Tulketh High Memories

  Mr. Carefoot, was mainly a Science teacher at Tulketh. His specialist subject however was Physics. He always wore the obligatory white coat that the older science teachers wore, I would have said he was in his late forties, small in stature with glasses, grey hair, and had a slight limp as I recall.  I first came across him in my first term at Tulketh in 1975. At the time I was in 1N, which was one of two top forms based on our opening day tests we all did. To be in  one of the top forms carried some weight in the school. The structure was quite simple back then in most secondary schools top forms were entered for the elite, O level exams , middle forms generally did the C.S.E exams and usually with few exceptions the bottom forms were usually to leave school with no exam qualifications.  Our class had about 30 kids in and had slightly more girls than boys as I recall. The standard of work I thought was probably above my ability at the time, but I gave it my be...

Mr. Blackwell-similar to Les Gray from 70's Pop stars Mud.   Mr. Blackwell taught History while I was at Tulketh. He later went on to be the House master for Fylde House up to the closure of Tulketh in 2008. He like a lot of the male teachers at the time wore suits of various formal colours. He used to wear tinted glasses which made him look like Les Gray the lead singer of pop group Mud who were immensely popular at the time. Mr. Blackwell a keen cricket fan and the coach to the first years’ cricket team. He decided on the squad of players of which I was one of, going to see the mighty West Indies side which included Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts to play England at Old Trafford in the Third test. .     We would be going on the second day of the test which was on a Friday which meant we would miss a full day of school lessons, happy days we all thought and not to mention the England side which included Brian Close, Tony Greig, (the captain) and Derek Un...

Mr. Birkett taught Music at Tulketh and was part of  Mr. Rees’s Music department.   A middle-aged man who was involved with a local church in Eldon Street near where my family and  I lived if I remember rightly.  He resided in room 9 which was next to the main dining room. And sometimes doubled up as a extra dining room as the school’s intake got bigger. He used to teach Humanities and Commerce as well only girls at the school would take Commerce as an option in the final two years.  Sometimes If you had a lesson before lunch you could hear meals being prepared or after lunch in the afternoon the cleaning up of the lunchtime meals in the canteen. Sometimes you could hear the distant Radio One tunes played by Tony Blackburn or Paul Burnette and the mainly female workforce singing along that was not too bad. Mr. Birkett decided to put together a choir mainly of girls like Jill Brown, Ginette Botham, Beverly Hall,  Hilary Turner and Allyson Swarbrick with a ...

The C.S.E examinations had finished on the Friday before and we were told by Headmaster Mr. Jones, that we were to pick up our testimonial certificates of our time at the school on the following Monday and we could then officially leave the school. On the Monday morning, it was strange going in to the school for the last time just to pick up a  testimonial certificate. Even stranger going in casual clothes and not the uniform as associated with the school for the last five years. Strangely on the last day I was up and dressed early just like on the first day for 7am.  I approached the school on a lovely early Spring morning knowing that I would not be there too long, and it would be my final journey to the school in the academic sense. Because of the exams all the assemblies had been cancelled.  However, the rest of the school still had to spend time in their respective registration groups prior to the start of the lessons. When I went through the front doors th...

Mr. Bevan- A admirer of Vincent Van Gogh.    Mr. Bevan taught Art in my time at Tulketh. He operated out of room 5, which was on the at the back of the second floor of the block facing the schoolyard. The long window in the room looked out on to large playing fields at the back of the school. The Art classroom was typical of the time full of long dark wooden trestles with stools, pupil’s artwork displayed on the walls with a teacher’s desk and storeroom at the top of the class. Mr. Bevan looked like a lot of the modern teachers of the time longish hair, moustache and of course the beige or green jackets with similar coloured shirts and kippa style ties of the seventies. He reminded me of a Preston North End player of the time called Alex Spark. In the second year at Tulketh our paths crossed in form 2o as our Art teacher for the year. We had very briefly crossed paths in the first year when we had 2 hour/4 periods lesson on a Friday afternoon of a different craft/technol...

  Mrs Akers looked after the girls in our school. Her job was to deal out any punishments along with praise and compassion when needed. Mrs. Akers had come to Tulketh in 1969 when the school was a fully established comprehensive school with most kids stopping on till they were 16 which was not applicable at the time you could leave at 15.  Mrs. Akers taught English and sometimes Physical Education.  I  believe she was a keen Rugby League fan as well.  I remember in assemblies she would be the first to come through from the foyer and climb the stairs on to the stage in her gown followed by Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Jones. In our first year we had assemblies in the dining room and sometimes Mrs. Akers would take them. Her office was next to the reception office.  Only really had one encounter with Mrs Akers and that was over playing of radio in a lesson in Art in the Fourth year. She mistakenly thought I had brought the radio in to school when it was Julie Wilcox w...

First Day I had visited Tulketh briefly with the Roebuck Primary school football team in April 1975. We played a friendly against their first-year team. I was one of the subs and managed to get on in the second half and score in a 4-3 defeat. It was nice to play on a full-size pitch and change in proper changing rooms for once. Steve Bolan’s dad had a minibus to take us to Tulketh. I remember thinking how big the school looked in comparison with our Edwardian primary school In the summer holidays my mum, brother and I one day had a walk up to Tulketh on a warm day just to get of an idea what it would be like to walk it there and back every day. The walk down Woodplumpton Road and Tag Lane seem to take forever to reach the school. Funnily enough on the way home it did not seem to take as long helped along by a Milky Way chocolate bar and a bottle of pop. On the first day I was probably the smartest I have ever been to go to school. Black blazer, grey shirt, the school tie and black trou...