Bedwellty History
ANNE MARIE LINK An ex-pupil of Bedwellty Comprehensive is Anne-Marie Link. She remembers enjoying the school shows. Anne-Marie wasn?t very good in school and one time she was banned from sewing and cooking because of her bad behaviour. Another time, she ran away from the school for one day with her friends and jumped over the culvert to get away but one of them missed and fell in. When she got out she realised that she had lost her shoes in the culvert. She stood up in assembly and started to sing in front of the whole school for no reason.
ROBBIE WOOD I started Bedwellty and finished in 1996. I can remember Miss Vaughan, Mr Richards, Mrs Sambrook, Mrs Banfield, Mr & Mrs Conway, Mr Robinson and Mr Walbeoff. I can remember my mum being the dinner lady and that was not good ha ha! I can remember being on detention sometimes. by Craig Thomas
Michael Mylan
Mr A K Gibson, a rather sallow faced, stern-looking Yorkshireman was a former Headmaster of the Bedwellty Grammer School. It was his custom to sit on the stage at the Eisteddfod in the assembly hall throughout the proceedings to keep order. A number of competitions in the Open Musical Instrument competition had had their turn when a young Michael Mylan took the stage. Michael stood behind the Head rather near to his ear and blasted the first few notes of his bugle rendition. Being caught off guard the shock of this sent the Head skyward off his chair and 320 pupils roared with laughter and fell around their seats at his demise. A rather dishevelled Mr Gibson however failed to be amused. By CW
John Roberts I attended Bedwellty Grammar, as it then was, from 1963 to 1971. I remember my first walk up the drive, clutching my latest issue Iyles and Sadler's satchel and wearing, for the one and only time, my cap! Looking back we had some fabulous times. Mr. Dalley, music, was surely years ahead of his time with his aerobic warm up's before lessons. Who was that lovely music teacher who taught us the Welsh National anthem? How I enjoyed performing it for the puzzled locals of my local pub here in Worcestershire following our Gram Slam victory!! I made friends that still remain in touch today, especially former head boy and fellow guitar nut John Prosser. Mike Jeff's memories of the march to Acker's office are as clear as yesterday. I was in that group Mike and if you're out there can you remember the person who cracked and grassed you up? ( No, it wasn't me.)
neil carroll passed 'the test' at 11, in the 'Wellington School' Rhymney and after the initial elation, spent the whole summer of 69 worrying about being 'thrown down the bank!' - an initiation ceremony at Bedwellty at the time. I joined the Rhymney and Abertysswg children who caught the Rhymney Transport bus faithfully driven every day by Stan, - who was brilliant. Does anyone else remember the snow day when,on the way home, we got stuck at Tirphil for hours,unable to get up the hill? Lunchtime was almost a Dickensian type ritual, am I exaggerating now? where you had 8 to a table with 2 'senior servers' who shared it out, you would run to avoid certain tables! I always enjoyed school dinners, remember the lentil soup,chocolate semolina and sometimes prunes? A Christmas ritual was the rapping of spoons on the tables, I can see A.K. Gibson's face now! I remember the red hair of a young new M.P. Neil Kinnock joining us for lunch
Norman Baldwin I was 11 years old when I joined Bedwellty in the Summer of 1940 and I vividly remember my first air raid warning at the school. We had been at war with Germany for almost a year and every school had a plan of action for when an air raid warning sounded, with most schools simply sending everyone home until the 'all clear' was heard. Bedwellty School, however, had a far more original plan. When the warning siren sounded we were lined up in a column, two abreast on the drive outside the main entrance, senior pupils to the front and juniors to the rear. The column then marched off through a gap which had been made in the railings at the back of the school, and across fields until we came to a tram road which led into the dark, forbidding entrance of a coal mine known as Budd's level. The whole school then disappeared into the bowels of the earth, our way lit by torches carried by teachers and prefects. There we waited, at times in total darkness broken only by the lamps of passing miners, until the 'all clear' sounded. It was great fun, and in the days that followed, especially during Latin lessons, everyone hoped and prayed for the siren to sound. We took shelter in the mine just one more time, but after that it dawned on Dunc, our Headmaster, that Bedwellty School probably did not feature all that high on Hitler's list of strategic targets and, to our great disappointment, he decreed that any further air raid warnings should be ignored. Arthur Roper I recall "dance classes" being held in the gym where a record was played on a gramophone(!) and various dances practised. I particularly remember "The Gay Gordons"!! - but as Barry Welch would say - "Not in the way that you are thinking!!" Not the most "intimate" of dances, particularly when I was paired with Terry Griffiths from Phillipstown! The Christmas Dance was held in the assembly hall. Part of the entertainment, apart from the Gay Gordons, was a game of charades hosted by Ma` Lew (French Teacher). I recall taking off Michael Bentine! A hero of us young, rebellious(?) teenage boys!
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CAROLINE PEPPERALL Caroline was in the last year of school and it was a Sports Day coming up. Hardly anyone wanted to enter the races, so she entered almost everything. At the end of the 800m race she collapsed and had to be carried off the field. Joanne Picket My mother, has few memories of Bedwellty but the ones she had were all mainly about her in trouble. She got caught many times smoking; she was constantly in detention and she used to skive off and forge my Nans signature when writing a reason why she didnt come. But the worst memory she has, was that one day when she was mitching off she threw a cigarette in a barn and it caught on fire. Then she ended up in Court for arson. MICHAEL HARDACRE I went to Bedwellty for 6 months. I started in 1974 and left in 1975. The only teachers I can remember are Mr Walbeoff, Mr Robinson and Mr Barnard. After school I went to work in Britannia Colliery. I can also remember Mrs Harris, a Mathematics Teacher, but I can t remember the Headteachers name but we called him Batman because of his cloak as it looked as if he was flying.
Sonia Evans I was a pupil from 1954-1961. In 1954 the catchement area of the school was changed and as a result I was in the first batch of pupils from Bedwas. We were all petrified. We caught the train to Maesycwmmer, missed the school bus, got back on the train to Pengam then walked to the school. We found the main entrance, no-one to be seen, so we rung a bell on the wall which unfortunately was the fire bell. That is my memory of my first day. But it was the start of a very happy time in my life, made very special by the staff who always had time for you.
Mike Mylan 1959-66it was I who planted the stink bombs on the horizontally open corridor windows to await their closure... And it was I who blew air into the laboratory bunsen burner system so that they all mysteriously failed: one-by-one... And I who devised the method of wrapping first-formers' legs around the trees in such a manner that they couldnt escape.
susan summers Attended 1964-69 and they really were good years. I can still picture Ma Burton standing at the top of the drive waiting to nab any girl who was not wearing the school tam or whose skirt might be to short. Peter Salmon my first art teacher, whom i was madly in love with and broken hearted when he up and went to Canada. Ray Thomas who lived near me on the Crown estate, Lofty Lewis physics, Ma Evans english, Mr Prosser who i feared and the dreaded Gibson. Wilf, a man who kept losing his 'wuler and his wubber', Fud, Biff and the charming Mr Sirhallis all memorable characters of my school days.
Alastair MacSorleywas there from 1943 to 1949! Early years were painful but I settled down eventually.I lived in Cefn FForest.Coming from a very poor family I loved School Dinners even in war time! One of the turning points of my time there was when Mr Haydyn Jones ( Geography) told me to read some decent literature,he recommended a few books from the excellent library ,I've loved reading since then.I also remember the delicious Miss Lewis(French) who once told me off for sliding down the bannister--I was in the 6th form!!.I also remember the stories of Palestine told by the Head Mr E J,I believe he served in the RAMC there.
David Willetts remember the 1st couple of years from 1960 travelling from Bedwas by train to Maesycwmmer, then by bus to school. Also on the train were New Tredegar Tech. kids. Some of the things that went on during the train journey - how nobody got killed I'll never know (there was no supervision). Once somebody ignited sulphur in the compartment and we all just about suffocated.
BEDWELLTY BRAIN BLASTA Mrs Cobley aged 68 came back to Bedwellty school today to tell us how the school has changed since 1955. Mrs Cobley today came to Bedwellty Comprehensive school (then known as Bedwellty Grammar school in 1955) to tell us set 9.1 all about the school when she came here. She started off telling us that she came to Bedwellty when she was 10-11, and that she had came to this school in 1947 till 1955 and in 1947 most of the rooms were different from now for instance, the art rooms were up stairs with the science labs in the main building and the canteen now used to be the assembly hall, she also said that the cookery class used to be where they ate there food. She could remember that during the war the bell tower on top of the school used to be a fire watch and that a person had to stay in it all night keeping watch to see if any planes had dropped any fire bombs. And during the war in harvest time there was hardly any boys in school as they was out harvesting as there was no men around as they was all at war, she then told us that she had stayed in school to do her O levels and her A levels but to pass her O levels you had to get 50% to pass, But the thing she could remember the most was the school plays held every December and that they were mostly Shakespeare plays she carried on saying that you could not get a main part until you had been in the school approximately 2 years. She then asked did we have any questions but what she didn?t know was that we had all prepared a list of questions for her she answered them all so I can tell you a little more about the school so her we go the boys had worse punishments than the girls as if the girls had talked during a lesson they would have about 300 lines and the boys would have talked during a lesson they would have had the cane about 5 times (I would rather the cane) and it was not only the teachers who could give a punishment the prefects could give you a non-physical punishment as well, she also had to walk or ride her bike from Blackwood and that wasn?t the furthest distance she said the furthest distance was about from Rhymney. After asking her our questions she told us that we shoul be proud as we are going to be the las pupils of BEDWELLTY COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL! She said it with a tear in her eye. |
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