Articles
WEST OLDHAM HIGH SCHOOL
CLASS OF 1947 AND NATIONAL SERVICE
by Fred Brook, January 2015
The year of 2014 has passed by, leaving behind it a lot of memories. Not least that it was 60 years ago that the first 6th form the School had, the small remnant of the intake of 1947, took the new fangled Advanced Certificate of Education and proceeded on to various forms of Higher Education then available. But for the majority of the boys who were in the intake of 1947, the Autumn of 1953 and the Spring and Summer of 1954 were the seasons during which we received our Call-up Papers, ordering us to register for National Service and to begin the process which led to most of us ending up wearing Her Majesty’s uniform in one of the three armed forces.
The Second World War in Europe ended in May of 1945. The War in the Pacific ended in August of 1946 when atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Thus began a steady demobilisation of the armed forces, both men and women, who had been called up “for the duration”. A great relief to all concerned. The vast proportion of men in the armed forces were not Regulars, but were Conscripts – they had been compulsory recruits.
Within a short time of the War’s ending, it became apparent to the Labour Government, led by Clement Atlee, that it did not have sufficient numbers in the armed forces to keep up with its commitments. There was a large Army of Occupation needed in the defeated Germany, and large garrisons needed in many of the former colonies in Africa and in the Far East, such as Malaya. So, conscription was re-introduced.
The National Service Act of 1947 aimed to provide an annual recruitment of 150,000 healthy men, to serve in the Army, Navy or Air Force. Men employed in farming, coal-mining and the Merchant Navy were not called up.
I got my Call-up papers in March of 1954. I had my medical and was pronounced fit, and I then asked to be deferred until I was 21 and had completed my studies at university (I was not sure which one I would go to, although I had been provisionally accepted by two). This deferment was granted. It would appear that quite a lot of the class of 1947 were deferred, mainly due to needed to finish apprenticeships and professional qualifications such as accounting and law.
Those of my schoolmates who entered at 18 faced a very uncertain world. It was far from peaceful. Thankfully the Korean War had ended, a conflict fought mainly by National Servicemen, but there was danger in any number of postings, Cyprus, Malaya, Kenya, Libya, the Canal Zone of Egypt, where real bullets were being fired. And hovering over all this was the threat of a nuclear war between the East and West. There were lots of worried parents and girlfriends and wives at that time.
Frank Smith served the Army Education Corps, Teddy Wareham in Libya, Peter Marner in the Signals at Catterick (where he played cricket and rugby for the Army). Colin Fletcher, Brian Lees, Geoffrey Kelly and Billy Harrison all wore the blue of the Air Force, as did Colin Bentley for a short time before he was invalided out . These are just a few I know about. I would be interested to learn of others.
In July of 1954 I stood on Manchester Exchange Station among lots of others, waiting for the train to Darlington , and subsequent connections by train and lorry which got me to Catterick Camp and two years serving in the Royal Signals.
Basic training was something you suffered. Learning to march in time in squads, to clamber over assault courses in all weathers, and to attack empty houses on the moors whilst not losing your rifle when doing so. I did lose mine on one assault, tripping over a rock and watching it land barrel first in the peat. I was promptly put on a charge for this offence. Basic training was followed by trade training for a couple of months, in my case on a teleprinter, and then I was sent south to Brighton to a secret unit [which everyone in Brighton seemed to know about] to learn codes and ciphers. And then on to Germany to do just what I had been trained to do in Signal Centres in Bielefeld and Minden. I met quite a few lads from Oldham during my time in Germany, but none I had gone to school with. I was demobilised in July 1959, in plenty of time to go to University once more, this time in Newcastle on Tyne, to gain a Diploma in Education, to go on top of my degree from London School of Economics (for which I was treated with some suspicion by my officers during training).
National Service began a gradual fade-out from 1957 onwards, and the final call-up took place on December 31st 1960. Some of my classmates never did it. Dennis Elwell, with his Doctorate in Physics and a lengthy education, outlasted it. Alan Holt was exempt because he was engaged in scientific work.
By my reckoning, all the lads in the West Oldham High School intakes of 1948, 1949 and 1950 were eligible for conscription, but those who formed the first intakes into Greenhill Grammar School were not. We lads of West Oldham High School were among the tailenders of National Service.
I have no regrets at having done it.
Fred Brook. January 2015
Ron Wells - a Brief Biography
by his daughter Pamela
His earlier career: He attended Hulme Grammar School thanks to a Foundation Scholarship that he said everyone was entitled to from 1934 - his Grandad bought him a cap (for four shillings and sixpence!) but they could not afford the blazer so he never had one of those. He achieved School Certificate and stayed on into the sixth form, but his parents wanted him to get some 'teaching practice' so he left at the end of his lower sixth year and therefore did not take the equivalent of 'A' levels.
He became a Student Teacher and worked at Watersheddings Junior School from Sep to Dec 1940, and in the senior department at Clarksfield (which he had attended as a child!) from Jan to Jul 1941. He then went off to St John's College in York (long since absorbed into York University I believe) to do a teacher training course. It appears that the head at Hulme encouraged students to go to York if they wanted to pursue a teaching career as he had gone there himself. Upon leaving there, the Oldham Education Offices sent him to Werneth Junior School for one day, covering for an absent teacher, and then sent him to teach at the Parish Church School on Burnley Street, where he worked until the schools broke up in July and then began the autumn term there - this was 1943. He also obtained work teaching night school at Derker Evening Institute, thanks to Archer Tate.
However:
“ It looked as if my job at the Parish Church School was going to become a permanent one, but these circumstances were not due to last. In appointing both myself and my colleague Eric Mansfield, the Oldham Authority had in fact breached a regulation which was applying during the war. A quota system had been introduced which meant that an authority could only appoint a certain number of male teachers for their probationary year (the first year following college). It turned out that they really should not have appointed either of us as they were exceeding their quota right from the word ‘Go’!” |
As a result, Dad had to find a new job and decided to apply to the Manchester Authority, which was bigger than Oldham and hence he thought they might have a bigger quota. Following an interview, he was appointed to a position:
“ My new post was not at any of the schools in Manchester itself. An organisation (The Camp Schools’ Association) had set up several ‘camps’ all over the country, designated to provide disadvantaged children with opportunities to enjoy life in the open air, each with a school on its premises. There were a lot of these in the Manchester area as the Manchester schools themselves were in quite a bad way. When war broke out, these camp schools had to be abandoned temporarily, so the people running them needed someone else to take them on instead. Manchester agreed to take on these schools in its area, and in effect they became schools for Manchester children; many of these children had fathers serving in the war, and indeed, some of the fathers had not survived, so there was a touch of the orphan here, too. |
He was at Somerford from some point in the autumn term 1943 and loved it there as it was out in the countryside, but said that towards the end of 1944 it became obvious that the war was coming to an end, and he felt he might be drafted in to a different Manchester school. Given that he had now completed his probationary year, he decided to try Oldham again to see if that made a difference. A position was found for him within the Senior Department at Hathershaw School and he started there in Jan 1945; he also took up night school teaching again at Derker Evening Institute. With the reorganistion of education looming, he moved to Ward Street School.
During his time at Greenhill, you probably already know as much as I can tell you. In my discussions with Dad, he concentrated very much on the development of education in Oldham, and the various reorganisations, most of which is in the article by him that you already have on the website. He also told me about the trips abroad that he and Mum did, but again these appear in The Greenhillians that you already have. There does seem to have been such a bond between his students and himself at Greenhill and he was thrilled to be involved with the reunions in his later years; this does not seem to have been replicated at Counthill or, indeed, at Bramhall. I think the Greenhill time was so special because things were developing so much, and the 'O' and 'A' levels were new to him as well as to his students.
As far as his "post-Greenhill" career is concerned, I've been through the stuff that Dad dictated to me before he died and have established the following:
Once it became known that another reorganisation was on the way, Dad applied to Counthill for a Head of Middle School - and got it. He started there in September 1966, when it changed from being a Grammar School to a Comprehensive School and merged with Derker Secondary Modern. This was at exactly the same time that Greenhill Grammar School merged with Hollinwood Secondary Modern School to become Kaskenmoor Comprehensive School. He remained at Counthill until end April 1971 (not at Easter as would have been expected!), as he had a new job as Joint Deputy Head at Bramhall in Cheshire. Again this was a Grammar School which was going to reopen in the September as Bramhall Comprehensive School. In the event it quickly became Bramhall High School instead!
Another Oldham teacher, Leoné Hilditch had already been appointed as the new head, and the
Grammar School head became the other deputy with Dad. Also a former Counthill teacher, David Brierley, started at Bramhall as Head of Lower School. I think he may have been at Derker before it was merged with Counthill, but I'm not sure. He was at Dad's funeral, but Leoné had already died several years before Dad did.
Bramhall was a big school - as a grammar it had been a four-form intake, but when it reopened in Sep 1971 it was already a seven-form entry. I started there in Sep 1972, by which time it was an eight or nine form entry, and when my sister started there four years later, it was a 13-form entry! We had over 2,000 pupils and well over a hundred staff! We had a brilliant Sixth Form, and I seem to recall that Dad talked about there being around 200 pupils in the Sixth Form for several years. As well as being Joint Deputy Head (you can see why they needed two, and there was a Senior Mistress as well!), Dad continued to teach geography, both to 'O' level and 'A' level.
Dad remained at Bramhall until 1983. He became 60 that year and for some years he had planned to retire when he reached that age. Mum (Edna) died in 1981 and for a while he put thoughts of retirement out of his mind, but as time went on he decided to retire as planned. School finished in July of course, but his job continued until end August, as is the case with teachers. His replacement started on 1 Sept. Later he moved to Greenfield (do you remember Pamela Tucker? Dad went to look at this house and discovered that it was her father who was selling it!), then after he remarried (another former teacher!) they moved to Parkstone in Dorset, and he remained down there until his cancer was diagnosed in late 2006. At this point we arranged for him to come to a nursing home
here in Colchester, which is what he wanted, and that was where he died two months later.
I hope that helps. I've given you a couple of quotes as you can see, so I hope that will help you and that you can convert all this into the narrative that you want.
I remember one of his ex-students at Greenhill telling me that he and Mum held musical evenings at their home, but he never mentioned this to me, I'm afraid - so if you can find out anymore, perhaps you could let me know as that would help me!
WEST OLDHAM HIGH SCHOOL
by Fred Brook
At one of the early Greenhill reunions a few people of the class of 1947 pointed out that, although they were founding pupils of what became Greenhill Grammar School, they never attended it. They attended West Oldham High School and left it at the age of 15, and WOHS became Greenhill GS after they left.
So, where did WOHS come from? We need a little bit of Education History. The following bit draws heavily on a paper written by Mr Ronnie Wells after our early reunions.
Most of us who started at WOHS attended Elementary Schools, run by Oldham Council. I attended Westwood School, as did my mother. When I started there during the War the leaving age was 14. Elementary Schools provided free education from the age of 5 to 14. Something called Secondary Education existed for pupils having high scholastic records. In Oldham this was provided by the High School situated on Greengate Street. It was run by the Council, and success in an exam taken at age 11 secured entry to it. It was free to boys and girls. Oldham also had the fee-paying girls and boys Hulme Grammar Schools.
In 1944 the Wartime Government, led by Winston Churchill, passed an Education Act. It had great implications for all of us. Elementary Schools were ended. State education was to be in two stages, Primary, serving age 5 to 11, and Secondary, serving age 11 to 15 (the new leaving age). Most pupils leaving primary schools would go to Secondary Modern Schools. Those successful in the 11-plus examination could proceed to Grammar or High Schools. The Act urged Education Committees to increase the proportion of pupils attending such schools.
Oldham Education voted to increase the proportion of places in ‘selective’ education from 15% of a year group to 30%. This meant that a new High School had to be created, and in September we became the first intake of West Oldham High School, a new school. The existing school in Greengate became East Oldham High School.
We were housed in Ward Street School, sharing the building with the remaining pupils of the Central School (Eric Sykes is its best known ex-pupil) and some older pupils belonging to Robin Secondary Modern School. Three schools in one building was all rather confusing, but we wore the traditional green blazers of Oldham High School, which really made us stand out.
We were drawn from schools all over Oldham, not exclusively from the West side. Some schools sent one or two pupils, like me and Colin Bentley who were from Westwood School. Others like Derker and All Saints Northmoor sent large groups. Most of us,however, were complete strangers to each other when we started. I recall pupils from Coldhurst, Werneth, Hollins, Freehold, Roundthorn, Greenacres, Higginshaw, Moorside and Northmoor. All Saints and Northmoor were the nearest to Ward Street.
Ward Street School was opened in 1926, built in good strong red brick. To me it seemed a tall building, very modern compared to smoky Westwood. The schoolyard was on the west side , with rough ground sloping down below it (my father said there had been a coal mine there). On a clear day classrooms on the West side had views over Chadderton towards Middleton, and trains running on the Rochdale to Manchester line were a wonderful distraction. We had no playing fields of our own. The girls played netball and rounders in the yard and boys and girls used the hall for gym. In winter the boys played rugby on the old bowling green next to Northmoor Library. We also used the “mucky brows” on West End Street. The brows were the levelled off ground once covered by West End Colliery. We had no kitchens and so no dining room. School dinners were provided in a former wartime canteen across Featherstall Road North , at the foot of Ward Street. I went home for my dinner. I lived on Featherstall Road.
Our Headmaster was Mr John Parker BSc (we called him Jack, after a speedway rider at Belle Vue), with Mr Archer Tate as his deputy. Mrs Wild acted as Senior Mistress for the girls. Mr Tate was a well-known singer, a fine bass voice. He took the boys for singing, always good fun. We shared some of our teachers with the others schools in Ward Street. The ones I remember from the start in First Form were Mr Farrar,(Science), Mr Wells (Geography and History), Mr Sedgeley (French), Mrs Morris (English and Music) , Miss Turberfield (girls PE) and Mr Kiff (Woodwork). As WOHS took in more pupils in 1948, 49 and 50 so we took on more teachers and widened the subjects we could take. These included Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Latin, German, Technical Drawing, Needlework and Art. New teachers included Mr Nichols, Mr George Wright, Mr Kenneth Wright, Mr Harry Martin, Mrs Lake, Mr Sam Shepherd and Mr Livesey.
In time we got the use of proper playing fields on the west side of Westwood Park. They belonged to Oldham Council and had been built on reclaimed ground. Our cricket matches were played on a bumpy grassy ground beside Oldham Athletic’s Boundary Park. Our swimming took place in Robin Hill Baths, a short walk across from Ward Street. We had good swimming teams, especially the girls, led by Jean Wrigley, who eventually became an Olympic Swimmer.
The boys played Rugby League against the new Secondary Modern Schools in Oldham. My cousin played for Richmond Street SM and said that the WOHS boys were a big and strong team. His pals did not want to tackle Peter Marner, John Mellor or Ray Robinson. The reason for playing Rugby League was that it was difficult for WOHS to break into the fixture lists of older established High Schools and Grammar Schools, who played Rugby Union.
We had a House system from early days, named Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. Later they got proper names, Caxton, Milton, Newton and Dalton (printer, poet, mathematician and scientist).
As time passed we enjoyed a wider range of activities out of school. There were camps organised by Mr Nichols, and in our second year Mr Sedgeley took a group to France. At the end of our third year in 1950 there was a trip to Switzerland; I went on that one. We stayed overnight in Folkestone before taking the ferry to Boulogne next morning and then a long train journey to Basel where we connected to another train to Weissenburg Bad, our base. Rationing was still in place in Britain. Switzerland had none. We ate a lot of chocolate.
Mr Tate started a Girls Choir, perhaps copying the Luton Girls Choir then so often featured on the wireless. Pat Parry reminded me that they sang at Mr Ron Wells’ wedding to Edna.
In 1949 WOHS took part in Oldham’s Centenary Celebrations as a County Borough. We performed a shortened version of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the School and outdoors in Alexandra Park as part of a Civic event attended by the Mayor. Our performance focussed on the play within a play presented by the workmen (the Rude Mechanicals), the “Tradgedy of Pyramus and Thisbe”. In this John Mellor was Bottom the Weaver (and Pyramus) and his scenes across the Wall with Tony Gilby(I think) as Thisbe were pure classic comedy. I played the Wall. Mary Lees was a glamourous Fairy Queen, Titania, and Joan Marland elegant as the Duchess. One of the first formers who was a fairy eventually became Mayor of Oldham (any guesses?).
So we come to 1950/51, our fourth year at Ward Street. By this time it was obvious that Ward Street could take no more pupils. The Council had by then resumed the building of a new school at Counthill, which had been halted because of the War. It was ready to take pupils by 1951. East Oldham High School moved there in September 1951 and took the new name of Counthill Grammar School. We vacated Ward Street, moved to Greengate Street in September 1951 and took the name of Greenhill Grammar School . It was goodbye to Ward Street and to green blazers. West Oldham High School had ceased to exist.
The splendid book “Oldham Brave Oldham” by Brian.R.Law, published to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Borough’s Incorporation, makes no mention of Greenhill Grammar School nor of West Oldham High School. Are we Oldham’s forgotten school?
This essay is for my old school friends who attended WOHS and left it in the summer of 1951. In particular those who nagged me to write something – Patricia Parry, Vera Minton, Colin Fletcher, Roy Smith and Harry Stuttard.
Footnote.
Ward Street building houses a primary school. Robin Hill Baths have gone. Oldham College stands on the old “mucky brows”. Chadderton Road, down which buses brought pupils from “t’other side of town” is now Chadderton Way and sweeps traffic to and from the M62. My parent’s house on Featherstall Road North is still there.
Fred Brook. Bardon Mill, Northumberland, April 2014.