What Do You Not Miss

[John Fox (foxy)]

George Hemming, headmaster at Westridge wacking my ar*e just because he didn't like me .

[Canny lass]

I thought it was always Mr Abrahart (history) who administered 'wackings' to boys who were sent to him by other tachers. I remember that it was Miss Craigs (Needlework) that we girls were sent to but we just knocked on the door, entered and said that another teacher had sent us to borrow a needle and a bit of black thread! It worked fine!

If there's anything I don't miss it's an outside netty on a winter morning.

[alanc]

No No No It was Danny Douglas who handed out the punishment.

Stand on the red square boy bend over and you got 3 of the best with the cricket bat.

It was a regular weekly event, no wonder I have two hip replacements. Ha Ha

[Keith Scantlebury]

What about Matty Hall at the Whitley, he had the swing of that blackboard ruler mastered to a fine art. There was a crack in it and it would open up and nip ya ass. I was a regular recipient and a few of my mates still talk about one particular hiding I got. Had that been today, Matty Hall would have been locked up. I used to knock about with his daughter Sandra and that night I whent to his house on Church Lane , he must have thought that wallop was a bit excessive by the way he kept asking if my backside was ok and would I be fit enought to sit at my desk the next day.

[Andy Brown]

What about Matty Hall at the Whitley, he had the swing of that blackboard ruler mastered to a fine art. There was a crack in it and it would open up and nip ya ass. I was a regular recipient and a few of my mates still talk about one particular hiding I got. Had that been today, Matty Hall would have been locked up. I used to knock about with his daughter Sandra and that night I whent to his house on Church Lane , he must have thought that wallop was a bit excessive by the way he kept asking if my backside was ok and would I be fit enought to sit at my desk the next day.

Good god, Matty Hall has been going a long time, a well respected and scary teacher should all be like him these days to teach these little chavs a thing or two. Would he have stood for kids with these daft mullets ? or any back chat ? Should have sent Matty in to sort out the London/Manchester riots, a good whack with his trusted sawn off hockey stick would have them sorted....

[Keith Scantlebury]

You're right about Matty Hall Andy, the thing is he was, and possibly still is a smashing fella. If he is still with us, he will be in is 80's perhaps someone knows. He never held a grudge with any of the kids and he encouraged all of us to do well

[Andy Brown]

You're right about Matty Hall Andy, the thing is he was, and possibly still is a smashing fella. If he is still with us, he will be in is 80's perhaps someone knows. He never held a grudge with any of the kids and he encouraged all of us to do well

I must admit I haven't seen him in a while, the education system could do with a few more like him.

[Dr Pit]

I believe he lives on the church lane.

[michael lown]

I believe he lives on the church lane.

He still lives on the lane , I walked past him today.

[Keith Scantlebury]

He still lives on the lane , I walked past him today.

Nice to know, he must be getting on a bit now. He whent to school with my dad,[ he would have been 89 this year.] Matty Hall must have lived on Church lane for about 50 years or more.

[Brian Cross]

I don't miss the ever present dog crap left on the foot paths around the Station and Gallagher park.............

[Symptoms]

alanc wrote: "... Stand on the red square boy bend over and you got 3 of the best with the cricket bat."

Alan, during my time at Westridge (62-67) Danny Douglas used "The Wacker" - see below the posting I left here in Nov 2008:

..........................................................

"Ah, 'Danny' Douglas (real name Bill) and The Wacker. Remember, if you were naughty or didn't do the homework or didn't answer the question fast enough, he would shout "You boy, out the front and stand on the red square". For some reason there was this single red vinyl square in a sea of grey ones just in front of the blackboard where you had to bend over for whacking on the !*!@# . Hanging by a string from a hook beside the blackboard would be The Wacker (a section of butter barrel); Danny would take it down, chalk a white cross on the end of it and beat you on the !*!@# . The funny thing was that there were always loads of lads wandering around the school white chalk imprints on their grey trousers. I once got sent by Mr Hogg (the Physics teacher whose lab was next to Danny's room) to borrow The Whacker so Mr Hogg could beat somebody, I knocked on the door and went in, before I could say anything Danny said "Stand on the red square for interrupting my lesson" and I got whacked.

He also used to take football training in the evenings for the Youth Club.

A great bloke!

Happy Days."

[Symptoms]

Oh, and Geordie Hemmings used to use a barber's strop (leather) to beat the boys with ... belting on the !*!@# conducted in the medical inspection room (located next to the main doors). Taffy Williams (Metalwork teacher) would clip us with a steel ruler and a Geography teacher (name gone!) used an enormous white sand shoe (for our younger viewers what you would now call a Converse Allstar but sand shoes were a cheap, thin version).

[mickypotts]

Taffy Williams had a habit of sneaking up behind you and yelling in your ear, he did it to me when I was filing a piece of metal on the corner of the bench and made me jump right out of my skin, my crotch shot into the metal corner and I went down to the floor, he picked me up and I whacked his face with the file, the other kids were amazed when he put his arm around me and led me to the stock room to regain my composure, I was black and blue for weeks but Taffy stopped scaring kids that way and always treated me well after that incident.

[mickypotts]

I suppose that I could have had him fired but I never told anyone about that until now, not even my parents

[Canny lass]

Symptoms wrote: a Geography teacher (name gone!) used an enormous white sand shoe.

Was it Mr. Grainger? Tall, blonde, quite young. He taught PE as well, but only now and then. He fancied himself as a bit of a ladies man.

[Symptoms]

Canny - that discription of the fella is spot on and the name Grainger rings a bell. He would line us up for a beating and swish & wobble the sandshoe to illustrate it's flexability (to put the 'the frighteners' on us) then lay into our arses. Yep, happy days.

[Keith Scantlebury]

You lot at Westridge at that time would remember the Coulthards that went there Richard, George, Gordon and Elizabeth.

[Canny lass]

I think I do Keith! There was a Richard Coulthard in my class. Tall, thin, slicked back hair and "Buddy Holly" type specs. Could that be the same person? I don't recognise the others though.

And, while we're strolling down memory lane at Westridge, does anybody remember Mr. Johnson the science teacher? All this talk of punishment made me think of him. As far as I know he never doled out corporal punishment himself - by the look of him, he probably wasn't strong enough. However he had an inimitable system of chastisement built on the premiss that the punishment should fit the crime. The offender had to write 400 words on a given topic dictated by Mr Johnson. The topic was always a single word. On the two occasions when I was on the receiving end of the stick the words were loquacity and verbosity.

Now, when you are 12 and a bit such words are not the stuff of everyday conversation round the dinner table. Neither are they heard too often when your playing moont the cuddy (now there's a memory!) or enjoying a leisurely spot of cricket between 2 dustbin lids in the back street - not in Netherton anyhow. So the first part of the punishment was to give up your break, go to the library and try to find out what the word meant. That wasn't always easy because you didn't always know how the spelling was!! When you did finally manage to find out what it was you'd been ordered to write about you inevitably found that you had to write about the "sin" you had committed - in my case talking too much.

Even today, 53 years later, I still can't work out just which principles of pedagogy Mr Johnson was applying or if they worked. Today I can't remember a thing about science but I've never forgotten either the meaning or the spelling of loquacity or verbosity.

[John Fox (foxy)]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Froggy Freeman yet!

[Keith Scantlebury]

Thats him canny lass, he has done well for himself and lives in Fleetwood now.