Now available – quick link here.
Excellent articles by J M Fletcher (about life at Oxford University) and C P Vale (about a career in the plastics industry).
Remember that excerpts from later Woden magazines (1962-68) may be found on the old website. These magazines will eventually be scanned in full and brought over to the Blog environment.
I was a pupil from 1951 to 1959, and so saw all the facets of the Kipping / Witcombe era. I still have very clear memories of a wonderful time, in the age before computers and even calculators.
Here are a couple of stories for a start.
(1) CSK. I was ill for the start of my WBHS career, and missed the first half term. My friends were thus able to give me the low-down, and they accompanied me along St Paul’s Road from the bus in October 1951. The stories of “The Boss” petrified me, but there he was as I walked along! Now I was primed to touch my cap when meeting him, but I overdid it, and completely doffed my cap as if a mediaeval serf! CSK to his eternal credit did not take this as insolence (as a modern staff member might), but just blinked and nodded. Whether he was aware of my arrival I know not, but we were always told that as first-years, “we were no earthly use to the school”, and as if to emphasise this, first-years had to wear plain black ties. Later, I had the misfortune to suffer my mother’s death in July 1954, and CSK was particularly sensitive at this time. He was sympathetic but never maudlin – I think he got it just right.
(2) ECW. When Edgar Witcombe joined the school in January 1957, I was in the Lower Sixth, and uncertain about where my future lay. It was ECW who introduced me to mathematics and made it come alive. He really shaped my future, in that I studied maths at UCL, and from there was drawn into a computing career which I followed for over 40 years. Now in retirement computer support still holds my interest. There was a small group of mathematicians in the Sixth Form, and ECW used to teach us in his study, writing notes using his Parker 51 fountain pen. One particular day we were unusually unresponsive, and ECW in frustration banged down his pen, damaging the nib. We always felt guilty about this, and hopefully tried to improve.
Talking of ancillary staff, the School Secretary during my time at school was Mrs E.M. Blakemore, who lived in Woden Road East. She was quite fearsome, but as I grew older, she helped me a lot – in particular teaching me good telephone etiquette.
I can without doubt provide many more memories. [I am sure we all look forward to hearing them! David Perry, Webmaster]
A new treat in this edition - 4 photographs:
Sadly, the Spring Term 1958 magazine appears to be missing from the collection.
You may be interested to find out just how much the site has changed since you last saw it! Thanks to MultiMap, you can look (fairly) current view of Wood Green High School, and see that the old buildings (ie at the time of the WBHS’s demise) have been augmented quite a bit. They never did get that swimming pool …
Click on this very long URL and it will take you to a view from the air. Note that you can zoom up and down, and view the School from all four points of the compass.
In November 2009, I was delighted to hear from Ken – an Old Woden who left these shores many years ago. At my invitation, he kindly provided a CV to remind his schoolfriends and to update us all on his achievements. He also promised to send me a more detailed account of his schooldays, and I was very pleased to receive that from him a few days ago, and here it is, as a downloadable PDF file.
“I attended WBHS from 1947 to 1954. Below is a copy of a photo of the IIIA football team, which shows some of my former class mates. Derek Ashley was another person from our form, who I remember from my cycling days and used to go cycling with at weekends. Other good friends that I remember are Tony Carter, Roger Cole and Sydney Richards and Len Sanford from the “M” form. I did meet a former classmate at an Old Wodens’ Dinner in Walsall back in the 1990s and asked him about some of our old class mates. Unfortunately, his reply to most of my enquires about people was “He’s jed”, using the Black Country vernacular!
“I have many happy memories of my days at WBHS and it is certainly of interest to me to see how other classmates have prospered through the years. Also, one of these days, I should write down my reminiscences of those days and some of memories of dealings with C S Kipping, who taught the Divinity and German classes to our form. I also have memories involving Mr Hopkins, Mr Ede, Mr Mangan, Mr Hatcher, Mr Goodyear and “Jimmy” Ladkin. I also owe a large debt of gratitude to A B Turner, who obtained a “Rotary” scholarship for me to stay on in the sixth form, because both my parents had died and I was being supported by two older sisters at that time.
“If there are any former classmates reading this notice, I would appreciate hearing from them.
Back row: Roy Harper, Brian Cooper, Brian Foley, Don Crutchley, Fred Kibble, Sam James.
Front row: Ken Burke, Sydney Guest, Tommy Kirk, Louis Allen, Tony Hurley.
“I stayed on in the 6th form after taking the GCE in 1952 and then went to Leeds University to do a degree in Mining Engineering. At the post-graduate level, I switched to geophysics and after obtaining my degree, I emigrated to New York, where I started an academic career as an assistant professor. In subsequent years, I moved firstly to Western Canada, then to Eastern Canada, and finished my career as a professor of geophysics at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, where I now live as a retiree with my wife. I have two children, my daughter lives in Fredericton and my son lives in Calgary. I have a granddaughter who has just finished high school here. I still occasionally do consulting work in seismology and spend the rest of my time doing gardening, travelling and catching up on all the books I have been meaning to read over the years. I usually come to the UK every Spring to visit a sister who lives in Ely. If you have been contacted by other former classmates, I would appreciate being put in touch with them.”
Trevor has kindly stuck his neck out for me and, having experienced both headmasters, has offered some bold thoughts comparing their styles. He comments on his essay: “I hope I have not been too hard on Edgar Clarence. Except for a few Chemistry lessons shortly after his appointment, I never had the pleasure of him as a teacher. ”
It is over fifty years since ECW became Headmaster of Wednesbury Boys’ High School. So in writing these notes I have to rely on my memory and also the fact that I now have a lifetime of experience to apply to my schoolboy memories. Read the rest of this entry »
Uploaded PDF – quick link here.
Quick link here.
This (and the other PDF magazines) could take up to 5 minutes to download, and you may think nothing is happening, especially if your coloured progress bar disappears! In Internet Explorer 8, look in the bottom left corner of the window, and notice a tiny disk drive symbol with a downward pointing arrow into it. Place the mouse over it and it will change to whatever is your “in progress” symbol. Don’t be fooled by the word “done” just to its right – that refers to the page you are viewing, not the file you are trying to acquire. Sorry about this, but the only easy way for me to offer you Woden magazines is as PDF files – or as a gallery like the 1946 edition (probably without captions for each page). Go and make a cup of tea while you wait for the download….
Just uploaded.
Quick link from here (but don’t forget the Right Hand Menu Woden Magazines link is the “proper” way to get at these magazines).
It does seem that Adobe Acrobat Reader (even the latest version 9) has trouble reading some of these PDF files. (This is perhaps because I am using a rather old version of PDF Factory to produce the files – can’t afford an upgrade and certainly can’t afford the Adobe Writer program! Sorry.) Foxit Reader does not have a problem….
