Balshaw's Grammar School

[TerryJ]

you have gone the right way .
I remember seeing you about - I knew Bill Elliot
The 6th former I'm not sure about - Borne or Bourne springs to mind but I am only guessing

[noel]

OK got it, but bet we wouldn't recognise each other now.[]
I should have known that was Bourne, AJR Bourne, head boy 59/60 ish who settled in America with a doctorate in can't remember what and was tragically killed in a car crash in the early seventies I think.
I was good mates with his younger brother Robin (RDL Bourne) who is at the end of that row, which suddenly drops down and Robin is the smiling lad light jacket with his head berween two girls ( don't think that's why he was smiling though, [:p])
I met Robin's mother some 20 years ago at St. James Church in Lostock Hall, she still remembered me after all those years, told me Robin was working down in Birmingham.

[TerryJ]

I had heard about Bourne - tragic !
Looking at the school photo brought back a few memories , a lot good but a few bad ones !
I think there was only one person I hated in the whole school !
It was the first or second week of term and First Years ate in the 'Tuck Shop' as there wasn't enough room in the school dining room and once you had eaten you had to return your plate . I returned mine but as I returned the lad across from me as a joke pushed his empty plate across the table , I pushed it back and was promptly hit across the head so hard by Stan Black who was the duty master that my ears rang !
Then in the next music lesson he had me stand up and berated me for about 10 mins.
It's a wonder I still like music , I certainly didn't at Balshaws !

[noel]

I had a hatred of Fat Stan as well, although I went on to get a good pass at O level music, as he certainly knew how to teach music.
Mine was when we had to learn a carol over the weekend. I didn't bother neither did most of the rest of the class but I was picked on to sing it and couldn't. So I was made to stand against the wall with my heels on the ground and feet inclined on the wall ( heaven knows why but it was humiliating) and repeat after him "honesty is the best policy"
Another of our class by the name of Dagger had Stan's hands round his neck, as he proclaimed "is this a dagger I see before me, let me clutch thee and see." I think he'd have been suspended if he'd been a teacher these days, either that or given a job in the metropolitan police riot squad.

[TerryJ]

Yeah - nice chap !

[Caroline]

Is the 1959 photo still up on the Forum?
I wasn't fond of Stan Black, either..just something grss anouy him somehow.. wasn't he a bit of a boozer?
I can think of a couple of others who wouldn't be tolerated nowadays.

[TerryJ]

Not sure if it's on the forum Caroline - it is on the Balshaws website though -

http://www.balshaws.lancsngfl.ac.uk/getf...7/1959.JPG

[noel]

I don't know about boozing Caroline but he used to nip out for a cigarette and come back red faced coughing and wheezing .

[anacortesdamp]

For some reason, Fat Stan was in charge of the boys' cross-country run. Why the music teacheer was in volved with PE was never explained. The run took place after school on Wednesdays, I think in the autumn term. I tird to get my otrthodontist appointments on Wednesday afternoon so I could avoid it altogether.

Once I realised that Stan had to stay at school until the last "runner" got back. I decided to walk the course, once I was off the school grounds, until I met the nutters that actually ran it coming back, usually around the vicarage. I then tagged on way at the end and sauntered back to school, making sure it was at least 6:00 pm before I got back. That way, I kept Stan and the prefects hanging about for at least an extra 30 minutes after everyone else was done.


Frank

[Caroline]

Good ploy, Frank, hope you weren't punished for being last- Brown used to beat the last lad in a race, always the plumpest one, no names mentioned!
In my last post I meant to say ' there was something gross about him..' Yes, Noel, he did smell of fags..
I'll have a look at that photo.