Leave a message

« Back to website 

Messages: 16 until 30 of 253.
Number of pages: 17
Newer1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7Older

Jan

16

David Clifton

Such sad news that Ray Stone has passed away. He was such a lovely person and will be sadly missed.

Jan

15

Terry Marshgreen

Sorry to have to report that Ray Stone 1959 to 1966 passed away last night after a long battle with cancer.
Ray was, I believe, Vice Captain of Roan and was for many years a driving force in The Old Roan Dramatic Group.
We lost contact for many years but thankfully got back our friendship back on track through Friends Reunited some 20 years ago. He and his partner Kevin visited us in Australia twice in recent years, and Jackie and I were lucky enough to have lunch with them both in February last year before the travel barriers came down.
Ray was a very special friend and human being whose sense of humour was unsurpassed. May he now rest in peace.

Aug

31

Roland Alcock

Hi Brian,
Thanks very much for your response. It seems you remember me, as I do you, although we moved in different circles in both those school and Uni days. Portswood was my old stomping ground as a Post grad. I lived in flat 1, 719 Portswood Road with my then girlfriend, who was an employee of the University I met in 1973. Before that I shared with a couple of guys at 2, Rose Road and had some good chemistry mates who lived at 61 Gordon Avenue, just off the Portswood Road. When I left Soton in 1974, I never returned until I attend one of those grad reunions they have every year, on a rolling 5 year cohort basis, in 2016. So that was the reunion year for grads of 61, 66, 71, 76, etc. I showed my wife my old haunts, including those addresses, most of which were still there, though University Road had changed dramatically. The thing that surprised was the sheer volume of parked cars strung along roads like Gordon Avenue, occupying both sides of the road so there was only a narrow single lane down the middle!! I also visited the Saints new St. Mary’s ground they built after they moved from the Dell. In 1976 I was going to attend the FA Cup Final with a mate who had two tickets, but his wife got sick and he sold the tickets at the last minute. I wish I had attended the final which was Saints only ever Cup win.
Anyway the visit to Soton was surreal, with so much changed and so much that had not, so that it seemed my life there 45 years before was just a dream.
But yes, I do agree I have had a very fulfilling life since then. I now have one 2 year old grandson from my eldest daughter, so I have some catching up to do with you! My other two kids show no sign of procreating yet! My son is a mountaineer and outdoorsman, so he has no time for a family right now, and our other daughter spends all her time with her dogs.
I do remember Keith Silcox from 6th form. He was one of the personalities of the prefect’s room and he was one of your football team mates I believe. It is indeed a small world if he was in Vancouver for a month in 2019. If I had met him in the street (not that we live there any more having moved to Vancouver Island) I doubt he would recognised me, nor I him!
I used to know Leicester vaguely, because I worked for the Severn Trent Water Authority in Birmingham from 1976-1982, and I got to travel all over the Midlands region putting computer systems into various water quality monitoring labs. You must have lot of roots there now, having been there so long.
I lost touch with all the Old Roan guys when I left Uni, including you, but I did manage to contact Paul Leman very briefly in 2004 or 2005, via the Friends Reunited Web site. It was just an e-mail exchange and he was working in the IT department of Leeds University at the time. I got the impression he was in the midst of a break-up with his wife and his kids were still young, which made things difficult. I guess he started later than we did. Anyway he seemed a bit distracted so I did no keep up the correspondence and neither did he. I expect the e-email address I had for him is now lost and probably no longer valid anyway.
Cheers and best regards,
Roland Alcock

Aug

25

Brian Goddard

Roland, Great to hear from you a d to learn that you've had such a fulfilling life. At Soton Uni, I did a combined honours degree in French and Spanish. I shared a house in Portswood with a great bunch of guys for two of my last three years in Southampton - I spent the penultimate year living in France and Spain. Those guys are still great mates and, before Covid-19, we were still meeting up regularly 3 or 4 times a year. In October 2018, 10 of us stayed in Portswood to celebrate the 50th anniversary of starting there and 'entertained' many locals in many pubs singing popular songs from 68 at the top of our voices. Well, we enjoyed it.

Despite my linguistic background, I qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and spent my working career in the property sector. I moved up to Leicester in 1979 and still live there with my wife, with whom I have two sons, two grandsons and one granddaughter, who was kind enough to be born on my 67th birthday. I am still an avid fan of Charlton Athletic, although I probably see more away games than home games. However, I did manage to persuade my two sons to join me at The Valley for their first ever visit to celebrate my 70th birthday last year. What a weekend! A 3-0 victory over Derby County and a night out in Blackheath with my sons!

Do you remember Keith Silcox from our sixth form days? He is still a close friend of mine. However, his daughter and her husband and their young son moved to Vancouver a couple of years ago and he and his wife spent a month there last year. It is a small world, isn't it?

Do you know what Paul Leman ended up doing after university?

Aug

22

Roland Alcock

This post is in response to those by Geoff Sanders, Antony Piper and Brian Goddard. I too was a contemporary of the 1961 cohort and was in Mr. Hoare’s class as well. Indeed Antony Piper mentions me in his post. I remember all the pupils he lists and the first few names in the class ring in my ears due to the repeated call out of the class attendance roster in the mornings - - Alcock, Atkinson, Benwell, Barnes, Barefoot…….and the rest.
Beside the masters Antony Piper mentions, I also remember Mr. (Bounce) Martin (chemistry), Mr. Todd (physics), Mr. (Hoppy) Hopwood (maths), Mr. Jones (maths and R.I.), Mr. Morey (pure maths). Mr. Garbutt (applied maths) and old Mr. Binnie (history). In those days of the early sixties, I think Mr. Binnie had been a fixture at the school since World War 1!
I loved football, but was not really “one of the lads” and a bit of an outsider, so I never made the Roan team and languished in the “spares” on the Quaggy pitch on Wednesday games afternoons. While never reaching the school hierarchy heights scaled by Brian Goddard, I did become a prefect and was eventually made Drake House captain by Hoppy Hopwood, the Drake House master.
Following “A-levels” a decent cohort of us Roan 6th formers went to Southampton University in the autumn of 1968. These were Dave Taylor (economics), Andy Malpas (biology), Paul Leman and Mick Wiles (mathematics), the aforementioned Brian Goddard (French, or maybe Spanish?) and me (chemistry). At Uni all of us old Roan boys pretty much went our own ways and did not associate much. Here though I came into my own a bit and played intra-mural football for 5 years. I remember I played against Brian Goddard a couple of times. I played for my hall of residence Chilworth Manor and he played for a team called GripperKn******! I cannot reveal the last 6 letters, as the team name is a bit misogynistic and politically incorrect for the 21st century!! LOL
I was at Southampton for 6 years because I did a Ph.D. after my B.Sc. (Hons). In my last year I played football for the University staff association. I remember Sunday morning games which we frequently won, followed by lunchtime drinks and pub food with the wives and girlfriends (WAGS to be politically incorrect) and then back to the little flat in Portswood I shared with my then girlfriend for some great times on Sunday afternoons.
During my Ph.D. I “discovered” computing through work to process my chemistry data and switched from chemistry to computing and Information Technology. I did co-author a chemistry textbook with by prof and a post graduate student and you can find the title “Solution Equilibria” by Hartley, Burgess and Alcock on Amazon.com
I stayed in the I.T. industry for 36 years and rode the technology wave from mainframes to mini-computers to PCs to LANs and eventually the Internet and browser based systems. Computers were a great career and became ever more ubiquitous and I worked for several public and private organisations in the U.K. and here in Canada. In 1976 in my work place in Birmingham I met a beautiful blonde girl from the midlands who had studied Maths, Stats and Computing at Woolwich Poly. Pretty unusual for a female in 1968!
We eventually became an item, married in 1982 and promptly emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia. We had three kids, two girls and a boy, all born here but who retain British citizenship through us as well as being Canadians. We ourselves became Canadian citizens in 1986.
I played football (or soccer as it is called here) for various Vancouver over 30 and company teams in the 80’s and 90’s and one year we won the local league and cup double. I finally hung up my boots aged 45 after we won the cup for the second time. No matter, as I coached my son’s soccer team and did a fair bit of skiing at the week-ends instead.
We lived in Vancouver for 24 years and as a family explored the mountains, lakes and marvelous wilderness of beautiful British Columbia every summer. The mountains here make the fells of Braithwaite look like tiny bobbles, which of course they are.
We left the city of Vancouver and moved to Vancouver Island in 2007 and retired in 2011. We spend summers fishing and winters in our caravan exploring the magnificent deserts of Arizona and Utah in the U.S. (pre-Covid). Now aged 70, as I fish for large pacific salmon from my boat off the southern tip of Vancouver Island, I think about the past quite a bit as one does at this age. My life and loves and that sort of thing. I must admit I do not think about Roan school that much. Those adolescent years in an all-boys grammar school were a bit of a strain. But I do think about the six student years 1968-1974 in Southampton, and the six early working years 1976-1982 in Birmingham a great deal. They were the years when everything fell into place, I matured and built myself confidence, I founded and developed my career, had a marvelous time socially, and did a lot of what the French call “cherchez la femme”! They were truly the golden days of my youth.

Roland Alcock

Jul

29

Don Plimmer

1948 - 1954. Under pressure from my daughter I am writing my autobiography! Trying to remember some staff names especially Head of Chemistry. Have photo taken in VI form room but can't remember many names. Only really the other Biologists - Mike Parkhouse & Colin Snell I am still in contact with but no longer Brian Morris or Bill Burleigh. Wonderwhere they are?

Jun

21

Brian Goddard

Geoff Sanders: Brian Goddard here. Yes, I joined the school in 1961 and was put into 3E, the late Taff Evans form. I played an active role in Old Roan football and was a regular at the Old Roan Club at the school field, until I moved to Leicester in 1979. I still see and communicate with Old Roans and meet up with various of them a couple of times a year or so. Have you ever been to the ORA annual dinner?

May

22

Chris clarke

Chris clarke my e mail is cc.monkey1965@gmail.com

May

22

Chris clarke (77_82)

Hi everyone looking for anyone who remembers me from back in the day ! I a few of the guys I remember are Stuart Phinbow Sean Baker Dave Bond Paul White Andrew Selly and lots more please get in touch if my name rings a bell

Apr

16

Sally Brooke

If Linda (McPhillips / Brindley) or anyone else wants contact me my email address is: sbrooke1812@gmail.com

Apr

14

Sally Brooke

This is a message for Linda McPhillips (Brindley). I was at the Roan at the same time and I remember you well. How are you getting on?

Mar

26

David Cuttell

such memories, reading through the messages...hey ho!! thought I would add a few comments. I was at the Roan 1956 to 59 (then moved to Sussex) I remember well Anthony Pipers list of teachers... I also remember Rusty Lock and Crusty Pie, Hankinson, Benny Fenton, Hodson, Dawson and Weston etc but Gelly Elliot sticks in my mind, I was in the school orchestra (played the fiddle)… it got me out of many lessons!! But I have had a great life, running two businesses and inventing some things that are in use world wide (allowed me to retire very early)
Keep the comments coming
David C.

Feb

23

Debbie Hawkins

My email address is:
debbie.mcnicholas@googlemail.com PhQ3kS

Feb

23

Debbie Hawkins

My email is:
debbie.mcnicholas@googlemail.com
if anyone want to reconnect with me.

Feb

23

Debbie Hawkins

Hi. I was at Roan Girls from 1971 to 1978. I've recently reconnected with a few girls from my old Class (we started in 1P with Mrs Poore) but I would love to reconnect with any other girls who may be out there. Please contact me using the email above if you want to reconnect or just re-live a few old school memories ... x

Messages: 16 until 30 of 253.
Number of pages: 17
Newer1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7Older

This free guestbook is brought to you by: 123Guestbook.com