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Left column menu modified to add war-time section under History |
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More fragments of war letters written by staff to Old Boys |
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New page about war-time WBHS |
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Tribute to Tom Hollingsworth, OW, killed in service |
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A Kipping anecdote from Ken Foley (who also kindly sent some identifications on various photos) |
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Tribute to CSK by Dr John Foster in The Problemist (chess magazine) in Sept 1991 |
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Extracts from CSK's final letter to Margaret Russell |
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The War Memorial Board |
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Photos of the school hall before the 1960s stage, and the old Chemistry laboratory |
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Swimming and Sports Day photos |
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Phil Clift sheds a little light on Mr Batson |
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Phil Ray tells us what being a prefect was like in 1944 |
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Mel Thomas's Stanley Holloway monologue about WBHS |
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Letters from staff to old boys during World War II |
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Distinguished Old Wodens - update on Lord Peter Archer and new item on Reg Kingston. Also updates on John Hughes and Henry Treece. |
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Old Wodens 1953/54 football team photograph (thanks to Don Peacock) |
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Tony Bullock recalls unusual war-time use of WBHS staff |
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New photo of Jack Ede in his classroom |
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Sid Childs remembered by Trevor Reece |
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Photo of digging trenches on the school field in 1939 |
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Late 50s form photograph with Ken Hopkins |
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Press report and photo of a visit from the Belgian chess master, M Koltanowski (from CSK's personal scrapbook) |
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A wonderful pen portrait of C S Kipping — a tribute written by Peter Maddox in 1999 for The Bugle |
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Photo from Don Peacock of the 1953/54 football First XI |
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New GROUPS section under left menu "Photographs" with several new photographs |
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Geoff Fisher unearths photos of the first school trip abroad after the War |
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1948 full school photograph (thanks to Geoff Fisher again) |
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Sports team photographs: football, cricket |
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Information about Mathematics teacher, Andrew Rimmer (found by Alan Gutteridge on Friends Reunited
 ) |
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Trevor Reece fills in some detail about the 1955 house system |
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Geoff Fisher provides the 1946 full school photograph |
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1946 Photos of Miss Tonks (sec) and Messrs Ball, Wainwright and Walters added |
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Just the one item today, but it's a long and fascinating read. Philip C Ray (1937-44) has written a wonderful account of life at WBHS in the War years, and I am indebted to him for writing it, and to Alan Gutteridge for painstakingly transcribing the article into a format suitable for the web site. |
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Trevor Reece remembers Fred Coatham |
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Map of the school area in 1901 (ie 23 years before WBHS was formed) |
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A letter from William Hey (History 1926-29) to John Clifford in 1977 |
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18 more boys identified by Graham Winwood (56-63) on the 1962 photo (new names are not flagged) |
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Photo of Derek Dearne (number 4 on that photo) at Bristol University in 1957 |
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Lots of detail updates on the staff photos page. Do take another look to see if you can improve any of the vague dates or subjects, please! |
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Photos and notes on the 1968 Sixth Form Revue film, The Loo Paper Caper |
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Added famous Old Woden, Gordon Hughes |
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A Trevor Reynolds musical snippet |
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1950 school photograph (thanks to Reg Kingston) |
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1954 school photograph (thanks again to Reg Kingston) |
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New Old Wodens' Association menu on LH side, and report of 2009 annual dinner |
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Reg Kingston's photos of London and Switzerland trips in the 50s |
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George Wiley's tribute to John Fletcher |
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Lots of minor corrections and additions (mainly about staff) not worthy of individual mention, and extending the list of Woden magazines that I have borrowed and will be including over the next few months.! |
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Additions to famous Old Wodens and Appeals for information |
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Captions, corrections and more information about Keith Lewis's photographs from Trevor Reece and Alan Braddock. |
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Appeal for contact details for John (Charlie) Chester and Patrick Bryan (1950's). |
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Update about Mr Colin "Bugsy" Rae and his 1950's choir camps |
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More fascinating information about Harold Rich |
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Snippets about Mr Ladkin and Mr T E Jones |
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The first of quite a lot of information about Old Woden, Harold Rich, a well-known musician |
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Mr Goodyear |
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Mr Davis |
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C S Kipping - an extended account by C P Vale |
All of today's updates are about staff:
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Sam Mangan |
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Richard Rutherford |
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John Nicholls |
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William Hey |
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Arthur Evanson |
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Walter Swale |
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Frederick Coatham |
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William Roberts |
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Leslie Smith |
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School history 1924-1945 - a rare gem from the archives - enjoy! |
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Many additions and corrections to staff dates and subjects |
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Updates to staff names on the 1960 photograph |
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Mrs Goddard, school secretary, hits the front page |
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Some additions and corrections of dates/subjects to staff photos gallery |
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Chris Bullock remembers the strange arrangements for Roman Catholics |
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A brief note about the death of Jim Ladkin |
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Keith Stone remembers Calafell and Woden68 |
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Letter from a really old Old Woden! |
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ABT loses control ... |
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Notes on Mr J G Denman (History, 50s) from Trevor Reece |
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Ben Beards describes Mr Kipping's unique punishment for failing to attend school matches |
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Mal Gilbey was inspired by Derek Dearne's outdoor education + Field Club badge |
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P S Clift recalls wartime bus travel |
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Carl Salmons wanders down memory lane... |
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John Chorley's brother (David) had a narrow escape |
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Link to Derek Weekes' website |
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Correction to yesterday's photo of Mr Hollingsworth - mistaken identity on my part! |
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Lots of background detail for the third of Keith Lewis's photos, from Trevor Reece |
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Various photos of the 60s from Chris Bullock |
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Mr S Clark and Mr A D Hollingsworth photos added to staff photos page |
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Trevor Reece tells us a little about Mr S Clark in 1960 |
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Mr W R Swale's accompanying letter for his 1926-30 account |
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Keith Lewis's first collection of images from the 50s |
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Tom Young (40s Old Woden) shares some of his memories |
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Only one item today, but a marathon and fascinating read. Mr W R Swale, English Master from 1926-30, was persuaded (in 1977) to write down some memories of those very early years. They were typed over 16 pages on Gestetner skin and duplicated, so there must be quite a few (equally poor!) copies somewhere. It seems ungracious to wish that I had the original, but it has taken many hours to correct the hundreds of errors arising from an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) programme! Never mind; I hope you enjoy this step back in time. |
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Very first edition of "The Woden" magazine, 1946! (issue 2 coming soon) |
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Minor corrections and rearrangements behind the scenes (which have taken up most of today's allowance of updating time) |
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1956 school photo |
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More brief anecdotes about CSK |
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More external links added |
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New links to Black Country Society, Black Country Bugle and St Paul's Church
(The Bugle site offers free access to the weekly newspaper and many weeks' archives!) |
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Professor Tony Pointon remembers Mr Kipping ("Bugle" article) |
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1958 school photo |
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Re-arrangement of menus and splitting of some pages ready for new material to be added soon |
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Link to Chris Bullock's home page |
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Chris Bullock remembers chess in the sixties |
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Chris Bullock photos added to then and now collection |
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Chris Bullock recalls drama performances |
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Sport page divided and rearranged with several additions (I hope CSK would forgive my including chess here!) |
Welcome back - it's been a long time! I now have a little time to make available the many contributions from visitors to this site. As it is over six years since the previous update, there is quite a lot to add. If you merely want to see all the amendments and new stuff, just follow all the links below. I hope to be able to starting making regular updates again soon, so do come back in a couple of months, please! As you will see, without contributions from Old Wodens, there would be little to say, so please keep the stories and images coming. If you send me anything, I shall assume that I may use it on the site, unless you say otherwise. |
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Advertisement on front page for next Old Wodens' Association reunion and dinner |
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1960 full school photograph |
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Re-arrangement of the staff photographs page as it was getting too large for comfortable downloading using an ordinary modem connection to the Internet. Each master will have his own page linked from tiny thumbnail photographs. |
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Significant updates to very old staff information thanks to Trevor Reynolds, OW, who unearthed an article in The Blackcountryman (vol 32 no 4) about the school and its staff. These are found on the individual staff (photo) pages. |
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Another long article about C S Kipping, from The Blackcountryman (vol 11 no 4), also pointed out to me by Trevor Reynolds. Includes a photograph of the great man behind his beloved chessboard. |
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Staff photograph from 1928 , and two photographs of the school in 1932/33 , all from Ian M Bott's excellent book Wednesbury in old photographs, published by Alan Sutton Publishing Limited of Stroud (ISBN 0-7509-0816-5) and currently reproduced without permission. (If the author or publisher objects, then they will be removed immediately.) Thanks again to Trevor Reynolds for reminding me of these. |
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Obituary from The Times (12 Feb 1991) of distinguished old boy, Geoffrey Summerfield (author). Thanks Trevor. |
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Another "then and now " photograph (Terry Geary). |
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Alan Coad has kindly provided material from his father's era (c1929-1935) at WBHS - the Pterodactyls membership card 1934-35 and a team photo from 1933-34 |
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A picture postcard of the School in the early 60's |
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More boys identified on the 1962 photograph |
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Ben Beards has a couple of anecdotes about C S Kipping... |
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Some more staff identities on the Wood Green 68/69 photo |
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Change to update arrangements: as I am no longer able to predict reliably when updates will occur, please send me a blank e-mail if you would like to be informed of updates. |
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Cosmetic change to LH menu frame |
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A very small update this time, I'm afraid, as family illness continues to take up a lot of what was previously the spare time in which I used to create this website. I shall try to keep to a monthly update on the first Sunday of each month, even if for the next couple of months, material will be a little sparse. I am indebted to my correspondents from whom all of this month's items come. | |
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Jim Croton tells us a fishy story - The Incompleat Angler |
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Another distinguished old Woden: Bryan John Holmes |
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Geoffrey Marsh recalls the WWII years at WBHS A wonderful account of daily life - more like this please. Many thanks, Geoff for letting us all share those bygone days. |
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Maureen Batchelor, nee Oakes, rakes over the dying embers of WBHS |
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Ben Beards recalls CSK |
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Miscellaneous musings from Geoff Stokes |
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Staff photographs augmented (thanks to Geoff Stokes): Messrs Smythe, Jordan, Childs, plus further dates/subjects and anecdotes |
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Another name in the Billy Budd saga ... (thanks, John Rowley) |
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Bert Millington's article from Friends Reunited |
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Ron Dadge recalls FLG Smith's unique punishments .... |
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Martin Davies points out a bit of educational history |
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Trevor Reynolds looks back to the early post-war (WWII) years |
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Further updates to the 1962 and 1964 identity parades |
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Picture of Mr Kipping (thanks to John Slater, OW) |
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The third of the nostalgic articles from the final
edition of Woden: "Forty years-back - by P R Hatcher" |
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Jim Croton remembers a trip to Chedworth Roman Villa and finds another picture of the Calafell holiday. |
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More staff anecdotes |
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Another "then and now" |
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Articles from Woden Autumn 1962 and Summer 1963 |
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Memories from Derrick Williams |
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Appeals for identities |
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The five sections of the 1962 photograph with the identities established so far |
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Updates to a few identities on the 1964 photograph, plus a new, 62/64 combined alphabetical cross-reference list. |
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Scans of memorabilia - half-fare bus pass and football fixtures card |
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The second of the nostalgic articles from the
final edition of Woden: "Wednesbury High School in the Thirties"
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First sight of the 1962
full school photograph . |
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First batch of articles from the Autumn 65 Woden |
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Links to other local sites |
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Press cuttings - school concert , photos of 1966 full staff and Mr Witcombe, bad publicity |
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Pictures of me in my new school uniform - and new "Then and Now" entries - come on let's have a few more!! |
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House Plays and Sixth Form Review programme |
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Lots of updates to the staff details. |
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Programme for Billy Budd (thanks to Dave Walker) |
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New appeal/suggestion for future section of the site - ancillary staff |
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Brian Amos writes about a reunion at WBA |
The site has changed home once again and is currently stored on a Pipex webserver.
Coming soon: 1962 full school photograph - thanks to Mick Skyte for loaning it to me.
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Scans of memorabilia - Film Society, Cricket and Football Fixtures cards |
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The first of the
nostalgic articles from the final edition of Woden: "WBHS
1924-1968" |
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More articles from Woden, Summer 1965 |
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Staff anecdotes (Jim Croton) |
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Photograph of Bryan Mantle (on the 1962 school photograph) |
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Updates to some names on the 1964 photograph |
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Links to Old Wodens' own web-sites |
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New section about distinguished Old Wodens |
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More Then and Now photographs of old boys - come on let's have a few more!! |
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There were FIVE houses pre-Witcombe ... |
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Swimming success - 1966 press cutting |
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Jim Croton has revised his account of the Calafell 1968 trip |
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Requiem for Mr Mclure |
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More unwelcome headlines for Mr Witcombe, Sept 1967 |
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Three new "then and now" photographs (thanks to the brave chaps who sent them!) |
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A photograph of the front of WBHS, now (March 2002), taken by Roger Best. |
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Photograph and brief notes on Billy Budd (late 60's) thank to Nigel Smith |
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Small changes to staff page |
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Old boys' memories: Ron Dadge recalls a hitch-hiker, Geoffrey Marsh goes pre-war for the first time, and Brian Amos describes a special future reunion (after 55 years) on 21 April. |
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Pen-pictures of the staff 1966 football team and and account of the match itself. |
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Obituary for Bryan Mantle and press cuttings about his tragic accident |
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National headlines - Schoolboy strikers stop the show! |
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Mr Ernest Powell's retirement from the Mathematics Department, 1968 |
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A first batch of articles from the Summer 1965 Woden |
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Mr Legge and Graham Fry admire the new statue, May 1966 |
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More old boys identified on the 1964 photograph - now more than 94% known! Cross-referenced spreadsheets updated and reduced in size. |
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Appeals page updated with more invitations to join in! |
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Another press article about The Mikado |
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More notes on staff and several more photographs added (however bad! - thanks to Chris Bullock for the better new ones). Do you have any? |
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An appeal for information about Carl Salmons |
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Article and scans of the 1967 school play, Tobias and the Angel |
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The 1961 extensions |
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Press photographs |
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Tony Clarke (1948-55) remembers C S Kipping |
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Jim Croton recalls life backstage in the late Sixties |
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Excerpts from the Autumn 1964 Woden |
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Another batch of boys identified on the 1964 photograph; alphabetical and numerical reference lists |
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Updates on the staff photographs page; new separate page for Mr Kipping; section for every WBHS master |
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Bryn Oakley (c1959-c1965) recalls ... |
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Sports pages: football success in 1964 and Munich Trip for hurdler Peter Kelly |
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Excerpts from the Summer 1964 Woden school magazine |
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Appeals for information updated |
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Speech Day 1968 programme autographed by staff |
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1964 full school photograph - better identification system and many more boys identified. Many thanks to Alan Gutteridge and Roger Best (and others who have worked with them) for this new material. |
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Photographs of old boys, then and now : David Eagles, Nigel Wharton |
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More staff photographs and anecdotes |
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Sound clip of School Song. Also better scans of the School Hymn and School Song. |
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Snippets in the history of the school and its drama, music and expeditions |
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Account of school trip to Spain, 1968, by Jim Croton (c1966-c1973) |
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Sports page - staff football 1969 |
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John Dobson recalls... |
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More extracts from the 1963 Autumn Term Woden |
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Full list of staff, in order of appointment |
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Couple of photos from my own collection - a post O-level outing for the 5th year |
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The Mikado, March 1970 - programme, photographs, press cuttings. |
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First entry on the links (to old Wodens' personal or business web-sites) |
Everything!
Number of visitors since 20 April 2002:
