Bootle Grammar in Netherton

Find Bootle friends and family here
marcos_cu
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Chorley, Lancs
Contact:

I attended there from 1968 to 1972. I enjoyed my time and was saddened when after living abroad for a few years I returned to see it gone. Does anyone else have any memories of the old school?
Formerly Assissian Crescent, Netherton - Bootle Grammar 1968-72

http://wip330.110mb.com/
http://www.withnellmill.co.uk/
Jan
Posts: 6943
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:34 pm
Location: Bootle

:D

Hi Marcos,

Welcome to the site.

Bootle Grammar became Bootle High school in Browns Lane Netherton, it is still there, my daughter went there.

Have a look at this website for Liverpool Schools.

http://liverpool-schools.co.uk/html/a_-_c.html

Jan
marcos_cu
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Chorley, Lancs
Contact:

Thanks for the link I know the old Countess of Derby school building is there and used as the High School and the the former Warwick Bolam secondary school is now the library and community centre.

I wonder if anyone has any memories of the old Marian Square Grammar school and, indeed, the original Grammar school in Bootle?
Formerly Assissian Crescent, Netherton - Bootle Grammar 1968-72

http://wip330.110mb.com/
http://www.withnellmill.co.uk/
Bootlelass-expat
Posts: 216
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:42 am
Location: Rhode Island USA

Hi Marcos,

The school that became Bootle High School was The Countess of Derby on Browns Lane. (I went there when it was an all girls school).My youngest brother went there and I think they called it Comprehensive School by then it was co-ed.

The Boys Grammar was off St. Oswalds Lane and behind Marion Sq. shops. It is now a park. (I have 3 younger brothers who went there) My oldest brother and I went there when the buildings were used as Netherton Moss Primary A & B sections.

The original Boys Grammar in Balliol Rd became Bootle Technical College, I went(early 60's) to the Commercial College right opposite.

Hope this is what you wanted

Doreen
marcos_cu
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Chorley, Lancs
Contact:

Thanks for the input.

Although I no longer live in Bootle I still visit Netherton about once a month to relive old memories and wallow in nostalgia and so I am reasonably well up on the changes to the topography of the area. I lived abroad (Havana) from 1993 to 2000 and before then in the north-east of England for a few years and so was greatly surprised to discover my old school was no more.

I would be interested to hear from any former Bootle Grammar pupils who were there during my time there, late sixties to early seventies, and can jog my own memories with their recollections.
Formerly Assissian Crescent, Netherton - Bootle Grammar 1968-72

http://wip330.110mb.com/
http://www.withnellmill.co.uk/
Jan
Posts: 6943
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:34 pm
Location: Bootle

:lol:

Hi Marcos,

Have you tried looking on the friendsreunited website to see if any of your friends are listed?


Bootle Grammar (all 3 are listed on there). It is free to browse, but £7.50 a year membership, if you see any old pals listed on there, you won't be able to send them a message unless you pay the membership fee.

This is from their site.

Bootle Grammar School (Balliol Road, Bootle, Sefton) 209 people England
Bootle Grammar School for Boys (Marian Way, Bootle) 369 people England
Bootle Grammar School for Girls (Breeze Hill , Bootle) 556 people England

They are the number of people listed on the site who attended the schools.

Jan
marcos_cu
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Chorley, Lancs
Contact:

Yes, I am (or was) a member of Friends Reunited. There are a few names there from my school which I do indeed recall but none that I was particularly friendly with at the time. I also found someone that I knew that worked on the same newspaper I did a few years back.

I have enjoyed browsing the messages on this board over the past few weeks and picked up many references to happenings and places that I recall from my wasted youth...

Thanks are due to the contributors and moderators here.
Formerly Assissian Crescent, Netherton - Bootle Grammar 1968-72

http://wip330.110mb.com/
http://www.withnellmill.co.uk/
IanA
Posts: 421
Joined: Sat May 06, 2006 10:25 pm
Location: Scotland

I was at Bootle Grammar from about 1962/3 but only for two years before we moved to posher parts (Waterloo!). I was in 1 alpha and 2 alpha. I remember Piggy Porter and Mr Clark the music teacher. I'm sure I saw Clark many years later looking very down and out - anyone know what happened? Harry Flood was deputy headmaster and there was a very nice chap called Wattleworth who used to teach chemistry. A demented thug called (appropriately) Mr Wilde took games and PE. J.A. Barr (Jabber) taught maths I think. It seemed a brand new school when I was there and I was astonished when I heard that it had been razed to the ground.
marcos_cu
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Chorley, Lancs
Contact:

Ian,

thanks for your post. I was in the M stream - which I suspect stood for 'Manual' - and was the home to those who passed the 11 plus by fluke or artifice and were destined to be drawers of water or hewers of wood. The other streams did languages and science whilst we had metalwork and woodwork!

I remember Piggy Porter: hideous tweed suits, elderly with a fat face and sunken porkine eyes, calling boys to the front of the class to read aloud as he felt our bums up as we stood next to his desk. He will be long dead now...

I remember music classes: listening to classical music from a large wood fronted record player. I can't recall Mr Clark himself.

I remember Harry Flood well, and being (deservedly no doubt) caned by him!
Mr Wilde - or Kenny Wilde as he was known (not to his face). Barrel chested, he always wore a blazer and had a upfront no nonsense manner. I never liked him and was afraid of him but I recall him going out of his way to help me with some problems I was having, the details of which are now lost, and changing my opinion of him. I met him once, in Maghull I think, some years after I left and he remembered me and we exchanged pleasantries and with the schoolmasterly bluster gone he was seemed a perfectly decent chap.

Mr Wattleworth I don't remember, but then chemistry never formed a big part of the M stream curriculum. Same is true for Mr Jabber, who I don't recall at all. Possible they had both gone before I began at the Grammer in 1968.

It seemed a shame to me when the building was pulled down, but I daresay the council wanted the developer's money and there were too many school buildings in the area.

Cheers...
Formerly Assissian Crescent, Netherton - Bootle Grammar 1968-72

http://wip330.110mb.com/
http://www.withnellmill.co.uk/
IanA
Posts: 421
Joined: Sat May 06, 2006 10:25 pm
Location: Scotland

I have a long panoramic photo of the entire school when I was there. All the staff, the prefects wearing their little undergrad gowns and us. There were some real dodgy-looking teddy boys at the back!

They must have 'improved' the class names after I left. When I was there they were 1 alpha who did sciences, 1 A who did arts and languages and 1 X who got the double woodwork and metalwork. Wilde did woodwork as well and thus terrified me twice a week.
marcos_cu
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Chorley, Lancs
Contact:

I was definitely in 3M as I still have an old schoolbook with my name and form in... but I also seemed to remember being in form 1x at the start of my time there. So either they changed the naming system at some point or began a new streaming system at the third year.

We had Kenny Wilde for Metalwork and games, and a nut brown elderly(it seemed) but athletic chap known as 'Jack' for woodwork.

During the first year one or two of the masters still sported gowns particularly one teacher who carried his left arm as the possible result of a stroke. His name is lost to me now. The prefects, kids now but to me at the time they were full gown men with sideburns and attempted beards. None then wore academic gowns.

During my time all the staff were referred to by their first names (if known) but never to their faces! Mr Vincent Hayes (Head) was always 'Vince', Mr Wilde 'Ken' etc...

I posted a couple of class photo's I had to my Friends Reunited page.
Formerly Assissian Crescent, Netherton - Bootle Grammar 1968-72

http://wip330.110mb.com/
http://www.withnellmill.co.uk/
IanA
Posts: 421
Joined: Sat May 06, 2006 10:25 pm
Location: Scotland

Must dash but yes I remember Jack - a fairly decent bloke but I seem to remember that he had a habit of throwing chisels.

Ian
matt wethered

Bootle Grammar must have been the only school that Piggy Porter ever taught in.My dad had him as a teacher in the thirties and I had him for history and religion in 1953.Jean D Berbiers was the head when I was there who was a Belgian and the woodwork teacher was John Williams nicknamed Jack Chisel
Matt(remove alpha -5 alpha)
Alan M
Posts: 430
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:39 am
Location: Perth, Barrow Island & Dampier. WA

I went to the Grammar from '64 to 'Jan 69 when we parted company on mutual terms. I hated them & they hated me!! Half the teachers would be locked up these days and the other lot made to sign the sex offenders list!! Clarke,music, was a thug who carried a Dunlop green flash shoe in his briefcase- no lightweight trainers in those days- and if you did'nt have a red pen to write down music notes, you got bent over the desk and got 2 or 3 for starters. Everybody knows about Piggy Porter, he "grassed' us up for larking about on the 56 bus to school,off to Mr Flood the deputy head for the cane as we got to school. I was in 1 & 2 alpha before we were'streamed' in the 3rd year and went into 3m. Had a choice between woodwork or metalwork, 8 of us chose wood work, 24 got metalwork. That other nark,Wilde,took metalwork & sports.Think of Brian Glover in 'Kes'- get off that bl**dy crossbar,Caspar,and you wont be far wrong. I remember Graham Egerton " nutmegging' him in a football game once,Wildey lashed out as Graham ran past him and straight armed him in the chest.Graham span round as if he'd been pole-axed. Even though we were playing footy, Wildey always wore rugby boots and shirt. My brother saw him in south wales once,and he was still scared of him!
The teacher with the humpty wing was Jerry Corner,Economics,who was farmed out to the small capacity classes upstairs by rooms 7.8.& 9. Maths teacher was a great bloke, Fred Lowe,believe he was from Waterworks St. Bootle.He got me really interested in the subject,I tried to dump music for maths bur Clarkey said no. Playing the recorder was really top of the employers list in Bootle in the 60's. Other maths teacher was Luler,cant remember his real name but he could'nt pronounce his R's. So when he took us for trigonometry,he'd say" get out your plotractors & lulers" we'd all fall off our chairs in bulk. The sadistic g*t lashed out one day and jabbed my brother in the cheek with a green biro. Phipps, French master and short ar*d thug, hit Kenny Blackburn on the back of the head so hard,he mashed his nose into the desk.Blood everywhere!.Our form master & English(lan) teacher came from St.George of England school,Stan -OddJob-Hall. Hard as nails but dead fair.First thing out of his bag was the dreaded Dunlop, sat on his desk all lesson. Warburton,Physics master,used to walk up and down the lab like a demented Marty Feldman from the movie" Young Frankenstein" and he carried a curved walking stick/club and he either poked you or belted you with it. Jones,other Physics was just a sadist as well. But Jack Williams, Woodwork & TechDrawing ,was great. Punishment was a blackboard try-square over the ar*e,but come xmas,he'd belt out a xmas carol over some poor sods backside & we'd have to guess what carol it was.Jack had no rhythm,beat or cadence, so it took ages to guess it.But if we did'nt like the lad getting beaten,we'd take forever!! .If that was'nt bad enough,getting to this seat of learning/torture was a nightmare from Bootle. We had to get the 56 from the Danish Bacon on Southport/Bedford road junction,if you missed that you had to leg it down to Hawthorn Rd for the 57A,miss that & it was a Linford Christie,without the lunchbox, to Stanley Road for the 28. And we all know what bus drivers/conductors were like in them days. 'Cos if you got in late, wallop!!. Two off Floody to warm your backside up for the rest of the day. The prefects DID have their short gowns,and would be at the bus stop by St Oswalds church and the school,making sure we all had our caps on and were'nt misbehaving on the streets. And of course,we never mentioned this to our parents about being punished at school,as we'd only get it again at home. But I suppose it did me know harm,sitting here in my warm cell at Ashworth!!
The best thing about being over the hill is that now I can have some fun and free-wheel down the other side. LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL.
IanA
Posts: 421
Joined: Sat May 06, 2006 10:25 pm
Location: Scotland

The best days of your life......
ken
Posts: 260
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:29 pm
Location: FRANCE

I was there from 1951 to 1958. Head was Berbiers and deputy was Gourley -he retired and Hayes took over. He was in charge of caning.The only man I still hate and am sure is roasting down below is Piggy. Had a good French teacher named Wilkinson. On my first day he sent me to Williams with some message. I didn't know where the woodwork room was so asked another older kid.He said "You mean Jack Chisel?" and gave me directions. I went in and said "Mr. Chisel. I've got a message from Mr. Wilkinson". Next thing I was over a bench being leathered with a handy piece of wood. Not a good first day.

Good teachers in my day were Wilkinson, Harry Flood, King (geography), Lee (Maths), Nicholls (English). The rest were pretty rubbish.

Ken
Roberts, Allison are the Bootle names I'm interested in.

Thorp(e), Ballard, Parry, Lucas, Dodd, Jacobson, are Liverpool ancestors.
User avatar
Glenys
Posts: 1440
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:43 pm
Location: North Merseyside

Hi Ken,
Welcome to this wonderful site..

I was at the Girls Grammar 51 to 57, and can remember Rod Simmons, Derek (Spider) Roberts.

Glenys
Lived Linacre Lane, Trinity Road & Knowsley Road.
User avatar
Glenys
Posts: 1440
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:43 pm
Location: North Merseyside

Hi Ken,
Welcome to this wonderful site..

I was at the Girls Grammar 51 to 57, and can remember Rod Simmons, Derek (Spider) Roberts.

Glenys
Lived Linacre Lane, Trinity Road & Knowsley Road.
ken
Posts: 260
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:29 pm
Location: FRANCE

Hello Glenys,

Don't remember either of the two names you mentioned but these days that's no surprise. Sometimes I forget my own......Didn't really have anything to do with the Girls Grammar except once when we had a hockey match up there. None of us boys had played it before and we were smashed. My shins have still got the scars. Off now for a fortnight.

Ken
Roberts, Allison are the Bootle names I'm interested in.

Thorp(e), Ballard, Parry, Lucas, Dodd, Jacobson, are Liverpool ancestors.
matt wethered

Hi Ken,what is your surname?I feel I should know you as I was at the grammar from 52 -58 and also played hockey against the girls grammar.It was always the first fifteen rugby team versus the girls field hockey team and we always got more injuries in that one game than we got the whole year playing rugby.I was in the same class as Gwillam Griffith,Keith Oswald George Atkinson(koga)Chris Dodson,Harry Fung and my best mate Tommy Kerr.Was'nt Flood the latin teacher?
Matt
ken
Posts: 260
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:29 pm
Location: FRANCE

Hello Matt,

Yes we must have been contemporary - you were a year behind I think. Roberts is the name. I started in 1a then into 2alpha etc. Don Wright, George Russell, Eddie Bunclark and more I won't bother naming. Latin teacher was called Ben but his real name was A.T. Owen - a real old character! Over and out.

Ken
Roberts, Allison are the Bootle names I'm interested in.

Thorp(e), Ballard, Parry, Lucas, Dodd, Jacobson, are Liverpool ancestors.
matt wethered

Thank's for jogging my memory re gentle Ben Owens.He used to start all his lessons with "as you boy's know" or "as you know"We used to have someone in class counting as to what phrase he was going to use.Do you remember the rumour that he used to be a pro. wrestler and killed someone in a match and that was why he became a teacher ?
Matt
ken
Posts: 260
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:29 pm
Location: FRANCE

Yes I remember (though only now you have jogged my memory). I'm sure it was fanciful but he WAS big, with a paunch to match. It might have been because of his way of dealing with "the bantams" as he used to call them, which was to poke them hard with his thumb in the ribs. he never used a cane and didn't ever need to. I should have mentioned him in my list of OK teachers. He got me through Latin O Level and that's saying something!. I believe he once told us he got the equivalent of our O levels in 1908! He used to play Bach when we were in detention.

Ken
Roberts, Allison are the Bootle names I'm interested in.

Thorp(e), Ballard, Parry, Lucas, Dodd, Jacobson, are Liverpool ancestors.
Jimboy
Posts: 43
Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:53 am
Location: Australia

I was,at age 16,the chemistry laboratory assistant to Mr Ted Rowlands,the Chemistry Master,at the original Bootle Grammar School.This was from 1950 till about 1953.He was a great bloke who
encouraged me to start night school for National Certificate and HNC(eventually).I also remember a fellow worker,a general cleaner,whose name I forget,who was a wonderful piano player.One of my life's highlights was,during a school holiday time(when we had to work and clean up everything)he gave me a classical recital in the school hall.He
opened up a little and it seemed he had played with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra but drink had been his downfall.That is what he said to me anyway,but the way he played Rachmaninoff I believe his story was true.They were a couple of very happy years for a teen ager trying to find his way. :D
The Faith Healer
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 10:47 am

The "mad" woodwork teacher who used to throw chisel's was Mr Doodah, he was from Poland and as mad as a hatter.

Anyone remember Mr Marshall, the Religious Instruction teacher, surely the "Hardest" teacher known to man or women, or Jack Wesbey the PE teacher, who used to show everyone his cartiliage that he had to get taken out after his playing day's ended at Liverpool.
Eddy Lloyd
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2008 4:04 pm
Location: Waterloo

Just seen this thread, wonderull, Ian A who are you? I remember Piggy etc, I was there from 1960 to 1962 you guys have great memories love to hear more. Mr Clarke gave me 6 of the best with his slipper (sadist) and Mr Wilde also Mr Gillette.
oriel55
Posts: 179
Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 8:31 pm
Location: Romentino, (No), Italia

Having read Alan M's description of Bootle Grammer School I now understand why my brother Jeff wanted to leave. Makes Balliol Road Secondary Modern appear as a centre of tranquility staffed by angels; which many of the teachers were.
Pamsy
Posts: 837
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2006 8:24 pm
Location: TENNESSEE

Bootle Grammar (all 3 are listed on there). It is free to browse, but £7.50 a year membership, if you see any old pals listed on there, you won't be able to send them a message unless you pay the membership fee

Hi Jan, I believe friendsreunited is FREE now as they have started putting ads on the site.....
PAM KEEGAN BENICH
Keegan, Carruthers, Rigg, Copland, Lobb, Hough, Mee
born in Bootle
Mal W
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:17 pm

The Faith Healer wrote:The "mad" woodwork teacher who used to throw chisel's was Mr Doodah, he was from Poland and as mad as a hatter.

Anyone remember Mr Marshall, the Religious Instruction teacher, surely the "Hardest" teacher known to man or women, or Jack Wesbey the PE teacher, who used to show everyone his cartiliage that he had to get taken out after his playing day's ended at Liverpool.
I was at Warwick Bolam from 73-77 and remember these teachers well. Marshall was lethal with a board duster from 30 feet and would freely hurl it at you. He would also take great pleasure hitting you on the knuckles with it. Doodah was a nutcase and liked to throw a chisel or two. Jack Westby was superb, I remember he would pull handfuls of grey hair from his chest and not flinch. There were some other nutters like "You orrible little urchin" Jackson the math teacher and Grimley the music teacher. I also remember a teacher we a terrible twitch we called Blinky.
agibbs
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 10:36 pm

Great to read these tales of Bootle Grammar. When I was there I always imagined that there had been a time when it was great and that some of the teachers were upholding the great traditions. Reading these accounts I realise that it was never great and always slightly substandard and shoddy. I was there from 68 till 72 and believe those teachers did for education what Jesus did for Judaism. The were the most sadistic bunch of thigs I ever met. I was caned every week I was there. The most appaling injuries by a dwarf sized rugby playing Maths teacher called Les Jones, he hit me with a chair leg. Moreland the Arts teacher slapped my face and Wilde kicked me for sneezing in assembly.
My favourite game was with a teacher called Walsh, who taught history and English. We would divide the class into two imaginary teams and award each team a point if he tugged a team members ear, two points for a slapped back, three points if you were sent outside and five if you were sent to the Head. Often when the scores were close boys would really misbehave in an attempt to be punished. I saw some boys being cheered out of the classroom as they were sent to the Head.
I think these teachers really let us all down and Vince Hayes should be ashamed that he perfected his golf swing at the expense of the potential of the smartest boys in Bootle
marcos_cu
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Chorley, Lancs
Contact:

I was there during the late sixties and early seventies and recall many of the teachers mentioned.
The staff did beat us from time to time and we were sometimes caned but this was par for the course at the time and really did us no long term harm, at least I like to think so. I had some bad times there and some good but I would rather have gone there than the Bolam or any of the other rival schools of the time. It was certainly not Arnold's Rugby and most of my memories of the place are happy ones.
Compare those days to the schools of today, target driven, hamstrung by PC values where the staff walk in fear of the pupils (if we are allowed to call them that) who emerge with increasingly meaningless qualifications.

Happy days indeed.
Formerly Assissian Crescent, Netherton - Bootle Grammar 1968-72

http://wip330.110mb.com/
http://www.withnellmill.co.uk/
Bootle Lad
Posts: 223
Joined: Tue May 27, 2008 9:52 am
Location: New Zealand

Hi you Bootle Grammar boys
Ray Mears 1953-57 Teachers I remember and you might too, and this was in Balliol Rd, Joe Lee, Drummond, Miller, Roper, Wilkinson, Lawler, Vernon, Collis, Boniface, King, Hayes, Gourley, Flood, Wattleworth, Jack Chisel, Clark, Porter
Regards Ray Mears
Arrived in New Zealand in 1964 to get away from the cold winters of the early 60's. Now residing in Pakuranga, Auckland.
matt wethered

Hi Ray,you forgot Ben Owens the latin teacher,Murray ,the sadistic English literature hood and the leader of the pack Dr.Jean D Berbiers
Matt
Last edited by matt wethered on Thu Mar 26, 2009 8:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Eddy Lloyd
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2008 4:04 pm
Location: Waterloo

I've also gt one of those panoramic photo's taken of the whole of the school back in 1960. It was taken in Balliol Road, pity I couldn't post it on here. I'll gt my thinking cap on.
matt wethered

Hey Ray,do you remember when BIG Gwillam Griffith pinned Dickie Vernon up against the piano in the gym when he was trying to make us sing that dumb"gaudeamus igatur iuvenes dum sumus"thing?
Matt
Post Reply