I Started There The Day It Opened

A Memory of Corby.

When I passed my 11+ in 1954 our class was sent to either Kettering Grammar School (for boys) or Kettering High School (for girls). That building in Bowling Green Road is now Kettering Borough Council's offices. There was great emphasis on 'deportment' at the school and if you walked correctly and carried yourself well you were given a red sash to wear as an example to all the other girls. I didn't like being at the school so after a year there it was such a relief when Corby Grammar School was built in 1955. Firstly it was a fresh start and secondly I could walk to school instead of taking the bus into Kettering. John Kempe was the first Headmaster and there were no rules. If we did something silly a rule would be made to cover that particular misdemeanor. I remember the school lunches were great and eventually I was made Dinner Monitor and given a badge to wear. Not quite Prefect status! I thought the school was great so I really enjoyed my 5 years there. I didn't have Colin Dexter for Latin but he lived in a block of flats in the town centre (Argyll House) and I lived in the opposite block, Angus House, when I got married. He moved to Oxford and started writing his Inspector Morse books as he was going deaf and couldn't teach any more. I was in Oxford one day and my husband and I walked into his local pub and there he was at the bar. My husband said to him, 'Of all the bars in all the world you had to walk into mine' - the famous line from a Humphrey Bogart film. As I was leaving in 1960 they were trying to raise money for a swimming pool. I'm glad I wasn't there when it was in use as it was outdoor so freezing cold all year round. John Kempe was an old boy and at one time master at Gordonstoun School so probably thought that a cold swimming pool was no big deal. But my memories are all happy of my time there and I left at 17 with 5 GCE 'O' levels and went to Corby Technical College, as it was then called, to train as a secretary. It's such a shame that the old Grammar School has been demolished but there's a shiny new Tresham College there now on Oakley Road.

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Added 17 June 2020

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I too started on the day in 1955 when The Grammar School opened. We all gathered outside the main doors waiting for them to be opened. We could see Teachers with flowing black gowns dash across the Entrance Hall with several having coloured "scarves" around their necks. I was one of the first 1st years. It was one of the first Co-ed Grammar Schools in the Country and every Teacher was handpicked. Each of them had to do a term at a school where they worked with children of the opposite sex as they'd never taught them before. Mr. Hill, Mr. Holmes and Miss McMillan were my favourite Teachers. John Kemp CVO was a WW2 hero and he did teach at Gordonstoun and eventually went back as Headmaster from 1968-1978.

By Moira Jones on Wed Nov 25th 2020, at 8:38 pm

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Thanks Moira. I think we've been in contact before and it was good to read your recollection of our first day at CGS. I'd forgotten that we stood outside waiting for the doors to open and could see the teachers walking backwards and forwards in their graduation gowns. We'd never seen anything like that before and didn't know what graduation robs looked like. They were like black beetles weren't they? I had favourite teachers too and still have all the long photos taken every two years. I have such happy memories of the school and my friends.

By Pat Carlyle Aldaya Pat@Positivdesign.Com on Fri Nov 27th 2020, at 5:34 pm

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