Present were Lynn Slater, Rob Meek, Mike Johnson, John Huskinson, John Stanley, Brian Taylor. Interviewed by Troy Jenkinson
TJ Fire away…
RM Well I must have gone there when I was about 3 or 4 so we are going back to 1955 and erm, all I remember is there was a main school and then behind where the Catholic Church is, there was a play area. It must have been just a big lawn. There must have been access from New Road to the school. I remember one day, my father taking me to school and New Road wasn’t made up. He was very annoyed because it was snowing. I remember him dropping me off at the New Road entrance and I must have entered the school from that side. But normally I would go up Lorne Grove and go that way.
As far as remembering the school, I remember the big staircase and I remember there was a headmistress there. I must have done something wrong because she used to smack kids on the knees with a ruler or something like that. But there is not a lot else I remember to be honest. I must have been there 3 or 4 years until I went to the entrance exam for Nottingham High School but I failed it the first time so I went to West Bridgford High School for a year and went to the High School after that. Who could you speak to who was there before, you said…
TJ Erm, Steve Featherstone…
RM Hmmm… no idea… the kids who went there, I remember a girl from Bingham so presumably kids who went there came from villages all around. The headmistress of the day was Mrs Walters.
MJ When did you go to the infants then?
JH So erm, ‘57
MJ Were you in the old school as the infant school? It was both wasn’t it?
JH No the new one. I went to the new one.
TJ So what year did you go into the infants school?
LS Well we were born in ’53 so ’58. So you started at 5 then. That was the new one.
TJ That was the first year it was open?
MJ Brian went to the old one.
LS I was the last one at the old junior school. That shut in ’64. I didn’t go to the new one. That shut in July ’64. We left in July ’64 to go onto secondary education and that’s when the new one opened.
TJ So Brielen Court remained a school up until the 80s because my husband went there.
LS Well he’s younger than me…
TJ He’s 45 and he was one of the last years at the school before it was knocked down.
LS Was it the Junior School on the left?
JH I’ve got a story.
TJ Tell us your story.
JH Mr Dix. He used to nip out to say he had got to get some footballs or something like that. And he always had nub ends in his pocket. As soon as he got out of the classroom and into the yard, he used to strike up. He only used to have time for two puffs by the time he got to the air-raid shelters. Cause there were air-raid shelters at the back of the school.
TJ Where abouts were they?
JH This was on Bingham Road, there were about 3 or 4 air-raid shelters. They was at the back of the junior school.
BT They was at the back of the school where the outhouses was.
JH There was an allotment near the railway. There was a foot of concrete. All the sports stuff was held in it. It was just an excuse to go out and have a fag. And he used to do that at the new school as well.
TJ So did he go up to the new school then?
JH Yeah cause he was in the juniors so he went up. We went through infants and then went up there.
BT Whether he was a supply or not… and there was Jean Dix
JH They had got a daughter as well.
JH Can you remember Mrs Evans? She used to be the headmistress at the Infants School didn’t she? I think I’ve got a photo of her.
TJ Was she the head of the infant at the old school or the new one?
JH I don’t think she did. Did she go up there? She was the head of the infants here (at the old school).
MJ I don’t think she did, she retired. This one is Miss Evans. And there was Miss Bernand…
TJ Now Miss Bernand lived up the top end of…
JH She lived at Plumtree first, cause her parents lived there and she moved to Grandfield was it?
TJ No it was a bit further up…Did Miss Bernand teach you?
JH Yeah
LS And she taught me….
TJ She became headteacher didn’t she?
LS Yeah, she’s just died. She lived on Valley Road.
MJ She was the one that got us all running
LS When I said that the junior school shut when we left, it did. It did as a junior school and then it reopened as the Annexe. It has two overflows (overflow classes) from the juniors and two overflows from the infants. It must have been Year 4 then.
Troy Jenkinson 