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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)
EQUIPMENT FOR WALKING HOLIDAYS
ITER AD VALLVM HADRIANVM FACIENDVM: LOCA VISITANDA MCMLXXIV
For those intending joining a YHA walking trip . . .
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.
Two thin pullovers are warmer and lighter than one thick pullover.
Memories from year of '75
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.
Last day in Switzerland, we heard the Pope had died ... very strange.
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
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.
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]
I went on a school trip to Switzerland. We stayed at a hostel in Interlaken ( not sure whether it was Ost or Est, thats east or west). We walked up this enourmous mountain (aren't all mountains ! they would be hills otherwise) it took us 4 hours to walk up and 1/2 to walk (well actually you had to run and couldnt stop) down again.
I seem to remember we went from Luton airport and we were delayed 26 hours going out due to snow at Luton airport. However, there was a girls school (from somewhere down south) also stuck there and I remember snogging this gorgeous blond girl ! Anyway we arranged to meet and when we got to our hostel ( i shared a room with Jack Riley) I told him that there may be a knock at the door at around midnight ( if she turned up that was) and that he should just ignore anything he saw or heard. He told me to '**** off' saying that he wasnt going to let a girl in the room ( i think he was jealous). Anyway in the morning (!) I vaguely remembered having a dream about someone banging. It ws till I mentioned it to Jack that he told me that a girl was knocking on the door in the night and calling (whispering) my name !!
So needless to say Jacke remained my bestest ever friend ! NOT. He had a pair of silly brown shoes that had stitching down one side that curved around the front of the shoe and just tapered off and stopped !! Bizarre ( why do I remember that?)
I bought a tiny little plastic cable car which went along a piece or string, and I can't remember the technical name but you looked through a little window on and pressed a lever at the side and it had one of those circular cards with about 8 photos inside ( all scenic ) And guess what - I've still got it !I don't remember anything else about it unfortunately. But it was the first time I had ever been abroad or even flown.
I think Dave Molloy went but not sure !
[Hoppy Hopkinson]
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]
Bob - I remember the Italy trip, was that the one when we went from Luton ? and the long delay.
I remember one trip where we were on a coach on the M1 and the back luggage hatch came open and all our cases fell out ontoo the motorway. I remember me singing to the banana boat song and ad-libbing to fit to the events of the holiday.
I rememeber Buzzer (Mark burrows) he still has my photos from that trip. He had a scrap with Dave Wrafter ( did he break his arm?) There was blood in the snow.
A lad called steve blades (from st.pauls, the school we joined up with when we went comprehensive) got beat up by a gang of lads. So we went on the rampage throught the tiny village, and a lad called Kev Thurston ( saw him recently in didsbury) thrashed this group of lads he came across with his belt, only to be told by steve blades that they weren't the ones !!
Do you remeber all the gin and oranges we drank ?
And the ham and cheese toasted sandwiches.
I remember the night you were beaten while you asleep by the teacher ( his name escapes me)
You had puked in the sink and the chunks had blocked it and you flooded the room and the corridor. I shared a room with Ged Body and we had a Union Jack on the wall. We nicked some sun glassses from the airport, but they got smashed when I fell doing about 75mph down a black run with Ged. They came off and a little kid about 8 years old skied over them.
Our skiing instructor was called Arthur.
I still have the ski pass from the trip ! With my picture on it.
[Hoppy Hopkinson]