Practically Classics Forum

It was a long time ago...

My form master had a Messerschmitt 'cabin scooter'. He was Lancaster aircrew during WW2 and said the Messer was faster. He also had an immaculate Morris Oxford MO.
At one time the headmaster rode to school on a Brockhouse Corgi - the little motorbike used by paratroops.
My hated English teacher had a 1933 Ford 8; the nice English teacher had a Bedford Dormobile.
The metalwork teacher had an Auto Union 1000S coupe.

Teachers that i remember from secondary school had as follows, Mr Cooper had what i thought was a rare Sunbeam Vogue (Arrow shape), Mr Simmonds had an S Type Jag, The Head had a 1966 Austin 1800, Mrs Mansell had a Mk 1 Capri, Mr Wilkes had a Mk4 zodiac,Mr Hart had a Singer Gazelle and Mr Harper had a Wolseley Hornet !!!Hated the place but the staff had decent tastes in motors !!!

Ay up!

I remember Mr Walker had a matt FE Victor XV4/90 and was shall we say a somewhat rapid driver.

While the staff car park was being extended, he used to reverse right down to the bottom of the new section, still in quarry bottoms. When he left, it was with gravel spraying everywhere.

Me and a couple of mates jacked the back of the car up one lunchtime, scooped out gravel from under the rear tyres, dropped the back axle onto blocks of wood scrounged from the woodwork pile then filled in the hole around the tyres. His face when he let out the clutch was a picture! He knew I was behind it but couldn't prove it! For weeks after, I had many barbed comments about blocks directed at me in class.....

my auto mechanics teacher had a gorgeous triumph gt6, his name was (is) dave hughes and he used to let us look it over in the workshop. the school minibus was a bedford cf, got to respray that one.
i reakon i owe my thing for classics on him and his lessons. seen him on new years day walking over the aquaduct in llangollen

kev

My Headmaster had a black Hillman Minx, the old side valve model. Mr Horton the metal work teacher had a Matchless 650 with a Watsonian side car. He sold that and had an Anglia 1200 estate that he tuned the engine in. Mr Wilkins the General Studies teacher had a Sunbeam Rapier the proper one not the arrow series. Mr Marchant, deputy head, the best teacher in the school had a pale blue A35. He was a WW2 tank commander and he started my interest in military vehicles of WW2. Little did I know then I would end up owning four of them! Mr Hough had a Vincent Black Shadow. He rode it like a maniac!!! Mr Venus the woodwork teacher had a 1939 Auto Union. Mr Nash the science teacher and ex WW2 radio operator had an E93A. Mr Rideout the art teacher had a Vespa scooter and always looked as though he was a blind tight rope walker having a dizzy turn when he rode it. The Mr Nightingale who was the PE teacher and an ex RAF PTI had a blue Austin Atlantic. He drove it as though he had stolen it. A great teacher. The geography teacher was Mr Sale. He had a Nobel minicar and then sold it and had a Meadows Frisky Sport. One of the teachers had a red Bond Minicar but I cannot remember his name. He was only at the school less than a year. It was 1955 to 1960 so most of the teachers had bicycles or came on the bus.

At college the science lecturer had a Ford E93A Pop. The engineering science lecturer had a black Singer SM1500. An Uncle of mine had one exactly the same. The English lecturer had a cream 100E. About 6 years after I had left college I was managing a garage and this English teacher came in, still with the 100E. I knew him straight away but he wasn't sure if he knew me. I said "You're Mr Perry. When I was at college you were my English lecturer." I said who I was. He said he thought he knew me. I sorted out his car and didn't charge him. After that he started coming in to buy his petrol and have his car serviced. When he was in college I didn't like him but when I got to know him he was a real nice guy and he brought his friends along to have their cars done.

If you go on a school's staff car park and there is nothing over 4 years old on it. At the school where my daughter teaches there are 5 Audis, hers being one of them, Range Rover, Freelander, Renault MPV etc. Not a Ford Pop to be seen!


Phil

Phil P said:

If you go on a school's staff car park and there is nothing over 4 years old on it.

There are/were in the schools where I worked! Admittedly, scrappage got rid of a lot of them, but a number of support staff certainly can't afford anything new!

There weren't many "classics" (either modern or old) though - just things like my Passat (that I sold at 9yo), a caretaker's Rover 216 (it would be about twelve when its engine blew up) and a science teacher or two had old Cavaliers of similar age. At the last school, where I started in 2005, I think the oldest machine was a '98 Land Rover (it went about two years ago) and a 95 Mini (the female teacher bought a Tigra to replace it!)

Teachers don't like to spend money (much worse than farmers!!) and one of my teacher-friends has a 2004 Xara Picasso and a 2009 C3 Picasso, though the older one replaced a fairly new Octavia that got written off and the C3 was an ex-demonstrator that was cheap when his "W" reg Focus died.

Teachers don't like to spend money

Too right! school teachers are all as tight as a fishes arse when it comes to the friday night visit to the pub after their work. College staff, on the other hand, never fail to take their round.

Phil P wrote:Sunbeam Rapier the proper one not the arrow series.Phil

Bit harsh

Our History teacher drove a 1969 Singer Gazelle.
Our Maths Teacher had about 3 1970s Vauxhall Chevettes.
I think that was it for classics - Our English Teacher Drove XR3i's but they were brand new then (late 80s) so hardly a classic car.

One of the sixth form girls had a beetle but to be honest I was more interested in her than the car back then, sadly I was a 4th year so had no chance !