NGTC in Cheltenham. I was only 16-years-old and accommodation was important. However, I was extremely fortunate in selecting the YMCA in Cheltenham, which had around 50 room units for students.

This was great for me as there was a sports hall, where we played five-a-side football, basketball and other activities. There were snooker tables, table-tennis tables, a dining room and coffee bar. Accommodation was basically bed and breakfast. All my meals were available in the dining room, which we paid for as we went along – but it was good food and extraordinarily reasonable. The evening meal was one shilling and six pence (less than 8p in today's money) and the pudding was seven pence (less than 3p). We bought our lunch-time meals at the college canteen, which were equally affordable.

The Building and Surveying Department of NGTC was in an old Victorian building called "The Lypiatts" on Lansdown Road in Cheltenham. The college's main building was at the "Park", about half a mile away. This is where my future wife Mary studied for her secretarial qualification and where we met up at lunchtimes.

The college had useful football and rugby teams. Although I had never played rugby before, I enjoyed the experience, where my football skills enabled me to perform reasonably well at half-back or in the three quarters. I kept well clear of the scrum.

I had some great mates in the building department during my four years of study. In the first two years, a lad by the name of Jim Baldey from Lapford in Devonshire, studied for his OND and lodged at the YMCA. We sought out all the pubs and clubs, which wasn't difficult as the Bath Tavern and the Bell Inn were just around the corner from the YMCA. The clubs were popular in Cheltenham, where I remember seeing Screaming Lord Sutch and Shane Fenton. At Cheltenham Town Hall, Mary and I went to "beat-dances" with the Kinks, the Hollies and the Merseybeats.

Jim Baldey didn't carry on with the HND course – so I missed him at the YMCA. However, I had some great pals on the HND course, particularly Keith Whitaker, Cheltenham born and bred, who eventually became best-man at our wedding in 1967. When we finished our HND course, Keith and I both left college to work with the builders Bryants of Birmingham, where I worked in the "Local Authority Housing" section, whilst Keith worked in the "Contracts" department.

We occasionally met up in Birmingham, but I left to move back to Axminster in 1970. Keith continued working for Bryants for a short while and then moved on to new and exciting things, working for himself and other companies at home and abroad, including France and Australia. Coincidentally, Keith had become friendly with a guy I have played cricket against on more than one occasion – John (Doc) Wheeler, who lived in Beer. Keith had spent holidays with Doc and had fallen in love with Beer – so when he decided to put down roots back in the UK, he chose Beer. So, although Keith and his wife Veronica still spend lengthy holidays abroad with family members, Mary and I enjoy meeting up with them in our local hostelries – often in Beer or Musbury.

Getting back to our college days, apart from Keith Whittaker, there was Chris Higgins who lived at Sedgeborough, near Evesham, Ali Murad who came over to study from Bahrain and local lads John Palfrey and Les Pritchard amongst others. In the year below ours, I was also friendly with Stuart Roberts from Pershore, who lodged at the YMCA and who we still just about manage to keep in touch with.

This group – particularly Keith Whitaker and Chris Higgins - spent most Friday evenings touring the pubs of the Cotswolds. I'm pleased that I didn't drive at the time, as someone, well laden with beer, had to get behind the wheel (no breathalysers at the time of course). The pub sessions always finished with a riotous sing-song, usually led by Keith who gathered his songs from Cheltenham North Rugby Club. Yours truly was not far behind – and I still remember all those rugby songs.

Lancaster College of Technology, Coventry

The Lanchester College (now Coventry University) was where I studied for one day per week, whilst working as a Quantity Surveyor for Bryants, in order to gain my Institute of Building qualifications. This enabled me to become an LIOB (Licentiate of the Institute of Building). It didn't mean much as far as I was concerned – just a hefty fee I had to pay every year for the privilege – so I gave that up when I moved back to Axminster.

Children's education

I was delighted that Robert and Edward followed my educational pathway via Axminster Primary School and Colyton Grammar School. At Axminster Primary, the head-teacher was Peter Waddilove – a kindly man - and the boys also enjoyed the teaching of Beryl Grayer, Mr Hargreaves, Penny Corbett and Jill Huber.

At Colyton, the head-teacher was Ernie Fox, who was down to earth – joining in school musical productions, such as West Side Story, where Edward accompanied on the piano. Robert stayed on into the sixth form, where he was head boy in his final year. Edward decided, after he had taken his GCSE's, to follow a musical direction and moved on to the Purcell School of Music in Harrow.

University education was at Bristol University for Robert, where he studied geography, whilst Edward was at a cross-roads after Purcell and chose to read maths at Worcester College, Oxford. This was followed a little later by achieving a Master's degree in Operational Research at Southampton University.

School Governor

Although I didn't attend Axminster Secondary School (which later became The Axe Valley Community College, followed by the Axe Valley Academy) I became a governor there in 1981. I had always followed the fortunes of the school and when my good friend Arthur Pickering, who was chair of governors, suggested that I might be interested, I accepted the invitation to join the school's governing body. Little would I know at the time that I would be a school governor for 27 years, standing down in 2008 – and I have the beer tankard to prove it!

When I started in the governor's role, Bryan Steane was head-teacher. It wasn't easy for Bryan as Axminster was surrounded by comprehensive schools – Woodroffe, Holyrood and Honiton. At that time the 11 plus would mean tat a goodly percentage of able students went to Colyton Grammar School, whilst parents also chose one of the comprehensive schools – generally Woodroffe at Lyme Regis. Hence the number of students on roll at Axminster Secondary School began to diminish.

It was inevitable that the school needed to change direction and move towards Community College and then Comprehensive status. This was started in the era of Bryans Steane, with Jennifer Sharratt as chair of governors.

The time had arrived for Bryan Steane to retire and I was on the interviewing panel, which conducted the selection of a new head-teacher. From a long list of candidates, seven had reached the final interview stage and the selected venue for a two-day interview process was the Mason's Arms at Branscombe.

I have been involved in many interview sessions – but there was nothing like this one. The process had reached its conclusion, with the final interviews on the second day. The candidates were asked at the final stage to tell us what they would do to transform the school?

The first four gave their presentation from a lectern at the end of the room – with the interviewing panel in front - in a horseshoe layout. As you can imagine, all the candidates were well prepared and proficient – but not dynamic. However, the fifth candidate was Liz Pinfield, who had come strongly through the early stages of the interview process. But this was her moment. She walked over to the lectern - picked it up – carried it over and plonked it down – right in the middle of the horseshoe of governors. Then she gave it to us! We looked around at each other – and I would say that Liz Pinfied was virtually appointed within 15 seconds of entering that room.

Liz Pinfield was the right choice. With the assistance of two excellent deputy heads and the overarching guidance from the two chairs of governors in her time - Jennifer Sharratt and Graham Godbeer – Liz Pinfield steered us towards a Comprehensive School with Community College status – and then to the establishment of a Sixth Form. What a transformation – carried on by Martin Smith as headteacher, following Liz Pinfield's retirement.

My final involvement for the last few years has been back at Colyton Grammar School, where I have been a "Member" of the governing body. This involves a light touch overview of the work of the Governing Board of Trustees and the important task of recommending the appointment of new Trustees. I have enjoyed being "back to school" where in many ways the school has not changed that much from when I was there 60 years ago.

In the next edition of "Moulding's Memories" I am going to talk about football

——————————————————————

You can submit your own news straight to Axminster Nub News by using the 'Nub It' button on our homepage. This can also be done for free for events on our What's On page and businesses, groups and organisations on our Local List page by using the 'Nub It' button.

Please like and follow our online newspaper on your favourite social media channel. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. And don't forget to sign up to our free weekly newsletter below!

     

New axminster Jobs Section Launched!!
Vacancies updated hourly!!
Click here: axminster jobs

Share:

Related Articles

Cheque in time for Axminster Co-ops
Local News

Great causes boosted following cheque in time for Axminster Co-ops

Stories From The Valley has been written by students from Axe Valley.
Local News

Axe Valley Students Publish Their Stories with Bank of Dreams and Nightmares

WIN A £25 AMAZON VOUCHER!!!

To enter just subscribe to our FREE Stockport NubNews Newsletter.
Every subscriber will be automatically entered into our competition.
Deadline 31 March 2024.

Already subscribed? Thank you. Just press X or click here.
By clicking the Subscribe button you agree to our
Privacy Policy and Competition terms and conditions.