Rooms. part 1

My memory is not perfect. Can you add to my recollections of what went on in these classroom?

Room 1

Room 1 was the first on the left as seen from the stage. When I arrived, Miss Fenton taught English there and held the Junior Debating Society. Far worse were Miss Bishop's maths lessons, where I learned only to dread the subject. Like all the other ground floor rooms around the hall, it had the trap-door at the back, in the corner giving access to the subterranean passages Phil Barnard described vividly in his recent article.

Room 2

This is where I began in 1A - Mr Blackham's form. Boys and girls alphabetically arranged in alternate rows. Before me sat Maurice Bisbee and Peter Botterill. Behind David Brierley, who that year like me lost his father, the manager of the Central Baths. To my right Christine Lewis, Audrey Nicklin and Judith Rogers, so tragically killed on the zebra crossing after school in 1963. The far row had Michael Sparks and Howard Scarth, whose father got me my first keyboard for £4, a huge black typewriter, when his firm went electric. And Timothy Salt - his father's butcher shop on Penn Road gets a mention in Nigel Slater's autobiography "Toast". Over there too sat Thomas Igloi, a Hungarian refugee who left us for Croydon in 1959 and became a world-famous cellist.

Room 3

here Mr Dudley taught the tricky French 'u' sound of 'tu'. He pouted his lips, like Plug in the Bash Street Kids, loudly saying 'ooo' (as in 'Ooh, you are a one'). Try it, it works. In the sixth form he would do running translations of the tedious French romantic poets, carefully leaving the sexual phrases in the original. A bit like finding the naughty bits in 'Lady Chatterley' which took the school by storm in 1962. The trick here was to shake the borrowed copy and see which pages fell out.

The Old Biology Lab

This was our 1963-4 Lower Sixth classroom with the wonderful Mr Steel. The following year it held 3A, who I, as a prefect, had to supervise at the end of the dinner break. Two alluring 14-year olds made eyes at me to amuse the rest of the class. The one with blond curls was Sally. The dark one Gillian. If you're reading this - I hope you're blushing. The room had a conservatory facing Newhampton Road. It had become a standard classroom when the biology lab moved to a playground prefab around 1961. Mr Hawthorne (prominent eyes and interesting vocal delivery) and Mr Askew taught me biology but the array of dissected frogs, cows' eyes and smell of formaldehyde put me off doing biology O level. Many years later I recognised Mr Hawthorne as he guided a party round Moseley Old Hall, singing the praises of Miss Outlaw whose major contribution to its conservation was recognised with a sort of shrine. He mentioned a forthcoming WMGS reunion. And here I am 25 years later, on another keyboard.

Rooms 4 and 5

I have a complete blank here. Something must have happened there - can you help?? Except that during the 1964 performances of HMS Pinafore, Room 5 served as the dressing room. From here, the wings, as it were, I heard Penny Tipler's beautiful voice. Nikki Morris' heart-rending Buttercup and the antics of Richard Law and Patrick Isherwood as Ruler of the Queen's Nav-ee and Captain Corcoran. Michael Sharp was the hero, Ralph.

Cloakroom

Between 5 and the entrance hall was the cloakroom. From which I don't think anything ever got stolen??? Those were the days.

This article, written in May 2016 was intended as the first of a series covering all the rooms in the school during the 1960's. It was hoped it would spark memories among readers who would write to the Newsletter - the editor, Jan Harrison, liked to develop themes and correspondence across editions. The article was held over as there was plenty of other material and the others were never written as Jan resigned as editor a year or so later. Thereafter the newsletter lost its way and last appeared in 2020.