Some miscellaneous facts about Rowlinson Technical School
Me: Bruce Ian Ward
Formerly of: Prince Edward County Junior School
Ex of: Rowlinson Technical School - Huntsman House
Period: September 1967 to May/June 1972
Current Occupation: Network Analyst Railcare Limited Wolverton, Milton Keynes.
Current e-mail (home): bruce.i.ward@ntlworld.com
Current e-mail (work): wardb@railcare.co.uk
Having looked through the Rowlinson database, here's some facts that you might like to add/update/change, and in no particular order.

Mr. Bill Roberts
 Chemistry My form teacher during my 1st year at Rowlinson. Affectionately known as 'Flashman' (think of wire brushes on drums) on account of his 'Cool' jacket and swankey walk.

Mr. Peter Dixon
 Headmaster He was Headmaster certainly until 1972. He had a Secretary called Coupe or Cowper.

Mr. Cyril Askam (Todge or Toj)
He was still Deputy Headmaster in 1970. I have a mind that he retired/left just before I left in May/June 1972.

Mr. Barker (Fido)
He was still teaching History in 1970. One of his favourite pastimes was taking volunteer class members out into Derbyshire to look-up Real history. Me and my mate, Ian Smith, were the only one's to ever volunteer for these trips. Fido always took us there in his Volkwagen Beetle - a very small vehicle for two strapping bulky lads!

Mr. Snowdon
Known to have still been teaching French in 1970.

Mr. Godfrey
I was in Huntsman House - he taught French to Osborne and Chantrey - except for one day when he sat in for a missing teacher. He parked his ar%e on a radiator valve, and quoted - loudly - "Oooh, there's a spike in here" - the classroom collapsed.

Mr. Dean
Cantankerous as he was/is, he taught me all I know about Physics (along with Pengy Parnham - see later entry). For this I am grateful.

Mr. Startup
Is this name for real? The metalwork teacher I remember is a Mr. David Saul. Mr. Saul started work at Rowlinson in 1968, and although somewhat eccentric, he knew his job, and passed his skills on very easily to us at the time. Strange thing is, looking at the photos in the database, he bears a strong resemblance to Mr. Startup.

Mr. Rutherford
 We (that's the class of '67 - not the Royal 'We') regarded him as something like a spare part. Although his first 'discipline' was not religious education, whenever we didn't have an RE teacher available, Fluff always took the class. We had some interesting discussions though, and they weren't always religious.

Mr. Dave Wickins
This name does not appear in the database. Dave Wickins is/was a History Teacher. For his other sins, he was involved with looking after social aspects of youngsters lives (i.e. he looked after out-of-hours discos, and other social development).

Mr. Reddish
There is a different A.K.A. in the database. I used to know him as 'Foo Foo'. He taught us all about life - smoking - sex - drugs - rock 'n roll. We didn't listen closely enough methinks.

Miss Oram
Another name that's not in the database. Jean, my favourite teacher. She was my Geography Teacher, and she married another geography teacher, Mr. Benskin in about 1970/1971.

Mr. Alan Burke
Yet another not recorded. Mr. Burke was my form teacher during my 2nd and 3rd year at Rowlinson. He taught mathematics, by the book. A strict disciplinarian, but on reflection, I wouldn't have had it any other way. My Maths knowledge comes from him.

Monsieur La Garre
Our French Teacher from 2nd year through till 4th year. A very nice and convivial bloke, spoke English just as fluently as French. Unfortunately, he didn't understand the English sense of humour. When any of us did something that didn't seem 'normal' (like lobbing chewed up paper gobbets at the ceiling), his retort was 'Who Did So?' After that, he was known as 'Who Did So Froggy' - not nice in this day and age I know, but funny at the time.

Miss Snell
 Whooo Hoo. Miss Snell was a relief teacher. When Froggy went home for a holiday, she was brought in to keep our French education going (bearing in mind that Froggy went home for six weeks). She always wore black, knee length boots, a black leather mini-skirt, and a white top [see-throughish]. Oh yes, she drove an open-top MG Midget…… Now bear in mind that the whole of my class were pubescent schoolboys - what would you think given the same situation? Right… nice car! NOT!

BTW. My French is still as bad today as it was then. We didn't learn anything!

Mr. Chris Fleckney
Another one not in the database. Chris came in to replace a supply teacher who couldn't keep up.

Mr. Burke
 (see above) was on long term sick-leave. Mr. Gervase came in as our replacement teacher. He lasted about two days, and then this guy Fleckney came in. A pure born-and-bred Cockney, he stirred us all up and it was a pleasure to come to school just for his lessons. Maths became fun at that time.
Note: I left Rowlinson in 1972. I spent 16 weeks at Swann-Morton in Sheffield, grinding and stamping surgical blades. I got fed up of that and then joined the RAF. When I took up my Apprenticeship at RAF Locking, who do I find as my Mentor and Mathematics Officer - Yup, Chris Fleckney in the Rank of Flight Lieutenant. Chris will probably be retired by now - I don't know.

Mr. Graham Seaton
My French Teacher after Monsieur La Garre had gone back to France forever. Not to state the level of our French education, but I could only talk 1st year French in the 5th year at school. Mr. Seaton did his best, but I'm sure he gave up on us.

Mr. Dave Dawson
I have to give him the dubious honour of introducing me to BEER. Having visited a play at the Crucible in Sheffield, under the guise of 'Education', he passed me half a pint of foaming ale. From that day, I was hooked. Other than that, his catchphrase was 'Ridout'. If we (as a class) were too noisy, or didn't do what he was expecting us to do, we would have to write out his dictated words, always from some damned book written by someone called Ridout. - Hence, Ridout Dawson.

Mr. Barber
The woodwork teacher - known for his permanent pot of boiling horses-hoofs glue - stunk the whole of the ground floor out. A very nice and genuine man, he died during the late 80's or early 90's. He never did make sure that I could 'turn my hand to woodwork'.

Mr. Doug Averis
Doug was my form teacher in my 5th year at Rowlinson. His most remarkable trait was that he didn't know the Alphabet below the letter 'C'. No matter how good your homework was, how good your graph was, or how clever you were in class time, he couldn't mark above a 'C'. As a class we rebelled against him. We all got together, and got our parents up to the school to address this matter. When you get a 'C' and you believe you should get higher, you have to do something positive. The result was that anyone who got a 'C', was upgraded to 'C+' Like I said, he didn't know the letters 'B' and 'A'. He's probably a very nice guy, but hey, give credit where credit's due.

Mr. Hurst
His name is spelled HURST. I owe all my manual and machinery skills to him. His 'trade marks' are/were a Trilby Hat (with the obligatory feather) and driving to-and-from work in an old Jeep (it must have had 100,000's on the clock) from WWII.

Mr. Bell
The English Teacher, not in the database. Don't know his first name, but he was called 'Dinger' for obvious reasons. He was an ex Nottingham Bus Driver, and often used to ramble on about bus-driving instead of teaching us English.

Mr. Parnham (Pengy)
He taught PHYSICS. Again, a nice guy, but a complete and utter disciplinarian. His claim to fame was that his propelling pencil must always be sharp at all times.

Mr. Gomm
- Chemistry I don't remember too much about him, except his nickname was Piggy, and he always used to demonstrate how to make alcohol. (Hic!)

Enough of that, on to the class list, as recited, every morning, for (at least) five years... Where known, first name is in round brackets, nickname in square brackets. Huntsman - 1967 to 1972

Bardsley (Peter) Pollard (Steven) [Polly]
Beard (Peter) [Beardy] Purseglove (Stephen) [Percy]
Berrisford (Roy) [Bez] Raska (Michael) [Raz]
Burns (Phillip) [Burny] Rhodes (Peter) [Fatman]
Delamore (Ernest ?) Ridley (Steven) [Ridders]
Earnshaw (Kevin) Roberts (Steven) [Prof]
Fitzgerald (Tony) [Fitz] Smith (Ian)
Gray (Kevin) [Kev] Staton (Stuart)
Green (Paul) [Greeny] Steel (Andrew) [Snap]
Hague (Nigel) [Nig - pronounced Nij] Stewart (Tim)
Harpham (Paul) Ward (Bruce) [Batman]
Herbert (Glen) Widdowson (Paul) [Butch]
Hillon (Paul) [Hilly] Wood-Anderson (Paul) [Woody] (left about 1969)
Hughes (Tim ?)
Johnson (John) [Johnny] Spur (Martin) [Spud] (Transferred from Osborne House 1971)
McGarry (Gerald) [Ges]
Mogan (Patrick) [Moggy]