King’s Rise School

In the summer of 1976, just before the holidays, a sixth-former called Paul Hillcox went round King’s Rise Secondary School with a camera. He had been asked to photograph classes and teachers for a display in the main corridor. He caught Mrs Taylor’s typing class, Mr Wright’s art room, girls in the gym, singing in the main hall, a science lesson with Mrs Pocknell, and Mr Lane, the deputy head, who was, Paul said later, “the King’s Rise ultimate deterrent for naughty children!” Those pictures, and the ones the art teacher Keith Wright took over the years, are now among the best records of a building that has gone.

Two schools behind one gate

The school grew out of the senior departments of Peckham Road Council School. In 1945 the boys and girls became separate schools, and in 1954 they took the name King’s Rise. The Victoria County History notes the overflow: huts on Warren Farm Road from 1949, and St Luke’s Church Hall for the boys from 1951. By 1961 there were 500 boys and 480 girls.

Janett Stone, there from 1954 to 1958, remembered that the two schools did not mix while she was there. Barbara Copson remembered the girls’ maroon blazers and berets, “well some of us did”, and teachers including Miss Eastgate, Miss Roberts, Miss Robinson, Miss Musto and Miss James. Pupils remember Miss Slade as head of the girls. Phyllis Eastgate taught German, arranged pen-friends with German schools, and in 1954 took a party of girls to Amsterdam and the Keukenhof bulb fields. Former pupils remember the school motto as “Diligence and Integrity”.

Pop Mason and the goalkeeper

On the boys’ side the headmaster was Mr Ward. Roger Boulton, there from 1955 to 1960, said he “lived for his brass band”, and John Griffiths remembered him as “great with the Band and choir”. Reg Cook remembered him in mortar board and cape. The teachers who come up again and again are “Pop” Mason, a member of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, who, Roger said, always knew when a sunburnt boy had skipped school for Edgbaston; “Nobby” Clarke in science; Percy Palmer; and Mr Askey, who stroked his beard. Metalwork and woodwork were taught in a centre near Kingstanding Baths, and the playing fields were by College Road.

One boy became famous. Allan Rooke, who played against him for Dulwich Road in 1953, remembered Peckham’s goalkeeper Arthur Sabin as small for the job, “but he was good anyway”. Sabin went on to keep goal for Aston Villa’s first team. A later newspaper profile says he joined Villa straight from school and died of kidney failure on 5 March 1958, aged 19; Allan remembered him as 21.

One school, then Kings School

The boys’ and girls’ schools were joined in 1963. Paul Ward, there from 1966 to 1971, remembered the houses as Tudor, Stuart, Hanover and Windsor, and the death of Mr Mason, after which Mrs Holder became deputy head. In the 1970s pupils remember Mr Upton as headmaster, and Mr Maze arriving later. Valerie Cooper, who started in 1975, remembered a form room in a hut in the junior playground, and two “Colditz style” huts for needlework so cold in winter “we were allowed to wear our coats”.

In 1983 the school was renamed Kings School. It closed in 1989, according to the city archives. A photograph dated 29 August 1988 shows its red-brick front, tall chimneys and half-moon windows, with a caption written on the print: “Photo taken before demolition.” Keith Wright photographed the site being cleared. Houses were built on it.

What still stands

The primary school stayed. Brendan Griffiths, who left in 1971, wrote that “the senior school has now gone and houses have been built there but the infants and junior school still remains… It’s a shame as the school was built when the estate was built.” That primary is Kings Rise Academy now. And a boy who was a pupil there in the 1960s, Phil Hinks, wrote in 2012 that he was still there, as the caretaker.