|
|
| Derek Jones
warms to memories of snow and fire Darley Abbey: 1949-54 Taught in ‘Spud Room’ and ‘Stable’ |
|||
|
Now enjoying retirement in Long Eaton,
Right: Derek pictured in 1954 |
 |
||
 |
THE two photographs in issue No 43 of Bygone Derby
showing Darley Park in the snow brought back a few memories of sledging
and sliding on the slopes, that I experienced while at Derby Central
School. I can remember that sliding on the drive was "strictly
forbidden" by he who must be obeyed; yes the park keeper Bill Bailey. During periods of heavy snow pupils were allowed to take their sledges to school to be used during the games period, but I am sure that some pupils |
||
| were not permitted to travel on the school
bus with their sledge and it was a long walk from Chaddesden or Alvaston. Studying the park scene photograph closely brought back more memories or consequences of an event that happened before I started at the school. I noticed that the glass was missing from the windows, the window frames were braced in the corners and scaffolding had been erected on the right hand corner of the building, thus indicating that some renovation or reconstruction work is in progress. This suggests to me that the photograph was taken after the night of February 3, 1948 when the school was severely damaged in a fire. Further investigation revealed that the photograph might not have been taken until 1950; this can be verified by determining when the clock on the south-facing wall was installed. One story behind the clock is that a lady, possibly a Miss Hoare, donated it because she wished to see the time while walking her dog in Darley Park. |
|||
| The fire was reported on the front page of the Derby
Evening Telegraph at the time. Below is a synopsis of the editorial
and report that appeared in the School Journal later in the year. "Since our last issue the dream of every schoolboy has come true: the school has been on fire. The fire occurred at about 10 o'clock at night and by breakfast time the next morning the news of it had spread far and wide, varying only in the degree of damage reported. "The actual state of affairs, whilst disappointing to those who had hoped for total destruction, was nevertheless daunting. "Two classrooms and a staff room were completely burnt out, two other classrooms were so damaged to be unusable. Our first task was the clearing and cleaning of the building and the preparation of emergency accommodation for the four forms whose rooms were no longer available. There was just time for this work to be completed in the week for which the school was closed. |
 |
||
|
“The four rooms had to be housed in rooms not very suitable for the purpose, two of the forms have loist all their possessions – desks and books included.. Valuable equipment and materials were destroyed in the staff room. It has been suggested that under these conditions it would be appropriate to change our school emblem and that forsaking one fabled creature with another, we should replace the centaur with the phoenix. (See also Ron Cook's account of the fire - Ed.) "The proposed change, however, is hardly as fitting as it may seem at first for, though we have risen from the ashes of conflagration, can we say that our youth and vigour have been renewed in the process? "In short, conditions for both learning and teaching have become even more difficult. Yet, in spite of all these discomforts, difficulties and disappointments, the school seems to have recovered its poise, countering the depressing effect of gloomy and musty classrooms with fond mockery of the "Spud 'Ole" and the ... Oss 'Ouse". Soon we hope to see the school rise phoenix-like from its ashes to greater splendour than it has ever known." I started at the school in September 1949 and, although the renovation work was complete, the “spud room” and the “stable” were still in constant use, the dining room doubled as the gym and all science and woodwork activities were carried out at Abbey Street School. The renovated rooms, which overlooked the park, were designed with a folding wall, thus enabling two classrooms to be merged into the hall that was used for morning assembly. The games period meant a trek across the toll-bridge to Darley Fields or a “bucket and spade” job on the “Cow Patch”. At the induction meeting, parents and pupils were told that rumours of a move to Allestree Park or Markeaton Park had been squashed, that the proposed engineering workshop, which was to have been in the stable was postponed but if we looked across the Derwent Valley towards Breadsall Hilltop we could see the site of the new school and it would be ready before we had completed our education. It is possible that our city fathers also recognised that the school was overcrowded and in 1949 reduced the annual intake of pupils from 90 to 60. This meant that, unless Derby School and/or Bemrose increased their quota, 30 children in the town were denied a grammar school education. During my years at the school I think I must have been in every classroom and work area and, in general, most were adequate but the concept of moving pupils around the school carrying all their equipment while the teachers remained static always amazed me. It is now obvious that the school was not large enough to have specialist rooms for art, technical drawing, music etc, and still be able to allocate a permanent form room for all pupils. The room which attracted the most adverse publicity was the "spud room" which was possibly only 12 feet square with wall to wall desks, making it impossible for the pupils to access their places unless they climbed over desks, chairs or other classmates. A very small window high on the wall and overlooking the bike shed provided the only daylight. Another feature of the room was the trap door, which concealed a nook that was big enough for one of the boys to hide in, or even be locked in, for the duration of the class. The room referred to as the “stable”, which was now being used to store two engineering lathes that were never installed, became known as the music room; well it did have a grand piano and a blackboard, which incorporated music staves, together with an appropriate mnemonic "Every Groaning Boy Deserves Flogging". I believe that both rooms are still in existence today as part of the park’s maintenance area and perhaps it would be interesting to see how they compare with my memory. The 1953 school speech day, which was my last as a pupil, was held at the Central Hall, where Alderman Sturgess, chairman of the Derby education committee echoed the sentiments first voiced some five years earlier when he stated that: “Classes at the Hall were held in a ‘potato shed’ and a ‘stable’.” Again, the new school at Breadsall Hilltop beckoned, complete with sports facilities, machine shops, science laboratories and GIRLS. The new school, Henry Cavendish, the country's first co-educational secondary technical school, was opened on Breadsall Hilltop in 1958, some 19 years after the Derby Central School for Boys had moved to Darley Park Hall, for what was supposed to be a temporary wartime home. Darley Park Hall, which was built in 1778 by the local architect Joseph Pickford, survived for another three years after the boys left. It was demolished in 1962, although I am not sure if the reason for its demise was recorded. The hall has gone but the school remains, as the words of the school song echo around the park:
Having now retired, I am attempting to trace all the pupils of the 1949 intake and will therefore be celebrating their 65th birthdays, during the current scholastic year. Footnote:
Derby Evening Telegraph: Tuesday, February 25th 2003 |
|||