Norfolk School, Arbourthorne

[Guest wayneybabes]

Hmmm...

That girl walking down the corridor (returning to her lesson after being to the toilet) in my original picture is this girl

Corridor girl.JPG

I don't know her name but she was in the 1st year when me and Stuart were in the 5th year, so she would have been at school from 1971 to 1976 (or 1978 if she want into the new Norfolk 6th form)

I think, but I am not sure, that this is the girl that when me and Stuart were 5th form prefects Stuart jumped down the flight of steps that went down to the annexe from the hall and landed on this girls foot causing her some distress and we had to apologise to her later.

I have her photo because she was a friend of a girlfriend of mine.

Is it your Auntie Sue , - Wow, what a coincidence if it is.

sorry Dave, i must have confused you!............I meant on my original photograph of me before i imposed my picture on your photo!!!!

Auntie Sue is on the left

[DaveH]

sorry Dave, i must have confused you!............I meant on my original photograph of me before i imposed my picture on your photo!!!!

Auntie Sue is on the left

pict0067.jpg

So the next big mystery to solve then is "who is the mystery girl in the duffel coat walking down the corridor?"

[DaveThursby]

I went to the nursery, infants and junior school up until April 1961. Never got to senior school although my two brothers did and Dave H et al it brought memories back of the likes of Moggie Matthews and Pop Ward. I used to hold hands in the top infants yard with Marlene Higginbottom, any relation? She had a sister, Barbara I think, lived on Bazley Rd.

[DaveH]

I went to the nursery, infants and junior school up until April 1961. Never got to senior school although my two brothers did and Dave H et al it brought memories back of the likes of Moggie Matthews and Pop Ward. I used to hold hands in the top infants yard with Marlene Higginbottom, any relation? She had a sister, Barbara I think, lived on Bazley Rd.

Welcome to Sheffield History Dave and thanks for posting. Glad you are enjoying reading the Norfolk School topic, which has more old student members on this forum than any other Sheffield school.

Never come across Marlene and Barbara Higginbottom before so they are definately no relation, - although we do share the same surname. There is also a lad called Brent Higginbottom who lived on the Arbourthorne and went to Norfolk who is also no relation to me.

[DaveThursby]

I was in the infants at Arbourthorne North from around 1956. Mrs Musaletski was quite an old but quite genial teacher. Mrs Barlow took my class for two consecutive years from 1957 to 1959. There was an assistant called Miss Worthy, perfect name actually as she was an attractive blonde. The headmistress was a Miss/Mrs Slaney, I think it was, whose office was to the right as you entered through the main infants entrance, by the recently vandalised gate post. In the hall there was what seemed to be then a very large climbing frame in the form of a cargo net. I remember climbing to the apex which I recall was very close to the ceiling. On the side next to the windows overlooking the yard, there was a metal, waist high partition virtually the length of the hall in a zig zagged fashion. Another teacher I recall was a Mrs Birkinshawe and just remembered, a Mrs Spooner, dark haired and quite attractive I recall. There was a lad called Lawrence Pimm, later to become Lawrence Connor after his mother re-married, lived on Edenhall Road who took a dislike to me early on. His dislike of me continued into my time at the Juniors and I was careful to keep out of his way. We used to call the shops on City Road, The Front or on't front. There was a cobblers shop in a free standing building at the City Road end of the gennel that went from City Road to Edenhall Road.

Sorry about my meanderings here but just something that may trigger memories for others.

[DaveH]

I was in the infants at Arbourthorne North from around 1956. Mrs Musaletski was quite an old but quite genial teacher. Mrs Barlow took my class for two consecutive years from 1957 to 1959. There was an assistant called Miss Worthy, perfect name actually as she was an attractive blonde. The headmistress was a Miss/Mrs Slaney, I think it was, whose office was to the right as you entered through the main infants entrance, by the recently vandalised gate post. In the hall there was what seemed to be then a very large climbing frame in the form of a cargo net. I remember climbing to the apex which I recall was very close to the ceiling. On the side next to the windows overlooking the yard, there was a metal, waist high partition virtually the length of the hall in a zig zagged fashion. Another teacher I recall was a Mrs Birkinshawe and just remembered, a Mrs Spooner, dark haired and quite attractive I recall. There was a lad called Lawrence Pimm, later to become Lawrence Connor after his mother re-married, lived on Edenhall Road who took a dislike to me early on. His dislike of me continued into my time at the Juniors and I was careful to keep out of his way. We used to call the shops on City Road, The Front or on't front. There was a cobblers shop in a free standing building at the City Road end of the gennel that went from City Road to Edenhall Road.

Sorry about my meanderings here but just something that may trigger memories for others.

I was in the nursery in 1958 and 1959 while you were in the infants (same building then) and in the infants from 1960 to 1963. The headmistress Mrs Ward (wife of pop Ward who taught in the secondary school. She was also my teacher in my last year (1962-3). Mrs Barlow was my teacher the previous year (1961-2). I can't remember who taught me for the year or so before that but none of the other names you give sound familiar.

[DaveThursby]

I recall the air-raid siren on top of the infants left hand staircase and though I couldn't possibly know about the Cold War, I used to worry when it was tested, I knew somehow that the siren signified something unsavoury.

I remember an old female helper at dinner time and in the playground called Miss Mann who once chastised me for some reason in the playground and made me stand against the cloak room wall. I was fine with that until my brother Malc came over, having spotted me as he walked back to the senior school from the Gym. He was in the seniors by then but on seeing him, I burst into tears and Miss Mann had no idea what to do as my elder brother remonstrated with her for making me stand against the wall. He was always a bit bolshie and stood no messing. Some lads set about him on one occasion on his way home on the corner of Craddock and Brimmesfield. Kids loved a fight and as I approached I saw him physically throwing his attackers through the privet hedges. Fearless was our Malc but conversely, my oldest brother Michael was less aggressive then. He was bullied for weeks by a bunch of lads that used to slap him about as he went home via the eight foot between Algar Road and Eastern Avenue. Poor sod said nothing about it but a tip off from a woman who lived on Algar Road alerted my mother to his plight. She confronted the lads and it stopped.

My birthday was in July, the same day as a lad called Brian Godbert, we must have been 5. Some may remember it was commonplace to take your birthday cards to school and me and Brian compared cards as we left school at 3:30 in the shadow of that recently damaged gate pillar.

I had a school photo that was taken in the top infants yard. Teachers stood behind us, including Mrs Barlow (she had a son called Peter), Mrs Spooner, Mrs Ward. I love old photos and cherished it for years until I lent it to Connie White who lived on Craddock Road and had been in my class. I never got it back. Alan Burke was a nice lad, he was on the photo. Others were Michael Marshal, Robert Wright, Janice Sanderson, Philip Jenkins, Philip Broady, Kenneth Henderson and for some reason I recall Paul Bownes was there too, he lived near me on Eastern Avenue.

[DaveThursby]

Mrs Barlow walked us from the infants to the Junior school past the annexe, up the steps with the rail and into the bottom junior school yard. It was mid summer 1959, I was seven and we were being introduced to our new school. Afterwards, as we walked back from our visit, I saw my brother and shouted, "Malc, I'm in 1A, Mrs Rowlands class". Some of my mates went into Mrs Laycocks class, 1B.

I was sad to leave the security of Mrs Barlow, she was kind and very motivating and she encouraged me to read. I loved books and having joined the library at the Manor Top, next to the Welfare, I used to go there at every opportunity. Is it still there today, the library? The main, adult library was entered by the front but the children's was access round the left hand side I think. It always seemed a very grand and imposing building with its well kept gardens to the front.

[DaveThursby]

Class 1A, it was the room opposite the library across the entrance way corridor from the yard. Mrs Rowland was an older teacher, strict but somehow not a patch on Mrs Barlow and for whatever reason I didn't do so well with her. We all had a blackboard to do our sums on, and a rolled up sock as a rubber. I once wrote a poem my brothers taught me on my blackboard and held it up across the class to my friend and neighbour Robert Wright. It read, "Robert Wright had a shite, in the middle of the night. Kitey Wrighty he he" Mrs Rowland clocked it and made me take it out to the front to show her. I knew some of it was rude but I didn't really know which bit, so I tried to rub Kitey out. Mrs Rowland, much to my surprise, went mental with me and put it up on the top of the cupboard to the right of the rolling blackboard, saying she'd deal with it later. I was bricking it. It was parents evening the next week and she actually showed it to Robert Wright's mum, what a cretin. Anyway, me and Robert were still pals but his mother was a bit put out and told me it wasn't clever. I thought it was quite good actually.

[DaveThursby]

The photo's you guys secured of the old juniors brought back loads of memories. When I was there, the top corridor had Mrs Rowlands class and next door to wards the toilets was Mrs Naylor's class. DaveH, we didn't call the female teachers Lass but we did call Man Mason and another male teacher Man who's classrooms were down the corridor overlooking the annexe and playing field. The headmistress was Miss Linaker. Up the other corridor going away from Miss Linaker's office and the top of the stairs, the first classroom teacher's name evades me but the next two were Miss McGrady and the Mrs Laycocks. Then of course the library which looked out onto Brimmesfield.

Do you remember the milk and the third of a pint bottles we called "fancies". We'd be waiting outside Mrs Rowlands room in a morning and some kids from next doors Mrs Naylors would be saying, "Hey look how many fancies they've got in their crate". The milk in the crates outside the classrooms was all the same but the glass in the top third of some bottles had a raised, orange peel like pattern on it. I never understood how that started.

Does anyone remember The Black Hills on the left hand side of Brimmesfield going up. We played on there quite a bit before they built on it. We all used to go on after school once the building work started and the workmen used to chase us off as we got too close to the diggers.

[DaveThursby]

After Mrs Rowlands year I moved up to 2A, Miss McGrady's class. She was a frailish old lady but she had a cane in the cupboard although I never knew her to use it.

I laughed when I read in the earlier posts where someone had been told off for bad writing. I think it was you DaveH, the pen was a bit of dowel with a nib jammed into a metal clip at the end. How we wrote with them is a mystery. Miss McGrady demanded copperplate too but no chance. Yep, things were moving on and by 2A it was 1960 and we had moved up to using paper, although we still had to use our little personal blackboards for sums.

Miss McGrady was very nice but seemed to waste all our time telling us about Greek mythology and to be honest I think I lost ground educationally due to her and Mrs Rowland. I left Miss McGrady's in April 1961, we'd flitted to Rollestone at the bottom of the Gleadless Valley and I started at the little school at the bottom of Blackstock Road, later to become known as Bankwood School.

My brothers continued to complete their education at Norfolk, which is how we referred to the senior school, which is why I recall all the teachers names that DaveH and others refer to. I wanted to go to Norfolk but my mother insisted I went to Gleadless Valley Secondary Modern, having failed my 11+. Fortunately that didn't do me any harm, I've not done bad for a lad of t' Arbourthorne.

[DaveH]

Some lads set about him on one occasion on his way home on the corner of Craddock and Brimmesfield. Kids loved a fight and as I approached I saw him physically throwing his attackers through the privet hedges.

This was a favourite place for school fights, there were 4 grassy oval areas at each corner of the crossroads and you could fight on ther with plenty of room around it for loads of kids to cheer you on.

I was not one for fighting, but at times it seemed as theough there was on there every home time.

[DaveH]

Alan Burke was a nice lad, he was on the photo. Others were Michael Marshal, Robert Wright, Janice Sanderson, Philip Jenkins, Philip Broady, Kenneth Henderson and for some reason I recall Paul Bownes was there too, he lived near me on Eastern Avenue.

I lived on Eastern Avenue as well, - opposite the Carlton Picture Palace.

By the time we moved there it had already closed as a cinema and was a lampworks. We moved there in 1965 (the cinema closed in 1959) having lived in a prefab on Algar Place (not a big move then) from 1958, surviving the hurricane of 1962 and being moved out when the area was finally cleared in 1965 to Easten Avenue

[DaveH]

Mrs Barlow walked us from the infants to the Junior school past the annexe, up the steps with the rail and into the bottom junior school yard. It was mid summer 1959, I was seven and we were being introduced to our new school. Afterwards, as we walked back from our visit, I saw my brother and shouted, "Malc, I'm in 1A, Mrs Rowlands class". Some of my mates went into Mrs Laycocks class, 1B.

I was sad to leave the security of Mrs Barlow, she was kind and very motivating and she encouraged me to read. I loved books and having joined the library at the Manor Top, next to the Welfare, I used to go there at every opportunity. Is it still there today, the library? The main, adult library was entered by the front but the children's was access round the left hand side I think. It always seemed a very grand and imposing building with its well kept gardens to the front.

I had Mrs Barlow in the next to last year of the infants in 1961-2, as you say she was a really good teacher and certainly helped me with reading. I progressed through all the "Janet and John" books in her class so that she would let me read the "Thomas the tank engine" books. My mum also helped me around this time by allowing me to read comics like the Dandy and the Beano, which many educationalists would frown upon, - but I loved reading them.

Yes, the Manor Library is still there, although it does more than just books in this modern electronic age. I was a member of it from 1964 to 1986.

[DaveH]

Class 1A, it was the room opposite the library across the entrance way corridor from the yard. Mrs Rowland was an older teacher, strict but somehow not a patch on Mrs Barlow and for whatever reason I didn't do so well with her. We all had a blackboard to do our sums on, and a rolled up sock as a rubber. I once wrote a poem my brothers taught me on my blackboard and held it up across the class to my friend and neighbour Robert Wright. It read, "Robert Wright had a shite, in the middle of the night. Kitey Wrighty he he" Mrs Rowland clocked it and made me take it out to the front to show her. I knew some of it was rude but I didn't really know which bit, so I tried to rub Kitey out. Mrs Rowland, much to my surprise, went mental with me and put it up on the top of the cupboard to the right of the rolling blackboard, saying she'd deal with it later. I was bricking it. It was parents evening the next week and she actually showed it to Robert Wright's mum, what a cretin. Anyway, me and Robert were still pals but his mother was a bit put out and told me it wasn't clever. I thought it was quite good actually.

Yes, I had Mrs. Rowland in second year junior school, 1964-5. I found her OK

[DaveH]

The photo's you guys secured of the old juniors brought back loads of memories. When I was there, the top corridor had Mrs Rowlands class and next door to wards the toilets was Mrs Naylor's class. DaveH, we didn't call the female teachers Lass but we did call Man Mason and another male teacher Man who's classrooms were down the corridor overlooking the annexe and playing field. The headmistress was Miss Linaker. Up the other corridor going away from Miss Linaker's office and the top of the stairs, the first classroom teacher's name evades me but the next two were Miss McGrady and the Mrs Laycocks. Then of course the library which looked out onto Brimmesfield.

Do you remember the milk and the third of a pint bottles we called "fancies". We'd be waiting outside Mrs Rowlands room in a morning and some kids from next doors Mrs Naylors would be saying, "Hey look how many fancies they've got in their crate". The milk in the crates outside the classrooms was all the same but the glass in the top third of some bottles had a raised, orange peel like pattern on it. I never understood how that started.

Does anyone remember The Black Hills on the left hand side of Brimmesfield going up. We played on there quite a bit before they built on it. We all used to go on after school once the building work started and the workmen used to chase us off as we got too close to the diggers.

Staffing here is a bit different from my day, only a few years later. I think I have already posted a juniour school staff list from 1963-67

I am suprised you did not mention Mrs Smith (Granny Smith) or Mr Walsh, both of which were quite elderly and had long careers at the school. Headmaster was Mr. Rackham in my time there.

We had the 1/3 pint bottles of milk until about 3rd year seniors when the system changed (but still before Maggie Thatcher stopped it altogether) Each form had 2 milk monitors who had to bring the crate in and take the crate of empties bacj each morning. In 1st year seniors with Man Everatt Stuart was a milk monitor with a wimp of a kid who was rather effeminate and hardly had the strength to lift the crate up even if it was empty so Stuart got me to help him and we were the milk monitors that year.

Black hills are before my time but I know exactly where they were, - it used to be a coal mine and the spoil heap from deep pits coal mine.

[DaveH]

After Mrs Rowlands year I moved up to 2A, Miss McGrady's class. She was a frailish old lady but she had a cane in the cupboard although I never knew her to use it.

I laughed when I read in the earlier posts where someone had been told off for bad writing. I think it was you DaveH, the pen was a bit of dowel with a nib jammed into a metal clip at the end. How we wrote with them is a mystery. Miss McGrady demanded copperplate too but no chance. Yep, things were moving on and by 2A it was 1960 and we had moved up to using paper, although we still had to use our little personal blackboards for sums.

Miss McGrady was very nice but seemed to waste all our time telling us about Greek mythology and to be honest I think I lost ground educationally due to her and Mrs Rowland. I left Miss McGrady's in April 1961, we'd flitted to Rollestone at the bottom of the Gleadless Valley and I started at the little school at the bottom of Blackstock Road, later to become known as Bankwood School.

My brothers continued to complete their education at Norfolk, which is how we referred to the senior school, which is why I recall all the teachers names that DaveH and others refer to. I wanted to go to Norfolk but my mother insisted I went to Gleadless Valley Secondary Modern, having failed my 11+. Fortunately that didn't do me any harm, I've not done bad for a lad of t' Arbourthorne.

The personal little blackboards and old sock rubbers had gone by the time I got there, but those dowel and nib pens, with inkwells, Indian ink and blotting paper were a real pain. When we got to secondary school you could use your own pen but it had to be a fountain / cartridge pen using real ink through a proper nib. We got into trouble with an English teacher called Lass Kerr for using the forbidden Biro / ballpoint pen. Fortunately all this changed the following year when the school actually loaned us and provided cheap BIC ballpoint pens to use.

[DaveH]

Many thanks from DaveH to DaveT for making these posts.

Brought back a lot of memories of my Infant / Junior school years which I had almost forgotten.

Most of my posts and all my teacher photos are from my more memorable senior school years

[Guest pidd]

I was also at Norfolk from 59- 63 ,george piddington is my younger brother ,although i have live away from Sheffield since i was 22yr we still now talk weekly thanks to Skype.

cyril

[alan p]

Hello Cyril, I often wondered what you was up to these days. I hope life is treating you well. alan p.

[DaveH]

Hello Cyril, I often wondered what you was up to these days. I hope life is treating you well. alan p.

Welcome to Sheffield History Alan P, - I've lost count of how many ex-Norfolk students are members on here now, - somewhere around the 20 mark.

[alan p]

Hello DaveH, Thanks for the welcome. I left Norfolk in 65. I remember most of the teachers mentioned and Leonard Piercey was my teacher,I also knew Pidd for a lot of years before he left Sheffield. Would like to say hello to him see how life has been treating him.

[DaveH]

Hello DaveH, Thanks for the welcome. I left Norfolk in 65. I remember most of the teachers mentioned and Leonard Piercey was my teacher,I also knew Pidd for a lot of years before he left Sheffield. Would like to say hello to him see how life has been treating him.

Left in 1965,

2 years before I started there but perhaps you knew some of my older cousins who went there, -

Peter Burnand, Frank Sneesby and his sister Kathleen Sneesby.

[alan p]

I remember Peter Burnand, Frank and his sister Kathleen Sneesby. I hope they are all well.

[DaveH]

I remember Peter Burnand, Frank and his sister Kathleen Sneesby. I hope they are all well.

I don't see much of my cousins these days now that we are all grown up and sadly we only tend to meet up at funerals for our parents generation.

I haven't seen Frank for quite a while, not seen Peter since his mother died a few years ago but Kath regularly still visits my mum (her aunt) who is one of the few members of that generation of the family still living, but now quite frail and elderly.