The picture above shows what used to happen to boys who were caught smoking, they had to spend four hours up the pole. The boys would sing "Come and Join us" to the few passing motorist,  then  a school favourite " A slice of bread is called a Jinner, it maybe half an inch or even thicker, first of all you pick it up, then sling it on the floor, if it doesn't break you sling it out the door, please sir I don't want anymore, as Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh". Second verse,,,, this form of punishment continued till the mid 50s when by chance the Bishop of Hertford drove by on his way to Waterford mill to buy some mint imperials. As he passed the gate house he heard the boys rendition of "Spuds and Beetroot, feed me till I want no more"  sung to the tune of a well known Welsh hymn. The Bishop demanded that this Dickensian punishment be stopped. With no real punishment the boys started the easy life at Goldings, running water from a tap in the main house. The boys no longer needed to drink from the toilet cistern to quench their thirst at night. Some or all of this is made up, what part do think is the truth? A Vice-President of  Barnardo's today could confirm the fact from fiction or  you could try tracing the then Bishop of Hertford for the truth.

Do you remember your first day at Goldings WBTS? being introduced to your Housemaster or Matron or did your house captain meet you as was depicted in the Goldings film. Then being taken to your dormitory and given your allotted bed and locker, meeting the other boys and that first meal in the large open plan dinning room, do you remember ever getting two sausages? Your first morning wake-up call and your first helping of Jacks porridge with those little black bits. What were those black bits? That talk that most of us had with the headmaster "not only have you let me down, you have let the school down, but most importantly you have let yourself down" was said to make you feel like a deflated balloon? This web site hopefully will bring those memories flooding back.

I arrived at Goldings like most of the boys in the back of the stores wagon that was driven by Mr. Whitbread on the 8th September 1964 with two other boys from Barkingside and not in a car as was depicted in the film "The Way Ahead" that some of us had seen at our branch home. We were deposited by the pig bins and shown in a back door. Out of the gloom ( I was standing just inside the kitchen back doors) a voice said unto me "Smile and be happy as things could be worse" So I smiled and was happy and behold, things did get worse as we only got one sausage and not as depicted in the film, now a video and also on DVD reproduced by Goldings Raincoat Productions.

It was Mr. J. H. Clarke SRN,. MPA known as "Nobby Clark" the then Housemaster of Cairns who had said those words to me, he was also on dinning hall duties so while the two other boys Stephen and John were taken to Somerset house to meet Skip I was put to work cutting the marge into little round pats with the aid of a machine. I noticed the skylights of the dinning hall were over full with flies buzzing around and made the off the cuff remark "so when do we eat the flies?" Nobby without thinking remarked "oh they are for our non-Christian boys, its so they can eat some meat on Fridays if they choose" had he read my file or was it just another off the cuff remark?

This site is of our time at Goldings so please send information and photos so it can displayed on site, the good or the bad if you had them. Post your story of your years or months at Goldings and criticise anything that's on site. but also remember, that each and everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion. The web pages are made up from some articles copied from our old school magazine "The Goldonian" as well as other sources. If your name or photograph appears on this site without your permission or we have used your copy from The Goldonian school magazine and you as the originator of the copy do not want it to appear on this site, please advise and it will be removed as I do not want to offend any person for whatever reason, but we had to start with some content.

The language used at Goldings was sometime confusing to the outside world and even some masters, click here to view the Goldings Thesaurus.

Mr. N. T. Powell the then editor of the school magazine The Goldonian wrote in the final edition Vol. XXI NUMBER 2 SPRING 1967 " I think the magazine has served the school well, and it has kept old friends in touch. Au revoir, but not 'goodbye' -- I hope!" to see full version » click here

Have fun and hope you enjoy looking around this web site.

Frank Cooke
Editor, Collator and general dogsbody.