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Colin
Hinds
remembers being a Corinthian |
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| Jan 13th, 2006. Colin wrote by email, adding, I live in Allestree near the Palm Court Restaurant (A6/A38 Junction) not far from the old school. The restaurant is now closed awaiting redevelopment with more houses or flats to be squeezed in. He also sent a DET copy of the Gymnastic Club from Sept 6th, 1999. Here is his article. (Right, Colin in 1954. He is pictured below in the gym photo.) |
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The ramblings of an Old Centaur (1953-1958) At the risk of repeating what others have said I have put together some of my memories such as they are, of Central School, in no particular order. Please let me know if I have wandered too far from facts that took place about 50 years ago. The first thing I remember was being put into the Corinthian House. Was there any logic to the allocation process? It seemed to me that as time passed the Olympians (Red) were best at sports, Athenians (Blue) excelled academically, Spartans (Yellow) did the best they could and Corinthians (Green) were a decent bunch of all-rounders. We were an itinerant lot. Our base camp was at Darley Park, a wonderful location for a school, but we had to attend Abbey Street Girls School one day a week, where they had a lecture theatre, laboratories and a workshop for physics, chemistry and woodwork. Music classes were held in the sheet metal work shop across the court yard from the main school building. Football, cricket and tennis were played on Darley Playing Fields after a lengthy walk to the changing rooms that were always thick with whitewash. PE and gymnastics took place in the canteen. Athletics were held on the park and swimming lessons were at Queen Street Gala Baths. The cross country running course started at the balustrade by the rowing boats in the park, passed through the top gate and wound its way through Darley Village and along the meadows to cross Ford Lane Bridge before returning on the other side of the river, back through the village and finishing between two park benches in front of the school. Central School must have had one of the biggest play grounds of any school. You could be more than ½ mile away when the bell went - which probably accounted for the production of some nifty sprinters such as Alistair McAffee (Olympians House Athletics Captain 1958) and Keith Bullock (Corinthians House Athletics Captain 1958.) I believe Keith Bullock later won a gold medal in the Senior Olympics( in Italy?) and he is still well and living in Allestree. Another person living in Allestree is David Butler whom I remember as a strong swimmer, winning the last river swim in the Derwent. The following year the swim was cancelled because of the poliomyelitis epidemic. My favourite school year was 1957-58 which I remembered with affection. It was the last year at Darley Park for both me and the school. It was the year when the reason for being there suddenly became very clear. A Drawing Office apprenticeship at Rolls Royce had been secured provided that a minimum of four specific GCE ‘O’ Levels could be passed. It was time to do some serious work and pass some exams. It was then that you realized the teachers also wanted you to do well. Ken Evans for physics - with the aid of ‘VERA the copper wire blond’ - Pritchard who said learn every geometric theorem and you are well on the way to passing maths, Chapman who awakened the engineering in me, only to leave before the end of the final year with classes taken over by G B Swaine, and Bert Fossey, who worked miracles to make Geography interesting, were instrumental in my scraping through. Bert Fossey always said start on home soil, learn about Derby first, then Derbyshire, then the rest of the Country and finally the rest of the world. We went on field trips in that last year, to a coalmine (Markham), to Lady Bower Dam, and to the rope making cavern in Castleton. He also said that an excellent knowledge of Ordnance Survey map reading would secure 1/3 of the marks. Contrary to popular belief - I was listening. My apprenticeship started an enjoyable career at Rolls-Royce that ended in early retirement in 1999 after the computer department and many others including myself were transferred to Electronic Data Systems (EDS). I still sing with the Rolls-Royce Male Voice Choir which I joined in 1982.
The other teacher who made school life enjoyable was Jim Lingard with his school gymnastics team and work on the athletics field. A picture of the Gymnastics Club (1957) appeared in the DET Monday Sept 6th 1993 Page 18. It showed that Michael Buss and David Butler were both taller than Jim Lingard. They were bigger and stronger than everyone else so when we made a human pyramid they were the foundation taking the weight of everyone above. I was rather small and sometimes had to climb to the top. Ribbons, to sew onto your shorts, were awarded for agility. Most people got the light blue ribbon, and some the dark blue ribbon, but I only remember Tony - the elder of the Froggatt brothers - being awarded the gold ribbon. I remember the gym club performing a display on the lawn at St. Barnabas in Bass Street during 1958. Do you recall the planting of trees in June 1958 to commemorate the School’s occupation at Darley Park? One day Ken Evans asked if anyone in class 5A possessed a spade and I was the only volunteer. He told me he had a job for me - to plant a tree. I think one tree was planted for every class all along the metal fence that stood between the long jump pit and the tea rooms. Since then two trees have been removed to give public access to the field that now has a cricket pitch on it, and one has fallen over. Who planted the other trees? They are not exotic trees but more could have been made of it such as a plaque to mark the event. Other memories are walking to the top of Snowdon led by Bert Fossey during School Camp. The camp was on the Isle of Anglesey near the causeway across to Holyhead, and camping at Sandsend near Whitby with the scouts when a large bell tent was blown away over the cliffs. These camps took place in 1954 and 1955 but I cannot remember which was first. A scar on the back of my left hand reminded me of the barbed wire fence that got in the way when a bull chased two of us during the scout camp. A good friend of mine was Trevor Redfern. We sat together in class during our last year at Central School and went to watch Derby County Football Club on a regular basis meeting up at his uncle’s house near the ground. We have not made contact for many years. I hope he is still alive and well. colin.hinds@ntlworld.com Tel 01332 558721
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