Bishop Ullathorne Schools (girls, boys and grammar school)

Hi. I was there at the same time as you. Veronica Rafferty. We were the first girls to go there. My friends were Mary Webb, Marie Oliver, Janet Shaw, Ed Mitchell, Roger Cotterill, Elizabeth Hemmings. I remember Sheila Wanklin and also Christine Scanlon. I loved school.

Isn't the far left, Elaine Sheridan? Not sure, but her brother became a teacher there ... Philip Sheridan

This is a pic of Grammar school girls.

I think he was the history teacher. Not Paddy Feehan. Mr Groves maybe?

Hi, I went to Bishop Ullathorne from 1959 to 1962. I had Miss Austin as my first year teacher, then Miss Molyneaux, Miss Austin again and in my final year Miss Healey. Miss Stephenson was head teacher. I was Pat Kirk then, I remember Brenda Cleary, Susan Loughran, Evelyn Cook, Rosemary Gaggini, Josie Bull, Patsy Smith, Eileen O'Dea, Barbara Dempsey. I would love to hear from anyone who was at school with me.

Mr. Peers, History and English

I was at Ullathorne Girls from 59 to 65 and I remember these class photos being taken outside. I loved school but not homework. We had Miss Austen, Mrs. Ghent, Mrs.Van Hee. Miss O'Connell who had sisters at the school was our sports teacher and Miss Molyneaux had sisters at the school too. We had the striped dresses in house colours, red for Manning and green, yellow and blue for the others - very Harry Potter. Just before I left the fabric was changed to a pink check. We could make our dresses in the sewing class if we wanted to. We had quite an assortment of headgear to choose from. The trusty beret, held on by a dozen hairclips, a soft bowler and in summer a straw boater or bowler. The latter lasted about five minutes in the rain. In retrospect the grading system in the school was awful with classes 1 to 4 in each year. If you came at the bottom of you class you were relegated to the lower stream and the top person in the lower class would come up.

I used to go to the school on the regular buses and make the long, long trip down the road from the bus stop. Occasionally, though, a few of us would take the Midland Red a little way up the Kenilworth Road and cut behind the houses to come in by the tennis courts. What were we thinking! We always got caught and we had to pay to use the bus.

Would any one remember an acquaintance of mine named Helen Telus who was a pupil at Ullathorne, and was possibly head girl. I think she left about 1969/70. Sadly I only recently found out that she passed away a couple of years ago at an early age leaving a husband and 2 sons.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I am Maria Wroblewski nee Turek. I remember walking home with you and our then French teacher. Please contact me via the contact button. PS I hated school

Hi Maria welcome back. It's been a while since Veronica posted last, so it might be more likely to get a response by sending a message via the contact button. It doesn't send your email address and she can reply via the forum too. Of course she might have changed email since then, so you may not get a reply. Alternatively she may pop in from time to time so she may spot your comment. Hope you find your friend. Helen

I attended Bishop Ullathorne Grammar (Boys) starting in 1964 and leaving in 1970 or thereabouts (maybe very early 1971). Among my class were Nick Pilley (with whom I am still in touch), David Mottram, Nick Brown, Henry Filipiuk, Zenon Demidowicz and Jan Aniskowicz (spellings may be incorrect) - seem to have been a lot of Polish families among the Coventry Catholic population of the time! Also Barbara Rollason (now Hills) and another girl whose name I forget came over from the girls Secondary Modern school (?) to join us for "A" level biology as I recall. I was in some early musical Gilbert & Sullivan productions where the boys whose voices had not yet broken had to play the girls parts - embarassing photos still remain. I have a photo of some of our class from an outing to Derbyshire in around 1968 I could probably find. I went to Leeds University after school, thence to London and Oxford (a sort of gap year), then to Leeds again doing a PhD, then worked in London, and have been in Australia since 1986... generally good memories of teachers, although the priests - mostly Irish - were pretty strict. I can probably recall more if pressed... I became a biologist. Happy to hear from anyone with whom I overlapped! Tony Rees

Here is the image mentioned above - turns out it was not 1968 but October 1967: class 4x on an outing to Derbyshire. I had written the following on the back: "Some of 4x at a trig point near Castleton, October 1967. L-R front: T. Turecki, N. Brown, J. Loughran, M. Beech, Z. Demidowicz, D. Cross; rear: S. Aniskowicz." (Behind camera: A. Rees) Other than the stage shot(s) of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta "Patience" featuring me in the lead role, December 1964, this is the only photo I have from my school times! Tony Rees

Hi,Tony R, glad you remember so many of your friends from Ullathorne. I was at the girl's school a few years before you were at the boys but one of the most interesting thing about your post is that you remember names of the kids whose families came from Eastern European schools in the early sixties. We had lots at Christ the King in Coundon and it was wonderful on days which I now realize were national holidays, the girls would wear gorgeous dresses with lace aprons. I was so envious. I don't remember many of them at Ullathorne - maybe they went to local schools to avoid the long daily journey to and from the Catholic school. We did some plays with the boys school, the one I remember was J.M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, which was a lot of fun. We went on regular field trips -one to Holland where, after getting all of the students on to the train in Amsterdam, the staff were left standing on the platform looking in at us, while the train pulled out. We were met at the first stop by a railway employee who corralled us for an hour of so until the white faced teachers arrived to claim us. What fun we had, Deirdre Loughran, Jennifer Allen, Veronica Laxton, Moira Kelly and the rest of you. Where are you now?

Tony - the other girl in the biology class was called Lesley. Can't remember her second name - may have been Peel. The school took us to Dol y Moch (pronounced terribly by everyone - Welsh readers look away now! - as Dolly Mock) where we combined an outward bound course with biology. The teacher was Andre Hobro. I remember Bernard Walmsley accidently ramming my canoe which I had to abandon on a sandbank. I remember Eamonn Brown and Alan (can't remember surname). We got lost orienteering and came in several hours after everyone else! On the arts side does anyone remember Roger McPhail? He was so eccentric - in a good way. I remember him walking round with a fake knife in his head (on a wire of course). He used to pull my hair out to make his fishing flies. I believe he eventually studied art at Liverpool and is now an artist.