Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Photo from the Mansel Dinnis collection. The next photo in this album is identified as the Lower Sixth Form, 1947, and there are 19 pupils in that photo that also are in this one so I assume this is the Lower Sixth + the Upper Sixth pupils.

The Lower Sixth Form = those in the first year of staying on, after doing 'O' level exams in the Fifth Form, to do 'A' Level exams. Numbers added but no pupils named.

I spent a lot on time in detention = Tuesday was the normal 1/2 to 1 hour detention and occasionally on a Friday for a 2 hour stint. It wasn't that I was a trouble maker it was just I was always late for school and if you were late three times in a week then you got detention. As my mam used to drag me out of bed to get down to Patrick's newsagents for 07:30 every day to do my morning paper round when I got back home I used to fall asleep, getting ready for school, SITTING on my bed. For the last two years of my school life I spent almost every Tuesday in detention. I even remember the one week I was at school, on time, every morning. I was the fifth form class rep and one of the duties of the form reps was to read a passage from the bible for two mornings in assembly. So on the Monday we had to turn up before 09:00 for rehearsal and then be there before 09:00 for the two readings on Tuesday & Wednesday. So I completed those three morning and therefore couldn't have been late three times that week. However on the following Monday when the names of those for detention on the Tuesday were read out my name was there. off I went to see the deputy head, Mrs (or Miss) Smith to correct the error. She said something like - Edgar it seems a shame to blemish your record, you are part of the detention fixtures, I must have just added your name automatically and I think you should just attend. She smiled, patted me on the head and my two year record remained intact.

The 'whole school' image was copied and pasted together from 5 separate photos. There are two many people on each photo (70+) to add numbers and names. These are the five photos :-

Images from Cliff Ehala. Kath Simpson commented :- Punishment from the prefects for any little misdemeanours. Words from the book were written in columns. The columns - written in exercise books with pages folded into four - were ‘marked’ by the prefects and a mistake was a rewrite. If you acquired twenty columns in a week led to detention.

Bedlington grammar school at the start of the bad weather in the winter of 1946 -1947. The kids would have enjoyed this but the adults didn't :- Beginning on 21 January 1947, the UK experienced several cold spells that brought large drifts of snow to the country, blocking roads and railways, which caused problems transporting coal to the electric power stations. Many had to shut down, forcing severe restrictions to cut power consumption, including restricting domestic electricity to nineteen hours per day and cutting some industrial supplies completely. In addition, radio broadcasts were limited, television services were suspended, some magazines were ordered to stop publishing, and newspapers were reduced in size. These measures, on top of the low temperatures, badly affected public morale and the Minister of Fuel and Power, Emanuel Shinwell, became a scapegoat; he received death threats and had to be placed under police guard. Towards the end of February, there were also fears of a food shortage as supplies were cut off and vegetables were frozen into the ground.

Mistake on a surname - Should be HAMILTON not HAMILTOM

Ernie Armstrong has named number 4 :-

The photo from the school gates was taken by Eileen Brooks on the 16th June 2016. The new school, Bedlingtonshire Community High School, would be ready for all the pupils to move into at the start of the 2016-17 year. Before the old school was to be demolished at the end of the 2015-16 year the old pupils that could be informed via letter or Social media were invited for a last look around the school on Thursday evening, 16th June 2016.