Memories of Nether Edge Grammar School:
Tony Richardson (1951-56)

    I have looked everywhere for that school photograph it's in the house somewhere I just cannot find it, but I was there from 1951 to 1956 the Headmaster's name was Mr. Smith (Smudger ), the deputy headmaster was George Wilkinson (Wilky ) we had a young maths teacher called Mr. Spinx, a physics teacher called Mr. Whales, a nutty chemistry teacher who always wore white long johns that you could see below his trowser bottoms, a french teacher called Mr. Hill, a geography teacher called Claude who used to sit with his head in his hands while the whole class ran riot. I can see all the faces I just cannot put names to them which is a shame because they all had unique characters.

    The school houses were named after Yorkshire castles- York, Richmond, Conisborough and Peveril I was in Peveril we used to go to Heeley baths for swimming lessons and we used to have a full afternoon once a week for sport, it was along walk to the sports field but we used to scrump for apples and pears all the way there you cannot beat fruit straight off the tree especially if it's someone elses.

    We used to play miniature cricket because the play ground was so small ( everything about a quarter size ) another game we played was a bit rough two teams any number of players, toss up to see who jumped first then the losers would line up at right angles to a wall like a stretched out scrum, the other team would then take turns to run and leap as far down the line as possible the idea was to get as many people as possible onto the backs of as fewer people as possible without falling off you lost if anyone fell off ) and make the line collapse.

    The school meals were not very good the tuck shop on the corner was okay, one penny for a tiny Hovis brown loaf, I suppose I could go on and on about nothing in particular but I wont. Take care.