Out of School

School Trips were organised on a regular basis both abroad and walking trips within the UK. Cultural trips also included London, Stratford, Bath and various historic sites. Walking trips were both Saturday and longer Youth Hostelling trips.

The staff gave up part of their holidays for this.(This included Mr Barry Thorpe, Mr David Score, Mr Peter Brooks, Mr Peter Foley, Mr Roger Callan, Mr Willie Muir, Rev Peter Phillips, Mr Harry Rigby, Mr Richard Scrowston and Mr Kelvin Paisley)


Dartmoor (pjf)	Blackpool 1971 (rjc)	Blackpool 1971 (rjc)	Caerwent 1971 (rjc)

Chepstow 1971 (rjc)	London 1971 (rjc)	London 1971 (rjc)	London 1971 (rjc)

London 1971 (rjc)	London 1971 (rjc)	rjc	Bath (mb)

Scotland (pjf)	mb	Peter Phillips (paf)	paf

Andalo 1979 (soc) A fruit van passes...>	Andalo 1979 (soc) > Fall out amongst thieves! Dave Wrafter & Kev Thurston	Andalo 1979 (soc) > 'Big Hug' Dave Wrafter & Kev Thurston	Andalo 1979 (soc)

Andalo 1979 (soc) Jonathan Box and others	Lake District with BT (bb)	Arran 76 (bb)	CKP on Arran 1976 (bb)

mb	mb (with digital enhancement!)	nw	nw

nw	nw	nw	nw

nw	nw	bb (Glencoe 78)	bb (Glencoe 78)

bb (Lake District 74)	py (London Mar 72)	py (Kensington Mar72)

py (Old Bailey Mar 72)	sl (St Malo 66)	sl (St Malo 66)	js (Stratford 69) Peter Redman & James Malley

For every thousand feet of ascent, the atmospheric temperature drops by five degrees Fahrenheit.
This means that it will be fifteen degrees cooler at three thousand feet than at sea level.

Driving up to Hadrian's Wall on a school trip with Mr. Thorpe (in his yellow Ford Escort) listening to 'The Importance of Being Earnest', while everyone else was in the bus.

A Trip to Stratford
I think Terry McSweeny had left, while Barney Quinn had not arrived from St Ambrose. It was the guy from
Altringham Grammar, who went back having driven us to Stratford to see "Cymbeline" in the afternoon with "Richard II" in the evening. Unfortunately, all the boys got drunk, most not turning up for the evening performance. Nevertheless, we could hear in the auditorium alternative shouts from our boys plus a group from Leeds of, "Leeds are shit!" and "Man. U. are cunts!" The poor man never recovered. He was particularly annoyed as we had to continually stop on the way home for piss-stops. One boy (MM), I recall being sick all over the road after an emergency halt (The same boy, by the way, suddenly got up from his seat at the back of the stage in the University Theatre and walked across the playing area in the middle of a performance of O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night", so that he could pee).

Trip to Rome Easter 69
Does anyone remember this school trip? Pete Foley, Barry Thorpe, Dave Score and Fr. Abbot (this place smells like a Chinese brothel) tried to keep us in order. It cost us £40 for ten days. Not bad really. I shared a room with Pete Brennan and Mike O'Neil. We got hold of some red wine which got Pete a bit pissed and had to half carry him back to the hotel. I also remember peeing out of the window in the middle of the night, unaware of the hapless Italian bloke standing three floors below [VD]

I well remember the trip to Rome in Easter ’69 (I'm certain it was '69 that I went, but maybe wrong!), arranged via Hourmont Travel. Outbound they had only booked a flight to Milan (on BEA HS Trident I recall) and I think it was a train trip down to Rome with only a few booked seats. They had misbooked the rooms and we ended up in two hotels.

Day trips I recall as being great. I walked to the Colosseum one night with one or two others when dark. One of us decided to have a pee across the road from it ,up a mound and behind some bushes, only for some lamps to come on and illuminate the proceedings – state of panic ensued!

I got friendly chat wise (or so I thought) with a girl called Maria, age 18 (?) – daughter of the butcher to the then Italian president – Fr Abbott overheard some of what she was saying in Italian, which he understood and I didn’t, apparently some proposition of sexual activity – whatever that was, and I was thus banned from the Coffee bar that she and I had frequented when not tripping. Needless to say I then got p*****d on lots of Birra Peroni and think I then got framed for putting my head through the glass in a hotel door. I had to go with Fr Abbott to apologise to the owner. I recall that I found Maria very attractive and that she lived on the Via Giovanni Branca, possibly No 18, and that I’ve often wondered what she would look like now.

The journey back was slightly better planned and I think we all had seats for the journey. Can anyone remember the boiled eggs and sandwiches that were ejected as the train travelled at speed through a small station? Out of the window they went, then bounced off the ground and splattered some poor Italian railway official. We agreed that it was probably just as well the train didn’t stop.

I've loads of other memories of this trip, my first abroad, but probably too many or tedious for here! Somewhere I’ve got some rather poor b&w photos, I’ll have to dig them out. [DR]

Trip to Switzerland
Anyone remember the trip to Switzerland or have photos ? We stayed in Wilderswil in the shadow of the Jungfrau. I roomed with Paddy Aherne who kindly removed his glass eye for me ! I remember the older boys getting bladdered & causing havoc, bracing hikes in the mountains and a fascination with buying flick knives to bring home ! [SJ]

I remember it all to well. The police after a drunken escapade. However, it was a lovely spot. Poor Barry was beside himself. I can't remember the names of the guys who caused the trouble. Wasn't one of them called Burke? The other was a dark-haired bloke who stole a bicycle. [RS]

Yes, Mr Scrowston you were correct, Alzheimers hasn't qite set in yet then? I was one of the lads, the other involved in the drunken escapade was -Steven Cunliffe - the protagonist. Many thanks to yourself and the other teachers, who managed to prevent us from being incarcerated deep in the bowels of a Swiss dungeon. Mind you, that may have been more preferable than returning to face the wrath of ... SPIKE. [WB]

I remember the trip very well. I was one of the older boys who got bladdered and caused chaos. I remember for certain that there was some major incident surrounding Steve Cunliffe and I think Willie Burke who got detained by the Swiss constabulary for nicking road signs whilst under the influence. I also remember the woman who ran the 'picture postcard pretty' pension hotel we stayed in trying to evict us after yet more vomit had appeared on the landings overnight. I also remember getting very drunk myself and having to have my head ducked in every horse trough on the way home in an effort to sober me up! [JG]

Switzerland 1978
I went on that trip. It was my first time out of the UK. Swissair gave us plenty of thrills with a take-off at Ringway that looked more like a V-2 going off and then a return trip in a thunderstorm in Zurich & then a guy freaking out about landing in England (I wonder where he thought he was going?). The marches up and down the Alps to the Lauterbrunnen Waterfall (coming out of the side of a massive cliff) and then the James Bond place (the Schilthorn?), the Kleine Scheidegg, the Schynige Platte. I think a pope died on our last day there. There was a game room with a fussball table and a juke box that played nothing but Boney M. I remember the Public School kids from Kent ... they came to dinner in uniforms, coats and sunglasses. One night the head boy got up and announced "God Save the Queen" ... we all burst out laughing at them. The foreign kids at the other tables didn't have a clue why we were laughing but we knew exactly why we were. I also never ate so many peaches in my life ... the packed lunches evetually made everyone sick.
[Andrew Murphy]

I think I was on that trip, one of Gobbo's excursions?..we flew to Zurich, then train to Interlaken(?)-vaguely remember waiting in a siding outside Berne station for what seemed like weeks - walked up one mountain with a revolving restaurant at the top - Bond movie filmed there allegedly(?)- Jack Riley ('74) sliding down the snow on his arse, ending up three feet away from 600 ft drop, oh how we laughed!!! - there was a school from Kent staying at the hotel, got off with a bird from Margate (classy???)
[Sean Keeley]

Italy
I remember a similar one to somewhere in Italy. Also delayed at luton ?
A lad called buzzer, and Dave Wrafter had a scrap in the snow outside the hotel.....
some teacher punched me as i lay coma tose (ok pissed as a fart)in my bed having just puked in the bidet and flooded the room.
Luton airport, we met a load of kids from Grange Hill !! Why they were there i dont know.
[Bob Roberts]