1963 John Riddle
A few of my memories from Mayfield and beyond.
Mr. Rew (PT). On one occasion he took us for a snowball fight a field, just up the road from the school. There was a tower in the background that had a clock that struck the hour.
Mr Sanders (Metalwork). Very strict.
Mr Summers (English). He refused to correct my spelling as I kept spelling some words in different ways.
Mr Beaumont (Science). He dropped a Kipps glass instrument on the stairs and tried to blame the boy next to him who wouldn’t have it.
I sat with a boy called Reynolds. He suggested that we tackled alternate maths questions to get through them quickly. He wished he hadn’t when I got most of mine wrong. I remember some other boys, Bob Patience, Ian Ramsey, Teddy Oubridge and ?Rozario, nice chaps they were.
Golly, I haven’t thought about all this since the day I left and got a job in Customs and Excise and remained there for 45 years. Good it was. I passed the clerical entry exam (lowest grade) and started repairing files and filing index cards on traders. It was always hard graft and many different challenges but the Department certainly trained me up over the years as they did my twin brother David. We were never high flyers but made steady progress through the ranks with hard work, a sense of humour, by being receptive to others and open and honest in our dealings.
This was me as a Coach Marshall on a trip to Buxton
In our final years we were we were both invited to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party so we felt the years of hard challenging work and sometimes going beyond the call of duty had been recognised. We ate ourselves silly and managed to talk ourselves into getting an ice cream from the VIP Guests enclosure, as well as talking our way into the DVD of the event. Being a twin does have its advantages… silly old fools!
I’m on the left with my twin brother, David
Hello John, how lovely to see this! I remember you both so well from Cubs etc and of course your lovely Father with the wonderful model railway in Vernon Road. His annual exhibitions at the Town Hall were legendary. I was lucky enough to meet him at S.E.E.R.S. I think he may have been giving a speech, instantly recognisable after all those years, I am guessing circa 1987. Also met you (or David) briefly at the Shoebury show, running Mamod, I believe. I paint these days ‘Google’ me, often railway subjects and have a Facebook friend who is close friends with the gentleman who owns Archangel, I mentioned you only last week! Small world. Fond regards Eddy
Well, well Eddie, how nice to hear from you. Yea I do remember you and does the name Don Jacobs ring a bell, Stuart Kirby, John Humphreys etc. Do I remember us being in the same patrol and patrol meetings round our houses? Malcolm Bell rings a bell too. Keith Lloyd, Geoffrey Evans, Anthony Dalton, Margaret Covell and David Covell. Laurence Stringer and his twin brother. David and I are building a model railway in N gauge and I have just finished converting three boring grey goods wagons into three Talyllyn carriages and the guards van. Quite pretty they look, but I got tennis elbow after filing out all the nine windows per side. A labour of love! David and I hope to exhibit the layout in April. Look forward to hearing from you soon .
I remember Margaret and David Covell, Stuart Kirby vaguely. Do you show your modelling on facebook? Either way my email is (address forwarded to John – Ed). I am modelling Tunbridge Wells West in 00. Would love to swap memories and ideas…take care. Regards Eddy.
I am in regular contact with Ian Punton from your year.
As Eddy says I remember the pair of you from the 4E3 and 5E3 classes and maybe the earlier years as well as 5th Seven Kings Cubs and Scouts. As Eddy posted we keep in touch despite being opposite ends of the UK. I also joined the Civil Service from School as a C.A. I left after 18 months to join a Company producing flexible packaging enabling me to see much of the World in my sales capacity.
Good to hear your both keeping well.
Ciao Ian
I remember you and your brother in 5E3 and also my little time Fencing of an evening with Mr Wyatt who I liked very much!
Well, well Geoff I remember you very clearly. Bright, always ready for a laugh and quick witted. Yea Mr Wyatt was really good and strict with us all. And I seem to remember you had a good rapport with him. David and I fenced for many years after we left school. David now teaches fencing to school kids and Mr Wyatt would have been delighted to know all his time and attention paid off. We still have trouble with spelling and adding up (things don’t change) but our Civil Service careers helped to smooth out a few corners. We were fortunate as our career paths took us towards Personnel and Welfare and people got very confused!
David is married and we speak most days. Rather nice and if one of us makes a mess of something we get on the blower and support each other. I still stagger down to the local gym and try to ignore my sell buy date which is long gone. I belong to The Leigh Orpheus Male Voice Choir (see Web Page) and have a laugh with most of the blokes (like being at school again) and cosy up to their wives (in the best possible taste).
How did your career turn out and what are you doing these days? Kindest regards and really good to hear from you.
John
The field where the snowball fight took place would have been ‘The extension’. The extension of what I’ve no idea, just another bloomin sports field we used for strenuous over exertion. The clock tower would have been the one on top of the South East Essex Technical College in Longbridge Road, which backed onto Mayesbrook park. We called Mr Saunders ‘Pop Saunders’. ‘?Rizario’ was Maurice Rizario. I knew him from Chadwell Junior as well as at Mayfield. I also new Ian Ramsey and Christopher Saye, they used to knock about together.
Thanx that’s cleared that up.
Yes I remember Ian Ramsey a bigish boy and very pleasant (Bob Patience was another pleasant chap.)
But here’s another mystery. Did Maurice Rizario’s dad come up to the school and in the class about something?
Yes of course Pop Saunders. I’d forgotten. He used to say that when heating metal it should be cherry red. He was very strict and don’t remember much humour about. Good metal teacher though.
And there was Mr Frankland PT teacher and Mr Ivy (bluey?) who one day shouted in the playground. “You boy, you with the hair” which caused some amusement.
And what about Mr Hicky the pipe smoker? A very kindly man in a checked suit. Was he in Technical Drawing in a corner class room on the ground floor with corridors open to the elements? We used to wait there with long cardboard tubes which if you blew down them sounded like a fog horn. I still do that – a bit daft really but makes a lovely ship sound and puzzles the neighbours.
Thinking about neighbours I used to sun bathe in the garden on a Sunday listening to Alan Freeman Pop Pickers.
Simple pleasures.
Hi John. I don’t know what the problem was about Maurice Risario, he wasn’t in my class. Yes, Mr Hickie was our technical drawing master too, it was a corner classroom downstairs, and a very decent, kindly and respected chap. I can’t remember him ever punishing anyone. Pop Saunders did seem a fearsome bloke a bit like Mr Quelch in the Billy Bunter novels, but I think it was a big act with him. Whenever you saw him prowling about between periods he always carried a big thick cane with an insulating taped handle, but I never heard of him using it. Mr Frankland I thought was a very temperamental bloke and could fire out punishments like machine gun bullets. I remember him turning up at our class with a toothache and in one of his typical tempers enriched by the pain, he heard a boy whispering, Kenneth Matcham I think, and instantly sent him for the stick with which he thrashed him with. I was thrashed by him with a climbing rope in the gym.
Maurice Risario, lived in Seven Kings Road, Ian Ramsey and Christopher Saye where local ‘legends’ my sister talked about them a lot! I trust that you are (both) well, happy memories of the golden days… I talk to Ian Punton at least weekly.
Hi Eddie. Do you remember me. I was a friend of Jim Morl and Ian Punton. Hope you are ok. As I remember, we had some great times.
EDDIE DO YOU REMEMBER ME PETE HEED LIVED IN 4 AUDLEY GARDENS. I REMEMBER YOU AND THE CARS HARLEY DAVIDSONS YOU HAD REMEMBER GOING OUT I YOUR BEACH BUGGY, THE LITTLE 2CV AND COUNTLESS OTHERS. HOW ARE YOU KEEPING AND WHERE ARE YOU NOW LIVING PETE HEED
Hi Eddy. Sorry but I cannot quite place you but I see you share a common hobby like some of us past students do. I started in the late 70’s on a big 220 ton 4-8-4 locomotive of the Sth Aust Rly’s 520 class. Qualified to Govt Standard as a fireman with the Aus Rly Hist Group in Adelaide. Then like my Father I got into Live Steam Model Engineering, mainly Traction engines and 5″G loco’s and rolling stock. I also have an english HO layout, complete with a J50 tank, in the house and a large scale D&RGW Railroad round the house. Yes I have been busy, over the last 40 yrs.
John and David and their Father, knew my Father and John at least saw our 31/2″G railway in our back garden, at Primrose Ave, Chadwell Heath. John’s Dad and mine were members of the club based along side the down slow platform at Chadwell Heath Station. Dad built 2 Live Steam loco’s, one during the war and one straight after. I have old photo’s of them. So you see, I was born with “steam in my blood”! Just did not stand a chance. Amongst other sheds, I “bunked” Stratford Sheds several times, during my years at Chadwell Heath Primary School.
I see you are an artist? I love the one of a “Claude Hamilton”, you have done. Right colour too. They were getting a bit scarce when I was spotting on the “Iron bridge” over the Goodmayes yards. Just what childhood memories are made off.
Peter Hoye.
Ahoy Peter. I’m afraid I don’t know you as I think I’m a couple of years older. I lived in Chadwell Heath for many years and train spotted on the Iron bridge too, which spanned the up and down fast and slow lines and Goodmayes marshalling yard. Hump shunts on either side. The Hook Continental came through each early evening hauled by a Britannia Pacific. The club at Chadwell Heath station still exists I believe. I too in my loft constructed a 3.1/2 gauge Stanier 2-6-4 tank engine which is now in the Museum of Power in Malden Essex. I used to belong to the Romford MEC at Ardleigh Green where they had a muli gauge running track in the grounds of the community centre. I live on a narrow boat on the river Stort at Bishops Stortford now. All the best Tony.
Hi John. I remember you and your brother David, I lived next door but one to you in Vernon Road. I went to 5th Seven Kings Cubs & Scouts and used to help out when I was in the Scouts on, I believe it was Wednesday evenings, with the Cubs. From my memories it was you and David and, was it Keith Chadwick and Christine, can’t for the life of me remember her surname, who used to run the cub group. Or am I getting muddled with the Scouts. After being a musician for a time and for a short period designing Exhibition stands I served in London Fire Brigade and Essex County Fire & Rescue Service for 30 years as a Fireman/Firefighter. Now living in Dorset and working for NHS Blood & Transplant.