|
 I stumbled across this picture,
shown right, while reading online about something else. Click on the
thumbnail to view a large version.
The
image shows a boy wearing John Ruskin uniform walking south along Tamworth Road
from West Croydon railway station towards the former school premises.
I recall that the last trolleybus in Croydon ran in July 1960; the Morris Traveller
dates the picture as being after 1952. The red and white car is an
Austin Metropolitan, which didn't appear in the UK until April 1957.
Also the picture is in colour, which didn't become widespread until the
late Fifties.
So I think we have a time frame of 1957-60. That means the school
would have moved to Shirley at least two years previously.
Does anyone have a memory long enough to
identify the boy seen here?
Judging by the shadows, I would hazard a guess that the picture was
taken late afternoon, so maybe the schoolboy is on his way home and just
happened to live near the old school. He might be carrying a sports bag,
because it has loop handles rather than the close handle of a brief
case. And judging by his height he must be 5th form or above.
The image is ©2007 David Bradley, whose
website contains additional
information about Croydon trolleybuses. The site's author states that
the picture was taken on a Saturday in early 1959. "The trolleybus
heading away from us would shortly make its way into Station Road after
crossing North End," David advises, "and then proceed onto Crystal
Palace; in the opposite direction, trolleybus passengers are travelling
towards Sutton.
"I can’t be sure of the date nor day the picture was taken, but as
route 654 was abandoned on Tuesday, 3 March 1959, I would have probably
been out and about with my camera the previous Saturday and in Tamworth
Road possibly during early afternoon. It was pretty good weather for late
February back then. So why the school boy is seem in uniform is a bit of
a mystery.
"Having checked with a colleague who was with me on that day, I can
confirm that the image was taken on Saturday, 28 February 1959."
Peter Eades, Phrae, Thailand,
February 2015 Email
Peter Hurn
(JRGS 1967-73) adds: A very interesting item about the JRGS
schoolboy. I might suggest that, as he was out on a Saturday afternoon in
school uniform with some sort of kit-bag, he was going home after
playing football for the school It's only speculation but it may help
narrow down the options a bit.
Graham Donaldson (JRGS 1962-69)
adds: A
wonderful photo and, as correctly stated, trolleybus route 654 ran for
the last time on Tuesday 3 March 1959, to be replaced by new bus route
154 (Morden-Crystal Palace) and an extension of the 157 from Wallington
to Crystal Palace.
In those days the busmens' working week started on a Wednesday, so
that was the day route changes were always introduced. After the
trolleybuses had gone this was changed to a Sunday but, by 1968, when
"Reshaping London's Buses" began to take effect, it had been changed
again to a Saturday, which is still the case today.
Croydon's other trolleybus route, the 630, ran for the last time on
19 July 1960, being replaced by new bus route 220 (West
Croydon-Harlesden) using Routemasters, and an extension of the 64 from
West Croydon to Wimbledon Stadium with a part allocation of RMs from
Elmers End garage.
Curiously, these worked in service "when required" between Elmers
End and Addington, passing JRGS. However, this only lasted until the May
1962 when the allocation was more logically transferred to Thornton
Heath. And to enter into the world of "Might Have Beens," route 630 was
originally to have been abandoned under Stage 13 of the conversions in
January 1962, but was brought forward due to construction work on the
Hammersmith flyover.
They were splendid vehicles and it's a shame that Transport for
London will not countenance their return in modern form.
As for the school uniform, bear in mind that there wasn't the
money for fashion clothes in those days, you tended to have to wear the
uniform whether you wanted to or not!
Tom Shaw
(JRGS 1957-61) adds:
Around about that time I used to regularly travel from Clapham Junction
to the school in Shirley; this entailed me alighting at West Croydon
trolleybus stop. The schoolboy isn't me because I would be going the
wrong way, but the time frame is right. I went down that way
occasionally to meet Roy Burton or Ralph May - better
known at Ralph McTell - but never in school uniform.
David Anderson (JRGS 1964-71)
adds: The recent
entry about the trolleybuses at West Croydon got me thinking, as the
website often does. I recall the trolleybuses at West Croydon where
Station Road met North End, there was a spiders' web of wires over the
junction. Sometimes a pick-up would come off the wire requiring the crew
to get out and re-locate it with a pole so progress could continue! They
were quiet and eco-friendly, and ahead of their time. That only went on
a few times - perhaps some enthusiast could shed more light on what the
crew did for heating, or were they like the RT diesel buses; there was
none.
Does anybody recall the Thirties-style curved building with
"Woodhouse" in big letters on it?
Our family lived in Thornton Heath in the same road for my first 18
years. We didn't (like most) have a car and only went in one a few times
a year - in an uncle's car to relatives all of two miles away in South
Norwood at Xmas, and in a neighbour's van to East Croydon station with
our luggage to get the train to Bognor for our annual holiday! It was
quite a journey, which took most of the day.
However, lack of a car was not a handicap, since at the end of the
road was one of the most frequent bus services in the country along the
A23. The multitude of routes meant there was a bus about every few
minutes on routes 109, 155, 50 , 130, etc. Later on I realised how
fortunate we were, but this was not the case everywhere!
Bus or bike and later small motorbike was a very good way to get
around.
Sometimes on a Sunday our family would get the bus number 130 up to
the viewpoint on Shirley Hills, which was quite a way out for us. This
was the first time I ever saw JRGS, a striking "new" school (I was then
10 years old ) with a - wait for it - a Windmill. Amazing! About this
time the 11+ exam was looming and choices needed to be made about where
next. Was it to be Selhurst ("Smellworst" to us junior schoolboys) or
Stanley Technical (or others). Well, the new school "in the country"
appeared so much more attractive, and so that was it. No academic reason
at all.
I recall the old RT buses struggling to get up the hill beyond The
Sandrock and I believe the RM Routemaster bus was allocated to that
route (being new and more powerful). What a stroke of luck; I got to
ride on the newest and, to my mind, (and still) the Rolls-Royce of buses
every day. They were bright, had beautiful upholstery, offered smooth
riding, sounded lovely and made going to school much more bearable.
So much better than the old RTs and RTWs. However, upstairs on a
winter morning could be 'orrible with all the smokers coughing and thick
with smoke. The best bit, however, was that they had heaters! On a cold
morning it was lovely to get up the front upstairs to sit by the vent
and get warm.
My daily journey to school on the 130 route took me through the
centre of Croydon, which was in the process of being flattened to make
way for the "brave new world" of modern office blocks, as the Whitgift
Centre and the underpass on Park Lane/George Street were being built. If
only I had a camera to take a weekly photo of progress. But I didn't
consider it eventful.
If you recall, the games fields at JRGS were down at Oaks Farm, a
fair trek from the school. I am sure that our lack of sparkling
performance and interest on the games field was often down to the fact
we were already knackered by the walk, carrying school bags kit etc. to
get there. About this time of the year (February) we would be ordered to
play games - I did Lacrosse, which could be vicious - and after a couple
of hours out in the driving sleet or light snow we were frozen! So it
was into the pavilion only to be told by a certain Maths/PE teacher:
"You have two minutes to get changed and get out of the building!" Well,
our hands were so cold we could not do up any buttons so we were
evicted in a state of half undress.
In order to cut the journey, some of us would walk over the hill to
Mapledale Avenue and pick up the 130 bus on Upper Addiscombe Road.
Trouble was that with frozen hands I (we) couldn't handle coins for our
fare and the kindly bus conductor would let us stay on the bus and get
the money out after we had warmed up on the heater. Good old London
Transport; good old Routemaster! I look on them as old friends. A time
when a ride on a bus could be fun, banter with the conductor, ding-ding
of the bell, the ticket machine, etc. It's all gone now.
So if you want a trip down memory lane don't bother with the
heritage Routemaster bus route in London. These are re-engined
eco-Routemasters - there's no bell and a digital (ugh!) ticket machine.
They don't sound or go like the originals. Take a look at
Brooklands Museum in
Weybridge, Surrey, and London
Bus Museum. Well worth a visit to some old friends!
I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings and I have provoked some
comments and contributions.
Colin Peretti (JRGS 1955-60)
adds:
 The JRGS
sports ground was originally located at Duppas Hill and was still in
use until at least 1956, because the Oaks Road facility had not been
completed. I often travelled from New Addington to Duppas Hill via the
130 to West Croydon and then by 654 T/Bus to the ground on Saturday
morning for JRGS (home) football matches.
The student [seen walking down Tamworth Road, and pictured left]
is not me. If the picture was taken in 1959 it is unlikely that the
pupil was going to or from the old sports ground.
I was also interested in his uniform. We were expected to wear
light grey trousers and, while some of the more radical dressers
stretched that to charcoal grey, I do not think that Mr. "Joe" Lowe
would have permitted black.
We will be in UK during late-September until mid October but,
unfortunately, will miss the
Grand Reunion
at the sixth-form college. However, I will have a few beers in The
Sandrock and The Surprise, and will stay in the Selsdon Park
which, as you know, is up the hill from the college.
I will also be visiting my old friends Raymond Austin (JRGS
1953-58) and Mike Buffrey (JRGS 1956-60). Ray and I usually
give Buffrey a rousing rendition of the School Song, but poor old
Buffrey even with all of his O- and A-levels cannot remember the words!
(Just joking!)
Buffrey was in the year with Brian Hurn, Ivor Aylesbury
and Sims (the latter two are in the
prefect photo). Ray Austin was two years ahead of me and was in the
same year as Woodcock, Drain, Langridge - some of
our more outstanding sportsmen.
Ray Austin, Michael George and Arthur Langridge all
went to the Wolsey Junior School in King Henry's Drive in New Addington.
They must have been close to, or actually, the first of a long line of
gifted New Addington lads to attend John Ruskin Grammar School. When you
consider that the estate's housed younger couples after the war, I
suppose that it was only on the early-Fifties that the Addington
children became old enough for secondary education. The group after Ray
Arthur, included Ivor Aylesbury and Brian Hurn from Rowdown (1954) then,
in 1955, Anthony Francis, Paul Sorrell and I all made it from Rowdown
and then I guess it was the webmaster's group in 1956 or 1957. It would
be interesting to hear from some of the young Addingtonians who made it
to Ruskin.
ML adds: My parents
moved to the New Addington housing estate in 1951, when I was three,
from council housing on Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood. I joined JRGS from
Rowdown Junior School in September 1959, together with Michael
Hollidge (JRGS 1959-66); others in my intake year came from Overbury School and
Fairchildes School, including John Byford (JRGS 1959-66) and Jim Thomas
(JRGS 1959-65).
Graham Donaldson offers: Well, this
discussion seems to have set quite a hare running!
Regarding David Anderson's comments, most of the buildings around
West Croydon have changed remarkably little since those days, though
obviously the uses have. Certainly, a slight Achilles Heel of the
trolleybus was a tendency to de-wire - the tight turning circle used by
the 630's in Station Road was another favourite place for this to
happen. As one former trolleybus driver relates in his memoirs: "You had
to watch the road above as well as the road ahead!" Technically all
de-wirements were supposed to be reported, but no doubt many weren't.
And no, there was no saloon heating, the Routemaster was
groundbreaking in this and other respects. However, after the very cold
winter of 1962/63 London Transport received a lot of complaints about
cold buses, and so a crash programme of fitting heaters was undertaken
on all buses that had a life expectancy of seven years or more. This
therefore excluded the Leyland RTLs and RTWs as well as the older RTs
with roof-mounted front number boxes, and the single-deck RFs with no
platform doors. The heaters consisted of fairly large boxes that were
placed under the front-nearside seat upstairs and the front-offside
seat downstairs, and utilised waste heat from the engine. They were
controlled by a switch on the rear bulkhead and, whilst not all that
effective, were better than nothing.
Moving on to "new" Routemasters, although Croydon received half a
dozen new ones in the Spring of 1964; most of those allocated to the 130
group in late Summer were actually older ones cascaded from Dalston and
Hendon garages in North London. This was because the new ones being
built at the time had offside illuminated advert panels and it was
decreed that these be used on Central London routes such as the 9, 11
and 13, thus releasing existing vehicles to Croydon. This, of course,
was hugely disappointing to those of us who were looking forward to
seeing brand new ones from the vantage point of Classroom 12! By a quirk
of fate, the take-up of the illuminated panels generally fell short of
expectations and over the years most were removed as the buses passed
through overhaul.
However, justice was finally done in 1967-68 when it was decided to
upgrade the 130s to the longer RML type, and we were the lucky
recipients of the very last batch of new ones to be built. Sadly they
only stayed for a few years, and by early 1975 the unloved :Box bus"
Daimler Fleetlines had taken over.
Finally, I agree that the "Heritage" Routemasters are not exactly
the real thing, but it would have been impossible to keep the original
engines in intensive daily use even without the Low Emission Zone.
However, it has just been announced that the main route 15 will be next
in line for "New Routemasters". I wouldn't be surprised to see this used
as a reason to get rid of the old ones, so their days may finally be
numbered.
John Byford (JRGS 59-66)
adds: One piece of
information was completely new to me - that JRGS [in Shirley] used
Duppas Hill as its sports ground before the Oaks Road facility was
opened. The news was of particular interest as the football team I
played for as a teenager had the occasional away game at Duppas Hill. It
brought back memories of interesting Saturdays: our home ground was the
playing fields at North Downs in New Addington but the league we played in had teams from
across South London. The nearest away matches were in Addington Park but
we went as far afield as Peckham Rye (where the goal posts had to be
carried out) and somewhere in Streatham where the home side had nets (the
height of luxury). Fortunately, our manager knew someone who drove a
small van for work and he, a Mr. Kimnell, would drive us to most
away matches.
Initially, it was second best to playing for JRGS - I'd managed a
few games in my first year but there were too many good players to play
regularly. But there was no need to wear school uniform for our matches
and Mr. Kimnell was a paragon of kindness, in comparison with a certain
Mr. Smith.
Living in Milne Park East, then Milne Park West [on the New
Addington housing estate], we had the playing fields on our doorstep and
having a kick about continued throughout the year. It also meant going
to Fairchildes Primary School, a short walk away. Apparently, I
dispensed with my mum taking me to school at an early age, walking to
school with Colin Packham from next door. There was almost no
traffic in those days so I guess our parents were happy with the
arrangement. But, as Colin notes, indiscretions were usually noted and
one winter I
was hauled up before the headmistress for putting snow into the letter
box at the junction of Milne Park East and Homestead Way. The
headmistress, a Miss Neville-Kaye, had taught one of my uncles in
her first teaching job and seemed to intimate that I took after him. But
how much better we were for having the freedom to take risks and
experience life ... it wasn't long before we were travelling all over
London with our Red Rovers collecting bus numbers.
One of the first Routemaster journeys I remember was on the 220,
which replaced the 630 trolleybus on 20th July 1960. Roger Hall (JRGS
1959-67)
and I rode the route to Harlesden, aged 11;
we soon had a large number of Routemasters ticked off in our
Ian Allan booklets.
I don't remember any of the names mentioned, but then we lived in
the southern end of the estate - my Dad had grown up in Croydon and
remembered the area before any houses were built, even before Milne Park
had been part of the airfield that extended down to the other end of
what is now Salcot Crescent. I'm not sure if many - or any - boys had
made it to Ruskin from Fairchildes. Ken Collins, another bus
spotter who lived in King Henry's Drive, was one of the nearest, and
Michael Gibbs, a year younger than me - who sadly died 5 years ago -
lived in Comport Green.
Lastly, the route of 130 bus
changed a few days ago. Previously, it had terminated at Norwood
Junction; now it continues to Thornton Heath Clock Tower. Unfortunately,
the buses remain single-deckers!
Karl Smith (JRGS 1945-51)
adds: The
trolleybus pictures reminds me that two such routes ran past JR in
Tamworth Road: 1. Route 630 from West Croydon to Hammersmith Broadway;
and 2. Route 654 from Crystal Palace to Sutton. I'm not sure about the
630 origins, but the 654 replaced trams in the 1930s. My grandparents
lived in Carshalton and used the trams for shopping in Croydon.
The 654 was sometimes used to get from the school to the playing
field at Duppas Hill. The image shown
left is of a Route 654 trolleybus opposite the
old Waddon Station and Hotel - the bus stop we used for the JRGS Playing
Field at Duppas Hill.
Click on the thumbnail to view a large version.
Just down the road from JRGS the routes split - close to Reeves
Corner of massive fire fame. Here, the conductors had to dismount and
operate a pull-down handle on one of the support poles to change the
tracks. If they forgot, the trolley poles would be on the wrong wires
and have to be pulled down with the long (insulated!) rod carried under
the trolleybus. Embarrassing, because it caused traffic delays - as well
as a little entertainment for schoolboys!
Another memory from the past is that Barlow & Parker's sweet factory
almost next door to the school was the scene of the notorious shooting
of PC Miles by Christopher Craig for which Derek Bentley was hanged -
and later pardoned. That incident happened one Saturday evening only minutes before I
passed on my way home from a scout evening session. [On 2 November,
1952, Christopher Craig and Derek Bentley tried to break into the
warehouse of confectionery manufacturer and wholesaler Barlow & Parker.
The two youths were spotted climbing over the gate and up a drainpipe to
the roof by a nine-year-old girl in a house across from the building.
She alerted her parents and her father called the police from the
nearest phone box. As a result of events that are disputed to this day,
PC Sidney Miles was shot dead. Bentley was hanged for the crime on 28
January, 1953, in Wandsworth Prison.]
ML adds:
To wrap up this thread, here is a image from
David Bradley' excellent
website showing a 630 and a 654
trolleybus crossing
London Road/North End
at Station Road, close to the West
Croydon BR station. Click on the
thumbnail
to view a larger version.
David recalls that the photograph was
secured in early 1959 from a barmaid's bedroom at The Railway Bell Hotel
pub on the south-west corner on the famous junction, "with no thought of
alcohol; [we] simply asked if we could take some photographs from one of
the upper floor windows.
"This location is quite unique, for in the 1940s it was the only
place in London where all forms of surface transport could have
photographed: trams, trolleybuses, central buses, country buses, Green
Line coaches, steam freight and electric suburban trains. The only thing
unseen would have been the underground."
And I have just discovered that Ruskin Road turns off
Tamworth Road just south of this junction, and runs alongside the
railway line, before ending just before Roman Way. An odd coincidence?
|
