We have uploaded here some fascinating drawings of the Upper Shirley Road and Tamworth Road sites that have been imaged by Mike Etheridge (JRGS 1963-65). Click on the thumbnail image to access a larger version. >>Perspective Views

   As Mike notes: "On the top/first floor drawing of the Shirley building, I certainly recognize what I think became Room 4, adjacent to the Library. This room seems to be an after thought, since a large English Room in the Room 4 vicinity seems to have been originally proposed. I also think the Prefects room was located off the same corridor as Room 4.
   "I expect that some of the JRGS Alumni who were at the school for up to seven years can add the subject/tutor names to most of the class/division rooms. I'm sure I can spot Mr. Smith's Applied Maths room where, apart from anything else, I learnt that all equals signs should be placed 1/7/8 inches from the left hand margin of a page! (I've never been the same since!)
   "For myself, [these drawings] have brought back memories of what I thought was a very good school. The fact that it was demolished after a very short life still seems to me a destructive waste. After all it was only 10 years older than Trinity School just down the road. Of course, a number of other Croydon schools have been axed over the years - I could not believe that Purley Girls High School was broken up and a council housing estate constructed on the site. (I can just imagine how pleased the local private householders must have been.)
   "No doubt the school's character changed when it became comprehensive. Although I did not witness this myself, I did see first hand the decline at Selhurst school when it lost its Grammar status. The atmosphere only improved at Selhurst when it became part of Croydon College; perhaps this influenced the creation of Ruskin College."

We seem to have omitted mention of Mike Etheridge in previous pages, so here is his background:

"I was at Ruskin school for only two years from September 1963 until July 1965. I was originally at Norbury Manor school with Guscott, Durr, Wheeler, Alan Gibbs and John White. We all joined Ruskin's A-level course at the same time. My classes were Lower and Upper Sixth Science Alpha, so at some time or another we [Mel Lambert and I] must have been in the same class.
   "I noticed that the only common subject we studied was physics. Did you attend Mr. 'Sam' Chaundy's class? 'Uff, uff - firm it up at home' was his usual expression, if I remember rightly.
   "As I needed to retake a couple of O-Levels, I was initially placed in John Byford's class and remember well his other colleagues, including Roger Hall and Doug Edwards. I particularly remember saying goodbye to Hall and Byford at the end the 1964 summer term on a Friday - only to meet them again the next day by complete surprise in the same Youth Hostel room in North Wales. So you could say I have slept with them!
   "Can anyone confirm the story regarding stolen road signs? It seemed particularly funny at the time. Rumour had it that some prefects had 'borrowed' the signs as a prank, much to the annoyance of Mr. 'Joe' Lowe, who had the signs locked in the Prefect's Room and called in the police. When 'Joe' showed the police into the Prefect's Room the signs had apparently gone - smuggled into the roof space that was linked to all the storage cupboards on the top floor in the three-story block, and removed from the premises!"

   Mike also recalls that when local councils decided to sell off assets to fund other projects, there was a scheme to create John Ruskin College on either the John Newnham or our old Upper Shirley Road school site. "Since the corridors were wider (less stories?) in the John Newnham building and hence better suited disabled access - the general building condition was also good - our old school was chosen for demolition."
   "Over the past years I had a minor input in building electrical works on the site," he continues, "including the ROSLA [Raising of School Leaving Age] block constructed in the school playground, and the forming of the girls toilets when the school became co-ed. In fact, I did meet Mr.' 'Wally' Cracknell plus other teachers at the time, but none of them remembered me!"

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