Site last updated: 14 April 2016
Photograph kindly supplied by Chris Bullock
Schooldays were the happiest days,
Now they seem so far away.
I remember and I’ll always treasure
Schooldays were the happiest days of your life
But we never appreciate the good times we have
Until it’s too late.
Now I wish I hadn’t strayed,
And I’d go back if I could only find a way.
wrote The Kinks, in Schooldays. Now – thanks to the now defunct Friends Reunited website – whose simple idea has brought so many old friends back together, and has inspired this website – this need no longer be the case. We can all share our memories and our photographs!
Many others have said, “School days are the happiest days of your life”; Mr Riley, English teacher at WBHS around 1967, discounted this, saying, “…there are better things to come …”. Perhaps both were right and both were wrong: we can enjoy remembering the good times at school and college or university, but we can also relish even the bad memories, tempered by the passage of time.
I hope this site will wallow in both types of nostalgia: mostly happy and affectionate memories, but also reflect on some of the bad times (but no potentially libellous material will be included!). I can provide both and I hope you, my visitors, may provide me with some more anecdotes to entertain us all.
This is a web-site devoted to memorabilia and photographs related (initially) to the 1963-1970 period of WBHS. Once I have exhausted my (fairly considerable) stock of material, how much further the site develops depends on old boys and staff. I shall welcome any stories, photographs, scans of programmes, notices, posters and any other school paraphernalia.
I am happy to include mini-CVs of old boys if anyone wishes, and – if individuals agree – shall be happy to pass on an e-mail address if any Old Woden requests it. I shall never publish others’ e-mail addresses on the site as that could cause an increase in spam for those people.
I am indebted to Mr John Clifford, Coordinator of the Old Wodens’ Association for his blessing for this venture. John also kindly loaned me his substantial archives when I running short of material. I am also grateful to Margaret Hiscox (who has spent many hours seeking out and collating information about the School) and to all other contributors who are identified near their articles.
By April 2016, there had been over 13,000 visits to the old version of this site since April 2002.
Important note:
If there is anything anyone doesn’t like on this site, or if I have inadvertently published copyrighted material here, please don’t sue me – just send me an e-mail and I will remove the offending item immediately, with a suitable grovelling apology if you need one!
David Perry, WBHS 1963-70
webmaster@wbhs.info
WBHS 