G.S.T.
Memories
"At a point abeam of the
Bethel mission an unheard command was given to
run! A full gallop was achieved and the two
columns of lads swung into Castlegate and it was
no stopping until the convoy arrived at the
School entrance."
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| At the end of the summer the
whole school turned out to pull the whalers from
the harbour to the yard at the side of the
workshops. having got the boat safely on the (two
wheeled) trailer and up the Golden Ball slipway,
half of the school got hold of one side and the
other half the other and proceeded to walk along
Sandside at a steady pace. At a point abeam of
the Bethel mission an unheard command was given
to run. A full gallop was achieved and the two
columns of lads swung into Castlegate and it was
no stopping until the convoy arrived at the
School entrance. The return journey was no less
perilous in the Spring when the boats were
returned to the harbour in a similar manner.
Volunteers to sit in the boats were non-existent.
Could you imagine this happening today with all
the rules and regulations, not to mention the
cars parked in Castlegate.. John
Kitto |
| I was Cook
division cox for the boat race one year,and we
won,on the order give way together,the strokes
oar broke,it was a good job it was bound with
leather,that held it together.the stroke turned
the oar round and rowed with it the wrong way
round for the full race! The stroke was "Banger
Hawkins", he was a fair size.When it was
time to haul the whalers up to school,I always
had the job of the "moveable ballast",
it was easy riding up Castlegate with everybody
else doing the pulling and tugging...... Wilf Taylor |
Someone
mentioned the science labs in the road below the
school. This was the old St. Thomas's School in
Longwestgate. Vince Feather wired up a component
from a fluorescent light and persuaded "Judge"
Jeffries to hold the bare wires whilst a low
voltage charge was applied. A person unknown (Keith
Wilkinson???) turned up the reostat on Vinces
"Control Panel" and the resulting shock
threw "Judge" across across the room.
Judge went home and Vince was last seen following
him along Longwestgate trying to talk him out of
complaining to his parents. One of the "serious"
tasks undertaken at the Science Labs was trying
to get a date with the St. Peters Girls who took
cookery in the adjacent room.... John Kitto
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| I have some
great memories of Graham Sea Training School. One
that remains is the end of summer of 69 and we
had to pull the boats up Paradise hill to be
stowed in the boatyard until the following spring.
I don't remember if the two divisions (Cook,
Scorseby) pulled separate boats. But there was
always a power struggle going on between Vince
and Jack and sometimes Big G over who was in
charge of the events! On this day it was total
bedlam from the off, getting the boats on to the
gun caridges seem to take forever and on a
falling tide we only just avoided a total
disaster. We got the boats up the Golden Ball
slipway and turned around heading towards the
Newcastle Packet. Now at this point we really
looked the part as all the holiday makers and
traffic stopped to watch the events. Being of the
fishing community I remember trying to hide from
the fishermen so they could not shout out "Now
then Rowley"!
The first part
of the hill seemed to be the steepest and the
rest just got worse. It seemed to me that this
day was the hottest day of the year and only half
the the crew were pulling there weight as it
seemed to take forever to make the final corner
and past the Coastguard cottages. As we
approached the school and got ready to put the
boats away the power struggle emerged with Jack
giving the order to stop and Vince taking control
and ordering the boys to swing the boat into the
boatyard which we did with much more force than
required and the stem of the boat hitting the
front door of the school plum in the middle and
splitting it top to bottom. The next thing I
remember was Mr Herbert opening the door and
Vince putting the blame on the boys at the other
end for pulling too hard! I think that every
spring we sanded and varnished those boats I had
the same piece of sandpaper for four years!... David Rowley
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| What ever happened to
the "Hugh & Masie Graham" ?
My uncle Tom Rowley used to have his
salmon nets in the bay every summer him
and Wally Johnson would fish the south
bay. One year under the supervision of
Vince we took the Masie Graham out
sailing in the south bay,right over the
top of uncle Tom's salmon nets! Needless
to say he was waiting for us when we
returned! I always felt privleged to have
come from a bottom end fishing family and
attended Graham Sea Training School, not
a great education, but a great education
on life!... David Rowley |
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