KBGS Old Boys' Forum
A place to discuss Keighley Boys' Grammar School.
In the early 60`s not only was I an avid train-spotter but also a petrol-head. I well remember being in the yard on North St.
At the rear of the school on Lord St. I often walked past Enoch`s Lambretta and had instant mental diarrhoea .Also I prayed fervently that he would get his come uppance on that machine!This never happened so does the sun always shine on the righteous?
Sometimes Slim Slater parked his 2DC I think plus Snakey`s Moggie.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66
Current location (optional) HAWORTH
John -always knew you were an anorak but car spotting
Anyway I believe Crowther had an Heinkel or a Messerschmidt Bubblecar and Vince had a rather posh station wagon with wooden side panels
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66
Current location (optional) Gilsland -Cumbria
A generation behind (or is that before (??)) you petrol-heads, we immediate post-warrers were perhaps less sensitively into motors - except possibly where kbgs staff were involved. I do recall that Wilbur Bloomfield had a (green - weren't they all ? ) Morris 1000 estate with attached prog (ie timber coachwork) and that GSS (Gilbert) had a rather sleek Riley (?) - and Sam , I think, was still on the bus. Old Nick, I am informed had a Wolseley - but no Riley passengers!! Marcus Stott had a rather stately gestapo type vehicle which Tony Cooper could recall. I am sure The rest were either on the thumb, the bus or the bike - like the indefatigable Kenny Prut.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60
Current location (optional) Lincoln
I think Marcus Stott's car was a Lanchester - too much like Manchester to make many friends our side of the divide.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60
Current location (optional) Lincoln
I'm sure we've touched on this subject before. Joe also had a little yellow number with fin type thingys on the back...??
So what at least I`m contributing which is more than a lot of readers do!
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66
Current location (optional) HAWORTH
Well said.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60
Current location (optional) Lincoln
Oh dear, some people are so sensitive! My comment wasn't meant as a criticism, I just thought someone could lead us to previous data on the subject.
Just to clarify - my "well said" was in support of the sentiment that it's time many of the site's readers became posters to keep this site and its declared purpose alive - through sharing their recollections and information. I have made this point elsewhere and probably more than once.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60
Current location (optional) Lincoln
So there you go J.F. Consider yourself reprimanded by the Old Guard. Can't have young whippersnappers not knowing their place!
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60
Current location (optional) Harrogate
I think it`s about time us whippersnappers livened up this site so am doing my bit. We all had the experience of KBGS. So we younger ones are not impudent as you imply but have something worthwhile to say to other ex-KBGS pupils .
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66
Current location (optional) HAWORTH
hey JF - you know how you remembered Ben Tren driving a Standard Triumph? That jogged my memory into thinking it was in fact a green Standard Vanguard - the one with the curvy fastback? Pics here:
http://www.motorbase.com/profiles/vehicle/picture.ehtml?i=1118;p=1435494811
Thanks for putting me straight.Obviously my brain is no longer that of a whippersnapper so I should desist from posting and let others of more brain cells carry on!
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66
Current location (optional) HAWORTH
No !! Please don't desist !!
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60
Current location (optional) Lincoln
The real Old Guard, have little to contibute on this topic. Reason? To my recollection, non of the teachers possessed cars during that period of austerity immediately after WW2. Petrol was still on ration, [but only 1/11d a gallon real money when you had the coupons!] and cars were hard to get hold of. Marcus Stott certainly didn't drive a car to school in my days, Lanchester or anything else - he rode a large bicycle with sit up and beg handlebars and with an oil guard round the chain. In my minds eye, I have this vision of Marcus riding along very serenly with half a smile on his lips. Come to think of it, K P had a similar cycling style. They seemed to pedal very slowly yet make great progress. Perhaps the bikes ware permanently stuck in high gear.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945 - 50
Current location (optional) Norfolk
Gears,Denis,GEARS! What colour is the sky in your world?
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60
Current location (optional) Harrogate
Gus and Percy were also great cyclists, I remember Percy's being called Ermintrudinov
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61
Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth
Alec, the sky in my sad world is usually grey, brightened occasionally by shafts of brilliance emanating from contributors to KBGS website.
Did I in my ignorance get something wrong? Gearing perhaps? I always thought that a low gear is one in which the pedals move rapidly compared to the speed of the wheels and a high gear is one in which the pedals move slowly compared to the speed of the wheels.
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Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945 - 50
Current location (optional) Norfolk
In the mid-fifties,Denis, gears were something that appeared only in my wildest dreams! Not an essential if you lived among the civilised in the valley bottom. I don't recall Mr Preston having gears as he made his stately procession twixt Uttley and Keighley.Perhaps if you were a Howarth hillbilly you needed them. Otherwise we just got off and walked.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60
Current location (optional) Harrogate
Thanks for putting me straight on that Alec. I was a bit puzzled as to what you meant - thought I must have made a boob [if you'll pardon the expression] When at school [late 40's], I had bike equipped with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub gear. I never went to school on it -the journey to and from Keighley was on a No8 bus. Surely Prut and Marcus would have had bikes equipped with gears?
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945 - 50
Current location (optional) Norfolk
I am somewhat offended by being referred to as a hillbilly, especially a hillbilly from "Howarth"! We lived up Colshaw and I could peddle my old iron framed bike right the way to the top of Main Street, I also once managed Brow Lane, without gears, although my daughter frequently mentions my enormous thighs and calves
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61
Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth
I recall one of Joe's number plates was RRR 963, for 'riting', 'reading' and 'rithmetic'. But I think that car was red, and I thought maybe a Hillman Minx.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64
Current location (optional) Wirral
"Teachers' cars" - - a touch of Prut .......
Corrections: Could any victim of the Prut system of corrections calculate what the above perpetrators and perpetuators of the punctuation error should do as penance for their error in this posting - AND further calculate how many hours each would have spent in Prut's splendid system of detention.
Clue: E = mc2
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60
Current location (optional) Lincoln
Terry:
Bear in mind you are one of the perpetuators. Was it not until your sixth posting that you noticed the deviant apostrophe?
Brow Lane was a good test John. Was that from the bus stop at the bottom or where it joined Victoria Road. I've managed that too, but my supreme satisfaction was beating Buckhaw Brow the first time after a number of failed attempts. Cheers.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51
Current location (optional) Auckland NZ
Paul:
You take first prize in the KP challenge. Your observation was so "utterley Prutterly" you must have spent many hours in Ken's College of Corrections to come up with such a precise comment which also earns meritorious inclusion in the Rory Bremner competition for realistic recreations. Good on yer, cobber.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60
Current location (optional) Lincoln
Peter Brown now lives in Bradford upon Avon Wilts
and would like to get in touch with you
tel 01225868244
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1960 -1965
Current location (optional) 7 Chapel row, Wilsden, Bradford W Yorks BD15 0EQ
Old Nick might have had a Wolseley but he also used to cycle to school.I can see him now arriving at a ponderous pace dressed in a scruffy old raincoat.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-1961
Current location (optional) Filey
Old Nick might have had a Wolseley in the 50s but my recollection is of a Hillman in the late 40s. It would have been 1948/49 when a class mate, Geoffrey Jacques, sadly died of complications with appendicitis. It might have been peritonitis, however three of his class mates including me, were invited to attend the funeral out Cross Hills way, and Old Nick took us in his car and looked after us. It was the first funeral for we three and left quite an impression on us 12 year olds. Cheers.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1947-51
Current location (optional) Auckland NZ
The "huge limousine" which AEW drove was, from memory, a "F type" Vauxhall Victor - leather seats, 3 speed column change, engine ran forever etc..Most jokes used to be about it being found in a pool of rust as the body was a rot box. By today's standards it was not a big car - just 1500cc I think.I remember it being parked in Lord St. How sad is it remembering all that! Somebody will probably tell me I am wrong. The thing that jogs my memory is the fact that I had one of these myself a few years later.Yes,you guessed correctly,it did rot away.
Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959 - 1964
Current location (optional) local
