Bordesley Green Boys' Technical School

Version XXVII Updated Wednesday, 28th February, 2024 at 7.55pm UTC.
Anybody wishing to have his name added is kindly asked to add given name, surname, and any nickname he may have had, together with his year of entry and year of leaving the school plus house as a comment at the bottom of this thread (OUR BORDESLEY GREEN TECH. GROUP FB PAGE) and not on the similar thread on our main page. Thank you.
Any new additions will be published within two months.
Thanks for your collaboration, David (1959-1966)
PS You will obtain a more easily-read image by clicking on the list itself. D.

THIS POSTING HAS BEEN UPDATED. PLEASE SEE VERSION XXVII POSTED ON 28TH FEBRUARY, 2024.

Version XXVI Updated Wednesday, 17th January, 2024 at 1.55pm UTC.
Anybody wishing to have his name added is kindly asked to add given name, surname, and any nickname he may have had, together with his year of entry and year of leaving the school plus house as a comment at the bottom of this thread (OUR BORDESLEY GREEN TECH. GROUP FB PAGE) and not on the similar thread on our main page. Thank you.
Any new additions will be published within two months.
Thanks for your collaboration, David (1959-1966)
PS You will obtain a more easily-read image by clicking on the list itself. D.

Version XXV Updated Wednesday, 22nd November, 2023 at 10.35pm UTC.

THIS POSTING HAS BEEN UPDATED. PLEASE SEE VERSION XXVI POSTED ON 17TH JANUARY, 2024.

Anybody wishing to have his name added is kindly asked to add given name, surname, and any nickname he may have had, together with his year of entry and year of leaving the school plus house as a comment on OUR BORDESLEY GREEN TECH. GROUP FB PAGE and not at the bottom of this thread. Thank you.
Any new additions will be published within two months.
Thanks for your collaboration, David (1959-1966)

PS You will obtain a more easily-read image by clicking on the list. D.

THIS POSTING HAS BEEN UPDATED! PLEASE SEE VERSION XXV POSTED ON 22ND NOVEMBER 2023.

Version XXIV Updated Monday, 21st August, 2023 at 07.05am UTC.
Anybody wishing to have his name added is kindly asked to add given name, surname, and any nickname he may have had, together with his year of entry and year of leaving the school plus house as a comment on OUR BORDESLEY GREEN TECH. GROUP FB PAGE and not at the bottom of this thread. Thank you.
Any new additions will be published within two months.
Thanks for your collaboration, David (1959-1966)
PS You will obtain a more easily-read image by clicking on the list. D.

Getting ready for the big day ...

Into motorbikes? Perhaps you didn't know this ...

First posted eight years ago, found by chance on vertikal.net ... but an excellent read.

William Roy Richards 1931-2008

Roy Richards was born in 1931 and attended Bordesley Green Technical School leaving at 14 to take a job as a surveyor for Bryant Builders, now one of the country’s leading house builders. After seven years there he teamed up with Ray Wallington, to set up his own building company, Richards & Wallington.
In 1968 the company diversified into crane and general rental under the same name, Richards went on a major acquisition programme culminating with the takeover of MLS – Mobile Lifting Services, a division of Tarmac.

The name of the company was then changed to the grandiose sounding British Crane Hire Corporation, which was for a time Europe’s largest crane hire company.
The company opened subsidiaries overseas including Richards & Wallington International in Holland, managed by a young Dick Schalekamp (which became Riwal) and FAL in France. In 1976 he co-founded Crown cranes – later Cosmos Cranes – in a joint venture with Clark and eight senior managers from Coles, who quit following its takeover by Acrow. By 1980 things began to go wrong and the business went into administration.
Richards, a long-time motorcycle fanatic, went on to found the UK’s National Motorcycle Museum in 1984 in Birmingham. His first bike was a Norton and his favourite saying was apparently, “When God made the mountains, he had Nortons in mind.”
When the museum was destroyed by fire in 2003, Richards was the driving force behind its 15-month rebuilding programme. Married four times, Richards is survived by his wife, Christine, a son and daughter and three step-children. The funeral was held on 9th April, 2008, at the Robin Hood Cemetery, in Shirley, which Richards & Wallington built. The funeral cortège made its way there from the National Motorcycle Museum with a classic bike es**rt. DB

Yet another gem! I was sent this photograph some time ago by Ron Hemming, to whom I'm tremendously grateful. It's the school's Under-13 football team during the 1963/'64 season.
Please check that the labelling is correct. Can anyone help me out and confirm Paul's surname; is it Morrell? He's sitting in the front row.
Thanks to all ... and especially Ron.
Best wishes, David Benbow

Please note that this photograph has been updated and corrected. The lad sitting in the front row isn't Keith Newton; it's John Kimberley.
Thanks for letting me know, John!
You can see the updated version lower down in this thread. DB

In the course of its history, Bordesley Green Boys' Technical School had seen a number of changes to its official name. Here's a list of names I've come across on the internet and in other documents and photographs .... there could well be other variants. Here there are nine documented official names.
Thanks go to Sue Lockyer and Dave Powell for a confirmed new addition. Thank you both. DB

THIS POSTING HAS BEEN UPDATED! PLEASE SEE VERSION XXV POSTED ON 22ND NOVEMBER 2023.

Version XXII Updated Monday, 26th December, 2022 at 21.45pm UTC.
Anybody wishing to have his name added is kindly asked to add given name, surname, and any nickname he may have had, together with his year of entry and year of leaving the school plus house as a comment on OUR BORDESLEY GREEN TECH. GROUP FB PAGE and not at the bottom of this thread. Thank you.
Any new additions will be published within two months.
Thanks for your collaboration, David (1959-1966)
PS You will obtain a more easily-read image by clicking on the list. D.

Scanned from BGTS Magazine 1959 edition.

Just look at those prices!

On our Group page John Didsbury would like to hear from former pupils from the September 1961 intake ...

THIS POSTING HAS BEEN UPDATED! PLEASE SEE VERSION XXV POSTED ON 22ND NOVEMBER 2023.

Version XXI Updated Saturday, 1st October, 2022 at 3.45pm GMT.
Anybody wishing to have his name added is kindly asked to add given name, surname, and any nickname he may have had, together with his year of entry and year of leaving the school plus house as a comment on OUR BORDESLEY GREEN TECH. GROUP FB PAGE and not at the bottom of this thread. Thank you.
Any new additions will be published within two months.
Thanks for your collaboration, David (1959-1966)
PS You will obtain a more easily-read image by clicking on the list. D.

Bob Eaton sent in this amazing photograph in March 2016. It's the 5th-year football team in 1971. It's one of my personal favourites.

By sharing it from six years ago, I hope Facebook will bring forward the comments with the photograph because there are some brilliant snippets of schoolboy memories.

The history of the photo itself is in itself fascinating, as Bob explains. Thanks again, Bob, D.

PS By clicking on Bob's photograph, the original comments come to light. D.

Bob Eaton sent in this amazing photograph in March 2016. It's the 5th-year football team in 1971.
Bob wrote a highly detailed caption which is fully repeated here:

"This photo was taken at the old B'ham City Reserves ground in Damson Lane. We had just won one of the major trophies against Sheldon Heath Comp. The game was originally scheduled to be played at St Andrews but had to be relocated due to a Blues match being rearranged so it was probably the Birmingham City Shield. Not sure if any teachers were in the photo but I think our manager would have been Bill Williams at that time. It had been Keith Hipwell for many years but I think he had left by then.

That team was very successful for several years and most years we won the league and/or a cup final. A lot of the team also represented Birmingham Boys.

In the same year we lost 3-2 to Waverley Grammar in the semi-final of the Villa Cup.They had Clive Whitehead in their team who went on to play for Bristol City and West Brom and his brother Alan played for the Blues. We played them again that season when Clive did not play and we beat them 8-0 so he made quite a difference to their team."

When Bob initially posted the photo, a friend of his wrote a comment asking which of the players he was. His answer is classic. Here it is again in full:
"Second from the right as we look at it with the basin haircut. Those marks on my face are there because my brother used to throw darts at this photo when we fell out."

Wonderful! This is a truly invaluable addition to our ever-increasing album of Bordesley Green Tech photographs.
Thanks again, Bob! David.

PS Wasn't your brother a good shot! ;-) D.