King Henry VIII Grammar School

Indeed he was. And I won't say that for many of the staff!

Fred Harris was our teacher in our O Level year and he got the whole Set through with good grades. If memory serves me well, it was the first time a whole Set had got passed.

Hi 'forgotten', Bob Weddle was the music master you were thinking of. I remember all of the masters in your post and share remarkably similar opinions as your good self!

Interesting guest list for the reunion of the class of 1964, Philex. They were all contemporaries of mine and I knew a few quite well. I have to say that I am surprised at a couple of names on the list being attendees, given their rebellious nature and dislike of the place. I also have to say that, looking at the menu, I didn't exactly miss a gastronomic experience. Even by the standards of 1986 that is a pretty mundane menu. I would be disappointed to be served that at my local Wetherspoons. Maybe the caterers were the dinner ladies of 1964 so maybe they should have served Splodge with mash, followed by spotted dick with lumpy custard, all washed down with 'corporation pop' from a metal jug!

Splodge! - Scarred me for life. I used to love mince and chips before I met that vile stuff. The semolina was pretty awful as well, not to mention the lumpy stuff that they tried to pass off as custard. Hardly surprising that many of us took to bringing sandwiches is it?

Anybody else did their O and A levels a year early? Os at 14, As at 16. PopCork was physics, does anyone remember a chemistry teacher called Tringham? Chemistry in the thirds. Good teacher, stood no nonsense, cutting sense of humour. Another good guy was a younger music teacher Webber? or Webster? ended up singing in the new cathedral because of him. Bob Weddle. Shame he left. Piggy Shore's hobby was marking where my sideburns should end with biro. Were you the fifth former with the "tea cosy hairstyle" of blonde hair and glasses? Or maybe he biro-marked several boys' hair. Froggie Irwin for french (the only O level I never got) always seemed a sad man but decent. Quite, had him for several years. Little or no sense of humour, droned on, chalk and talk every period. The most boring teacher. I was never much interested in sport, which made me a non-pupil for much of the staff I reckon (though did do the swimming team once), you had to be a rugger of cricket star to belong. Correct. The school was obsessed with one-upmanship and winning. At least I never got caned (or caught out enough to get caned). Never even got a personal DT. The trick was to plan and not get caught. That gave a great sense of satisfaction, outsmarting people who acted as if they knew everything and were therefore better than you somehow. Covert one-upmanship, I suppose. Only close associates knew the real culprits. Proved to be a very useful lesson for later life, maybe the most impotnat lesson. So I guess in that regard, I should be grateful to the School. Never taught by Jeff Vent, again don't ever remember taking to him all the time I was there, but he got in touch with my parents years later about reunions - I was not interested. Nor I when invited; my best friend at that time took exception to his name being missed off the list of invitees.

Nobody was ever told, or worked out, what it consisted off. And the School did not want to disclose. The semolina was pretty awful as well made me feel sick, it did, what with that dollop of red jam type substance that resembled clotting blood... ... not to mention the lumpy stuff that they tried to pass off as custard. Most of the liquid was as thin as hot water; with a putrid pale wishy-washy yellow colour; devoid of taste, not like me mam's proper thick, deep yellow Bird's custard. Hardly surprising that many of us took to bringing sandwiches is it? After one year of school dinners, that's exactly what I did.

Hi all I enjoyed grammar school dinners, fifties & early sixties. I was never late for dinner hour, never got detention for leaving any dinner. A student at a college where I was teaching, once asked me what my favourite subject at school was. I replied "Dinner Hour"!

Dinners! - Dinner Ladies! - there weren't those luxuries when I was there, No dinner hall, no jimmynasium, assembly was in the courtyard, hail, snow or sh*te. Other than sandwiches a slap up lunch could be had for a few bob at the British Restaurant which involved a walk to a large hut, by the railway line at the back of the Butts college. The boiled cabbage (apart from being smelled from the road outside) was a triumph of British culinary skill, not only did it collapse in a heap like seaweed, it also affected a luminous/bilious green hue, that I was given to understand was gained by boiling it in soda. Diverting a little from the main subject, but at least I was a KHS man. So I plead relevant My training ship days - the food was not without charms of its own - we had a mutiny over it. Anyway Friday sweet was DMT (Dead man's whatsit) there it lay a greasy, flaccid, jam roll, stretched out across the plate like some sort of dead appendage - very aptly named. I won't start on the custard which I assume was meant to decorate or revive it.- nothing could

I suppose the irony in all this is that the various types of gunk churned out by those ample matrons in white overalls was very probably a more balanced and nutritious diet than school dinners of today. I don't recall ever having chips, burgers, fried chicken nuggets, or anything so exciting. I suppose it was symptomatic of the times in that post-war British food usually didn't actually taste of very much. By the time I was about 12 or 13 I was another who took sandwiches to school for lunch due to the poor quality of the meals. My parents were outraged when the school actually charged people to use the 'sandwich room' which ran alongside the hall. It was 15/- a term, the equivalent of 3 week's school dinners and you were issued with a little card to be admitted to the room. As a result many lads ate their lunch elsewhere around the school, strictly forbidden of course, or left the premises.

Back in the 60's it seemed that the majority of the teaching staff would partake of school dinners in their own little corner of the Hall. I've no idea of the situation these days at Henry's but locally here in Cornwall, it seems that very few teachers indulge in the culinary delights of school luncheon. By the way, MisterD-Di, it was always reckoned that chips were never served at school because H Walker decreed the smell to be unacceptable!

Does anyone remember an English or maybe General Studies teacher, initials AJB who started in 70 or 71 and I think was only there for a short time, young chap looked just out of uni, a bit like Simon Dee, took us last year of sixth form, liked to think he was one of the lads. Reason I ask I lent him a book he asked me for after an essay, and never wanted to give it back - had to go hunting round school and staff room on my last day to get it back... cannot remember the name.

Yes, I remember the sandwich room, and now you mention it the "charge" to eat there - what a con to squeeze a few more quid out of us they were losing because of the crap food I remember the new sixth form room (or prefab?) and finding some large speaker drivers and big black cabinets to set up a music system in there - did we not have stereo as opposed to be-bops mono system? I remember wondering about buying the stylus that be-bop always took with him so you could play your own records in the music room after school, but it would have been too obvious to the outside world, however be-bops incandescence would have been a wonder to behold, perhaps even a fission explosion!

I do recall them building that prefabricated sixth form centre which was actually something and nothing. It had a kitchen to make drinks and, as you say, there was a means of playing music, but not much else. I also remember that you had to pay to use it! There was some sort of subscription which I think I only paid once. I preferred to find alternative entertainment at lunch times, usually involving a pint in the Albany. Predictably enough, the sixth form centre was often used for other activities. They held some lessons there and I also took all my A-levels in that building. It is now the site of the sports hall complex so didn't last long. The new sixth form centre is across Warwick Road on the corner of Michaelmas Road. I bet they don't have to pay to use it!