Muswell Hill Times

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Tollington Schools of Muswell Hill</B></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tollington Schools of Muswell Hill"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Old Tollingtonians Society"><U>The Old Tollingtonians Society</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reunions"><U>Reunions</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Galleries"><U>Galleries</U></A>   |   <B>Muswell Hill Times</B>   |   <A HREF="id307.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Golf"><U>Golf</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Whats New"><U>What's New</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id278.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Feature School Mag Summer 1916"><U>Special Feature - School Mag Summer 1916</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Newsletters"><U>Newsletters</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Email List has been removed"><U>The E-mail List has been removed</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id128.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tolly History"><U>Tolly History</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id139.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Teachers Remembered"><U>Teachers Remembered</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id145.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Valete"><U>Valete</U></A></div> <div> Muswell Hill Times</div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="834" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 73 WIDTH="828"><div> <B>They were Tolly good times</B></div> <div> <I>The Old Tollingtonians have been meeting every year since 1897, even though the school closed down 39 years ago. </I><I><B>Caron Kemp</B></I><I> joined the 2006 reunion to find out what it's all about</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1007 WIDTH="828"><bR> <div> <B>With the launch </B>of web sites such as Friends Reunited, catching up with old classmates is nothing new. All the important questions - whether someone has married and had children; what careers people have gone into; and whether they have moved away from the area - can often be found at the touch of a button. But long before the internet, former pupils of a school in Muswell Hill were meeting regularly to reminisce about what they believe were the best years of their lives.</div> <bR> <div> Tollington Boys' School stood - in what is now Fortismere School's sixth form centre, in Tetherdown, Muswell Hill. Tollington Boys' came to Tetherdown in 1901, before which it was based for 20 years in Tollington Park, Islington, from where the school got its name. It was after the original principal, William Brown, died in 1895 and was succeeded by his son, Campbell, that the move to Muswell Hill took place. After numerous extensions to meet growing demand, Brown junior bought a house in Tetherdown. The building still exists as Fortismere's sixth form centre. Part of Coldfall Wood provided the playing fields and another house at the top of Tetherdown became the preparatory school. Nine years later, the girls' school was commissioned and created at the corner of Collingwood and Grand Avenues. It too still exists - as Tetherdown Primary School.</div> <bR> <div> I walked into this year's reunion of Tollington School, held on Saturday, to find more than 100 ex-pupils and teachers giggling and gossiping with an air of excitement that you don't usually find in a school hall - especially not on a weekend. Everyone was presented on arrival with a badge that bore their name and the years they attended the school. This was all people needed to strike up a conversation about their time as `a Tolly'. As I was talking to two of the organisers, Rex Sills and Jenny Harrold, about whether new people still turn up, as if on cue. a new face arrives. Suddenly our conversation is interrupted as Rex struggles to put a name to the face. It turns out to be Tom Leimdorfer. Tom had only been at the school for a few years but with complete clarity Rex says he recalls him receiving an award for applied maths at a 1961 prize giving. This is the first time they have met since.</div> <bR> <div> People travel great distances to attend these reunions. Margaret Aasen comes back from her home in Norway every year to see her old school friends. She was very clear as to her motivation, saying: "When your past is bigger than your future you start to want to look back more. You crave a sense of continuity and a sense of belonging. They are very important." Her sentiments are echoed by Tom (the two were actually sweethearts at school), who added: "School  is an extremely important part of your life."</div> <bR> <div> It is not just the pupils who fondly recall their time at Tollington. John Terry, 81, was a PE teacher who was at the school between 1952 and 1956. His memories of 'school are clearly quite different from how things work today, as he chuckles that, as much as he enjoys coming to the reunions, he struggles to remember people's christian names - he only ever referred to people by their surnames. But as he surveyed the room, he said: "I look on my time here very fondly. The kids wanted to learn. How could I not want to come back to see pupils like this?”</div> <bR> <div> At this year's reunion, held at Fortismere School, a plaque was unveiled in the library to Campbell Brown and  to Tollington School. The pride felt by the ex-pupils as they listened to it being read out by the current Fortismere head teacher, Aydin Onac, was evident.</div> <bR> <div> But on the walk back from the main building to the sixth form library I realised that very little has changed in some respects down the years - and even the Old Tollingtonians misbehaved at school. I overheard, for example, two women behind me laughing at how often they had been told off for wearing nail varnish, interjected with tales of past love interests recall their time at Tollington. </div> <bR> <div> The school ceased to exist in 1967 when it became a comprehensive and merged with Sir William Grimshaw Secondary Modern. It was renamed Creighton School, changing again to Fortismere in 1983. Therefore the lifespan of the reunions is limited, although for now they appear to be providing the ex-pupils with a sense of continuity and belonging. I was watching the plaque unveiling when one gentleman approached me and began to talk. It transpired that he had never actually attended the school - he was escorting his wife, but she had just spotted an ex-boyfriend from her time at Tollingtons across the room and had disappeared. I did find her later when she told me in no uncertain terms that this was the best school in the country and that every other school should have been modelled on it. </div> <bR> <div> Whether that is right or not, it would be hard to find another group of former pupils holding so much pride and fondness for a school that they say had given them so much.</div> <bR> <div> That is a lesson that many schools these days could learn from.</div> <bR> <div> <I>ckemp @ </I><A HREF="http://london.newsquest.co.uk" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://london.newsquest.co.uk"><U><I>london.newsquest.co.uk</I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tollington Schools of Muswell Hill"><U><I>Back to Main Page</I></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>