Memories "The oldness of the school and all that went on there..."

"Last year in the High street, were we really a rowdy class or just being expressive!! So many memories about that year, what a laugh. Gym and the cold showers, science lessons on the tower and jamming sessions in the music room - what a noise. The 'school' song being sung in the hall. Teachers trying to get to the culprits in the crowd. Ragbony MSR!! The oldness of the school and all that went on there. We even had the odd lesson as well." ...Ray Newman -71;

"Remember the cold showers (gym was in the basement and the windows were often broken so passers by could peer in!). But what about two old school 'myths': the film The War Game (a nuclear horror film) had a set filmed in the schoolyard which featured extras running around with rice crispies stuck to their skin to represent radiation blisters.
That Jimi Hendrix (not famous at the time) turned up at the school in error when he was supposed to be appearing at Chatham Central Hall on hearing operatic sounds coming from the building and assumed it was the CCH. Or was my consciousness already being influenced by Timothy Leary's writings? " ...Mike Harrison;

"Who remembers the sport of filling a cubical with 1st Yrs? Yes thats right main block loos and getting caught by Beattie Bogroll. His face was a picture when bodies kept coming out of such a small space! Did we scar the victims for life? " ...Ray Newman -71;

"Pitt v Castle v Gordon v Bridge: Does anyone have any scars remaining from the pre-register 1st year raids on each other's houserooms ? " ...Neil Galloway;

"Standing 345 deep waiting for the 141, all with massive knotted ties so that the 'dangly' bit was as short as possible. If you were tough you waited at the bus-stop right outside the school and didn't run to the one before like a big ninny ! As the bus pulls up, a cry rings out in unison "BUNDLE" and 10000 brats funnel into an opening the size of a gnats bumhole...and NO-ONE wanted to sit downstairs ! I still remember the day when we all moved in perfect harmony from one side of the top deck to the other. We were obviously crap at physics as imagine our horror when the f"@ker nearly tipped over !!! That's the day I discovered the colour of adrenalin............ " David Ford 70-75;

"Anyone remember the great games of Bulldog in the area between P block and the sports hall? You'd hang onto a boy and shout 'British Bulldog 1 2 3' while he punched and kicked. An efficient technique was to grab the runner by the forearm so that he swung wildly through 90 degrees while sticking your foot out to upend him. This was an improvement over the straightforward clamp round the legs rugby tackle, although both were very effective on the tarmac. Probably wouldn't be allowed nowadays." ...Paul Nicholson 70-74;

"In my 6th form days (1963-1965) our classrooms were in N block at the bottom end of Free School Lane, separate from the main school building. After an incident I can't remember, we were locked out one winter morning. It was cold, very cold. At morning break we decided to retaliate. Someone found some rope which we tied to (a) the inward opening door of the masters' room and (b) the sturdy bannister directly opposite. We stood in the lobby and sang rude songs. Result: the masters couldn't get out at the end of break. We received Friday detentions during which we had to write essays on 'Mob Rule'. But it seemed worth it at the time...." ...David Chambers 60-65;

"jobs, Friday and Saturday Detention. Certainly, for my year, I lead the field for these various punishments. Admittedly there was some stiff competition but for me it was a marathon and not a sprint. As I recall the exchange rate in my time it was 3 jobs = a Friday detention, 3 Friday detentions = a Saturday detention. My preference, once at the two Friday detention stage was to acquire another and get it all out the way on Saturday morning. Not only that, but a Saturday went down on the term report as one detention - thus keeping me at single figures!" ...Charles Dowden 65-72;

"EIO Magazine: In '69 I helped publish a magazine with some sixth form friends (whose names escape me). It took its name from the school chant and included the full text of the song, suitably edited with *'s in place of various words! Only ran to one edition so the puzzle answers were never published!" ...Paul Bennington 63-70;

"'knowledge is a steep which few may climb, but duty is a path which all must tread' the famous lines dished out in their thousands. I can still remember some 25 years after writing them. As a prefect I remember we had a pretty good trade in these lines, selling them back to the 4th and 5th years for cigarettes, but I can not remember the exact conversion rate 'Knowledges to fags;" ...Ray Monsell 72-79;

"Feeling a bit bored we decided to hijack the school's free milk. It was always delivered a while before the school opened and left at the Free School Lane entrance by the gym. It took some time before the school milk was discovered hidden inside a pair of large vaulting horses..." ...David Chambers 60-65;

"The end of term school bus could get a bit wild. On one occasion things got so riotous that the driver took the bus straight to the police station. The coppers boarded to restore order." ...Paul Nicholson 70-74;

"[Knowledges] I used to pre-write these using 2 pens at the same time. 'Knowledge is a steep that few may climb while duty is a path that all may tread' or something similar, inscribed at the back of the school hall." ...Tony Parkinson 1966-71;

"The school chant certainly flourished in my time - and it was the duty of every second-year to ensure first-years were well-practised in its lyrics. An OW from the generation above me said it existed during the headmastership of K Imeson (early 50s) and it was during the leaving ceremony and chant that one boy fired several air pellets into Sir Joe's portrait, then in the main hall of the old school. The pockmarks could still be seen around his face when I last looked at an OW dinner. There is also an L-shaped tear in the fabric of the portrait caused by a boy (he was a Scot but I have forgotten his name) in the year above me c 1970. He broke into the school and attacked it with a hockey stick." ...Stephen Rayner 66-73;

"I do also recollect that they [the school Chant] were sung during the last assembly of each term. The first line was always started by Andy Laws. I can remember the Headmaster, Mr. Wadhams , sending him immediately to his study for the cane. This would have been about 1970." ... Trevor Brook 67-72

"I don't know if this was the Math's first educational cruise - but I went on one in 1971. We travelled on the SS Nevasa and visited Portugal, Madeira, Azores and Lanzarote. I recall drunken bundles between dormitories. Naturally, I took no part." ... Stephen Rayner 66-73;

"Went to Sir Josephs and got beaten up by Dave Bowles (aka Bill) on my first day. He also put a banger under my cap and blew the friggin' "bobble" off !!" ...David Ford 70-75;

"The daily ritual of boarding the school bus: The cry of 'Bundle' and a hundred or so boys trying to board a 142 simultaneously. A huge rugby scrum - a hundred boys on one team against a double decker on the other. Often a jam would form, a dozen boys crushed across the doorway, legs trapped and unable to breath. The driver would wait patiently, he saw it every day. The prefects would check underneath for extruded first formers before the bus moved off. Occasionally, masters would attempt to maintain order, pacing up and down an orderly line, issuing dire threats and clouts. All would look well - right up to the moment the bus pulled to a stop. At that instant something would happen - a chain reaction so fast that no individual could be identified as the trigger - Bundle!

Indeed, bundling was ubiquitous. Whenever a situation would be appropriate for an orderly queue to form - entering a room or stairwell, in fact, whenever two or more boys need to pass through a constriction, there would be the cry of 'Bundle!' and a scrum would form. Lone individuals had been known to wait for others to arrive before proceeding through a doorway.

Naturally, being the cream of Kent's young intellect, we realised that an orderly queue was the most efficient passage, but that wasn't the point - you had to have been there to understand the simple mad exuberance of it.

The most fun occured with a two-way flow. One lot bundling into a room while another lot was leaving. A heaving scrum, dozens on each side, would be bracketed by the straining door frame. The bundle would shift in and out as the opposing forces sought a dynamic equilibrium. Usually the outside lot won, simply by weight of numbers - boys passing by in the corridor would throw themselves in, even though they were heading elsewhere." ...Paul Nicholson 70-74;