Norfolk School, Arbourthorne

[DaveH]

The Eric Smith film "dead easy" in truncated form, punctuated with interviews with Eric about its making is still available on YouTube.

I have also now mastered capturing individual frames from the film (OK so 8mm frames are pretty small, smaller than a Minox negative and so the picture quality isn't that good) and there are some scenes in it which make great nostalgic pictures.

Here is a picture of Eric being interviewed for the film in 2008

At the time he would be in his late 70's, but he doesn't seem to have changed that much in the last 40 years since I last saw him.

[DaveH]

Now here is a long gone iconic shot from the film.

Taken looking up Spring Lane from just before it's junction with Brimmesfield Road.

At the top of the hill the road turns onto Northern Avenue and there is a steep embankment down towards Park Grange Road.

That tower block sits at the bottom of the embankment, yet its 15 storeys is tall enough to peer above it and dominate the view all the way down past the school.

Although now demolished (this particular one, one of the Guildford blocks was blown up on 7 November 1999) the top floor gave great views of the City and of the Arbourthorne and Norfolk School.

The photos I posted in the first 2 posts right at the start of this topic were taken from this viewpoint.

[DaveH]

A gang of kids going to school walking up Brimmesfield Road towards the entrance to the Junior School lower playground with the old canteen where my 2 aunties used to work for many years. Amazingly this is one of the few parts of the school still left standing and in use, - but probably not as a kitchen any more.

[DaveH]

Viewed from the other side of the canteen as the gang walk through the junior playground and onto the bit of land near the old annexe we get a view of the canteen dining hall behind them with that tower block still overlooking it. Both the canteen and the tower block are now both gone.

[DaveH]

Mentioned in several earlier posts here is man Smith's old car, a classic Ford Anglia 105E from the 1960's with that reverse rake rear window design. It played a key part in the film as it was supposed to get stolen by 2 of the lads.

School playing field and City Road (and probably wayneybabes old house) in the background

[DaveH]

Here we have the scene in which the car is actually "stolen"

The inside of a 1960's car looks a bit sparce compared to modern cars doesn't it.

This is a later version of the film made on Super8. When me and Stuart were still at school there was an earlier version of the film on Standard 8 which doesn't seem to have although Eric can remember it.

Me and Stuart were sort of "banned" from doing the filming as we seemed to do all the photography on everything and Eric wanted a particular year group to make the film, - not us.

However, I remember in one Friday afternoon "creative activities" session being summond to help film a "special effect" for the earlier film. As the film was silent Eric wanted to show smoke coming from the exhaust to indicated that the lads stealing the car had started the engine.

The camera was mounted to frame the rear of the car in close up showing the exhaust pipe. Eric poured half a tin of REDEX into the carburettor, the car was checked for safety, out of gear, handbrake on etc, the cameras were set to roll and the ignition key was turned by one of the lads playing a thief.

It was perfect in one take (always important with film, - it is an expensive use once only madia) and the edited exhaust scene lasted all of 2 seconds on the screen. This was my only contribution to the actual filming of the original version of Dead Easy.

I was a little disappointed that the same scene did not exist in the current surviving later version of the same film.

[DaveH]

Here is the school bus, also a key vehicle in the film as Eric and the gang of kids he is taking out end up chasing after Erics stolen car with the bus, catching them and apprehending them, - although one of the thieves is killed in the chase, hence the double meaning in the film's title "Dead Easy" (easy to steal a car, easy to end up dead)

[DaveH]

The school bus in the film was the schools second bus.

The first was a 1946 ex military ambulance, bought in 1969 with sponsored walk money, along with a load of camping equipment which our form, 3A, form tutor Man Gill, having 40 kids on the register raised the most money on and got the first use of it, - the school camping trip to Cayton Bay, Scarborough at Easter (or possibly Spring bank) in 1970. The bus was hardly road legal and was falling to bits. Even then it probably only just met road safety requirements.

The second bus, purchased in 1972 was little better, another secondhand old wreck. It was always in need of repair and it fell upon the very reliable school technician Pete Harrison to fix it as this 1973 picture shows

The bus was always parked overnight in the school yard under the bridge up against the scince labs in the new glass tower building.

the reason for this is that the battery on the bus was always going flat and needed a constant recharging. The science labs had a 12DC low voltage supply for doing experiments with electricity safely without using batteries. It also came in handy for connecting a long wire to, feeding out through an open window and across to the bus to charge its battery.

Pete had a different Y10 (4th Year) lad helping him each week on a sort of "work experience". Here one of them is putting the bus battery on charge at the end of the day just before the 4 o'clock bell. Note the wire between the building and the bus. Nursery school in background.

Both these pictures are from my own collection, - I don't think I've posted these before.

[DaveH]

The school bus sets off, tennis courts on the right, annexe buildings on the left, junior school and school canteen behind.

Annexe buildings have been gone a long time, in fact they went while Norfolk secondary was still open as a school, possibly in the 1980's.

At this time it is likely that the air raid shelters, which zig-zagged there way beneath their foundations to incorporate "blast bends" to limit damage in the event of a direct hit, would have been finally uncovered.

The tennis courts, in a very dilapidated and unused state were there right to the very end. They still appear on 2004 shots of the burnt out glass tower building, in fact they may still be there yet.

[DaveH]

Two nice shots of the annexe here as the 2 "car thieves" wait until the school bus has gone....

....and then make their way back to "steal" Eric's car

I didn't have much to do with the annexe, I seem to remember in the 1960's and 70's it was home to the "thick classes", 1E, 2E, 3E and 4E, that was 5 forms per year group, graded A (brightest) to E (thickest) with no 5E as the school leaving age was officially 15 until 1973 and only the brightest ever stayed on for external exams.

I do remember that in the 1st year we had Lass Johns (Miss Johns) for RE, we had the odd RE and art lesson there in other years, the place was mainly the reserve of Man Renshaw who dealt with the bottom band forms and that the year I left the Music room, with Man Tanza, was relocated down there, - probably because playing instruments as opposed to just singing was making a comeback and it contained the noise level having it away from the main school.

When ROSLA (Raising Of the School Leaving Age) came along in 1972/73 some mainstream staff like Man Smith were moved down there (my 1972 picture of him is taken in the annexe) and this is probably why he chose the annexe location for his 2nd version of dead easy. I remember filming the first version on Brinnesfield Road outside Man Wrights old classroom.

Me and Stuart were both interviewed in the annexe in February 1972 by Mr. Heathcote of the careers advisory service. We had avoided seeing him for the previous 2 years and were now in our last term before exams and leaving. At the time the country, under the Heath Government was beset with strikes, the miners were out and there was no coal to be had to heat the school and it was the coldest part of winter and it was snowing. The school was closed due to this on the day Mr. Heathcote was due to arrive, - closed to all students except us two who had to go in for a careers interview. There was no escape or giving him the slip this time due to these circumstances but we did give him a bit of a run around by telling him when we left school we wanted to do daft jobs like "I want to be an astronaut", "i want to be a comedian", "I want to leave Sheffield and go to a place called Jeopardy because the newspapers and News at 10 have both said that there are over 10,000 jobs there" etc. However, with our academic records and predicted exam grades I suppose our future careers were assured. The Careers advisor looked at my school details and told me that I would be expected to stay on at school.

[DaveH]

Now, here's something a bit different.

I have some panorama software that can join several overlapping pictures together, - I have used it many times even in this topic.

It can also join overlapping movie frames, a useful feature as just panning a movie camera around while shooting automatically generates such a set of frames.

In an attempt to show a larger section of the annexe building a tried joining a few cine frames and it came out like this

Showing the 2 lads that nick the car both sat waiting ready and walking back to commit the crime in the same picture.

Another attempt, using earlier rather than susequent frames from the film of the lads sat waiting produced this much more pleasing result.

At least it shows the full length of one of the two annexe blocks, the other block, nearer to the camera (you can just see the end of it extreme left) is externally identical.

[DaveH]

Here the school bus is seen leaving the school via the main entrance gate on Cradock Road

Two interesting items in this picture.

Firstly, behind the bus is the old infant school playground and hall. At the side of the hall the building has a rounded bay which sticks out a bit. This is actually the staircase from ground floor (cloakrooms) level to first floor (hall and classrooms).

At the top of that rounded bay in this shot you can clearly see the old air raid siren. Originally put in place as a WW2 air raid siren as the school had its own shelters, but when I was at school it was still used very occasionally, probably just to test it as in the '60's it would have been part of the cold war 4 minute warning of a pre-emptive nuclear strike on us from the former USSR. Thankfully it never had to be used for that purpose.

Secondly, that telegraph pole in the street, still there today (I think) is just up from the old caretakers house. It is the pole at which "Frithy" came to grief in a nasty pedal cycle accident. He was knocked out in the collision and was found unconcious by the caretaker, Leslie Wilkinson (later awards a queens honour for services to the school)

[DaveH]

Finally in this set of pictures one taken from the chase between the two vehicles.

This is one going up Eastern Avenue on the section between Dagnam road and Northern Avenue.

Not a picture of the school I know, but interesting neverthe less because that building at the top of the hill on the horizon is the old Carlton picture palace (in the 1970's when this film was made it was the Omega Lampworks)

Does this count as yet another picture of the Carlton we have found?

[Guest suzy]

Two nice shots of the annexe here as the 2 "car thieves" wait until the school bus has gone....

....and then make their way back to "steal" Eric's car

I didn't have much to do with the annexe, I seem to remember in the 1960's and 70's it was home to the "thick classes", 1E, 2E, 3E and 4E, that was 5 forms per year group, graded A (brightest) to E (thickest) with no 5E as the school leaving age was officially 15 until 1973 and only the brightest ever stayed on for external exams.

I do remember that in the 1st year we had Lass Johns (Miss Johns) for RE, we had the odd RE and art lesson there in other years, the place was mainly the reserve of Man Renshaw who dealt with the bottom band forms and that the year I left the Music room, with Man Tanza, was relocated down there, - probably because playing instruments as opposed to just singing was making a comeback and it contained the noise level having it away from the main school.

When ROSLA (Raising Of the School Leaving Age) came along in 1972/73 some mainstream staff like Man Smith were moved down there (my 1972 picture of him is taken in the annexe) and this is probably why he chose the annexe location for his 2nd version of dead easy. I remember filming the first version on Brinnesfield Road outside Man Wrights old classroom.

Me and Stuart were both interviewed in the annexe in February 1972 by Mr. Heathcote of the careers advisory service. We had avoided seeing him for the previous 2 years and were now in our last term before exams and leaving. At the time the country, under the Heath Government was beset with strikes, the miners were out and there was no coal to be had to heat the school and it was the coldest part of winter and it was snowing. The school was closed due to this on the day Mr. Heathcote was due to arrive, - closed to all students except us two who had to go in for a careers interview. There was no escape or giving him the slip this time due to these circumstances but we did give him a bit of a run around by telling him when we left school we wanted to do daft jobs like "I want to be an astronaut", "i want to be a comedian", "I want to leave Sheffield and go to a place called Jeopardy because the newspapers and News at 10 have both said that there are over 10,000 jobs there" etc. However, with our academic records and predicted exam grades I suppose our future careers were assured. The Careers advisor looked at my school details and told me that I would be expected to stay on at school.

Wow Dave - all fascinating stuff and brings back lots of memories. - thanks for posting all the info and pics.

When were the annexe buildings built? I do remember going down there for History classes but was definitely not in the lower sets you describe!

It was great to see a pic of the actual dining hall too.

Memories of the good times but tinged with sadness that the buildings are no more. :(

[DaveH]

Wow Dave - all fascinating stuff and brings back lots of memories. - thanks for posting all the info and pics.

When were the annexe buildings built? I do remember going down there for History classes but was definitely not in the lower sets you describe!

It was great to see a pic of the actual dining hall too.

Memories of the good times but tinged with sadness that the buildings are no more.

When we went down the air raid shelters the service pipes and cables (water, electric drainage etc) for the annexe got in our way as they cut straight through the air raid shelters. With this in mind I suspect that the annexe were built shortly after the end of the war, late 40's or in the 1950's. They were already there when I started at Norfolk in the 1960's.

[Guest theunionlass]

I was at Norfolk Comp between 1974 and 1979 having come up from Manor Lane Junior as the last S1 entry year. In S2 we were joined by kids from Park Hill Middle School and Norfolk Middle School. For most of the time I was there the Headmaster was Mr Whyman.

The teachers I remember were, by subject,

Maths - Mr Beaumont, Mr Baxter, Mr Crozier and Mr Kite - he wore a Christian fish badge, had a rather mediaeval haircut and threw the blackboard rubber with a vicious accuracy that always seemed to me to go against his badge.

Geography - Mr Everrat, Mr Bull and Mr Garner (also my form teacher, lovely man, used to let you off punishment for lateness if your excuse was creative enough. One time myself and my pal claimed that we had been to a synagogue for prayers at lunchtime, we were able to support the blatant lie with details of where the synagogue was so he laughed and let us off)

History - Mr Hedley, Mr Haycock and Mrs Stokes.

English - Mrs Gallagher and Mrs Kneen (her husband worked at the Education Dept). Also Glynn Pyle and Mrs Pyle - not related - who brought in Kes to show in an English class - the only time the class was quiet and well behaved. She also sang a mean Roses are Blooming in Pickardy for the school production of Oh It's a Lovely War.

PE was the lovely Mrs Humberstone for girls and Mr Ward and Mr Smith for boys. There was another woman PE teacher, I can't remember her name but can remember taking home a leaflet about a trip to Wimbledon to watch the tennis, on which she'd said the train would go to St Pancreas !

Mr Cook taught metalwork, Miss Bagnall was home economics and Miss Paige taught needlework in the old flat. When I was there the education department were just starting to insist that there was no gender selection for the craft subjects, the school came up with a wheeze whereby girls and boys did all of them in the first year then seperated out into gender groups and did the 'traditional' subjects in the second year. When we came to pick subjects in the third year we were told we could only pick a subject if we'd studied it in the second year. That didn't last long but was a bit of an eye opener as to the way folk got around instructions they didn't like. I still have the enamelled pendant I made in metalwork.

Art was taught by Mr Humberstone and Mr Cocking, music by Mr Shaw. I think Mr Shaw had been there a long time, he died a couple of years ago. My Dad, who had been a school governor, knew him through a choir and went to his funeral.

Science was Moggie Mathews for Biology, Bev Fisher and Mr Wright for Chemistry and Mr Nicholls for Physics. Dave Bradley taught drama.

Mr Chapman tried his darndest to teach us French but was hampered by Mr Whyman's edict that all pupils should be taught a foreign language and the German teacher's refusal to accept pupils who weren't literate in their own language into her class, which left them doing French. He was a kind humane man. I can remember Mr Thomson as head for the first couple of years, Mr Whitham and Miss Moore. I think Mr Piercy was still there doing tech drawing, again it was a subject girls weren't allowed to do so he never taught me. I also just remembered Mimi Johnson who taught typing.

It was interesting reading positive memories of Norfolk upthread. When I was there it seemed to be heading towards the category 'failing'. I would describe it as being a cross between the school in Kes and then school in Rita, Sue and Bob Too. My brother, who shipped out for 6th form and ended up at Oxford recalled a student from another Sheffield school blanching when he mentioned his alma mater following an experience when the girls hockey team told their opponents that they had gozzed in the orange squash at half time!

[DaveH]

Welcome to Sheffield History theunionlass and thank you for making this first post containing many names and memories of the school.

You are one of about 15 or so (I have lost count) Sheffield History members that went to Norfolk, we have more known members than any other Sheffield school.

Nice to have you with us, enjoy the thread and we are always interested in peoples memories and histories of the school.

[Guest theunionlass]

Thanks :0) Not read all 900+ posts yet but there have been some vivid memories evoked by the ones I have. On sports days I was also in the sitting-by-the-tennis-courts-at-the-top-of-the-grassy-bank brigade. We used to pass the time by dropping heavy stones onto the paper reels of caps you used to be able to get for toy guns, and applauding the resulting false starts. I was intrigued by the mention of the air raid shelter, never heard any whisper of that when I was there. The annex blocks were used for Art, Music and an exclusion block, I think if any of us had known what lay below we'd have been tunnelling in.

[DaveH]

Thanks :0) Not read all 900+ posts yet but there have been some vivid memories evoked by the ones I have. On sports days I was also in the sitting-by-the-tennis-courts-at-the-top-of-the-grassy-bank brigade. We used to pass the time by dropping heavy stones onto the paper reels of caps you used to be able to get for toy guns, and applauding the resulting false starts. I was intrigued by the mention of the air raid shelter, never heard any whisper of that when I was there. The annex blocks were used for Art, Music and an exclusion block, I think if any of us had known what lay below we'd have been tunnelling in.

The air raid shelters were only known to certain generations of students and those that had "connections" ;-)

[Guest suzy]

Welcome Unionlass. I left Norfolk in 1974 but the enamelled pendants must have been done in school every year as I too have one that my then boyfriend at the time made for me with his name on (bless). :wub:

[DaveH]

Welcome Unionlass. I left Norfolk in 1974 but the enamelled pendants must have been done in school every year as I too have one that my then boyfriend at the time made for me with his name on (bless).

In 1967-8 me and Stuart were in the first year at Norfolk.

We had Man Cook for metalwork and we both made one.

Must have been a standard thing that everybody did for years, - or perhaps it was just a favourite of Man Cook's

I seem to remember we made the enameled pin badge, a hammer, a screwdriver, a copper sugar spoon, a small steam turbine from an old Ovaltine tin, a fishermans rod rest and a folding canvas topped fishing stool all in tjhe first year.

[DaveH]

This sign appeared on the old school railings within the last week or so. It is Craddock Road just below the gate to the path which ran between the bike sheds and the nursery school, - or, for Steve and Stuart, - it's just diagonally opposite Frithy's house, you could probably see it through his front room window,

The sign implies that all the available land from the school clearance is to be redeveloped.

Given that only the area occupied by the original secondary school has been developed (into the Craddock Mews housing units) and that the old Junior school and canteen, - all the Brimmersfield road side, still exists and is still in use, that still leaves a lot of land to develop.

It would include all the Nursery and Infant school, the secondary school extension glass tower, all the playground areas for these schools, the annexe, the tennis courts, the gymnasium and all the now overgrown school field.

I wonder what they will develop on the site?

I bet it won't be a new school :(

[DaveH]

...that still leaves a lot of land to develop.

It would include all the Nursery and Infant school, the secondary school extension glass tower, all the playground areas for these schools, the annexe, the tennis courts, the gymnasium and all the now overgrown school field.

I wonder what they will develop on the site?

I bet it won't be a new school

If they do redevelop it, including the school field, it would need relandscaping to remove the grass bank and that would mean excavating the old air raid shelters and exposing them to public view for one final time.

OK waynetbabes, - get your camera ready and your "contacts list" of people that will give you a photographic tour of a building site.

We wnt to see it!

[Guest wayneybabes]

If they do redevelop it, including the school field, it would need relandscaping to remove the grass bank and that would mean excavating the old air raid shelters and exposing them to public view for one final time.

OK waynetbabes, - get your camera ready and your "contacts list" of people that will give you a photographic tour of a building site.

We wnt to see it!

May have to find a new contact as Adrian and Vinci Construction have long gone since the new bit was finished. If i get time i could pop in to see if Tony the Caretaker who lives in the house can help. I used to work with Tony at Myrtle Springs on the gardens but havent seen him for years.

Just after he got the Caretaker job at Norfolk i went to see him and got a lovely tour of both the Infants/Nursery and the Glass Tower block while he locked them up for the night. Also played badminton with him one Sunday i think in the old Infant School hall. These where the days before digital cameras though so never took any photos!.

[DaveH]

May have to find a new contact as Adrian and Vinci Construction have long gone since the new bit was finished. If i get time i could pop in to see if Tony the Caretaker who lives in the house can help. I used to work with Tony at Myrtle Springs on the gardens but havent seen him for years.

Just after he got the Caretaker job at Norfolk i went to see him and got a lovely tour of both the Infants/Nursery and the Glass Tower block while he locked them up for the night. Also played badminton with him one Sunday i think in the old Infant School hall. These where the days before digital cameras though so never took any photos!.

So the current caretaker in the caretakers house is called Tony.

For many years it was Leslie Wilkinson. He was school caretaker for so long and did such a good job of it that he got a Queens award when he retired (a CBE I think)

He had a daughter, also called Lesley, who was in our year.