St.Helens

Deputy Heads

Cowley Boys School. St.Helens.

On a trip back in 1980 to pick up my A level certificate (singular!)
The presentation was in the evening in a newly built building and the deputy heads had just switched the lights on in the room, they were keen that all lights were working in the new space.
Thinking about it now I’m not quite sure why there were two deputy heads instead of one, I wonder if the squabbled?

The old cafe

The central doors lead to pop, crisps and ice cream, the doors to the left of the picture lead to bowls and putting hire (perhaps tennis rackets and balls also?). Round the back were the public toilets.
Victoria Park. St.Helens.

North Road in 1975

The film “Tommy” was released in March 1975 so I must have taken this picture at about the age of thirteen and a half. Standing in the middle of the road was a bit safer in those days. Lubitel II tlr camera.
St.Helens.

Keith Hunt takes a picture

Fellow 6th form Photo Soc member Keith Hunt photographs the scene out of the window of the 6th Form Centre in 1978 or 1979.
Cowley Boys School St.Helens.

The Summer of 76

The long hot Summer of 1976 was certainly felt in the South facing classrooms of Cowley boys school. Windows went unopened as we baked in our polyester uniforms and tried to stay awake as the lessons progressed slowly. The Helios 58mm lens combined with the poor blacking in the Zenith E body meant shooting into light always exhibited light flares, this light flare helps convey the atmosphere so not too bad.
Cowley Boys School. St.Helens.

Lunchtime at school

The art of the queue. Canteen at Cowley Boys School in either 1978 or 1979.

Canteen interior. These were a common design across the whole area and is the same design as the Parish Church primary school canteen.
St.Helens.

Classroom photography

French lesson. Always exciting to see if you could capture a lesson in progress, Sitting at the front of the class gave me this opportunity to get a different angle. Can not recall if the teacher responded to the sound of the shutter going off and the mirror bouncing up, I certainly would have appreciated a silent shutter in the 1970s.

Zenith E FP4 film.
Cowley Boys School. St.Helens.

Photo Society Outing

Image circa 1978/79 we were all 6th form pupils at Cowley when this image was taken (The girls and boys school combined for the first time).

I only started to stage manage my photography when I did commercial work but this picture was setup as a bit of fun. The photo Society at Cowley consisted of people who prefered to do photography rather than games in the games period. In retrospect I should have joined in the games but at the time it seemed much safer and more comfortable to photograph. The girls were not part of the society but followed us on our jaunt to see what we got up to.

Lubitel II 6×6 tlr camera from Russia (£11.75 brand new).
St.Helens.

Physics lesson

Mr Ross delivers a lesson in thermodynamics and graciously ignores the sound of my camera going off.

Zenith E 58mm lens FP4. Likely shot at f2 30th of a second, a quick grab so not overly sharp.
Cowley Boys School. St.Helens.

The dangling conversation

My photography started in the third year of secondary school, fellow 13 year old pupil Ian Griffiths showed me his Russian Zenith B camera and I just knew I had to get a proper camera and start taking photographs.

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Selective focus

I must have taken this picture in the mid 1970s at about the age of 14 or 15. Its inside the museum part of the Gamble Institute in the centre of St.Helens.

The formal (and quiet) atmosphere in the room seemed at odds with the doll and I think this is what caught my attention and provoked me to take a picture.

Decades later its not so much the novelty that I get from the image but more about “how we are”. I could easily imagine that when we are concentrating on something we need to put other things out of mind , perhaps move them behind us so that they don’t distract both metaphorically (and in this case) physically.

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