Anthony Carder (Age 65)
I have only recently discovered the CVTHS website and have tremendously enjoyed trawling through all the wonderful entries and photos which I thank you so much for all your tireless work in collating and providing in such a professional website for all us old boys to enjoy.
So, inspired by all the splendid entries, I have written some of my own recollections and anecdotes which you may like to publish on the “blog” together with some photos including a rather blurred one of me with Tony Ferrige’s guitar I refer to!
I have found some more memorabilia which I will photograph and send you later with some “Behind the Bikesheds” confessions.
Anthony Carder
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Anthony Carder - aged 19 - 1963
From: Anthony (Ant) F Carder: Old CVTS Boy: 1955 – 1960
Having fully retired just recently, I have been able to spend the cold snowy days of the last week in front of my computer wallowing in the nostalgia of the fantastic CVTHS website and it has prompted me to delve into the dusty cardboard boxes in the loft to search for my old school “stuff”.
I joined Cray Valley Technical School (not “High School” then!) in September 1955 with two friends, Graham Waite and Clive Miller from Longlands County Primary School, Sidcup.
Having chosen to learn French, we were put in form 1A. Our Form Teacher was Mr Bird, the French teacher, who decided to give us all equivalent French Christian names. My name was Antoine but when he came to Graham Waite, as there was no French equivalent to Graham, Mr Bird chose Graham’s middle name which was Frederick and gave him the French name of “Freddie”. So, forever after we called him “Fred Waite”!
Graham (Fred) Waite by Anthony Carder
I can remember the names of many of my classmates who I stayed with throughout the school until 5R when I left school at 16. They include :- Victor Small, Rob Turner, David Castell, David Hayday, John Sayers, Michael Dumont, Ian (Skid) Skilling, Richard Miller who I note from his contributions to the Blog is now in California; and Tony Ferrige who I was very sad to see passed away last year.
As has been mentioned in your Emails, Tony Ferrige was an amazing character and a ‘one off’. I have enjoyed reading his inspirational contributions on the CVTHS website and reliving the memories. He will be sadly missed. I had a phone call out of the blue from Tony several years ago as he was trawling the Electoral Register for old colleagues to revisit and we met up for the first time in 30 years for a meal at the Chiltern Hundreds pub where I now live at Bearsted near Maidstone. We also both started our first jobs as scientific assistants at R.A.R.D.E at Fort Halstead. I remember that Tony was a Lonnie Donegan fanatic and, in fact, Tony sold me my first guitar in 1959 for the princely sum of £2 and taught me my first chords – E, A, B7 which I then went on to play in a skiffle group at New Eltham Methodist Church Youth Club and around scout campfires! That ¾ size guitar is still up in my loft with all the other memorabilia! Thanks Tony – it was a good two pounds worth! R.I.P.
Anthony with Tony Ferrige's Guitar bought in 1959 for £2
I also found a whole folder of my Technical Drawing work starting with the first week at school when Mr Wincott gave us the task of writing out the alphabet in ‘properly formed’ capital letters on graph paper which I attach a copy! He gave me 7½ /10 with the comment “Very Good: Form of letters shows much promise” – Not bad for my first week!
Anthony's first Technical Drawing exercise
The following week we had to copy a poem off the board in capitals called “GOOD ENOUGH”
I attach a copy but, as it is in fast fading pencil, I have copied it below as this has been something I have always remembered and taken with me through life and thank Mr Wincott for instilling in me all those years ago!! (although much to the annoyance of my family for, as someone once said “a perfectionist takes great pains – but usually gives them to someone else”! )
'Good Enough' - Technical Drawing Lettering Exercise
“GOOD ENOUGH”
BEWARE MY SON OF “GOOD ENOUGH”
IT ISN’T MADE OF STERLING STUFF
IT’S SOMETHING ANY MAN CAN DO
IT MARKS THE MANY FROM THE FEW
IT HAS NO MERIT TO THE EYE
IT’S SOMETHING ANY MAN CAN BUY
ITS NAME IS BUT A SHAM AND BLUFF
FOR IT IS NEVER “GOOD ENOUGH”
WITH “GOOD ENOUGH” THE SHIRKERS STOP
IN EVERY FACTORY AND SHOP
WITH “GOOD ENOUGH” THE FAILURES REST
AND LOSE TO MEN WHO GIVE THEIR BEST
WITH “GOOD ENOUGH” THE CAR BREAKS DOWN
AND MEN FALL SHORT OF HIGH RENOWN
Other gems I remember from Mr Wincott were when sawing a piece of wood “to let the saw do the work”! I also remember on an occasion when I had made a botch of a dovetail joint on my ‘self-designed’ record cabinet and I said that “it’s OK because it’s on the back of the cabinet and it won’t be seen”. He rebuked me with the comment “Ah but you know it’s there boy!” – another lesson to take through life! Cray Valley Tech taught me so many worthwhile skills which have been so valuable in work as a research scientist and, of course, in car maintenance and all those DIY jobs around the house!
As for memories of other subjects: —
Thank you Mr Frank Bird – I still remember most of the French you taught me, if not some of the grammar!
Being taught algebra at age 11 by a rather frightening Mr S Cowell: Method: “What you do to one side of the equation e.g., +, -, x, ÷ (sharp tap to right side of my head), you must do to the other side (sharp tap to leftside of my head). It may have been a harsh technique but I still remember the rule – so it worked!!
Watching Mr Crout wave a very long wooden pointer menacingly from his raised rostrum at the front of the Geography classroom!
Choosing to play hockey as it was more like soccer which I really wanted to play, but our school didn’t, instead of rugby which I still hate!
Being given a wonder and lifelong interest in science by Mr W Williams.
Enjoying being taught art and bookbinding by the eccentric but very likeable Mr T A V House.
Being lucky enough to have been taught English by the finest teacher in the school – Mr R.A.Mayo. R.I.P
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When I left school at 16, I went to work as a Scientific Assistant the Royal Armaments and Research Establishment at Fort Halstead, Sevenoaks where I studied on day release at S E London Technical College at Lewisham and qualified with a Licentiate in Applied Physics. I left the Fort in 1967 to work at the British Steel Research Labs at Battersea developing new equipment to automate what was then a very ‘untech’ industry, travelling to steelworks all over the UK. I stayed there for 11 years before I was made redundant. I then worked at British Gas Research Labs at Fulham till 1993 and then into Transco (British Gas Pipeline division) Scientific Services at Croydon, where I eventually worked from home covering the whole of Kent doing scientific services work on gas quality and pipelines, before finally retiring at 65 two years ago
I continued working over the last two years doing a part time job for two days a week at a local secondary school as a science technician in the science department preparing practicals for the students. It was good to revisit all the that science stuff we learnt all those years ago at school – it’s amazing how much of it I still remember with a little mind jogging and, contrary to popular belief, the students were well-behaved and it was very rewarding to see them enjoying the wonders of science as I did at their age with a ‘wow’ factor!
So, by working at a school at the end of my career, my life has turned full circle and all due to the foresight of my father deciding, in that new age of technology not to send me to Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School when I passed the 11+ but to go to “that new Technical School at Crittalls Corner” all those years ago in 1955.
A further email received from Anthony with regard to the above post:
The Colin Cadle memorial CVTHS Blog 
What a great read. Anthony has a better memory than me, but there were a few names that I remembered, even though I did not start at Cray until 1960. Long may Mr Mayo be remembered with affection.
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I believe the use of the rook image stems from the believe that the school stands on the site occupied by a large copse of trees which housed a rookery. Both my parents who were born in Foot’s Cray could not recall any precise detail. They believed there may however been a rookery in the area where the now long gone St.Paul’s Cray Primary school stood: on the corner of the junction of Main Road and Sevenoaks Way.
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Dear Anthony,
There may be another association with rooks that I’d overlooked and after speaking to the legendary Mayatt he confirmed there used to be a large mansion in St Mary Cray named “The Rookery”. He believes it may have been erected in the 18th Century but had fallen from grace and was finally mysteriously burned down on the night of 16 April 1980 (nothing to do with my brother celebrating his 30th birthday with a bang). I do recall it after my conversation with him. It stood off St Mary Cray High Street on the Orpington side of Cray Library and the “Temple”. He says there is a collection of houses there now with the address Rookery Gardens. He thinks the buildings previous owners may have included some of Cray’s reknown mill owners like the Joynsons. So perhaps this is were the badge gets it’s link. Anyhow our corvine friend Corvus Frugilegus seems to have several associations with the Crays in general. If any other boy has an explanation would he please send his answer to Colin Cadle attached to a £20 note to support the “Site”?
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Hi Barry,
Thanks very much for your investigations on the “Rook Front”. Sounds a good explanation to me! Isn’t it amazing that we wore that badge for 5 years and nobody told us what it was for?!
Ours not to reason why———!?
Anthony
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This is an email just in from Andrew Baxter throwing more light on the Rook question:
A good blog by Anthony Carder.
I can help with “The “Rook” query. It’s in our very first school magazine, 1955, page 3.
It’s linked with the name of the next roundabout up the A20 from the school: Ruxley Corner. This area was owned by the Rokesley Family. John de Rokesley had a Rook in his Coat of Arms.
Is there anyone on the CVTHS register who has an interest in history who could give us more information on this connection, or even know where to obtain a pictorial representation of this Coat of Arms?
I remember from back then being told that the “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” were rooks!
Best wishes,
Andrew
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Quite a blast from the past by Anthony Carder. What we would call in the States “show and tell”! Enjoyed seeing some of your old school work even though the metalwork brought back some unhappy memories of Mr. Tyrell scolding me for poor workmanship !
I have to mention that our Ist year form was 1E and not 1A. Also I’m surprised that you spent five years at the school without noticing the many rooks that inhabited the grounds, they certainly made enough noise. Those “Hitchcockian” like blackbirds were even noted in the Domesday Book, 1066 and all that.
If anyone is even faintly interested, I can still remember the class register from Form !E and would be happy to supply the names. Happy days !
Best Wishes ,
Richard Miller.
ps John Greig’s apron is quite disgusting and should have been burnt on the school playground. Mine didn’t make it out of the Chemistry lab where a combination of Bunsen burner flames and sulphuric acid damage saw its sad demise.
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Hi Richard,
Great to hear from you “across the pond” and that you remember our class register. So it was 1E not 1A! When I was working as a science technician at a local school in Maidstone recently, I was surprised to hear the register being called with only their Christian names being called out and not, like us, where we knew each other more by our surnames! In 50 years time, will they still remember all the surnames as well like you? I would certainly be very interested to hear all those names again.
As for burning your apron, I remember ceremoniously burning my much hated cap on the playground on my last day!
Have you heard from Graham ‘Fred’ Waite recently? I have been unsuccessful in contacting him in Australia where I have an address and Email for him which Keith Doble sent me.
Regards,
Anthony Carder
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Hi Anthony ,
Great to hear from you again after 50 plus years. I remember your conversation with JCK after O levels when he was trying to persuade you to
stay on at school. However you were adamant about leaving to start work.Fortunately I managed to put off this unavoidable shock for another five years although I had many short -term jobs as a student.
Anyway here are the names from 1E as I recall them surnames only :
BRAY , COOK , CRAIG , CRONE , DINGLEY , DUMONT ,EDGE , FERRIDGE , HASSON , HEYDAY , HYDE , JENNER , JONES , JARROLD ,JORDON , KETTERMAN , MILLER C ., MILLER R., MUNNS , PACKHAM , RAYNOR , ROBERTS , SMALL , SMITH A ., SMITH R., TURNER , WAITE , WEST, WHITE , VOUSDEN.
Feel free to delete or add from this list. Apologies for any mistakes.
At least there are 30 names.
As regards your question , I have not heard from Fred Waite since leaving school in 1962. I know that he did well at the Australian Defence Department in Canberra. The science 6th form all kept in touch so it’s possible either John Deane or Clive Miller has contact information. They are both listed on the register.
Miller , R.
ps Already two more names occur to me for 1E. DOBLE and KENNY ?
So much for my photographic memory. Now where did I put the car keys?
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Hi Richard,
How did you manage to remember all the names in our class and nearly forgot me ! I left at 16 and took an apprentiship with a subsiduary of Avery Scales in St. Mary Cray – Oertling. (now long gone). I started training as an instrument maker but was fortunately able to switch to toolmaking which was pretty interesting stuff. After finishing my training I stayed in engineering for only a couple of years and then opened Eltham Models in Well Hall Rd in April 1967. I hadn’t got much idea about running my own business but the main ingredient I had was enthusiasm. My younger brother Ray joined me later that year .
We were both very involved in serious slot car racing in those days so we were only trading in that field. We had built a large six lane track in the shop and had weekly championship racing on a Friday evening. It was great fun but the boom didn’t last for that long so very soon we had to branch off into other fields, namely aircraft, boats,railways, plastic kits etc. so very soon became a general model shop. The slot car track had to go as the demand had dropped right off and we needed the space.
In 1974 we opened our second shop in Tunbridge Wells (E.M.Models) so we now had visions of opening a chain of shops but that wasn’t to be as managing two shops was quite enough to cope with.
Times were good, we were both married, were buying our houses and had brand new cars. You could really get on in the seventies if you were prepared to work.
Anyway to cut a long story short the Eltham shop was trading for 37 years and closed in 2004. We were keen to wind down a bit so we continued with the Tunbridge Wells shop until about four years ago when we sold it to a friend who had previously helped us as a Saturday boy in the shop. So the shop has continued on which pleases me no end.
Going back to school stuff I was also in touch with Tony Ferridge before he passed away. In fact me and my wife went to a party at Tony’s place some years ago. He was a most interesting guy who had travelled the world with his work and also on holiday. At that time I also spoke to Mike Kenny but unfortunately he has also passed away. I had also spoken to “Ant” Carder a few years back.
Now most of our class ( I thought it was 1R not 1E) are retired it would be nice to meet up sometime and carry on what Tony was trying to achieve.
Regards to all – Ian “skid” Skilling
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Sorry I forgot SKILLING from the 1E register. Great chap always happy and smiling.
Miller , R.
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Hi Ian ,
Again, apologies for leaving you off the 1E form register ! And yes it was definitely 1E and not 1R. Clive Miller put me right on this sometime ago.
Do you remember Frank Bird’s French playlets ? I recall your playing an ice cream seller calling out “Chocolat glace , chocolat glace!” and then collapsing into heaps of laughter. You were always the life and soul of the party with the hand skills to make beautiful models.
Actually I emailed you at EM Models in Tunbriudge Wells so now I know why I haven’t received a reply. Do you live in the area ? Perhaps you would think about signing up to the CVTHS Register so that we can email you direct. A future 1E reunion sounds like a great idea before any more of us drop-off the planet!
Best for now ,
Richard Miller.
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Hi Richard,
I do remember the “chocolat glace” playlet. I came top in French in the first year but it was all downhill when we lost Mr. Bird as our teacher. He was very good and I’m sure I would have done much better had we have had him teach us all the way through. In fact we did get him back again later on but I’d lost the plot by then.
Had a long phone conversation this afternoon with Ant Carder and we are planning to meet up some time as we are not too far apart. Once you start chatting about schooldays so much comes rushing back. I can always remember being very envious of your handwriting as it always looked so neat and tidy and you were much better at English than me. My strongpoint was the practical subjects and I wasn’t too bad at Maths but I struggled a bit with calculus.
Do you remember the camping trip to France when John Pugh missed the boat at Southampton but joined us the following day along with I think Mr. Wincott. Also when the emergency stop was applied on the train at La Boule as the “tough guys” of the group were left on the train as it was pulling out of the station. I remember all the rucksacks flying out of the windows.
Wasn’t Ozzy Stevenson in our class ? I remember us being put into ability groups for Maths and English – I can remember being in one class with Ozzy. I think he went into The Merchant Navy as I’m pretty sure thats what his dad did.
Going back to the French trip – do you remember the practice camp on the school field prior to the trip – life certainly was a lot of fun in those days and it’s great to look back and remember the good times.
Regards – Ian
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Hi Ian,
Am I correct in thinking you were the proprietor or Eltham Models? If so, I’m trying to get in touch with one of the staff/helpers from the Eltham store from the 1999-2002 era. I can’t remember his name but he was fairly young back then and used to run his nitro powered car in blackheath / Greenwich park.
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