TO 14
Nick Ware
I was mortified recently to find that my dear mother kept all my letters home from boarding school. A school where weekly letter writing was compulsory whether there was anything new to say or not. It seems the habit carried on after I joined the BBC.
Here’s a letter I wrote on arrival at Evesham for TO Course 14 on Jan 6th., 1963!
I didn’t realise I was that old! See if it echoes how you found it.
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Dave Mundy
When I arrived at Wood Norton in 1961 dormitory block ‘D’ was very like the RAF barracks I had been to with the school CCF Summer camps. Communal washrooms, a common room with a single loudspeaker for the ring-main sound system, and the (NAAFI) canteen! But we had a good time and made the most of it. The club in Evesham was a life saver and I think the worst decision they made was to build a club on-site. You really needed to get ‘off site’ to get back to the real world!
Graeme Wall
It hadn’t got any better in 1969 (TO31). Like an RAF base is just how it struck me.
Geoff Fletcher
Not a letter home but a diary entry. Similar comment re the likeness to military establishments! We were lucky on TO19 as we were graced with the presence of a group of female Radio Tech Ops – a first for a TO Course I think. They were all very charming young ladies and they made our 14 weeks in jug much more agreeable just by being there!
Monday 13th April 1964
Start TO19 Evesham course.
By train to Evesham. Played poker all the way. Stuck pencil into my finger – bled like hell and left a black dot. Amused by porter singing out “Morrrreton In The Maaarsh!” at a stop en route. All piled off at Evesham. Train had to set back to let one of our blokes get his motorbike out of guard’s van and onto the platform. Piled onto two buses in station yard and had lecture about proper behaviour from a wizened old guy called Major Oldman. No women in rooms at night and keep your linen clean! I was instantly smitten by a beautiful blonde girl getting on Radio Tech Ops bus – slim, blue eyes, just lovely. Couldn’t take my eyes off her! Drove about two miles to pseudo Elizabethan mansion at top of steep drive. Baled out and got settled into our rooms – me sharing with Mike Fenner. Billeted in D Block – pretty Spartan – very barrack like. Had a look round and something to eat, plus welcome speech etc. Found out what the girl’s name was. To Clifton cinema in Evesham at night to see “The Long Ships” with John, Mike, and Dave. Tried a couple of pubs, Old Red House and Royal Oak, and the BBC Club afterwards. Club had the best beer of the three – and the cheapest!
On TO19 the distaff side were in Dorm X – forbidden territory to us chaps allegedly. However, after a night at the Club cocoa was frequently provided behind those hallowed doors to a favoured few.
Nick Ware
Given that it was the sixties and free love was everywhere, which was fortunate because that was all we could afford on BBC salaries, I’m sure the slim blue-eyed blonde didn’t go to waste.
But who was the pretty Spartan?
TO 18
Peter Cook
I am sure that there were radio tech ops of the fairer sex on TO18 and certainly some female radio SMs. But the most fun I remember was playing cards (canasta) with them. They were not in D block and had more comfortable billets. Other TO18 attendees:
(Click on the picture below to see a larger or clearer version of this picture:
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Roy Bailey middle row 2nd from left, between Andy Craib far left, and myself.
Vernon Dyer
I’m in that picture, and I’ve changed too!
Pat Heigham
Two stories involving the Evesham Club.
Coming back one night, a Scots member, had a motorbike and said he would catch us up. Remember the blind left hand bend about halfway along? So Jim came hurtling past us, but leaning over too far, the footrest caught the road surface with a shower of sparks, spinning bike and rider into a field of cabbages. In pitch darkness, us car passengers got out to see if Jim was still alive. Calling out to him, a voice answered out of the night: “I’m over herrre and I’m alllrrrright!”
One of our guys was a Frank Smith, a bit older than us and wiser in the ways of the world. Reg, the Club Steward was trying to get Frank to play a silly game, betting that he couldn’t place a coin on his forehead and drop it into a funnel wedged in his trouser waistband. Frank played dumb, not understanding where the funnel should be put. Frustrated, Reg stuffed it into his own trousers, whereupon Frank tipped the remainder of his pint straight into it, which of course was what Reg was intending to do to Frank.
(Ee! That were a good laff, that!)
My TO course (#13) started in March 1962 and as the weather got better, there was boating on the river to play at, in between exploring the local hostelries.
Later, on STO Course #21, we were up there in the autumn and nearing Christmas, instead of constructing a TV programme, we put on a pantomime in the dance hall. This was brilliantly written by a couple of the guys, and was a variation on ‘Dick Whittington’ who was portrayed as a rather simple soul needing to be educated by his extremely suave, streetwise cat (Eric Wallis, in evening dress, ears fixed to a top hat, who carried his tail over his arm – the tail was made in velvet by my mum!). Ian Leiper played a Caliph at one point in silk pantaloons. The show played to a packed house, and I am still in admiration of the hidden talent that BBC staff could produce.
Those that had attended a boarding school probably didn’t worry too much about the Wood Norton set-up – actually, it’s said that prisoners who are sent to jail, settle in very quickly if they had been to a boarding school! Certainly, my prep school was similar, and weekly letter writing home after Church on Sundays was ‘de rigour’ and were censored by the Headmaster, who, as jailer, was akin to a little tin god. Happy days, eh!
Below, the obligatory course photo of STO Course 21:
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