Dicky Leewood

 On the left is probably one of the widest distributed photographs in the history of the school. I think it was taken by Mike Olarenshaw who was a keen photographer when at school and we all seemed to get a copy.  It is of course of the caretaker of the school in the 40's and 50's: Dicky Leewood.  Dicky was not just a caretaker but lived the life of the school. From looking after sporting teams to harangueing boys who brought in snow on their shoes, he had the school at heart.

 Old Boys kept in touch and here is a letter written by him to John Grundy and a photo of him with one of the rugby teams of the era which appears elsewhere too with no apologies. Dicky is on the extreme left.  Also here is a photo of Dicky and his wife Edith at their North Street home near to the school.  The snaps referred to in the letter are the ones reproduced here.

The Boys School Song and School Prayer

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The Life of a Boarder

MORNING
THE bell rang at 7.30am sharp. At once we leapt out of bed, donned our running clothes and jogged around the standard two mile run.  Back to the dorm, a quick cold shower supervised by a prefect, made your bed, and down to the day room for a line-up inspection.  Breakfast at 8.00am. After breakfast, we had to dash to get into lines in the playground and were led into school assembly and prayers.
Another day at Ashby-de-la-Zouch Boarding School had started.

MEALTIMES
At midmorning break, boarders could, if quick, collect half a slice of bread and margarine. This was also served on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.  Tea was the same every day, namely six half slices of bread, that were three quarters of an inch thick and spread with tasteless mixed fruit jam.
We were also allowed to put out the occasional tin of baked beans or spaghetti, which the kitchen staff would heat up and stand out on a side table with the owner's name scribbled on a piece of paper tucked under the edge of the beans for you to collect.
Tuesday breakfast was porridge and bread and marmalade with pork for lunch.  Wednesday lunch was steak pie and Thursday was liver.  Friday breakfast was kippers and lunch was fish.  Saturday lunch was macaroni cheese.
Sunday breakfast was sausages and lunch was the best meal of the week, when a different cook was employed. It varied between beef, mutton or pork.  Second helpings were available for both the main course and the sweet, which was either Jam Roly Poly or Jam Tart.
John Grundy's record was three helpings of the first course and five of the second!  There was always an active trade in 'seconds' whereby those boarders who were not hungry collected their second helping and discreetly swapped plates with their hungry neighbour

MISS FINCH AND THE SICK ROOM
The point was never to be sick as once a term Miss Finch organised the Sick Room Feast.  Cakes were served at teatime but only for the lucky boarders who had NOT been in the sickroom.  As a result we tried to hide our measles and spots, but always unsuccessfully under the eagle eye of Miss Finch, who saw everything. Once in the sickroom, which consisted of two beds, everyone had to either draw a picture or write an article in the 'Malady Mag'.
For those who were not ill enough to go into the sickroom, they had to join the daily queue at Miss Finch's medicine cupboard. She also kept an eye on our daily  intake of either Malt or Cod Liver Oil.
Once a week Miss Finch also gave out our clean clothes -shirt, vest and pants. If you missed your collection time then you had no clean clothes.
She also made each of us take turns in cutting up old newspapers for toilet paper. At least we could read the toilet paper but we could never find the end of the article.
One treat that Miss Finch arranged was to allow us to toast bread on her coal fire in her room before lights out.

PUNISHMENTS
Punishments varied depending on who was handing them out. Three of the best with a hard slipper on one's rear end was common. Others varied from writing out lines, to carrying a chair around with you on your morning run to being sent to bed early. One nasty punishment was to stand under a beam and be made to look upwards for over five minutes.

POCKET MONEY
Pocket money was six old pence a week. This was handed out on Saturday lunch time. We were allowed to spend one hour in town as long as you were wearing your cap.  The money could be spent on cherries, fruit or sweets.
Some would spend one penny in the weighing machine at Wooleys as you not only got your weight on a cardboard ticket ... but on the other side you got your future. We were allowed to supplement our six pence by one pound in a bank held by the House Master. One could draw out a shilling but would have to explain what you proposed spending it on.

HAIRCUTS
Saturday afternoon was also the time for haircuts, short back and sides at Shentons, where the school had an account with them at a reduced rate. To have Mr Shenton Senior cut your hair was the most painful operation you could imagine as he was always talking to someone else at the same time as he was cutting your hair and the clippers he used were the hand operated type, which pulled out the small hairs by the roots!

PETS
The pet room was introduced during our years at school and John Grundy well remembers that it became one of his early commercial enterprises. It started when John Grundy was recruited to go potato picking for a local farmer at nine old pence an hour. Though the wages were poor, he quickly found an easy way of subsidising them by catching field mice and voles in the potato field and selling them at extortionate prices to those boarders who had not a pet of their own.  Unfortunately the venture was reported to the authorities and John Grundy was forced into early liquidation.

MIDNIGHT FEASTS
Midnight feasts were highly organised affairs and featured mainly in July. The food was always pretty much the same and consisted of spaghetti, baked beans and eggs all mixed together and cooked to perfection on a gas stove. This was followed by various fruits and cakes that were carefully collected for this special occasion. The whole was liberally washed down by copious amounts of Dandelion and Burdock or Ginger Beer. Each dormitory held their own feast and the two most popular venues were either at the top of the ruined tower of Ashby Castle or the basement under the School Tower.

TORTURES AND DARES
Tortures and dares varied. For middle top it was to be pushed into a laundry basket and then placed under a cold shower - a unique experience!
At the Manor House there were two dares, which you had to do in order to hold your head up high.
The first was to leave the Manor House at midnight, climb up the outside of the Castle Tower to reach the first floor window. Then climb up to the very top of the tower via the old spiral staircase and flash your torch three times to prove the job was complete.
The second dare was, again at night time, to go down the smelly, damp underground passage, which led to the old dungeon, where needless to say a ghostly figure in white was waiting to greet you!

SUNDAYS
A typical Sunday was wonderful.  We had a lie in until eight.  Church at eleven. We had to give one penny of our six pence pocket money to the collection, and took turns to serve Communion for the Vicar.
We had to write a letter to our parents, which was always checked by the housemaster.
After lunch, we usually went on a joint walk accompanied by a housemaster and a prefect. Back in time for tea and possibly finish off your homework.
Every two weeks one of the highlights of our lives was a black and white film presentation in the physics lab. by Mr Riley. The stars were often Will Hay, Roy Rogers and Laurel and Hardy.

This article was first published in the Coalville and Ashby Times  Friday May 7th 1999.
 

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RETIREMENT   Mr F. HILL 1925 - 1968

Frank Gammy Hill.  My first impression was of a young man physically well endowed even in 1925, somewhat reserved, a not surprising condition at a first meeting; his few remarks being concerned to discover what the Staff was like and in particular what kind of man was the 'Boss'.  On this latter point I, too, was reserved.  We discussed the science facilities, which were primitive, and in due course arrived in good time for the Staff meeting.
From that time until he retired forty-three years later it is almost literally true to say that he left the school buildings only at holiday times and to go to his 'digs' to sleep.
Bluntly expressive, single minded almost to obstinacy, vigorous in his teaching, he was concerned that boys who came to him should justify his efforts on their behalf; he saw to it that they did.
Highly partisan where his House was concerned, his loyalty to both House and School remains unquestioned.  He will be remembered with a little awe and much affection by the hundreds of boys who benefitted from his kindly forcefulness.
We wish him a long and happy retirement; he has served the school well.
J.L.J.

I assume JLJ was Mr 'Jimmy' Jones of Geog fame and projector operator of the slides of far away places.
Please let me know if this is not so. - Mike.
THANKS TO DON WARD FOR THIS ARTICLE FROM THE 'ASHBEIAN' AND THE PHOTO

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Some “Gammy Hill” Stories

For those who were taught by 'Gammy' Hill his methods and personality spawned stories. It was almost obligatory that boys learned to imitate his unique way of speaking and such stories were told with this accent and with relish.
Here are some of them and I hope more will follow.

Mike Page's Stories
PHYSICS
This story I learned in the lower school and to my delight was repeated during a 5A Physics lesson in the lab.
"You boys know nothing. So we will start again at the beginning. You boy, how do you make a thermometer."  And we did start again at the beginning - of the syllabus for the School Certificate.
IN THE CLASS ROOM
Another was a unique way of estimating your ability on a scale of 0 to 0. "If your brains were made of elastic there wouldn't be enough to make a pair of gaters for a gnat!"
IN THE CHEM LAB
I remember clearly the demonstration in the chem lab. of the preparation and properties of nitric oxide gas. This involved some copper turnings and a little water in a flask fitted with delivery tube and thistle funnel. (Is there no end to this mans recollections).  Gammy being his impetuous self poured about half a litre of conc nitric acid into the funnel. After a short time of doing nothing the flask suddenly became a seething generator of gas and the delivery tube being unable to cope the acid started spurting skywards from the thistle funnel. "Look out", said Gammy. The class took off like a guided missile to the back of the lab. One boy famous for his lack of athletic ability was witnessed clearing two benches in a single stride.  They don't teach chemistry like that these days.
IN THE PHYSICS LAB
Static electricity it was called.  A Leyden Jar was charged by Gammy using the famous Wimshurst Machine. We all held hands in a circle and Gammy held the jar and invited the boy at the other end of the line to touch the 'terminal knob' of the jar.  We all jumped as the current surged through us. "Now we will charge it up some more and if you want to drop out of the circle do so. "Jolt! "Now a bit more" JOLT!! "Now some more"  JEEOLT!!!!. And so it went on the circle of boys getting smaller until only a few boys (idiots?) were left and who lept about a foot off their stools as the jar was discharged. Those were REAL physics lessons. None of this namby pamby hydrogen fusion stuff. You could feel this!!
These days the man would be gaoled for child cruelty, but I bet the trial wouldn't be remembered like those Physics Lessons by The Master.     Gammy of course.
AFTER HOURS
I remember having a pint and a game of snooker at the Ashby Club (?) with Gammy in the late 50's.  He was good company, much quieter than I expected and very cheerful.  Rather as JLJ describes him.

More stories please

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Staff Stories

 These from John Treaddell

Mr Scott: 3A classroom (next to the clock tower in the main school building) had a double door on which the return spring had been broken for some time. Scottie was in the habit of ramming the door open with his walking stick when he came to take a class, and glaring at the class to see who was misbehaving. During one holiday the door spring was renewed!! Guess what happened the next time Scottie charged the door?
 
Mr Addison: He loved his pipe. The story goes that one lunchtime he was seen striding up Market Street, Ashby with a stream of smoke issuing from his jacket pocket which was smouldering after he pocketed his pipe, still alight.
 
'Gammy' Hill: It was reported that, after Gammy had set up apparatus to prepare Chlorine gas in the Chemistry Lab., several members of the class had to be taken across the road to the Cottage Hospital for treatment. Nothing serious though - just lots of coughing.
 
Mr Eckersley: Everyone knew that he was a crack shot with a piece of chalk, a board rubber, or anything else at hand, if he needed to admonish a pupil. During one history lesson one of the lads was cleaning his specs on the desk in front of him when Mr Eckersley spotted him and, thinking the lad was not paying attention, scored a direct hit on the desk top with his key wallet. Everyone held their breath, but fortunately the specs weren't damaged.
 
That's all for now - cheers from a cold, wet, windy UK
 John Treaddell

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