Personal recollections from Brian BAGNAL from Texas, January 2005
We first moved to Coddington in 1954. My father was a Master Technician in the Royal Air force when he was posted to RAF Winthorpe. The airfield at Winthorpe had not been used since its days as a Heavy Bomber Operational Conversion Unit in WW2. It was resurrected in 1953 as a Central Servicing Development Establishment (CSDE) unit, with the mission of developing the complex maintenance schedules for the vastly more complicated equipment which was being developed for the new “jet-age” Royal Air Force.
At the beginning of RAF Winthorpe’s “rebirth”, there was a housing problem as many families arrived before the family quarters were complete. We were one such family and initially we lived in a tiny caravan situated on the base’s caravan site. Five of us lived in a caravan that was about 16 feet long! Though we were cozy and happy we needed more room, and in searching around for local accommodations we made the acquaintance of Henry and Mabel PETHIG, the publicans of the Plough Inn. For a few months we rented two bedrooms from them and learned to appreciate their kindness and perpetual good humor. For many years afterwards, my parents stayed in contact with them, and indeed, Mabel became the God-Mother to my sister who was born in 1955.
Coddington and RAF Winthorpe hold many special memories for me. For almost three years we attended school in Coddington – first in the “old” school at the top of Brownlows Hill, and then in about 1956, some of the older classes were moved to the “new” school at the bottom of the hill. Incidentally, the new school was written up in a local newspaper for its modern features and appearance, especially noting the many different paint colors used in its construction.
Even after moving to the new school, we still ate lunch in Coronation Hall and would walk up in columns of twos to receive our daily sustenance. In the early fifties the country was emerging from the post WWII austerity programs and the school lunches seemed to be a succession of thinly sliced meat, potatoes covered with watery brown gravy, and served with either cabbage, swede, brussel sprouts or some other boiled vegetable. I grew to despise these vegetables immensely, and indeed I have not eaten brussel sprouts in over 50 years. The desert that followed was a little better and was often covered with thin, yellowish custard.
The old school had three classrooms with John (Johnny) FORDHAM serving as the headmaster. Mr. FORDHAM was a disciplinarian, his ultimate enforcer being a bamboo cane. I was on the receiving end at least three times for what Mr. FORDHAM euphemistically called “six of the best.”. But in all honesty, he never dwelled afterwards on your transgressions and I really did deserve to be punished. At the new school I sat by the windows and would sometimes use a small mirror to dazzle students when the teacher’s back was turned. Mr. FORDHAM broke me of this bad habit when he whizzed the piece of chalk he had in his hand at me. He must have had eyes in the back of his head!
Mr. FORDHAM often taught the older students and I remember learning several of the classic poems from him. Even now I can recite verses from Alfred NOYES’ “The Highwayman” and can readily picture Mr. FORDHAM’s red face, complemented with sparse white hair and large protruding ears – he looked like a retired pugilist to me.
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding — riding — riding —
Mr. FORDHAM bicycled to work each day and still found time to manage the boy’s football team. We would all meet on Saturday mornings and then would either walk, bicycle or take the bus to our games. We only had a few games and didn’t win many of them because we didn’t practice much.
At this time there was a large influx of RAF dependents that I’m sure strained the school facilities at Coddington. When the new school opened much of the crowding was alleviated. As service brats, we knew that sooner rather than later we would leave for other locations which were often overseas. We were a very lively bunch and generally, with some exceptions, mixed well with the local kids.
My teacher for the last two years at Coddington was Mrs. OTTER and she was a dedicated, enthusiastic and kindly teacher. I recall she drove to work in a Morris Minor. Moving frequently had resulted in some deficiencies in my education. I didn’t read well then, and in fact, hated to read. As a reward for our collective good behavior, Mrs. OTTER would read to us at the end of the school-day from a series of animal books. All of us enjoyed her reading immensely, and later on she allowed us to borrow the books to practice reading on our own. My reading skills improved and I credit Mrs. OTTER for installing in me a life-long love of literature.
Mrs. OTTER was also a devotee of mental arithmetic and we would have a daily drill of 50 mental arithmetic problems – to be calculated without resorting to paper or pencil. For example, the questions might run as follows: if one roll cost threepence farthing (3¼d) [just over 1p] how much would a dozen rolls cost? Easy - the answer, of course, was three shillings and threepence (39d). In this day of metric everything, there was much to be said for a duo-decimal system where both the currency and unit of measure was based on twelves!
In general, I think the time we spent in the Coddington schools was a pleasant interlude for most of us and they provided us with a very good education. Thank you, Mr. FORDHAM, Mrs. OTTER and the other teachers, for your dedication and professionalism.
In 1958 most of the CSDE staff was transferred to RAF Swanton Morley in Norfolk. In 1959 my family emigrated to the United States and I have returned only once to the U.K. During my visit in 1986 I passed through, and enjoyed a brief visit to Coddington. I hope to return again in the future.
Some of the students I remember at Coddington (mainly Service men’s children) :-
Jane ALEXANDER, Robert CARDINGTON, John CLARK, Stanley COW, Tony EDWARDS (villager??), Michael “Ginger” GORMLEY, Richard HOUNDSFIELD (villager??), David “Luggers” LOVEDAY, Don MCCARTHY, Valerie PORT, John RUSSELL, Gordon SCOTT, Tony SEYMOUR, John SMITH, Steve SUMMERS, Chris WILCOX, Blaine WILKINSON.
Received by Fred REED via email from Brian BAGNAL in Texas - January 2005