The Occupation of the New Buildings
I was among the first pupils to move into the new building on
Trinity Avenue in 1956. I see that Buzzer’s article of
February 1958 agrees, saying “In September 1956 the first pupils
were transferred to the school from the College of Technology.”
I suppose it’s a bit confusing that the official opening of the
school took place so late, not till the end of February 1958, by
which time many us had been in the "new" building for almost 18
months, and 1957 was certainly a year of major transition.
Anyhow, here’s what I remember of our time at the “Tech.”
I remember that on the first day of school we assembled in a
lecture hall with towering rows of bench seats in the old Tech
College building. I remember it being close and noisy with our
voices, and we underwent some long-forgotten preliminaries.
Here is where we met boys who would be friends for many years.
I recall meeting Peter Drinkwater (same initials, same birthday) and
Pip and Nick Thomas. What we did then I have no idea.
Although I
don’t recall, as Bob Thorogood does, that we went to the new
building “after lunch,” it’s a fact that we were established in
classrooms in the Tower Block during that first term. Some
areas of the new school, such as the science block, were still under
construction while we attended lessons in the finished areas so it
was like going to school at a building site. The Tower was the
first section to be completed, and the workshops were the last.
Life was a little confusing for a while as we had some lessons in
both buildings. We used the basement entrance to the Tech,
descending the steep roadway on the south side of the building.
As there were yet no workshops in the new school we had to go to the
Tech for crafts and art. The former took place in one of the
drab rooms leading off long, gloomily-lit tiled corridors smelling
of leather and glue and unseen industrial activities. My
masterpiece in leatherwork was a sad-looking comb case. By
contrast, our art lessons enabled us to get outside into the light
as they were given in prefab-type buildings that had been
constructed within space formed by the “C” shape of the Tech College
buildings. Long before Nene College was built on this spot
there was open ground here containing hedges, small trees, and
shrubs as well as several of these primitive pre-fabs. I
vividly recall the strong almond smell of the paper paste that we
used in our art classes there.
We also had to wait some time before we could use the new
building’s changing rooms, so during this period we used the tech’s
changing rooms. This meant some additional exercise as we then
had to go all the way to the new school’s playing fields. This took
us close to the Girls’ Grammar School, now under the Unity College
buildings, and even at the age of eleven, this brought a mysterious
sort of thrill.
Unfortunately and to my great disappointment, further memories of
those first days and weeks at school have not survived the
intervening 50 years!
Peter
Douglas
4th December 2006
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