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Viewing messages 471 to 480

clouston chalmers | clouston1~AT~shaw~DOT~ca

On the subject of the "right of way" on the East side, I believe it is still there. I have a cousin in law living at #70 Lisle Rd.Second or third house from East Entrance gate. You can access his property from the rear through the High school grounds.
Talking to my two brothers today. Both played "RUGGA" on the YMCA grounds. My older bro. played there when the school grounds when not available. My younger bro. (1953/58)played on them for the under 18 Westoe club.
As to my "Orcadian' roots.
My Dad was born in Stronsay in 1898.
My mother, who was a Clouston, was from Bedlington. However , I'm sure the family is connected in some way.

Wed 2-May-2012 20:57 - Cranbrook BC Canada

From Mike T: When I last looked, there was certainly still a stretch of paved pathway along the rear of numbers 66 to 74. Whether this is a right of way in a general sense is unclear, but it isn't shown on the definitive rights of way map. My understand of the history of that 3yd strip is that every effort was made to avoid its becoming a legal right of way.

Robin Leslie | robinleslie~AT~alumni~DOT~lse~DOT~ac~DOT~uk

Clouston do you have connections with Orkney? The reason why I ask is because my grandmother on my fathers side was an Orcadian and lived next door to a Jenny Clouston and her husband in Osborne Avenue, South Shields (overlooking the original High School site). They were both Orcadians
and I wondered whether you might be related to them in some way? It would be very interesting if you were.

Tue 1-May-2012 21:35 - Buckinghamshire

Robin Leslie | robinleslie~AT~alumni~DOT~lse~DOT~ac~DOT~uk

Tue 1-May-2012 21:35 - Buckinghamshire

clouston chalmers 1941-46 | clouston1 ~AT~ shaw ~DOT~ca

Yes indeed those buildings were purposely built for the school dinner program. Prior to that , we had to walk over to Harton Juniors to have a hot lunch. If I remember correctly, they were cooked there also.
At that time we also had a "pigery" behind the bike sheds, and a victory garden.

Sat 28-Apr-2012 17:50 - Cranbrook BC Canada

From Mike T: That's useful information, Clouston. Thanks.

I have looked at Land Registry files for the school and found that the section at the south of the YMCA field was sold to the Borough in 1938, and is designated as "School Meals Centre" on a plan which seems to be dated 1949.

So I'm guessing that the School Meals Centre was built pretty soon after 1938. I do recall someone hereabouts mentioning that the buildings were used during the war (but they don't show on wartime photos).

There is an additional curiosity in that there was a 3yd-wide track down the entire east side of the land that seems to have been the subject of some confusion.

Initially it ran all the way down to where Marsden Road now is, but when Fairview Avenue was built it led to a gate and stub road). It may have been intended as farm access, but is later subject to its own deeds and transfers.

I do remember that there was something about the gate into Fairview Avenue that meant nobody was allowed to use the gate.

Do you recall when they were built? Obviously some time between '41 and '46, but roughly when. It would help tracking down details.

Thanks

Brian Lawrenson | b~DOT~lawrenson~AT~lineone~DOT~net

Regarding the mystery buildings - I remember in 1952 going into the shorter one on the left with the school scout troop at Christmas for cake and lemonade etc, and at that time it was the canteen used for school dinners. The Scoutmaster at the time was Peter McNeaney and I have a Gazette photo taken in this hall.The YMCA sports field had its own showers - terrible primitive things, which we used very occasionally if we were sent to play soccer/rugby on that area. Could these be the strange tall building in the middle? And could the whole complex have originally been built for the YMCA?

Fri 27-Apr-2012 22:09 - Fife

From Mike T: That's one avenue that I've been trying to pursue.

In the beginning, the farm fields around there were divided into two lots.

One ran from where Marsden Road would eventually be built, south to a few feet from where the road in front of the school would end up.

Owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, it was sold to Smith's Dock Company in 1920, and became Smith's Park. Here Smith's Dock built a pavillion, a WWI memorial and a number of other buildings.

Later, they sold the land in two chunks. As far as I can tell, they sold just over two of the nine acres at the north end for residential development, which became Fairview Avenue.

The remainder was sold in 1928 to the YMCA for Ł3000, about the same time that the 12-acre L-shaped plot was sold to the Borough Council for the building of an elementary school, but in fact where the High School was built in 1936.

In 1938, the YMCA sold the 1.4 acres at the south end to the council for "education purposes" and this is the land which became the tennis courts, and on which the buildings in question were located.

There is no indication whether the land had those buildings on it at the time and, having examined a number of OS maps, it's not clear when the buildings appeared.

So it's still a bit of a mystery. I've not found anything in any of the school's records, nor in records in the Tyne and Wear Archives, but there are big gaps in the archives.

As for the YMCA showers ... I remember them well. They were indeed primitive, and had only cold water, and being told that you were playing on the YMCA field was a sure sign of the torture to come!

However, this shower block was actually on what initially remained YMCA land, and not on the section we're talking about.

Eventually, the YMCA field itself seems to have been sold to the Council for the school, but that's a conveyance that I cannot locate.

Bruce Graham

Mike

Good luck with your further research on all of the building work at the school.

As I mentioned in a previous reply, I started at the school in 1950 and so lived through almost all of that first expansion.

As I recall the changes were announced in 1951 and work began in 52. For more than a year the school assembly hall existed with a builders cloth partition along the whole of the western side while the new hall extension was constructed in what had been the western courtyard area (opposite the Head's office). Certainly by the summer of 54 the new hall was in use, turned through 90 degrees, in time for the O Level exams that year. The new gymnasium and technology block were also in use by then.

Sat 14-Apr-2012 14:24

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Mike

In answer to your query below, the dining facility was certainlt there when I began at the school in September 1950. I seem to recall that the buildings were of the sort of pre-fabricated style that was so common in the late 40s. Perhaps one of our correpondents from that era can remember them being put up?

Fri 13-Apr-2012 14:09 - Ruskington, Lincs

From Mike T: Thanks, Bruce. The one that remained towards the end of the 60s (the sixth-form centre) definitely looked concrete-and-asbestos prefab.

I've found the buildings showing on a poor copy of an OS map from the 50s (together with a collection of buildings beyond on the YMCA field).

There's one of the YMCA-field buildings left on a 60s OS map. Oddly, that building is still there on the 70s and 80s OS maps, yet it isn't there on the 1968 aerial photo.

Any and all info is useful, as I'm trying to compiled a time-line of all the various building works.

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Bryan is absolutely correct. The buildings were, in the first half of the 1950's, the school cafeteria, dinner block or whatever other name the boys could give them.

Thu 12-Apr-2012 18:35 - Ruskington, Lincolnshire

Bryan Cooper | bryglen~AT~bryancooper~DOT~wanadoo~DOT~co~DOT~uk

The buildings Mike refers to were, I think, the old dinner block.
The Sixth Form Centre was originally in the smaller building for 1961/62 and transferred the following year to the larger one.

Thu 12-Apr-2012 10:12 - North Wales

From Mike T: Thanks Bryan (and Bruce). The main reason I was asking was that it struck me as odd that a dinner block should consist of what appear to be four separate buildings (and seemed a lot of space when you consider how small the replacement dining hall was).

They would have been there when I started, but I always went home for lunch, so didn't know much about them.

Have either of you any idea when they were built? I think it may well have been before the 1950s expansion.

Mike Todd

A question for those who were at the school before 1960.

At some time, a group of buildings was constructed to the north of the school. They're the four buildings that can be seen in the bottom left of the 1963 aerial photo.

/photos/aerialphotos/1962-aerial.jpg

There is a long building on the right (which was eventually cut in half and became the Sixth Form Centre), a smaller building on the far left, a much smaller building between them, and a chimney-like building lower left of the group.

I'm trying to understand when these building were built and what they were used for.

I believe that one (or more) of them were used as a dining hall, but can anyone shed any certainty on the date and use of these building?

Many thanks

Wed 11-Apr-2012 17:31 - Rothbury

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