After
visiting Collingwood – the dockyard apprentice training centre on Khyber Road – with
the school on a snowy day months earlier, I never dreamt I’d be coming back as an electrical fitter apprentice. In summer sunshine, Collingwood
didn’t look half as dismal and a sizeable Upbury contingent helped me settle quickly.
How Brian Lack, Raymond Wright, Martyn Hooper and I came to be in the same
building, learning the same trade on the same section was incredible. Apprentices from most trades went straight into the yard, but not
us. In time we would, along with the engine fitter apprentices, but for the
next two years we’d be based at Collingwood. And we weren’t the only ex-Upbury
pupils there. Peter Rowswell and Bob Harding were on other sections, as were second
year apprentices Chris Holmes and Harjinder Bahia.
After
working a week in hand we got our first pay packet of four quid. Brian
suggested we celebrate with a lunchtime pint. I wasn’t that enthusiastic but I
tagged along anyway with Brian, Raymond, Martyn and couple of our new
workmates.
In
the public bar of the Viscount Hardinge on the corner of the High Street and Marlborough Road,
each of us ordered a pint, separately and individually. When it came to my turn
I ordered a pint of brown ale, not through preference, but as a straight
forward option in a world in which I was ignorant. I’d never drunk a pint in my
life and though I gave the first sip the obligatory nod of approval, it tasted
bloody awful. Having passed the big test of getting served in a pub I should
have been happy, but I wasn’t. I was as jumpy as a bank robber, even before
Brian looked across the bar and spotted a familiar face in the lounge.
‘Look!
There’s Cyril!’
While
I choked on my beer, Raymond leaned over the bar, anxious to get a glimpse of
our old maths teacher. ‘It is too! Go on, have a look,’ he said, pushing me
forward.
A
quick glance over the bar was enough. Seeing Cyril sitting in the lounge did
nothing for my nerves. So what if I wasn’t at school anymore, I was fifteen and
underage, and Cyril was Cyril, and he still scared the living daylights out of
me. It wouldn’t be the last lunchtime pint I had, but it was my last in the Viscount Hardinge.
July 1970
‘Let’s
have the afternoon off!’ was another Brian Lack suggestion, when we heard Upbury
Manor’s sports day was taking place that afternoon. He and Raymond were keen to
attend, understandably so, as holders of school records. Me, I wasn’t
so sure. 120 hours annual leave sounded a lot but really, it wasn’t. I was
reluctant to chuck away half a day’s holiday, though I did like the idea of
seeing the girls bounce their bits around the track.
Mister
Charlesworth was quick to pounce when three youths wandered through the upper
school gate. As two of them were wearing Fred Perry shirts, Levis and Doc Martens, and their lanky
companion was wearing a jean jacket, jeans and hobnailed boots, he had every
right to be concerned.
I let
Brian and Raymond do the talking when Mister Charlesworth intercepted us near
the bike sheds. He wasn’t exactly welcoming, though he had no objection to us
staying for the sports. ‘Get some chairs and sit here,’ he said, indicating
that nearest corner of the field. A tactful way of saying he didn’t want us
coming any further, I sensed, but fair enough.
Within
minutes we were joined by former classmate Richard Pascall. After ingratiating
himself to Brian and Raymond, he plonked his chair beside me and made a
wisecrack at my expense. In school uniform I’d have put up with it, only I
wasn’t in school uniform anymore.
‘F*** off Pascall!’ I said, as my hobnailed boot narrowly
missed his shin and took a chunk out of his chair leg.
Richard’s
face was an absolute picture. Of course I’d purposely missed his shin. I just
had to let him know that working men don’t
tolerate that kind of nonsense from schoolboys. Out of school he might have
pulverised me, but Richard was as good as gold after that. For the rest of an
enjoyable afternoon the four of us watched the sports, had a laugh and ogled
the girls. Though I kept it to myself, one girl in particular caught my eye and made an impression I wouldn’t forget.
Hmm
