{"id":281,"date":"2011-08-18T18:12:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T17:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wyrefarmed.artsrainbow.com\/2011\/08\/18\/pool-meadow-back-to-school\/"},"modified":"2011-08-18T18:12:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T17:12:00","slug":"pool-meadow-back-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/2011\/08\/18\/pool-meadow-back-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Pool Meadow – Back to school!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dean Revell<\/b>
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We use to meet up at the Coventry center bus depot (Pool Meadow), get into separate coaches, depending on house (Blount, Dudley or Mortimer). Our suitcases  ( and bikes) thrown on to a lorry (nearly said truck) and off we would go. I remember the drive to school took all of 1\/2 hour, but the drive from school to Cov. would take at least a day!<\/i>
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\nJohn Burke<\/b> <\/i>(From Topix)
\nI remember the coach trips from Pool Meadow and the open truck that took all the luggage and bicycles to Cleobury.<\/i>
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\nPaul Rees  <\/b>“One more day to go, one more day of sorrow, one more day of this old dump and we’ll be home tomorrow!” <\/i>Sang on the bus going back to Pool meadow at end of term.
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While on this topic – I began dabbling in writing song lyrics at Cleobury c 1966. I found a couple of lyrics called Boarding School Blues<\/i> Pt 1 and 2  written while at school and which focused on leaving Pool Meadow<\/i> for the school at 12 years old and returning home.<\/p>\n

\nBoarding School Blues – Part 1<\/b>
\nby Trev Teasdel<\/p>\n

A case goes in the back
\nA bag goes in the rack
\nWe go in the coach and down the wayward track.
\nWe are 12, never left home, off to make it on our own.
\nThe coach draws off, along the drive
\nOur parents weep n wave and strive to see their darlings off.<\/p>\n

Chorus
\nLeaving home for the first time<\/i>
\nTo get those boarding school blues<\/i>
\nLeaving home in term time<\/i>
\nTo break the old school rules!<\/i><\/p>\n

Fun n games n chat, handkerchiefs and looking back
\nFinger spotting, whistling at the girls as the journey’s scenery unfurls.
\nAnd suddenly it’s endless fields and looking back..
\nRegretting this, regretting that, wishing your were on the homeward track
\nThe homesick blues, you’re feeling bad. Could have been kinder to mum and dad!<\/p>\n

\nChorus
\nLeaving home for the first time<\/i>
\nTo get those boarding school blues<\/i>
\nLeaving home in term time<\/i>
\nTo break the old school rules!<\/i><\/p>\n

\nConversation runs rings around your head,
\nYou’re feeling down, wish your were dead
\nas you gaze upon an endless void ahead
\nLife’s a mysterious tutor that leads you on towards your future.
\nYou catch a joke, maybe you snigger but the hurt inside just gets bigger.<\/p>\n

\nChorus
\nLeaving home for the first time<\/i>
\nTo get those boarding school blues<\/i>
\nLeaving home in term time<\/i>
\nTo break the old school rules!<\/i>
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B<\/b>oarding School Blues (Part 2)<\/b>
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Chorus<\/span><\/div>\n
One more day in this old place<\/span><\/div>\n
There’s one more day and we’re going home.<\/span><\/div>\n
Going home after far too long<\/span><\/div>\n
We’re going home.<\/span><\/div>\n

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In the prep room there is chaos,
\nEven the Masters celebrate
\nFun fights in dormitories,
\nNobody can wait.
\nIt’s all midnight packing and bed-ransacking
\nPillow fights and bright torch-light
\nEverybody’s getting ready
\nEverybody knows
\nWe’re going home.<\/p>\n

At last the time has come,
\nNo one will sleep tonight
\nLights out – half past ten
\nNo one gives a damn
\nMidnight raids on the staff room,
\nBiscuits topped with jam.
\nIt’s all been meals and lessons, slippers, canes, assembly
\nBut tomorrow – we’re going home,<\/p>\n

Tossing caps in the Severn as the coach rolls over the bridge
\nGulls come to greet them and fly off over the ridge
\nIt’s all ‘when I get home..I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that’
\nNothing seems to matter when you’re on the homeward track.<\/p>\n

Look out Coventry city – the boys are back in town
\nThe girls are looking pretty, we’ll soon be hanging round.
\nIt’s been facts n figures and classroom triggers
\nbut now we’re coming home.<\/p>\n

……<\/p>\n

On Visiting Day<\/b><\/p>\n

\nMichael Billings<\/b>
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Thinking back to the Sundays once a month when our Parents visited the school. The coaches from Coventry were Bunty or Red House Motor Services from Spon End, Coventry. Their garage was just before the Railways Arches. Wow i had forgotten about that until today.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Visiting day – parents would arrive in cars or on the coach. You’d maybe book lunch at a hotel in Cleobury or maybe Ludlow or maybe the family would picnic in Wyre forest. You’d get the whole until about 6pm with your parents, to go out of school. You felt sorry for the lads whose parents were in the forces or from homes whose parents couldn’t visit. Sometimes, if they were friends they might come with you. After all the excitement the evening would be a total come down. The only saving grace was the tuck parcel that could be unraveled afterwards.<\/p>\n

Another lyric I wrote at the time – on the playground in 1966, waiting for supper after visiting day was this. I used the emotion you felt after the parents had gone home to write a lyric but turned it into something more universal. I had the single As Tears go By <\/i>– Marianne Faithful <\/b>and Dylan, Donovan, Paul Simon were all newly out so the musical influence would from the work of those artists.<\/p>\n

\nOH WHY DID YA LEAVE<\/b>
\nby Trev Teasdel<\/p>\n

The stars shine bright above
\nPeople below talk about love
\nBut me I’m sittin’ here,
\nevery now and then a tear.<\/p>\n

Chorus
\nOh why did ya leave?
\nYou were mine I do believe
\nOh why did ya leave?
\nYou were mine I do believe<\/p>\n

No one can tell the way I fell for your arms
\nThere was no way to repel your charms
\nYou came to me when I needed a lift
\nNow you have flown with the winds so swift.<\/p>\n

The night’s so dark, it hides the mark you made.
\nYou shone so bright in the night then began to fade
\nThe room’s so bare, there’s no one there, I cry out all in vain.
\nThe floor it creaks, my mind it seeks, a rest from all this pain.<\/p>\n

1966 Cleobury Mortimer<\/p>\n

The next lyric with any relevance to the school was written on leaving the school in my final year – summer 1967. The idea for the lyric (which had a Paul Simon influence) came as the coach lined up outside the Bursar’s office, waiting to leave. The Bursar’s window sill gets a name check!<\/p>\n

In the chorus I took poetic licence and said we ‘hitch hiked home<\/i>‘ but obviously we went by coach. The Glen and the slippy embankment also gets a plug metaphorically in the song!<\/p>\n

\nIT\u2019S A LONG HITCH HIKE HOME<\/b>
\nby Trev Teasdel,<\/p>\n

Well now, at last, the term has ended
\nAnd we\u2019re ready to return.
\nI say goodbye to all my friends
\nFor I have many things to learn,
\nAnd ambitions to fulfil
\nAnd I whisper to my friend
\nWhose mind is still on the window sill.<\/p>\n

Chorus –
\nIt\u2019s long hitch hike home
\nSo I give my hair a comb
\nPut my rucksack on my back
\nAnd proceed down the track.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m off to seek my fortune
\nBut not in pence and pounds
\nI\u2019m off to seek my fortune
\nBut not in jewels and crowns
\nI\u2019m off to seek the truth
\nI\u2019ve been looking for, for years
\nI\u2019m off to seek a sun,
\nIn a crowded mass of tears.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve travelled through the glens
\nAnd made many friends
\nBut as I try to wend my way
\nUp the embankment slimy clay
\nI sometimes slip and fall
\nLike a silver waterfall
\nBut eventually I\u2019ll climb
\nAnd overcome the slime.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve travelled many miles
\nThrough many empty valleys
\nAnd I\u2019ve had my fair share
\nOf the darkness of the alleys
\nI\u2019ve come across folk
\nSearching for their yoke
\nThey sound their motto wide
\n\u201cSeek and thou shalt find\u201d<\/p>\n

Everybody\u2019s searching
\nFor what? \u2013 They do not know
\nGazing from their windows
\nThey bow their heads low.
\nPeople trying to reach
\nWith hands that can not feel
\nPeople trying to speak
\nTo images unreal\u2026.
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Strange but in 2021 the new Pool Meadow building, where the school coach used to leave from, now has the Ska’d for Life 2 Tone Mosaic on by artist Carrie Reichart as part of the City of Culture status and Trev Teasdel is featured on it with his 1974 Coventry music magazine Hobo as seen below.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dean Revell We use to meet up at the Coventry center bus depot (Pool Meadow), get into separate coaches, depending on house (Blount, Dudley or Mortimer). Our suitcases  ( and bikes) thrown on to a lorry (nearly said truck) and off we would … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/wyrefarmed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}