comments archive

April  to July  2002 

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90; Q312461)
Date: Monday, 01. April 2002
Time: 15:49:16

Comments:
Brilliant. I can see this taking off. How can we recruit more old boys' to join in the reminiscences and general banter? There must be thousands out there. I have got so much to tell about my career, my children, finding my family, visiting them in Alabama. I must find time to sit down, sort things out and communicate with anyone who might be interested. Thank you for your efforts. Keep up the great work.
Winston Norton (1957-64). 

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90; Q312461)
Date: Monday, 01. April 2002
Time: 15:50:19

Comments:
My Dad is very proud of his connection with Goldings and in effect we owe our standard of living to his success as a printer after a very difficult start in life. He was determined to make a success of printing and the family business is now run by my two younger brothers and a partner in Birmingham I am a teacher in Birmingham. The Book I mentioned is called Barnardo Boy by John Charlesworth, which he wrote to help us understand his history and was produced in the best paper and very carefully considered presentation for it to be submitted for a print award. To be honest, I am not sure the result of this but he had to deposit several copies with the British Library ( I think that is its name) He published the book himself. Many people have told him how moving the story is. It was in the Barnardo's catalogue a couple of years ago. You may be able to get a copy to read through the library. Some Waterstones book shops had copies or failing that he still may have copies to sell.
Yours Angela Billingham ( Nee Clarke)

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90; Q312461)
Date: Monday, 01. April 2002
Time: 15:51:04

Comments:
Please use whatever you want to be included in the Guild Messenger. I am off to Alabama over Easter to see my long-lost sisters and brothers again. I'll send e-mails from there to let people know what I'm up to. In the meantime, I will make the effort to sit and write what I have done with my life since leaving Goldings. Maybe some will find it interesting. I know that my experiences as a boarder have been enormously helpful to me in my job - I am Head of Care at a Special School that caters for boys with emotional and behavioral problems. I will be in touch soon. Take care.
Winston Norton 

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98)

Comments:
I consider myself to be one of the lucky minority when it comes to tracing families. With a lot of help (mainly from the Salvation Army!) I now have regular and rewarding contact with my mum, and she has a new lease of life in discovering that she has a son, daughter-in-law, 4 grandchildren and 3 (so far) great-grandchildren. I have also been to the USA twice so far and I am going again this Easter to see my six half-sisters and two half-brothers. Obviously, I would advise all Old Boys to make the effort and trace their 'roots,' even if only for the sake of their families. After all, in the unlikely event that things go wrong, you will be no worse off than you are now, and the longer you leave things, the less chance you have of getting a satisfactory outcome. I would be interested to read what experiences other old boys have had, and I would be more than happy to help anyone by sharing with them my own efforts and results.
Winston Norton 

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Q312461)
Date: 19 May 2002
Time: 14:20 -0000

Comments:
I have some information from grandma she said that she was returned to a village home in Ilford. Does anyone know which home this would be.

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90; Q312461)
Date: 20 May 2002
Time: 11:59 -0000

Comments:
The home would be called Dr. Barnardo's The Village Home Barkingside, Ilford. Essex or prior to 1939 then it was known as Girls Village Barkingside Ilford. Essex. I hope this has been of some help regarding your grandmother, this information is on site under photo page, old homes then just choose the Barkingside thumbnail.
Frank Cooke Duty Web Manager. 

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Q312461)
Date: 20 May 2002
Time: 14:06 -0000

Comments:
Thank you. My grandmother was there in 1903. As my grandmother get older we are trying to piece her life together she remembers time, places and people. They just aren't always in the right order. My search has just begun and it is a help at least having the name of the home it all started at. 

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows 98)
Date: 06 Jun 2002
Time: 15:55 -0000

Comments
I , my two sisters and one brother are children of an old Goldings boy David William Green, he came to watts navel 1941 and later went on to the William Baker Technical 1944. He emigrated to Canada in 1948. We would love to find out anything about him good or bad. We have no family history of our fathers family. hoping someone will reply.

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90; Q312461)
Date: 10 Jun 2002
Time: 16:12 -0000

Comments:
Reply to above 216.46.137.148
Please forward your email address and I will forward on to After Care at Barkingside, or you could go to the after care page and follow the link to request information, but it would be nice to get your details either via this board or email. Any link to the Webmaster will get me. You have made the first step which sometimes is the hardest thing or knowing who to ask.
Best regards Duty Web Manager. Frank Cooke 

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90)

Comments:
I would like to reply to the children of David William Green who was at Goldings (William Baker Technical School) at the same time as I was. We were both learning the printing trade, me as a compositor and he as a machine minder. I got to know him better just before he emigrated to Canada. He was House Captain of one of the houses at the school. He was a very keen cricketer and played for one of the school teams, as I did. He was very keen to carry on playing cricket when he arrived in Canada, but wasn't sure whether they played the game there! The way the message from the children was worded gave me the impression that David is no longer with us. If this is the case I am sad for you, but I'm sure he had a good and full life. Should you wish to reply to this message my name is John (alias Jimmy) James.