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Norfolk School, Arbourthorne


DaveH

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Guest wayneybabes

Brilliant wayneybabes,

Got the full 3 storeys of the block now, you can even see the desks in Moggy Matthews old science lab on the ground floor.

Most importantly, at the second storey height is the opening that leads directly onto the bridge, - that virtual walk over the bridge now looks tantalisingly close.

at the moment i am building up the outside (car park, tennis courts etc) so that is going to take a while. It wont be perfect (especially the driveway leading from the gymnasium up to the tower block as obviously being built in square blocks you cannot create an uphill road, it has to be like steps) but im giving it my best shot!.

there is a possibilty when it is finished i could video the walkaround and upload to youtube though

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Guest wayneybabes

Did it have 8 sides or 6?

Complicated by the fact that the sides were not of equal length and so not all the corners had the same angles, in fact the corners at the big rooms where the corridor turned off both Cradock and Brimmesfield Roads to run along the top of the infant / junior school top yards were 90 degree square right angles as the corridors switched from parallel to the road to perpendicular to it. However, some of the internal angles were very obtuse, possibly 150 degrees or so, allowing angular rooms to built into these corners.

in either case it would be a nightmare to reconstruct in a model.

my typo, yes i meant 6 sides, of which only two will be perfect. the others will be the best i can do with what i have to work with

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at the moment i am building up the outside (car park, tennis courts etc) so that is going to take a while. It wont be perfect (especially the driveway leading from the gymnasium up to the tower block as obviously being built in square blocks you cannot create an uphill road, it has to be like steps) but im giving it my best shot!.

there is a possibilty when it is finished i could video the walkaround and upload to youtube though

So we will have a real walk around video of the junior school, and a virtual, recreated walk around of the secondary and infant schools

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my typo, yes i meant 6 sides, of which only two will be perfect. the others will be the best i can do with what i have to work with

More than likely it will be the long corridor with the bridge entrance (the one in my famed photo) and the corridor parallel to it which had the old staff room / 6th form common room and the library on it that will be perfect as these were "square" to the lines of the already constructed new block.

However, the other 4 corridors were all squared corner and parallel at opposite sides of the building, so these 4 could be "perfect" leaving only the other 2 to be best fit, but then the old block would not line up with the bridge and any of the new block.

Appreciate the problems you face here wayneybabes.

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What about the free standing Annexe blocks Wayne? Or even the dining hall?

They would be fairly simple to do, being rectangular, - although my memory of them is not as good as the other buildings.

After building them the annexe is squared up to the new block and the dining hall is squared up to the junior school.

In the extreme, you could include the caretakers house.

Or the ultimate (from memory!!!) the air raid shelters.

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Guest wayneybabes

What about the free standing Annexe blocks Wayne? Or even the dining hall?

They would be fairly simple to do, being rectangular, - although my memory of them is not as good as the other buildings.

After building them the annexe is squared up to the new block and the dining hall is squared up to the junior school.

In the extreme, you could include the caretakers house.

Or the ultimate (from memory!!!) the air raid shelters.

once i have finished building the grass banks and the football court (the one on the junior school side of the tower block at the top of the grass bank from the annexe) then i will be building the annexe.

the unfortunate thing about the air raid shelters is that i can only dig down 4 or 5 blocks before falling into 'australia' so to speak so if i can do it, it will not be to scale or anything but it may be possible as an added 'feature'. you need a clear 3 block high 'tunnel' to be able to walk through it but i will give it a go!

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Guest wayneybabes

What about the free standing Annexe blocks Wayne? Or even the dining hall?

They would be fairly simple to do, being rectangular, - although my memory of them is not as good as the other buildings.

After building them the annexe is squared up to the new block and the dining hall is squared up to the junior school.

In the extreme, you could include the caretakers house.

Or the ultimate (from memory!!!) the air raid shelters.

the dining hall would have to be on the junior school model as it 'squares up' with the rest of the school. if i tried putting it on the tower block model it would be the same as if i tried doing the junior school - diagonal

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Guest wayneybabes

here is the problem i face on this 'hastily' produced mock up from above (good old ms paint!)

gives you a good idea of the 4 'imperfect' sides

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here is the problem i face on this 'hastily' produced mock up from above (good old ms paint!)

gives you a good idea of the 4 'imperfect' sides

attachicon.gifmock up.JPG

Yes that quick MS Paint drawing sums up what we both have said previously. Apart from the exact scale it looks about right.

Could use it as a rough positioning guide for all the main features

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the dining hall would have to be on the junior school model as it 'squares up' with the rest of the school. if i tried putting it on the tower block model it would be the same as if i tried doing the junior school - diagonal

Yes Dining hall on the junior school model.

.. and Caretakers house, and the old Gym (forgot about that, - do you remember it?) on the Infant school model.

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Guest wayneybabes

Yes Dining hall on the junior school model.

.. and Caretakers house, and the old Gym (forgot about that, - do you remember it?) on the Infant school model.

i remember them building and demolishing the Gym (i'm older than you realise :) )

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Guest wayneybabes

Yes Dining hall on the junior school model.

.. and Caretakers house, and the old Gym (forgot about that, - do you remember it?) on the Infant school model.

that is what i will be doing, when i finally get past this current project!!!!

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i remember them building and demolishing the Gym (i'm older than you realise :) )

When was the gym built?

It was there all the time I was at secondary school from 1967

I don't remember if it was there are not while I was in the infant school, up to 1963

I suspect then that it may have been built in 1965-66 same time as the new extension tower block.

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Guest wayneybabes

When was the gym built?

It was there all the time I was at secondary school from 1967

I don't remember if it was there are not while I was in the infant school, up to 1963

I suspect then that it may have been built in 1965-66 same time as the new extension tower block.

in that case, it must have been some kind of extension that was built but i remember playing around that area and being told not to, possibly by Mr Wilkinson the Caretaker as it was dangerous. this would have been around 1983/84

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in that case, it must have been some kind of extension that was built but i remember playing around that area and being told not to, possibly by Mr Wilkinson the Caretaker as it was dangerous. this would have been around 1983/84

Man Wilkinson was a legend. He won an award in the Queens New Years Honours one year, probably when he retired, for services to the community. His first name was Leslie and her had a daughter who was in my year also called Lesley. (Hope I have got the male /female variants of the name the right way round).

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Guest wayneybabes

been busy at work the last couple of weeks but heres an update.

its getting very difficult now with the angle. the staircase leading out into the yard was an absolute nightmare. Another few months and it should be complete!

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been busy at work the last couple of weeks but heres an update.

its getting very difficult now with the angle. the staircase leading out into the yard was an absolute nightmare. Another few months and it should be complete!

norfolk10.JPG

Always new the old block with its odd angles was going to be a real problem though.

Wonder what those corridors will look like when.complete? A bit lumpy and blocky in places I suspect, but nevertheless still worth the effort.

Keep up the good work Wayne.

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Guest wayneybabes

having a little memory problem dave. not sure about the layout of the top corner of the school (junction of cradock and brimmesfield) where the library was, goes?. was it two square blocks with a very small corridor between?

also, i cant believe i cant remember this.....how many annexe building where there?, im sure it was 3

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having a little memory problem dave. not sure about the layout of the top corner of the school (junction of cradock and brimmesfield) where the library was, goes?. was it two square blocks with a very small corridor between?

also, i cant believe i cant remember this.....how many annexe building where there?, im sure it was 3

2 square blocks it is wayneybabes, but with quite a long corridor between them having the staff room on 1 side (side facing out to the street). The staff room was big and later became the 6th form common room during the short period that Norfolk had a 6th form. On the opposite side of the corridor, facing in to the quad was the library, again a big room. The main entrance to this was at the square block end at the Brimmesfield Road side of the school, although there were other doors into it (well at least 1) into the corridor. I think this library, from its size, position and layout was originally conceived as the school hall and may have been used as such until the prefabricated room in the middle of the quad was built (year unknown) and this became the school hall, later to become a big art room when the final school hall was built in 1965 in the new glass tower extension. Steves map shows the staffroom corridor and the main corridor where the bridge joins to be approximately the same length to give the building the desired symmetry.

I always though that there were 2 annexe block buildings, with a small gap between, - the place where the 2 "bad lads" sat in wait to nick Man Smiths car in the film "Dead Easy". Steves map confirms this, - although the 2 annexe blocks are not of equal size, the one nearer the junior school being bigger than the one near the main entrance on Cradock Road. A more interesting question would therefore be, how many classrooms were there in each of the annexe blocks? I'm guessing at it being a 3 - 4 split, 7 rooms in total.

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attachicon.gifnorfolk .jpg

c.1970

Interesting map Steve and I agree with your approximate date of 1970.

The new extension is built, so after 1965

Park Grange Road and Spring Lane merge and there are Finnegan houses shown on Brimmesfield Close along with the old folks home, so after 1967.

Have you got a bigger view from this map over a wider area?

I would be particularly interested in the Arbourthorne area showing Finnegans houses on the Algars (Drive & Place) as these are due for demolition within the next few years.

Also the Eastern Avenue / Errington Road area, What is The Carlton labelled as and are the maisonettes behind it on the map? These were built in 1970 so would probably give a more accurate date on the map. I have posted a picture on here several years ago of these maisonettes being built so have a fairly accurate date on it.

This picture is from April 1970

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