Central School Document Library

Roger Finney and Michael Buss in discussion	Roger (left) and Michael -2004.
Roger: I went to the School Hymn link and heard the tune Luckington for the first time in many years. A very nice touch. Roger: I do not recall too much caning at school do you? In fact I managed to avoid being thus punished, and I didn't do many detentions either. Michael: Judging by Patrick Morley’s article, the cane seemed to get great usage under Boss Hainsworth. Perhaps the regime of Boss Swaine was less corporal. But I tallied a total of ten strokes from the Boss – all of them deserved. You obviously behaved better than I! Roger: Do you remember Dennis Chapman, the Eng. Drawing master and the Friday morning routine? He had a very imposing bass baritone voice and used to boom out, "Today is Friday. My day, the day when the front door will be closed at the end of break." So it was too. I was never very sure why he made such a fuss, but we all had to line up in the yard and enter the school via the back door in a very orderly fashion. Michael: You got me there. But I do recall, in the Third Form (1956), he had us all try to draw two short lines an eight of an inch apart – without using a ruler. He then came round to every desk with a ruler and proved to us that we were hopeless at guessing. So woe betide us if we ever tried to fool him with dimensions by NOT using a ruler.
The infamous 'Drop.' Click for full size image. Picture by Brian Skeldon	Roger: Do you recall the first day at school for fags, i.e. First Years and a visit to The Drop, and the choice was jump from the top of the wall or be pushed. I jumped I recall. It seemed very high. Michael: Oh, gosh, now I do. The Drop! At the rear of the courtyard! That was a big jump! I think I jumped, too. Roger: Actually it was our second day as we had to attend the day or a couple of days before when Boss briefed us about school life and warned us about the date of the G.C.E. some five years down the line. Michael: What a memory!
Roger: I remember thinking, in the Fifth, how small and fragile the new eleven year olds looked. Michael: And when I was just 11 I could hardly believe how big and grown-up the fourth year looked. And the fifth and sixth? Grown men! Roger: I drove down Abbey Street today and was telling Joan about how we used to eat at the Co-op Cafe in Albert Street; and I also remember getting my school kit from the D.C.S. below the cafe. We also used to eat at the Chip Shop adjacent to the school, I remember, and having to race across town to get there first on days when we spent the afternoon in Abbey Street doing Chemistry, Physics and woodwork. Michael: Those lunches in the chip shop next to Abbey Street made me feel so grown up and independent. Fish, chips, peas, buttered bread, and a cup of tea. I have never tasted anything as good since. We walked there all the way from Darley, every week.