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| 228 memories,
showing 177 to 187
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Memory No. 53
From:
Robin Stafford
(@WT around 50 to 53)
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Does anybody remember the weird shaped dinner knives in the dining huts ? There were quite a few of them and we all used to try and miss them and get normal ones. These had very short blades and very long handles with the letters U.S.A.A.F. stamped on the handle, and we could never figure out what they stood for. Some of the suggestions got pretty ribald considering how old we were then !! I wonder what happened to them ? They would be antiques or curios now
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Memory No. 52
From:
Philip Ebbrell
(@WT 1969>1974)
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Lots of happy memories espically the 3rd and 4th junior years.
Playing it around the mobiles with the whole class during breaks with Those I remember, Alexander Arterton, Colin Parsons, Paul Bovril, Simon Draper.
My bowling in our challenge rounder game and Andrew Piper scoring half a rounder for our class to beat another class.
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Memory No. 51
From:
Geoff Gillon
(@WT >1959)
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The desks were laid out in lines - we had school milk delivered in one-third pint bottles - there was either the smell of Dettol after recorder lessons or that curious smell of glue paste, the hall floors gleaming having been repolished during the summer holidays. The record player in use as we marched out after morning assembly, the afternoon naps we had in the infants, the prayer and hymn at going home time-" now the day is over, night is drawing nigh, shadows of the evening steal across the sky" - can't remember the rest, the exercise books with the road safety code on the back cover.
Mr Cowan was a pipe smoker and was the only staff member to have a motor car - a silver Triumph Mayflower.
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Memory No. 50
From:
Hilary Gold
(@WT 1957-1964)
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For all of you aficionados of the Torbitt violin teacher, Mr Young, here is my trip down memory lane. After 40 years I actually still have Mr Young's business card in my violin case! He was my violin teacher from the age of about 8 until I was 18. He got me through many violin exams including my Grade 8 (with Distinction). I remember having to play a solo (Hungarian Rhapsody) in the school concert but I can't remember what year it was or how old I was.
He was thin and wiry and prone to jumping up and down if displeased.
He was also an avid swimmer and fitness freak. I remember that he went to the open-air swimming pool at Valentines Park every morning at 6am in all weathers, even in the snow! I remember sunbathing on the terraces one day with family and being highly embarrassed when he trotted by in his trunks.
He used to live in St. Andrews Road, Gants Hill with his sister. Another sister was a nun if I remember.
Does anyone have a photo of Mr Young or know what happened to him after about 1970?
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Memory No. 49
From:
Hilary Gold
(@WT 1957-1964)
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1963 - School fairs
Does anyone remember the annual school fairs? My best memories are of the dungeons deep in the bowels of the boiler room. For a modest fee you could be scared out of your wits by ghosties in the pitch black jumping out at you, cobwebs brushing your face and all in the stifling heat. Mr Hurley ,the caretaker set it all up each year.
1963 - Young love (Aahh!)
I certainly remember the games of kiss chase in the playground. Whatever happened to my first love Michael Harris? He bought me a box of chocolates as a love token and when his mum found out she told him off! He had big brown eyes if I remember rightly. Oh what happy innocent times. It would most probably be called harassment nowadays!
1963 - Mrs Bidgood )
How can I ever forget Mrs Bidgood. She caught me copying Michael Robinson's answers in a Maths test and gave me the slipper in front of the class. I will never forget the humiliation of it all. My kids think that it is hilarious that I was so naughty. It just goes to show what you remember after all these years. I have never forgiven her!
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Memory No. 48
From:
David Chapman
(@WT 1960-1964)
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Fog like we don't get anymore. Mr Young being so nice to the girls and so rude to the boys it put me off the violin for life. Mr Davis smelling strongly of after-shave (Old Spice?) and annoying me so much one day I answered back and got "belligerent" on my school report to go with "conscientious". The front gardens of the school being temptingly out of bounds. Being told on the sports field to do a hundred lines and not knowing what it meant; no-one bothered to check up anyway. Mr Hunt being sweet natured and Mr Bidgood looking very scary.
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Memory No. 47
From:
Vicki Reynolds
(@WT 1957-1964)
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I remember Mrs. Bidgood so fondly but presume from what I've read here that she is now deceased. Her final words to me in my autograph book were "A girl with a smile is a girl worthwhile" and never truer words were spoken. I can vividly remember the day she told the class she was having a baby, who I believe she named Vanessa. This was huge news to a bunch of little kids who looked upon the teacher as an ancient lady. My sister knitted a baby outfit for her on behalf of the class. I never could see what she saw in Mr. B. either. There were such wonderful playing fields and I remember the "bars" that we monkeyed around on during breaks without even ne'er so much as anything to soften the fall beneath us. The school dinners were horrific and my mother bribed me into staying for lunch by giving me a blonde haired doll that I wanted so badly. I was quite musical and played the recorder, sang in the choir and also played the clarinet for quite some time, until I was told that I either had to purchase one of my own or give it up. In those days, the 5 pounds it cost to purchase one was too much money for my father to fork out so I quit and have regretted it ever since. I spent a lot of time playing kiss chase around all that land and always knew I could have run a lot faster than I did!! Happy memories and good times.
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Memory No. 45
From:
Geoff Brown
(@WT >1958)
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The School fields. A wonderful expanse of green. Now sadly partially built on. A Huge tree on the boundary (next to Roy Gardens - where I lived during those years) being felled and cut up after being judged as dangerous.
Miss Whitney. She'd been in Africa some time. Pre-pubescent realisation that women were attractive!!
Miss Fitch/Mrs.Bidgood. Ditto the Pre pubescent thing! Seem to remember thinking what did she see in Mr. Bidgood? (He didn't fit the Dan Dare image of macho man... ) Must have chosen well though! Sad to hear she's no longer with us and touched to hear that she kept all those records.
Mr Ellis. Strict... but fair. Timid as I was I couldn't take his moustache seriously! Not that it was bad or didn't suit him... just didn't go with strict.
Mr Cowan. A Giant of a man! But wait... actually quite slim in those photos! Remember the streak of grey in his hair. "Dressing downs", to the whole school, in assembly for unacceptable behaviour. I was far too timid to get into serious trouble so I remember him best in coaching us in IQ tests (now much discredited) for our 11+. A good and patient teacher.
The 11+. Don't think I realised the full implications of this until my middle years. The exam itself I took on a freezing February? morning at Downshall school. We were all practically hypothermic by the time we were ushered into those aged brown tiled class rooms. I seem to remember that they apologised for problems with the school heating system! It was almost as cold inside as out. That helped our terror no end!
11+ Results. I passed. This was good.... according to my parents. To me aged 11/12 "What about my mates I won't see any more?"
I remember Cowan giving us a chat before the exams reassuring us that passing or failing was not the "be all and end all". He quoted a friend from his school days who'd not passed but now worked on the Panama Canal earning three times as much as he did! Jesus! have we got to work in Panama if we fail? (logic of this terrified 11 year old - at least at 11 we knew where it was! I know 30yr olds who'd struggle nowadays). It didn't take many post school years for me to realise the "bitter?" logic of his point; but it was a "tads" confusing at 11.
I'm really glad to see the site and read all the comments. I've often thought that despite the privations of Post War Britain (I remember the day rationing came of sweets... I was sent by my Mum to Thompson's to buy as many Mars Bars as a shilling would buy) that I had a charmed childhood, compared to many since, and that Aldborough Hatch was somewhere special.
............but to redress the balance for Mr.Bidgood. I remember that he taught music. Mrs. Bidgood taught most of our class to play the recorder. I've often wondered why I was so bad at music. I remember vividly "sussing" that as long as it looked like I was playing I needn't blow and therefore as long as we played as a group I was safe! I became accomplished long before the days of Top of the Pops at musical mime. My downfall came when during a, for me nightmare, lesson when I took solace by allowing my interest to wander to the traffic on the Eastern Avenue. Like many a musician since, my mime must have fallen out of synch as I became aware of a sudden silence and the fact that all eyes were on me. The words I dreaded snapped out from Mrs. B, with a face like thunder. "And now we'll hear Geoffrey Brown play it!" The following cacophony must have been the best laugh my mates had had in a while but Mrs. B was not amused and we all got a roasting, me in particular.
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Memory No. 44
From:
Lin Fardell
(@WT 1957>64)
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Re Mr Cowan - he was such a marvellous gentleman; I actually did 'work experience' from my senior school (Wanstead County High) at the William Torbitt some six years after leaving and was both delighted and honoured to have the chance to learn so much more from Mr Cowan - even to that day he called me 'Eliza' after a school production of 'My Fair Lady' - guess which part I played!
During the work experience I remember having to take a young lad from 3D (yes - there was 'streaming' in those days!) to Mr Cowan's office, on the instructions of the form teacher, to be reprimanded for reading a comic during the class. After having given the lad an extremely gentle telling off Mr Cowan said words to the effect of "I'd rather he was reading a comic than not reading at all". It's something I certainly remembered when bring my two kids up!
I also used to attend 'Saturday morning music school' (I played the clarinet and piano) so have fond memories of many Saturdays spent there as well as various concerts at Ilford Town Hall!
The site has stirred so many long-forgotten memories - I think WT was such a fine school - although, of course, not completely appreciated by me at the time.
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Memory No. 43
From:
Tim Oakley
(@WT >1962)
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David, I remember you trying to learn to play the Viola and failing utterly. Then again, maybe it had something to do with the extremely small but extremely frightening Mr Young. I was very grateful when the Saturday music school employed the gentle Charles Bye to teach Viola and left the violinists to suffer under Mr Young
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Memory No. 42
From:
Jane Oakley
(@WT 1958>6)
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A wonderful time. Good teachers who cared about us and a happy atmosphere. Lots of space to run around. We had the opportunity to do all sorts of different activities. I often think how lucky we were to go to William Torbitt!
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