From:Pennie Lauezzari   (Original Message)

Sent: 19/12/2000

I was thinking today about the cars that some of the teachers drove and whether they suited their personalities.

I recall Mr Wright 'Holy Joe' who taught RI and he had a blue volkswagen caravanette which presumably he drove all over the place on his errands of good deeds.  Then there was Miss Ferner (was she an English teacher?) I recall she used to drive a little blue Morris 1000. Mr Lippit drove one of those  older model Volvo's built like a tank and designed to run forever.

Clara, I recall, drove an Austin 1100 and I think Miss Jones had one too.  Can't remember the colours but it was probably something very conservative ... light or dark blue!

Mr Beamon drove some sporty number like an MG.

Does anyone else have any memories?

From:

Sent:

From: Pennie Lauezzari

Sent: 26/12/2000

Thanks Terry!

I think my interest in the cars started when I used to hang around with some car mechanics and probably laid the foundation of interest in cars.....well that's my excuse anyway...it's beyond me as to why I should remember teachers cars but sadly I do!

From: Tony DymokeBradshaw63-70

Sent: 18/01/2001

Merlin Williams had an MGB and commuted from Tring every day.  Quite a trek inthiose days.
Tony Dymoke-Bradshaw 1963/70

From: Andre

Sent: 22/01/2001

Martin Morris drove a mini cooper, had the front set taken out so his poor old alsatian could travel in with him.

I think he was a student teacher when he first taught us in 1968,  he had a masters and a teaching qualification so wasn't that young.

Mr Davies "wood work" had a Lotus elite and some classic car circa 1940s

The later head Mr what-ever-his-name-was had a rover newish style.

When I was in the U6 we started driving in.  One pupil who joined late in the L6 had a mercedes!

From: Andrew Passer

Sent: 29/01/2001

Mr Davies the woodwork teacher had a now very valuable Lotus Elite, and his assistant, an old man whose name I can not remember, had an Austin 7 although he never brought it to school.

ANDREW PASSER

From: Bob Long

Sent: 04/02/2001

Does anyone remember the teacher who's car was "ruined" when the large silver man (statue) was loaded onto the car roof as a prank.  I recall something of a fuss was made by the establishment at the time.

From: GEOFF HENLEY

Sent: 05/02/2001

I remember Mr Wright's VW motor homes. He used to give me lift with Ivor Jones to West Harrow after school on occasion.  How about Mr William's (M) MGBs or Miss Ibbotson's dark blue Triumph Herald that I actually bought off her in 1975.

From: Lennie-Bradshaw

Sent: 11/02/2001

Mr. Cotton had a navy blue Triumph 2000, which he parked outside the front entrance like he owned the place.  Miss Frost (maths 66-68) had one of those kit cars, and she lost a load of our work books when they fell through a hole in the bottom of the boot.  I seem to remember Mr. Davies (woodwork) had a bit of a thing about Miss Frost.

Lennie Bradshaw

From: Bigbadwoolf

Sent: 11/02/2001

Sorry guys but... Mr Davies' car was a Lotus Elan, not an Elite.  I think it was a Mk 1 version "and it was all yellow".  Mr Davies was generally less well known to the girlies because we had to take needlework and cookery whether we liked it or not.  I really would have liked to have done woodwork but even this was considered too risque in a co-ed school in the sixties.  In the 6th form, when I was working on the set for The Mikado, Mr Davies taught me how to use an electric jig-saw to cut the flats, a skill for which I have always been truly grateful.  I used to occasionally get a lift in the Elan if I was walking to school along Camrose Avenue and he was passing.

 But I was really a total tart when it came to MG Midgets.  Some of you may remember Ray Barnett who taught Economics for a year in 1972-3.  He had a maroon Mk 3 version that I ended up buying in 1978.  I loved that car, went to car maintenance classes to learn how to fiddle around with it under the bonnet, and bored everyone witless with the intricate tunings of the twincarbs and what went on underneath the rocker cover, and so on.  Both my husband and my brother loved me for my car and it's potential pulling power.  It had a certain magnetism for me in the first place.  Sadly, I wrote it off 15 months later when a really stupid dog ran out in front of me.  However, the good news was that the compensation I was awarded gave us enough dosh to raise the somewhat large deposit for the house that Phil and I still live in.

From: Pennie Lauezzari

Sent: 15/02/2001

Wow Sue I'm impressed that you went to car maintenance classes.  I think we could move this discussion on a bit by adding our first cars.

The first thing I did when I was 17 was get a car and learnt to drive.  As my relationship with my friendly garage mechanic continued at that time I was in the fortunate position of getting free tuition under the bonnet! My first car was a mini but because of all the contacts in trade it was resprayed a racing daytona yellow with a black roof and special alloy wheels. The engine was replaced with an 1100cc and a Mini Cooper differential and various other tweaky bits that came to the friendly mechanic's hands. It went like the clappers and I loved it .

It gave me such independance and I have never been without a car since. I owned several minis and eventually grew up and moved onto faster and sleeker cars.

One of my brothers bought a mini cooper limited edition a couple of years ago, it's bright red and has all the bells and whistles. I sat in it and wondered how I put up with such a tiny car.  It's sad to say that I would probably give my back a major injury trying to drive one these days. Still as they say you never forget your first car.  Maybe we should find pictures of ourselves with our first cars and put them in the photo gallery?

From: Bigbadwoolf

Sent: 17/02/2001

OK Pennie.  You go first!

From: Andrew Forester

Sent: 24/05/2002

I'm pleased that Peter Davies graduated to an Elite or Elan [both vehicles I would love to own although anything that can self-destruct on UK roads would hardly be suitable to negotiating the country roads in a Canadian winter...] because long before that [I am 55-62 vintage] he had an "Ashley".  "What is an "Ashley?" I hear you ask... This was the time that building "specials" was at it's height.  You got an Austin-7 or Ford Prefect/Popular with the 1172 cc side-valve [flathead] motor, and ripped the body off, tuned the engine [skimmed a few thou' off the head, polished the ports, replaced the downdraft Zenith or Solex carb with a side-draught SU or--if you were really going for records, two of them, and bolted on a free-flow exhaust] then you added a sleek [sort-of sleek, compared to a Ford Popular...] glassfibre body--in Davies' case, an Ashley--and then you pretended you were driving an Aston Martin.  Easy to take the piss--these specials and 750 racing were the origin of Lotus and other specialty companies.  But trying to extract high performance from an Austin-7 or Ford flathead motor sound ludicrous now ...

Other teachers' cars?

Miss Jones [biology] had a two-tone blue Hillman Minx [looked v. smart]. 

Another teacher who I can see in my mind's eye but cannot recall his name had one of the first Triumph Heralds.  This was almost unique--an affordable car with a fully independent rear suspension.  We all gathered round and marvelled at it--the huge tilt up "bonnet" that showed all the engine and suspension and the collapsing rear end that gave the impression that the poor thing had got a hernia somewhere on the way from the factory. The suspension was a disaster [I know, I owned two Spitfires with the same rig] as it was a crude swinging arm design that would go from negative to positive camber if you pushed it to hard and/or hit a bump in the middle of a corner so it was like some lunatic had a steering wheel attached to the backend of the car and was wrestling you for control.

Jimmy Gorsuch had--I think--one of the [then] new Ford Anglias with the oversquare motor and the reverse-tilt rear window that looked so odd [now famous as the Police car on "Fartbeat"] and came out also on the Capri--forerunner to theCortina.

Bert [that swine of a math teacher Brett] had a Lambretta painted in cream and brown [named "Bert's Banana Split"].

Sid Legg[e] the monosyllabic physics master had a beautiful, metallic pale blue, Douglas motorcycle with a horizontally opposed engine.  I have no idea if these bikes were any good but I thought it was a fantastic thing at the time...

From: Duncan Brodie

Sent: 24/05/2002

Andrew

I remember the Triumph Herald but like you I can't remember the teacher's name.  I also recall that he won it in a competition. He taught applied maths and wrote with yellow chalk on the dark green "blackboard"as he said it was the most restful colour combination.

Keep up the contributions

Regards

Duncan Brodie

From: Terry Diggins

Sent: 28/05/2002

Could the Herald be Mr Shephard's?

From: Catherine Cook (71-76)

Sent: 0/05/2002

Wasn't that Miss Silverthorn, she taught Maths?.....dodgy teeth!!  I remember the incident clearly, she was not amused!! I think that was the year that the 6th formers got into the roof space of the hall during assembly, and sent down dust onto the assembled students, and Mr Knight fell off his chair.... which had been doctored.  I know that April Fools day was one of the best, all sorts of tricks.. and I was only in the 1st or 2nd year at the time.

Catherine Cook

From: Catherine Cook (71-76)

Sent: 30/05/2002

With reference to the previous message, it was in response to the silver man question.

Thanks Maurice for all your help, I am up and running now..... that vacation is on!!