From:
Markham Bailey.
I thought I should to inform you that both Stanley Benwell and I, after failing the eleven plus exam at Woodlands Park School in1949, were both moved on to South Grove Secondary Modern School in September that year, however for
some (unknown) reason we were later both moved to Downhills in July 1951. This caused us problems with the considerable backlog to catch up on things such as 'French' etc. I was unable to make the
grade and after a mere six months I was moved yet again to Page Green Secondary Modern. The overall result of this was that I not only lost touch with many of my
friends, but that my mother and father were hard pressed to pay for the uniform
etc, which received so little use.
Both Stan' and I lived only two doors from each other during this
time, and yet I have not seen or heard of him since . Is it likley that any records exist that might throw some light on this rather strange experiment? as after all this time one would like to know the reason why.
Memories.
Although I was only at the 'Central' for a short time I have many
memories, most of them good! For a start Does anyone else remember the mock elections? in 51' three boys (names long forgotten) were chosen? to represent the three political parties and from then on the whole thing was run as if it was the real
thing, even down to a few bouts of spin, plus a few other tricks the present( real ) government have yet to try. Tottenham was,
and still is a labour stronghold, and behind the scenes pressure was being applied to '"vote Labour...or else" even back in those days I was not one to follow the heard, and decided to enter the spirit of the thing and vote for the candidate who put up the best show, which included a
speech in front of the whole school. In the event I voted Liberal, purely on the strength of 'my mans'
performance (and nothing to do with the real party) Once my so called friends found out I duly
received some 'hard labour' !!! Which convinced me of the wisdom of the secret ballot.
Then there was the time I fell foul of Mr Vos, one day he informed us that during the( then recent ) nationalisation of the railways in 1948, that the Pullman
Carriage Company had also been taken over. This I knew to be wrong, and I raised my hand ,and told him so. He was not best pleased to be
challenged, demanding to know how I could possibly be right, so I told him of a book I had at
home. I was then instructed to bring said book to school in time for our next class. A few days latter I presented him with the object in question in front of the class( with the relevant paragraphs underlined in pencil.) By this time tension in the class was electric ! and the silent few seconds it took him to read them seemed like
hours... Suddenly he slammed the book shut, and promptly struck me over the head with it !! and apart from ordering me to sit
down, nothing more was said concerning Pullmans'... Dont' you just hate a bad looser ?
One annoying feature of the school was that one could take either Woodwork or Art
class, but not both, which seems daft, but as far as Stan Benwell and I was concerned was no great hardship as between us we constructed and painted a Punch and Judy type puppet and marionette theatre (Stanley was into puppets in a big way) Can any one remember the show we put on in the school hall...and was it as bad as I seem to remember it to have been? Lastly a message to the unknown person who stole /borrowed my watch from the changing room...Any chance of letting me have it back
now, or are you still too tight to buy your own ?... ( What's the betting he voted labour in 19 51 ? )
The Model railway Club
Looking through some back numbers of the 'Meccano Magazine for 1943 recently I discovered that
Mr TW Hancock (teacher at the school from 1937to1946) had approached
Meccano Ltd with a proposal to set up a Hornby Railway Company Branch at the
school and this information was featured in the February issue of said publication. The June issue, under the heading "Recently Incorporated
Branches," lists " Downhills Central School---Mr D Farge, 6
Clonmell Road, Tottenham, London N.17" and subject to 'Branch 'rules Mr Hancock would have been designated 'Chairman' and
"Mr Farge" (almost certainly a pupil) would have been Branch Secretary, the club was allocated the number 444. As yet I have found no other information on what in effect was a school model railway club which most
likley met outside normal school hours, and I wonder if anyone out there knows anything of it ? If you are interested I can supply copies of the above and also
additional information on the HRC Branch organisation.
More memories.
Following on from my earlier e-mails I enclose a few more memories for you to update the website. I remember once
c.1951 during a science lesson with Mr Thomas that copper sulphate was
gradually introduced into the fish tank, which turned the water bright blue! The class in general were highly
amused, which is more than can be said for poor Mr Thomas, who was rather upset, as were we when we found out that it killed all the fish. On another occasion 'we' the class, (form IIIc) were taken for Religious instruction by Mrs Martinez. On our arrival at the classroom she was not in
attendance , and in no time one or two pupils started raiding the desks for pens, these then had the
nib tips broken off, ( leaving two rather sharp projections) and were then thrown upwards to be impaled in the classroom ceiling. This came as something of a relief, as in the not too distant past such improvised weapons had sometimes been directed at me ! In the event this new craze was immediately taken up by the rest of the class, so that on Mrs Martinez arrival, ( and seeing the newly planted forest of pens sprouting from said ceiling )
duly informed us that she was going to report the incident to Mr
Mercer... Hardly had the door closed behind her, when the air turned black with flying Bibles, and anything else to hand. Came the return of 'The powers that be' there was not a single pen to be seen, and the entire class was quietly studying 'the good book' !
There were other ways of teasing Mrs Martinez during such classes, and that was to trap a wooden ruler under the desk top and then flick it, which made a lovely 'diga-diga-diga' noise ! It was the work of a moment to flip the ruler back into the desk and remain undiscovered, and as far as I know she was never able to catch any of the class red handed. For some reason I always got top marks for
Religious Instruction, for the life of me I don't know why . At the end of the day I just hope see had rather better control with the girls.
When it came to flying missiles ( rather than missals ! ) I was standing near the entrance to the coal -hole one day next to a boy who was busy throwing a dart about, and getting bored with
inanimate targets started aiming it at the feet of any passing boy. Most of them managed to jump out of the way, but one poor chap ended up with it
embedded in his ankle. Even these many years on it makes me feel sick at the thought of it. I don't suppose the boy involved was best pleased either.
Lastly I remember that under the delightful Miss Brooker, we were not only introduced to amateur dramatics, but she also asked each of us to write a short play, and a few of the selected ones would be staged in front of the school . To my delight my humble effort ( which was based on a scene from the
Will Hay film "Oh Mr Porter") was one of those chosen. Sadly it was not to be for at the end of January 1952 I was moved away to Page Green School, ending my chance of becoming a well known
playwright come plagiarist forever.
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