Reunion 2003


Yes, at last we got a chance to hang around on radiators again, when we had the school reunion in September 2003. Not quite as good as last time as technically speaking, we had to have an escorted tour of the school, but we soon lost Alan Ward! We arrived at school around lunchtime and had lunch in the hall. This was so burnt that it reminded us very much of school dinners! The official photo took place on the balcony and after lunch we had our guided tours then sat around chatting until it was time to adjourn to the Chesterfield Arms to watch the England football, and the England rugby games. Mart Culley and Olly met up with us in the Chesterfield and of course we had to finish off with a curry in the early hours! Below are some photographs which will bring back some memories as well as charting our aging process! Click on the photos to enlarge if you can stand the sight of all those wrinkles close up!
	Kath Kirtley (Bert), Kath Clark and partner and Sue Philpotts - Mrs Truswell of course, posing for a photograph just below the school balcony.
The remake of the geography field course photo from 1972! Alan Ward took us to the Lake District and Bert wrote the whole saga up in the school magazine. Mr Ward has been deputy head at Carlton le Willows for about 20 years now and in fact he gave us the guided tour of the school, paying particular attention to the geography room of course!
	We soon lost Mr Wards party as Tats and Sally McCree took over telling the old school stories. I believe this one is about Sally having private German lessons from Mr Swift in a very small cupboard behind the physics room. She was picked from all the people who did German, to write a poem in German for the school magazine.....although this achievement is slightly lessened by the fact that she was the only one actually studying the language!
It was really nice to see Ann Lawrence as I hadn't realised she was going to be able to make it. She couldn't resist having a walk up to have a look at her old house on Priory Road and examine Lawrence's shops on Westdale Lane. Once a thriving centre of commerce they are now a hairdressers, a pine shop and someone's house. And their mad dog doesn't sit outside her mums house waiting to bite any unsuspecting passers by any more!
	These girls should know better! Queuing up for Spangles, Flying Saucers, Sherbet Fountains, Lucky Bags, Blackjacks and Fruit Salads is not the thing to do when you don't have hockey practise to keep the weight down! The tuck shop window actually looks exactly the same as it did 30 years ago...
Although this looks like a job interview for headmaster it's actually one of Mr Everett's English lessons. Tats is demonstrating how, every time Kenny turned to the blackboard, the whole class lifted our chairs and moved to the right. This had the effect of moving the whole class from one side of the room to the other by the end of the lesson. Most amusing but I'm not sure Mr Everett even noticed!
	Johnno and Hilary Cooper. Forced into posing for the photo - I don't think he ever got that close to her at school!
Mr Riddles and Mr Langton with Sally and Hilary. Mr Langton was my form teacher for years and what a really nice teacher he was! This was probably helped by the fact that he taught RI (or RE). Mr Riddles, deputy head, however was slightly more suspect as he had a habit of picking up small boys by the ankles and suspending them upside down. A handy skill in a secondary school, if you can do it!
	More of the Tats and Sally tour! We find room 8 with the original hole in the wall for the projector which was used to give us french lessons. A series of slides were back projected onto a screen and between each one we had to "Tirez" which is what Tats is enacting here. This was also the room where Steve Godfrey used to cause havoc by setting fire to my backpack in the middle of French lessons!
This shot will strike fear into the hearts of all those of us who hated rugby! Tats here is demonstrating how Dai Roberts used to hang poor little boys up from the hooks in the boys changing rooms, for such minor offences as not getting changed quickly enough, tying bootlaces incorrectly, or just actually being there.
	Wendy Walker and Gabbie Hone. We met Wendy when she was in the second year and used to get thrown out of her English lessons in the class next door to the sixth form common room. Us kind sixth formers would make her a coffee as she stood in the corridor! Gabbie now lives in Sussex and trekked all the way up to Gedling for the day.
Tats and Anne discussing whether the chicken is more burnt than the beef! And it was lovely to see Angie Dawson as we'd lost touch with her for years. She surfaced recently and is living in Burton Joyce.
	Sue, Kath, Hilary, Johnno, Higgy, Lewy, Sally and Bert. And in the background on the balcony are Wendy and Gabbie, and Gwynneth. In front of them Rosie Lawton and Fiona Ellis who we haven't seen for thirty years!
Here are some photo's I totally forgot about which Tats sent to me...not exactly hot off the press but better late than never!

On the Sunday lunchtime a group of us met up at Mart Culley's pub in Belper. Click here for the Sunday photographs. I've also spruced up the rest of the site with some of the photos from our tour so if you're interested in what some of the rooms look like today, explore the school again.