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Memories of Stuart Grieve
I attended Maypole CPS between 1945 & 1951. Like many children I recall the first day as being rather traumatic. Then, as others have recalled, Miss Gaspar was the head with her deputy Miss Burr. There was a Miss Bean, a late middle aged person who always wore what we took to be a tea cosy on her head. There was also a Miss Torrie whose marriage to another teacher, Mr Davis, I attended as a choir boy at Christ Church Dartford. There was also Mr Rees, a small amiable Welshman, who often seemed hard -pressed.What surprises me in retrospect is that, apart from occasional nature study, we were rarely taken on to the heath for sport.
Something which sticks out in my mind is the PE in the playground which was supervised by female students from Madame Osterberg's Physical Education College in Oakfield Lane,Dartford. Madame Osterberg was in the forefront of educational innovation in the late 19th century & had initially come to England at the invitation of the London School Board. The college she set up was where netball was first introduced into the country. The girls who taught us were turned out in airtex shirts & maroon, heavy duty skirts & put us through a routine with bean bags & hoops. We once attended a party at the college which architecturally must have been a model of its kind & had spacious well-kept grounds.
There was one particularly painful memory, which was the visits to the school dentist, I believe at West Hill Hospital.Three successive Fridays I had to undergo drilling without anaesthetic from this large bald man with steel spectacles & I was deterred from visiting the dentist for some years afterwards.
As I lived at the top of Station Road, Crayford approaching the school across the heath I could always clearly see the chimney of Bexley Hospital & the sad fact is that the topicality of Nazi atrocities caused we children to discuss whether they were burning patients' corpses if we saw the chimney smoking. As pupils we did once make a social visit to the hospital,when a Christmas party was held for us.All I recall was that the blue -iced cakes were the best I've tasted.
Every Christmas there was the Nativity play & as a choir boy I often had a singing role & for that & 'general progress' I once received a school prize, a book entitled 'African Adventure'. Miss Gaspar did on another occasion give me an award in the cloakroom with a cane. Generally corporal punishment consisted of a smack on the back of the leg, which was painful.
I've been back to the area a few times since leaving nearly forty years ago. The motorway has wrecked Dartford Heath & presumably no children travel to the new school from Crayford & indeed the links which used to exist between Crayford , the Maypole & Bexley must have ceased , not least the gang fights which ranged across the heath.
Further addition added by Stuart 26/10/2008
I just noticed a reference to the gun club in the intro to the web site & it reminded me that I & a friend trespassed there in the mid fifties occasionally. On one occasion we took possession of an elevated position for firing the clay pigeons & were quite happily firing them off when I lent forward at the wrong time & the return action of the sling mechanism caught me full in the face & knocked me flat. At this point an inquisitive & slightly aggressive alsation dog appeared & forced us to roll down the hill thro' tall ferns. I reached the bottom by a stony track on hands & knees & peered out to see my friend being seized by a large man.I'm ashamed to say that my first reaction was to lie doggo but my intentions were foiled by the dog confronting me face to face & thus we were both marched to the exit with severe warnings. I returned home with face streaming with blood & a broken nose & had to pretend to my parents that I'd fallen off my bike.
Further addition added by Stuart 26/10/2008
I just noticed a reference to the gun club in the intro to the web site & it reminded me that I & a friend trespassed there in the mid fifties occasionally. On one occasion we took possession of an elevated position for firing the clay pigeons & were quite happily firing them off when I lent forward at the wrong time & the return action of the sling mechanism caught me full in the face & knocked me flat. At this point an inquisitive & slightly aggressive alsation dog appeared & forced us to roll down the hill thro' tall ferns. I reached the bottom by a stony track on hands & knees & peered out to see my friend being seized by a large man.I'm ashamed to say that my first reaction was to lie doggo but my intentions were foiled by the dog confronting me face to face & thus we were both marched to the exit with severe warnings. I returned home with face streaming with blood & a broken nose & had to pretend to my parents that I'd fallen off my bike.
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| stuartgrieve | Re; The gun club | 0 | Oct 25 2008, 3:07 PM EDT by stuartgrieve | ||
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Thread started: Oct 25 2008, 3:07 PM EDT
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I just noticed a reference to the gun club in the intro to the web site & it reminded me that I & a friend trespassed there in the mid fifties occasionally. On one occasion we took possession of an elevated position for firing the clay pigeons & were quite happily firing them off when I lent forward at the wrong time & the return action of the sling mechanism caught me full in the face & knocked me flat. At this point an inquisitive & slightly aggressive alsation dog appeared & forced us to roll down the hill thro' tall ferns. I reached the bottom by a stony track on hands & knees & peered out to see my friend being seized by a large man.I'm ashamed to say that my first reaction was to lie doggo but my intentions were foiled by the dog confronting me face to face & thus we were both marched to the exit with severe warnings. I returned home with face streaming with blood & a broken nose & had to pretend to my parents that I'd fallen off my bike.
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| SheilaHoulton | Teachers at the Maypole School | 2 | May 31 2008, 11:08 AM EDT by rongosling | ||
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Thread started: May 26 2008, 7:19 AM EDT
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Having read Stuart Grieve's memories of the school, he mentions Miss Torrey. She became Mrs. Hinckley. Mrs. Poole was my first teacher, with her prematurely white hair and her blue suit, I loved her. Miss Bean was next in the chain and did, indeed, have a whiskery chin. She wore her hair in a tight little bun and wore a navy striped costume (suit) with a long skirt. Miss Butler came next. She was tiny and blonde and we we all romanticised about her marrying Mr. Davies as they used to ride off on their bikes across the Heath, on the way home. Mr. Davies was a wonderful teacher: best ever, I thought. He brought Worzel Gummidge and Saucy Nancy to life for us, with his readings. He was a giant of a man (to we little-uns) but so kind and fair. Mr. Davies' classroom was next to Miss Butler's. Then came Mr. Rees. He was a small Welshman and quite vicious. He would throw chalk, books, the board eraser, a shoe - anything which came to hand if he thought someone wasn't paying attention. He once kept me in at lunchtime because I had committed the sin of needing the toilet during a lesson! My father arrived at five past twelve and told Mr. Rees what he thought of the situation! We won't go into that. Then, there was Miss Burr in the top class. She was Miss Gaspar's friend and they were very much a team. She was very strict indeed and every week, we had a test to determine our class position. Miss Gaspar I avoided! When I left at the age of 10 to move to Dartford, I was most surprised to find out that I had 'passed the prelim' which was the first part of the 11+ but had not known I was doing it! The weekly tests at the Maypole had prepared me well. However, no Grammar School for me; I went to Dartford West and then the Tec, where I was very happy. Some teachers make schooldays enjoyable but we all remember those who don't!
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