Miscellaneous

New caretaker

The last person to be appointed caretaker was Mrs Tipper, who succeeded Mr and Mrs Howell in the mid-1970s. Since Mrs Tipper resided just off Brunswick Street in Chorlton-on-Medlock, about half a mile from the school, it meant that the school premises were unoccupied at nights and at weekends. As a consequence, the school became an easy target for mischief-makers, and break-ins, thefts and acts of vandalism increased in their frequency.

Canadians visit Manchester, 1975

Mr Dan Tranter had departed St Gregory’s in April 1975 to take up a deputy headship at St Joseph’s RC High School in Orpington, Kent. However, since he had been very involved in the planning of the reciprocal trip with St Andrew’s, a school from Scarborough, Ontario, he returned to Manchester to help with the arrangements.

St Andrew’s spent a “whirlwind week” as guests of St Gregory’s. After a disastrous start, when their aircraft had to be diverted to Prestwick from Manchester because of strike action, they spent nine hectic days in Manchester as guests of St Gregory’s. Their time in Manchester included playing almost a dozen games of soccer against schools at primary and first-year level.

There were also civic receptions at the Town Hall, visits to Old Trafford and Maine Road, and sightseeing in York and Chester.

Results of the games were fairly evenly spread. This was a return for the visit St Gregory’s had made to Ontario the year before. Already, arrangements were in hand for the school to make a return trip to Canada the following year.

Following their stay in Manchester, St Andrew’s left for London.

Bishop’s visit

On a visit to the school, Bishop Holland addressed two large assemblies of boys: one in the hall, the other in the gym. 

New Staff

Among the teachers appointed during the academic year 1975-76 were Mr Martin Lessons, Mr John McDonald, Mr David Kirkham, Mr Anthony Hoyland, Mr Denis Baker and Mr Christopher Hill.

Exchange visits

Mr Tranter continued his links with St Gregory’s by helping to organise exchange visits on behalf of his new school, St Joseph’s in Orpington. There were probably four visits in total with two exchanges each way and the boys were billeted in each others' homes.  The first visit was to Orpington in late 1975, with St Gregory’s reciprocating twice in 1976: in February and later in the year. The fourth and final exchange was to Orpington in 1977. A feature of the exchanges was the playing of football matches between the two schools as well as sightseeing.

Trip to Spain, 1976

A trip to Benidorm in Spain was organised in 1976. Among the staff who accompanied the boys was Mr A.L. Slade, deputy headmaster since May 1975.

Germany exchanges, 1976-77

In 1976, a party of approximately twenty boys travelled in the school coach to Munster, West Germany, where they were billeted with German families. The trip lasted about a week and among the boys who went on the trip was fourth-year pupil Mark Grimsley who, nearly fifty years later, has provided some memories of the trip. Mark Grimsley recalls that he was billeted with Jo-Achim Hock and his family who “lived in a mansion”.  Not many footballers went on the trip, hence the games that were played ended in defeat. In spite of this, Jo-Achim’s father, who watched the games, was so impressed with Mark’s play that he called him ‘Franz Beckenbauer’ – praise indeed!

Mark writes: “We cycled to their school a couple of times to sit in lessons. Munster was a very clean, posh town and very flat.” Mark remembers that there were two Munsters in West Germany and that they visited the smaller one – possibly called Munster an der Ortze. It was situated in Lower Saxony.

Other memories include the coach journey, the ferry across the English Channel, getting sunstroke and making pen-friends with a German girl.  “It was an amazing trip,” says Mark.

Unfortunately, there are no details regarding names of teachers or drivers of the coach.

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