Memories Of Overbury ( And Wolsey ) Schools New Addington

Went there 7 years later 1962 and some of those teachers were still there. Bully Hanlon moved onto Fairchildes soon after i arrived and was replaced by Trinder. Big tall man who was supposedly another tyrant but i never saw him doing anything to anyone. Your right Ward the Head stayed mainly in his office. Thinking back i wonder if he had served in WW 11 and been affected by it. Other teachers i remember we're Evans English teacher nice man. Barton maths another little tyrant until you got him talking about his travels and he would get his photos out and forget about maths. Anthony PE who always wore a track suit and at that time it seemed there was only one design for track suits. Unless you were good at PE he wasn't interested in you. As you said Mr Carter geography and i think he rode an Ariel. Nice man but i didn't learn a lot from him. Miss Rosebury Art nice but eccentric. Miss Colhuan Music nice but quiet.Mr Language Science think he was a drinker.Mr Lane TD who we called Bronco of cause, another little tyrant full of himself, another not nice man.Mr Ward metal work yet another tyrant. Lived in fear of him and when i went back years later for evening classes and saw how small he was i wondered why.Finally Mr Tarry woodwork. Not a bad fella but did tap me on the head with a wooden scriber once. Wonder if i could make a claim now.My time at the school couldn't pass fast enough and now i think all of us that went to secondary modern schools should receive an apology from the government for receiving such a rubbish education.

Does anyone remember David Hanlon he went to Overbury School around 1968. Is he still around.

Hanlon was my neighbour and he caught me scrumping apples, he reported me to the local bobby and gave me the strap. My parents moved to New Addington in 1957 and to my horror he was a teacher in Overbury, not a good start. I was in contact with friends reunited but alas this defunct. Terry, do you remember flattening the end of copper tubes and firing them across Lodge Lane. Not sure we would get away with that now. If you are out there please get in touch.
Colin Frost

Totally agree with your comments I went to Fairchild's before you there from 1957-1961 the teachers were much the same self serving bullies and cowards but not much education i hated the school Hedges was our Headmaster another tyrant the government should make a public apology for the standard of teaching insults and humiliation that students had to put up with unfortunately the current school is not much better

Thanks to my brother Terry for his posts. Overbury was the only school I went to, from Primary through Junior to Senior. So that would have been from about 1954 to 1966 I think. When I first joined the primary school we were in a prefab. They were constantly renovating or building and I think I was in the first year of the senior school after it was completed.

I hated all the teachers, except for three: Mr Ledwidge, who taught science, was completely batty and endlessly fascinating. Miss Rosebury taught art and was also very eccentric but sweet. Mr Saunders, another science teacher, seemed to genuinely care and to be actually trying to teach us something.

I went back to visit some years later and found the place very nostalgic - actually I had a good time there mostly. Apart from the public canings and other physical abuse it was quite a rich experience. There was so much outside space and time to play. The wild area behind the school, down towards featherbed lane, "The Back", was a trove of endless places to play and hide. We could run wild there in our childhood innocence.

I was really cut up when they bulldozed the place - still can't quite believe it is gone. Well my memories are still intact at least! If anyone has any more pictures from back then I would love to see them.