School Trips Memories

[CitroJim]

I only ever recall two school trips... There may have been more..

One was to a large peat works not far away in the depths of the Somerset Levels at Shapwick. It's still there - been past it on cycle sportive rides a few times in recent years - but a shadow of its former self and growing smaller by the year as peat becomes more and more unloved in horticultural circles.

It was so big it even had its own internal narrow-gauge railway. But that's not why I recall this trip. The sole reason is because one of my classmates - the accident-prone one which every class has - managed to squash his hand and arm in a machine and had to be rushed to hospital... I think he was OK and no long-lasting damage was done...

The second and most memorable was in my last year of Secondary when we went to Wimbledon during the early stages of that years' tennis. Huge fun and mainly because it was a great day to spend with all the girls and getting up to mischief with them In those days, except in class, boys and girls were still segregated at our school so to be able to spend a whole day in close contact with them in high spirits was very magical indeed

We even managed to blag tickets to whatever match was taking place on Centre Court that day... Someone famous was playing but it passed me by... I was far more interested in my female company...

The coach trip home that evening was good and somewhat 'educational' for a 15 year old boy

[Peter.N.]

We went to greenwich, saw the Cutty Sark then went for a trip down the river but I don't remember much more about that, The one I do remember was the trip to the festival of Britain, that was very interesting, I think the thing I remember best was the stripped out chassis of a tram so you could see all the works, always interested in how things work (except digital) and still am.

Peter

[myglaren]

The ones I remember were the 'Castles Club'. For five bob a week, every Friday we went off in a charabanc to various castles and cathedrals. Brilliant skive!

The one that sticks in my memory is Bolton castle. Brilliant.

But segregated from girls? Only from 8 to 11 in an all boys school that would have been too small to accommodate girls too. They were at the other end of the street.

[mickthemaverick]

If you look back through this thread you will find this quote from an earlier post of mine here!

I have just been hunting through my accessible archives to find the booklet but no luck. I do have it somewhere and eventually I will be able to find it and tell the tale in full.

When I do manage to find the booklet I will post it up for general amusement but don't hold your breath!

Well I did say I would and so here it is, (this is what happens when you look back over old threads! )

Own work

Own work

Own work

Own work

Own work

Own work

Own work

Own work

Own work

Own work

No apologies for the writing, I was only 10!!

[Dormouse]

The random hand of the FCF Archive February Ferret has selected this thread as thread of the day for 7th February 2023. New posts welcomed to mark the occasion

Seeing as the Power station trip was pretty much it throughout school until age 11 I opened up the discussion to the floor at chez falcon, and discover 3 times the number of school trips were "enjoyed" by those who completed their schooling north of the border.

One to Monktonhall Colliery, which would probably tick off against my power station at Blaydon trip, but two trips to Blair Drummond Safari park no less. Strange the incidents that stick in the memory through one of the trips was still associated with one of the boys throwing a tin from his picnic into the lake and the teacher going into a massive rage about it. Hope it stopped him from turning into a full grown hooligan!

Looks like Blair Drummond Safari Park is still in existence today.

Durham's closest attraction of a similar nature was the Lambton Lion Park, but no we went to the Power Station!

Never thought about Lambton Lion Park for years, the Chronicle has a bit of a reminisce about it here
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/hi ... n-17063693

Neil

Monktonhall.

Not far from Prestongrange and Preston Links collieries - my stomping ground.

Blair Drummond should re-open in late march after it's winter break.

[NewcastleFalcon]

When I do manage to find the booklet I will post it up for general amusement but don't hold your breath!

Pure gold in my estimation and a bit of reflected glory for the FCF Archives February Ferret

Excellent contributions all round so far.

Neil

[Peter.N.]

I would have liked to have gone to a power station. A friend of mine that lived north of here went on a trip to Droitwich LW transmitting station back in the days when it was the BBC light programme, sounded absolutely fascinating, wish I could have done it.

Peter

[CitroJim]

I would have liked to have gone to a power station. A friend of mine that lived north of here went on a trip to Droitwich LW transmitting station back in the days when it was the BBC light programme, sounded absolutely fascinating, wish I could have done it.

Yes, that would have been awesome Peter... And a visit to Droitwich would have been magical too... Nearest I got to that was during my apprentiship, so almost a school trip, a week at the then BBC World Service Transmitting Station at Crowborough when ASPI 1, the big MF transmitter used during the war for black propaganda, was still operational and transmitting the BBC WS on 648KHz...

It shaped my future somewhat and instilled in me a love of high power radio and big engines... The site used a Napier Deltic (similar to a Class 55 railway locomotive) for standby power generation... There blossomed my love of big diesels!

[Peter.N.]

There is or was a large World Service transmitter at Rampisham just to the east of here Jim. They had just constructed some huge antenna masts in an attempt to stop the Russians jamming it, they were a sight to behold, soon after they were built the cold war ended and they have since been demolished, or at least most of them.

I had an interesting involvement with them while they were functioning, they were transmitting a harmonic right on top of the SN 2m repeater in Hampshire which some friends and I were having a net on. I managed to get their phone number - can't remember how, anyway I told them my problem and they shut the transmitter down and retuned it! didn't cure it but imagine getting someone to do that now.!

Peter

[CitroJim]

Excellent Peter I believe they regretted closing Rampisham when worldly things got a bit troublesome a while back...

In my lifetime I've seen almost all the HF sites closed now, including 6 or 7 I worked at back in the day. We always maintained it was a big mistake and very short-sighted. A bit like a radio Beeching Axe. So far we seem to have managed, often more by luck than judgement but I still believe it was a bad mistake and sooner or later it will come back to bite us. So sad to see Rugby Radio now entirety disappeared. It was such a landmark near Junction 18 of the M1... Once you destroy an HF radio station - like a closed railway - it's almost impossible to reinstate it...

Your experience of reporting your harmonic show the staff were real engineers in those days! Indeed, if anyone took the trouble to to report an issue to the stations I worked at we'd take action.

I recall a notice above one transmitter at a site that advised it should not be used on a certain frequency into a certain aerial as it caused TV interference in the nearby village... That was back in the days of 405 line TV...

[Peter.N.]

Yes true. What the point in destroying was I don't know the antennas would have lasted for years - look at Droitwich. The incident I mentioned would have been in the '80s Jim.

Peter

[CitroJim]

Yes true. What the point in destroying was I don't know the antennas would have lasted for years - look at Droitwich. The incident I mentioned would have been in the '80s Jim.

Droitwich may soon be just a memory Peter...

Big aerial fields take a lot of maintenance - we used to employ a considerable gang of riggers to maintain ours and they were never idle... Always something to be done. Big broadcast arrays soon become dangerous if not very carefully looked after... Stays especially have to be closely monitored and only have a finite life... Often not a long one... Even though they are usually galvanised they still corrode rather well...

And it's expensive... In one of our fields it was found some of the mast and stay foundations had concrete cancer... The cost of renewing those bases was eyewatering...

[Peter.N.]

Didn't realise that Jim, I thought those highly galvanized ones at Rampisham would have lasted forever.

There was a huge aerial farm at Dorchester when we first moved down here, I think it was for world wide post office telephone communication, it must have covered about 20 or 30 acres, never seen anything like it, gone now of course but the transmitter building is still there. Used as a printing works for many years but I think it's unoccupied now.

Peter

[CitroJim]

We used to let our aerial fields out to local farmers for grazing Peter. Cows were a problem as quite substantial fences were needed around the mast bases, the stay bases and feeder poles - another big maintenance item - to prevent the cows damaging them and exposing them to potential danger, especially at a transmitting station. A cow leaning against a radiating mast would likely be pre-cooked before being butchered if their safety was not taken into consideration!

Sheep were better as they did not do so much damage and left the grass looking very tidy...

An aerial field not looked after by grazing soon becomes a wilderness. Mowing it would be a full time job and a right pain dodging a mower all around the obstacles...

[Dormouse]

Stonehaven and District Motor Club used the access road up to Durris Hill Transmission Mast as a Hillclimb venue. I will put a video of a 1990s event up on Just When You Thought it was Safe.

It could be quite calm at the bottom of the hill and blowing a hoolie at the top!