1950s

In 1957 a book was published to mark the 50th anniversary of the school. This photo of the school front in 1950 is reproduced from the book."West Leeds High School, A Chronicle History" by Oswald H Harland (1957).

Recollections posted on the Leodis Website by CE Vary - "I was a pupil at the school from Sep 53 to July 61. My sister and younger brother followed me there, from our primary school, the Upper Armley Church of England Primary School. The headmaster throughout our period at WLBHS was Mr Barnshaw. The boy's section of the school is the left hand part of the building as seen in the picture, with the Girls occupying the right hand side. All lessons were segregated, but mixing was permitted in the breaks, usually spent around the cricket pitch. The tree to the left of the main cricket square was a noted natural hazard. Along the length of the building, on each floor, ran central corridors with large, high ceilinged classrooms to right and left. On most floors, doors separated the Boys and Girls halves, but on the upper floor (Music, Art and Library?) a white paint line across the corridor marked the boundary. The small triangular green just behind the school in the picture (in effect, outside the front entrance) was called Charley Cake Park. Trams ran along the road separating the school and the park, climbing a steep rise to the left of the picture and terminating at a small hospital at the top, where there was also a large pub called, appropriately, the Traveller's Rest."

 

1953 Cricket Match.
The umpires in the two cricket matches are:-
Mr. H.P. Sucksmith & Mr. W.A. Griffiths (partly hidden at square leg) for the match on the left and
Mr. S.E. Kerrison and Mr. W.S. Wilson for the right hand match.
This photo shows the new biology lab (concrete structure) for the girls school plus the two Combined Cadet Force huts, used as classrooms for 2B and 2C (later replaced by modern ‘temporary’ classrooms for the 4B & 4C). The dark hut on the left was the army cadets home whilst the pale blue one on the right was the air cadets home. Also visible are part of the old Kindergarten (at that time the girl’s music room), the Boy’s Dining room and the air-raid shelter. On the girl’s staircase windows the ‘greenhouse’ attachment is visible between the first and top floors.

I attended West Leeds Girls High School from 1956 until 1961 during which time we moved into the new school. I remember the gym in the basement and the smell of rotten eggs after the boys had had chemistry lessons! Our science block was in the grounds just below the steps on the right of the picture and the sports field was in the centre of the grassed area with a running track and sand pits, its a shame schools no longer have the land available with such outdoor facilities. -M Haywood

Staff in 1953

Back Row: 1: Grey 2: Stan Wilson 3:Hall(Art & Woodwork) 4: Mounsdon 5:Sucksmith 6: Kowalczyk (Lab technician) 7: Sugden 8: H. Sellars(Caretaker).
Middle Row: 1: Secretary 2: Griffiths 3 Les Kilner 4:Basil Kirker 5: Wilson 'Long John' 6 F Naylor 7 :Kerrison 8: Firth 9:Hiscox 10: Stead 11: A O Jones (English & Divinity) 12: Secretary.
Front Row: 1: Crosland 2: Savage 3: J.H. Tamlyn(German) 4:Gould 'Icky' 5: Harland 6: Barnshaw 7:'Jock' Ewart 8: Fox. 'Nunc' 9: Pearson 10: Rose 11: Watts

This 1950 Class photo was provided by Jim Robinson and Ken Smales who were neighbours in Broad Lane Bramley. Both families emigrated to Australia in 1952.

The teacher is Mr "Fritz" Firth who taught maths at the school until about 1963.

Can you help Jim identify any more of his classmates?

There is a now full set of the fifth year photos in the photo gallery and some additional names have been added to this photo .There were three fifth forms, graded partly on ability, but also on the language subjects provided. 5A Latin, 5B German, 5C French.. This photo is, in fact, 5C.

 

 

I did play some cricket at West Leeds High School where one of the
outstanding features was a tree on the edge of the square. If you hit the ball
against the tree you could be out if the fielder caught a ricochet one-handed! -Brian Senior

I was a pupil at West Leeds from 1952-57. The tree to the left of the cricket square was felled in 1956. A bench was made from the timber by Bob Stead the woodwork master and put at the top of the terrace overlooking the cricket pitch. I wonder what happened to that bench when the school was closed? -Terry Smith

1950 Cricket Match

The large beech tree on the field must have added some interest to cricket games. It was removed in the summer of 1950 and part of it was used for a seat designed and made by Bob Stead in 1954. This was placed near another bench seat made from teak which commemorated the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

 

1952/3 Junior Cricket Team.

Photo from Jim Briggs ( holding the scorebook) names added by Stephen Barlow

Back Row:
1:Jim Briggs 4 Ibbotson?

Front Row:
1 Richard Collier 5 Richard Pettit
7 Robert Wakington

Can anyone help with the other names?

1950 Libarary

Heads down with Mr Harland looking over your shoulder.

1953 Art Club with Mr Mounsdon.

Keith Hunter sitting 4th from left & Bob Towler seated 10th from left).

Robert Egglestone seated centre.

Mousey on guard at left.

"I had forgotten so much art was displayed in this room. Sadly, my own daubs were never among them".-JS

The WLHS Choir of 1950with Basil Kirker, Music Teacher, and John Coates, 6th form pupil, on the piano.

1953 Junior Choir with Basil Kirker

Photo taken in the school hall.
The masters' play of 1951 or '52, a production of Lord Dunsany's one-acter, The Lost Silk Hat. I think it would have been produced by Kerrison, who normally ran the Dramatic Society and produced school plays.The cast are, l-r, Rose, Hiscox (standing), Kerrison (seated), Firth and 'Stan' Wilson.

"Merchant of Venice"The school play 1953.

 

 

The school play photos show a scene and the complete cast of The Merchant of Venice, produced, in 1953.

The scene photo shows, l-r, Buckle (Nerissa), Marsden (Jessica), Handforth (Lorenzo), Morley (forget his role!), M R Howden (Bassanio), Watson? (Gratiano) and Lynch (Portia).

The cast photo is much harder to remember. In the back row I am positive that nos 4 and 5 are Cedric May (Duke/Doge) and Derek Cooke (Shylock). I think no 6 must certainly be Coleman (Antonio) since he played the role and I can't find him anywhere else on the photograph. The beard doesn't help.

In the middle row, l-r, 1 Myers? (Prince of Morocco), 2 Watson? (Gratiano), 3 Morley (?), 4, standing in front of Morley , Buckle (Nerissa), 5 M Howden (Bassanio), 6 Lynch (Portia), 7 ?, 8 ?, 9 Handforth (Lorenzo), 10 Broadbent? (?) 11 Marsden (Jessica).
Macbeth Peter Sucksmith and cast of School Play April 1956. Macbeth was played by D Shaw 4A

Another Class Act:

In 1959 the school play was Vice Versa , by F. Anstey

(See Photos in Photo Gallery)

"That year, which I'm certain
was 1959, the school was presented with a whole load of new lighting equipment and control console. I had a great time looking after the
lighting; or perhaps I just couldn't act so they wisely didn't cast me. Still, it meant I didn't need to learn any lines."
-C W.

Open Relay "Fritz" Firth starts the race outside the old kindergarten. Photo taken 9th May 1957 by John Kaye

Sports Day 1954 Mr Firth seated. Stephen Barlow throwing the discus and javelin. The figure far right might be called "Lord"


Sports Day 1955
Brian Manners doing the high jump at the school sports day summer 1955, Mr Stead the woodwork teacher looks on. Stan Wilson (PE) sitting.


Gym in 1953.

The Under 15 Rugby Team 1958/59 Photo from Terry Johnson (4th from left back row). Malcolm Child (Chilly) holding the ball. Coach Mr Lloyd.

Malcolm Child (Chilly) was not of any great stature, always wore a smile and was very unassuming – a thoroughly nice guy. All this concealed his real worth. From his position the 58/59 U15s Rugby team he would appear to be its captain; he was always top of our Form and additionally was Yorkshire Schoolboys boxing champion. _RH.

The 1952/53 Under 14's and Under 15's were coached by Mr. Firth. Never lost a game.

I do agree with his recollection that we were a most successful team. I wonder if he remembers the game where we were scoring so freely (and rapidly approaching three figures) that Fritz suggested it would be sporting if we could contrive to let our opponents score a few points. Part of the success we had was down to the fact that "Bert" was usually the smallest player on the field which let him get his feet closer to the ball when we had a scrum down.
Wonder if he remembers we celebrated at the end of the season with a fish and chip tea at school and a trip to see the new 3-D film showing at the Gaumont Cinema. We all had to wear glasses with red and green lenses.
Just as a matter of interest, the grubby knees and smudged chalk on the ball in the Junior XV photo were due to the fact that the photographer was not quite ready for us when we got changed so we had a game whilst we were waiting.
Little Joe's Car: This was how Little Joe's relatively new car got treated on the last day of term! Fortunately it was whitewash and not white paint that was used. 19th July 1957

4B Skiffle Group

Includes Kenny Butler on Banjo Photos by John Kaye.

By the mid 60's he had graduated to a bigger car, a Rover 90, and we used to laugh at the apparently driverless car leaving the school. You could hardly see him in the car as he drove down Whingate peering over the dashboard. We reckoned he must have sat on a cushion and used wooden blocks on the pedals.

Great description of life in the 50's, a bath every friday whether you needed it or not. The teachers ruling by fear or humiliation. Does anyone remember Sest who happened to pronounce C'est wrongly and as a result of Curly Bill's ridicule became Sest until he left for another school.
Mousey Mounsdon a psycopath if ever there was one.
And not forgetting little Joe Rose and his nose chalking to emphasise his telling off, the bigger you were the more humiliation involved. But I wouldn't have missed it for anything as in spite of the regime I still enjoyed it.
- Michael Baldwin

 

 

I was a pupil at West Leeds from 1957-62 and in my first year, the school was split by a ''Berlin Wall'' on all but the basement corridor. This was to keep the boys and girls separate but they were removed when the Girls went to the new buildings across the railway
.-Alan Bailey

 

1954 Trophy Winners

Oswald ("Pop") Harland on the occasion of his (near) retirement at the end of the school year 1953-54. The photo appeared in the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury in March 1954. The pupils from left to right are: 1. Eric Bray 2. Brian (Kipper) Kitwood 3 Greenwood 4 Gordon Burgess 5 Oswald Harland 6 Alistair Duckworth 7 Keith Jowett (below) 8 Jack Bretherick (above) 9 Arthur Marsden and 10 David Handforth (very tall)-Alistair Duckworth


From 1959 on , I used to catch our school bus outside the LCT bus depot (former tram depot) at Bramley Town End. The school special bus used to drop me off in the evening at the stop where the bus is standing in this photo.-JS

I used to get the school special double decker from WLBH to Bramley Town street, most afternoons. There was one conductor we called "Fares". Long haired yob, who never said "fares please"...he just used to holler out "FAAAAAAARES!", in a really threatening voice.
When the bus would turn a corner, he yelled out "hold tighty-wighty, while we go round the corner-warner"...total nutter - we never knew whether to laugh at him, or be scared of him!

Leeds trams 172 and 197 at Bramley Town End.Photographed in March 1953
The trams used to cut across the middle of a roundabout (traffic island), while motor traffic was supposed to go around the island. In practice, motor vehicles sometimes followed the trams straight across. The tracks to the left of the picture lead into the tram depot. The last trams in Leeds ran in Nov 1959, but the trams through Bramley to Half Mile Lane had been replaced by buses in Oct 1953. The tram depot in Bramley became a bus garage in Jan 1949 and the short spur in the roundabout was left in case the need arose to park a defective tram.

 


From YEP 1955

Finally some crystal ball gazing by the Head, J S Barnshaw , written in 1957, looking ahead to the centenary in 2007.

"There are some who sigh for the old days and would have the school as they knew it. This cannot be, neither in West Leeds nor anywhere else. The school is an organic body, adaptable to the times and must serve its pupils according to the ideas and methods of their own age ......
No man can foresee our centenary but equally no one can doubt that 2007 will find us giving our boys that combination of science , technology perhaps and the humanities which will be fit and proper training for life in the twenty-first century." -JSB