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Welcome to the Guestbook
Feel free to add messages relating to the site and the school. The only rules are: real names only, no personal attacks and no unrelated messages (inappropriate messages may be edited/withdrawn without warning).

It would be appreciated if you gave an email address, where you now live and said when you were at the school, but you don't have to.

Plase note that if you click on an email address below you will need to replace ~DOT~ with . and ~AT~ with @ in your email program. The Guestbook presents these this way to avoid email address harvesters collecting your email addresses from the page. I know it's a pain, but it's very much better than the alternative.

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There are 501 messages in the guestbook
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Viewing messages 1 to 10

Neale Backhouse | neale1447~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Glad to have you back Eric, not quite ninety but almost there. Also glad to hear that Doreen is doing well. I wonder how many of our contemporaries are still alive and kicking. Maybe you have knowledge of case histories that you might impart? Oh and please elaborate on "Houses of Parliament" story. What tales of glory or infamy brought that about? Or are all ninety year old couples celebrated in England?
Cheers, Neale.

Tue 15-Jul-2025 18:55 - Victoria BC

Eric Moyse 1946 to 1952 (Boys) | eric~DOT~moyse35~AT~yahoo~DOT~com

Catching up:
Real fans cannot bear even to look eg Sunderland's promotion match and England beating India today by, was it, 22 runs?I had to look these results up afterwards.
On the question of Ha'way and Howay, I hate to say this but I think Newcastle have it right and Sunderland have it wrong for surely it is a contraction of "Have way."
Going back to the 26th School Scouts, here was indeed a waiting list and preference was given to A formers. As I had been demoted to the B stream I had to wait but I was let in after a few months (I stayed in B forms until second year sixth despite having been in nothing but A streams since their inception).

Mon 14-Jul-2025 18:24 - Reading, Berkshire

Eric Moyse | eric~DOT~moyse35~AT~yahoo~DOT~com

Having not looked at this website for some months I was delighted to find that our two Canadians are still among those contributing. Congratulations to Neale and Alex and to all survivors fom our school year and before. Happily that includes my wife Doreen as well as myself.
I know that you are all avid readers of Hansard. You will no doubt therefore have seen that onthe 4th of June Doreen and I were congratulated from the floor of the House of Commons on 2025 being the year when both of us reach 90 years of age (in my case subject to another few months' survival).
I wil be shortly be catching up with the news from this website and may have some fascinating memories to share.
Anyway best of luck and thanks once again to Mike.

Sun 13-Jul-2025 20:21 - Reading, Berkshire

Mike

Apologies for not following up the Marsden photo - I don't check in that often!

Unfortunately the Guestbook is text only, so embedding a photo isn't possible.

I'll see if I can link it.

Tue 1-Jul-2025 18:11 - Rothbury

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Any more criminals out there?

Much later in life when my parents were living in one of the (council) pensioners houses right at the end of Lizard Lane Thomson's Quarry was my favourite venue for exercising our dogs on our occasional visits to SS.

Mon 30-Jun-2025 16:54 - ruskington lincolnshie

Alan Whittaker(1953-59) | alan~DOT~diwhittaker~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hi Neale,Alex and Bruce.I don't know about you Bruce but I had no idea we had an ex-arsonist on the Sutton Estate!Could it be that leaving the country to live abroad was more than work related?
I also used to take a box of matches into Thompson's Quarry! Years ago Norman Hannah who owned the Riding School on Lizard Lane used to graze horses overnight in the Quarry. We would climb over the fence and rattle a box of matches at the horses and they would approach us thinking we were offering corn. We would grab a mane and swing up onto the horses back and gallop it,bareback, around the Quarry!

Looking back it was quite a dangerous act,the follies of youth!

Mon 30-Jun-2025 11:06 - Langford Budville, Somerset

Alex Patterson, VUA 1946 - 1951 | ad1935ap~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hi Neale,
You should have never confessed to that crime, "playing with matches" indeed. The only thing you can do with matches is to strike them and apply them to something flammable. I think you and Liz had better go into hiding, because the South Shields Police Force operates a 'cold case' squad that is known world wide for its tenacity. Now they have a confession!!
However, given your advanced age, they may go easy on you for your advanced age.
Cheers from a sunny and very comfortable North York,
Alex

Sun 29-Jun-2025 21:47 - North York, Ontario, Canada

Neale Backhouse | neale1447~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hi Mike,
Alan's Photo of Marsden (received via g mail) shows a grassy hill in front of the new (and in progress) estate. That brings back a vivid memory. As kids from Sutton Estate, we were playing with matches on the estate side of that hill. It was a warm and sunny day and before we realised what was goimg on a grass fire had erupted and began roaring up the hill. We all took off home along the farm path as fast as we could go. Fearing the consequences and like a criminal returning to the scene of the crime, I jumped on my bike and road back to the burned hillside, By this time workers from the building site had left their jobs and were standing around the edge of the burn beating out the remaining hot spots. The whole of the hillside was now a blackened mess. Not wishing to be finger pointed, I hastily fled the scene. Luckily for us there were no repurcusions and we were able to hide our involvment (until today). But I must admit I always had a guilty feeling passing that hill until it had finally greened over again.
Today the old fence has gone, as has the former estate and Thompson's Quarry is now parkland.
Cheers from a warm and sunny Victoria.

Sun 29-Jun-2025 19:36 - Victoria BC

Alan Whittaker(1953-59) | alan~DOT~diwhittaker~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hi Bruce(again), I tried to send you the Marsden photo to: bsgraham@btinternet.com but was unsuccessful have you changed your email address?
Alan

Sat 28-Jun-2025 16:21 - Langford Budville, Somerset

Alan Whittaker(1953-59) | alan~DOT~diwhittaker~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hi Bruce, the lake adjacent to the farm path was called Farding Lake which was cleared to facilitate one end of the Lake Ave estate. Do you remember the large pump house near the lake? There was another lake(pond) on the other side of Prince Edward Rd which didn't merit a formal name as far as I know,we used to call it The Lily Pond, this also had an adjacent large pump house.

Sat 28-Jun-2025 13:37 - Langford Budville, Somerset

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