I read your reference to kayak building at Bablake and wondered
if you
remember me - Barry Daniells. I built a kayak with John Haines in 1957
under your instruction, which we subsequently sailed down the River Wye.I
thoroughly enjoyed the woodworking at Bablake, which made a pleasant break
from the academic work. My father served a cabinet making apprenticeship
so perhaps there is woodwork in my genes! Anyway, the skills I learned
have proved useful throughout my life especially in the DIY area.
I did move on to build an Enterprise sailing dinghy with a
friend of mine in
the 1970's which we used to race from Mumbles Sailing Club in South Wales.
I also caught the sailing bug while at Bablake when I went on sailing
trips to
the Norfolk Broads with our Physics master, Mr. Mackman. Do you remember
him?
After 40 years in the chemicals industry I have now retired
and live in
Lymington on the south coast. Sailing is still my main pastime and I now
have a Westerly Spirit sailing yacht which I sail around the Solent and
further afield.I still do some woodworking. Last year I built my wife
a summer house using some recovered mahogany, which I had acquired from
an old demolished conservatory. This project also required some brickwork,
which I have done from time to time, although Bablake never gave me any
formal instruction on this subject! Regards Barry Daniells
We often went on sailing trips with Mr. Mackman in the middle of the photograph and I am on the far right. The boy standing between us was Pip Jones who featured in the school film in his younger years. The other two are Chris Pickup and John Baldock.
hi charlie, was interested in your site and picture of staff brought back reminders of jake irons, gus gale , who coached me in the under 15's cricket team in 1956, mr van hee (the Mekon). i also remember john haines who together with ian scott i went on a canoeing trip down the wye. we also did a lot of trips on the avon out at ryton. i was always in the g stream after starting in shell w in 1952. would be interested to hear of any other old boys of my era that you happen to come across especially pete reynolds and his new ball partner who's name ive forgotten despite keeping wicket to them in under 14's and 15's anyway all the best and thanx for the reminders of those years....bob webb
the right on second row.Adding to the memorable sayings of Jock Falla, on more than one occasion, hearing a boy's voice during his science lesson, he exclaimed "Every time I open my mouth, some fool speaks!". He was the one who taught us to make gunpowder and fuse. For the practical we made paper tubes sealed at one end, filled them with gunpowder, primed them with fuse, laid them down on the bench and when lit they whizzed around the science lab. like a jet engine.
The school rules brought back memories of our History lessons (1950
onwards).
Misdemeanours of even a minor nature were regularly punished by impositions
of the school rules, invariably in multiples of three copies (at
3/4 of an hour each). One boy anticipating such an eventuality had written
out three copies in advance, he produced them immediately, whereupon they
were torn up and the imposition was repeated. Few incidents merited an
H on a report card, but these too could be earned in a History lesson.
Was he called Gaby Hayes? I think he is second from the right on the second
row of the staff 1956 picture. John Baldock
The shot with Mr Mackman (SEE ABOVE) shows me with a beard which would have been during the Easter vacation of my first year at university (I finished the four years in October 1960, so it must have been Easter 1957).
I am sending you a couple of contemporary pictures:- one of the school building taken in 1953 and one of some of my classmates, in the rough grass down at the end of the school field one summer lunchtime. This was probably when we were in the lower sixth (LrVIM?), in summer 1956. John Pilbin who was a great sportsman, was entertaining us with some rugby songs at the time. The names are written on the back of my print, so I can reproduce them accurately. From the left foreground, going round clockwise they are:- Chris Pickup, "Pa" Ward, "Jack" Pilbin, Eddie "Master" Bate, Chris Chandler, Colin West, John Baldock, Edmund Rees and "Pip" Jones. I think "Pa" Ward was a year older than us, as I can hardly remember anything about him.
We did some woodwork when we were quite young, with a dear old chap. The metalwork room was never used at that time as far as I remember, which was a pity as it was well equipped. I seem to remember that both were closed for a while after he retired. I didn't know you I'm afraid as I think you must have joined the school when I was in the sixth and such subjects then seemed out of our reach. However, I see that Barry Daniells and John Haines did manage to do some wood work with you, that must have been when they were in the upper sixth and I was away at Manchester.
Like Barry, I have carried on with my love of sailing. I actually totalled up the miles that I have sailed, the other day and it came to just over 2500, not counting what I have done in dinghies, (probably another 1000). The woodwork skills have stood me in good stead for maintaining boats. Subsequently, in my spare time, I learned some machining, sheet metalwork and forging skills during my time at university, in my years at GKN Research Laboratories, at colleges in Yorkshire and Cornwall, and through the kindness of a blacksmith. These too have been valuable in making trailers and fittings for boats as well as for making parts for pre-war cars that I have owned.
I often wonder how Mr Mackman is getting on, must be retired by now. Allan has kindly sent me the e-mail addresses of Barry Daniells and Norman Lees and I will be getting in touch with them in the next couple of days. I worked for 20 years in GKN, as a metallurgist, progressing through R&D into manufacture and then to Technical and then General management in their Transmissions Division (Birfield, Hardy Spicer, Laycock, Salisbury Axles). I left the engineering industry during the big shake out in the late 70s and went into lecturing in Further Education "until I could get a proper job". I found it so agreeable that I continued, teaching first Metallurgy, then later Electronics and I.T. We moved down to Cornwall in 1990 and I took early retirement about five years ago. I still do a few hours part-time at Cornwall College and do a bit of consultancy work for a local firm in the Windpower field. Meanwhile we are working on our 4 berth sailing boat, hoping to get her afloat this summer and to do a bit of cruising in Brittany next year. All best wishes John Baldock.
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