Hardest School in Brighton

[Shropshire Seagull]

I was at Longhill 71-76
At that time Patcham Fawcett were generally reckoned to be the toughest.
I don't remember school being violent, but I did get stabbed one afternoon play along with two others [trip to hospital in ambulance necessary].
Whitehawk was always hard, my good mate Leigh Shaw was murdered there [not in school] over a "discussion" about the merits of West Ham Utd.

 

[PFJ]

that's the one, top lad. we went to Wembley to see England play with Fawcett on a coach, i got a kid in my class to get me a large ticket roll off his dad a bus driver, i gave it to Ian in the stadium and he chucked it at the pitch and it hit a copper.
when we got on the coach after school a teacher said to keep your uniforms on. by the time the coach reached the bottom of Ladies Mile Rd the teacher looked round to see us lot decked out in trainers,jeans and Pringle jumpers!

I remember exactly that happening as well.Officially school uniform must be worn , but every kid had changed by the time we had got to the end of the playing fields . Can't remember which game it was .I think we went to three between 1975 and 1977. Yours might have been later .Definatly no Pringle jumpers . It was Doctor Martens and Ben Shermans . We saw England beat West Germany 2-0, Cyprus 5-0 and lost to Holland 2-0. I do remember one of those games though. There was another school from South London (don't think it was that South London) in the row in front of us. Our lot starting taking the piss because they were wearing their blazers . A little exchange of words took place, and the school kids in front went home with the backs of their blazers dripping in flegm .

 

[Baron Pepperpot]

I went to Deason in the 80's. It was absolutely mental. That was one scary place.

I went to Deason between 1981-1985 and hardly ever saw trouble. It was a very impressive school considering. I did hear that it went downhill in the late eighties though.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I was there, 67-74. regularly gave the Neville a good slapping. My mate, Big Sid, slapped a couple of teachers as well.

We used to have the odd ruck with Thomas Bennet in Crawley as well when we played them at football and cricket.

You were 2 years ahead of me. I remember hooking up with someone from your year in around 77 when I was at Uni. I went with him and a certain Mr Jedrejewski down to Sellhurst to watch Palarse v Leeds (my 'other' team at the time). Four pints at lunchtime in sarf London was emotional. Fortunately, in former HGSB tradition, we avoided all fistikerfuffles.

 

[BN9 BHA]

I remember exactly that happening as well.Officially school uniform must be worn , but every kid had changed by the time we had got to the end of the playing fields . Can't remember which game it was .I think we went to three between 1975 and 1977. Yours might have been later .Definatly no Pringle jumpers . It was Doctor Martens and Ben Shermans . We saw England beat West Germany 2-0, Cyprus 5-0 and lost to Holland 2-0. I do remember one of those games though. There was another school from South London (don't think it was that South London) in the row in front of us. Our lot starting taking the piss because they were wearing their blazers . A little exchange of words took place, and the school kids in front went home with the backs of their blazers dripping in flegm .

just found my ticket for one of the England games v Czechoslovakia 29 Nov 78, got a bit mixed up with the clothing here as that was a later game we went to, I say went to but didn't make the stadium , match was called off due to fog. Anyway we didn't find this out until we had reached London so the driver stopped for a toilet break and we all got out , I think we were still there 2 hours later as loads of lads did a runner! The coach got pretty messed up on the way back and the coach company refused to take us for the re-arranged fixture.
We were given our tickets by the school and told if you want to attend the match to make our own way, I sold mine but the lads that went got in trouble for wrecking a train.

 

[Harry H]

quality mate! my sister went to M Hardy also a single mum for many years but now married.

I loved those Margaret Hardy girls.Dead certs!
Most will be buried in a Y shaped coffin.

Varndean girls were snobby and hardly ever put out.
Falmer/scoomer girls were scary.
Stringer girls were ugly and overweight.
Whitehawk girls believed it if you said you loved them.

 

[grawhite]

what is the pecking order nowadays?

I would have said as an 80s boy

Falmer
Deason
Longhill
Tideway (pre fire and I know it shouldnt count)
Varndean
Cardinal Newman
Hove Park
etc etc etc

whats the score now?

None of those, early 80's to mid 80's Patcham Fawcett were considered the toughest, Longhill all mouth nothing more, Stringer, Varndean normally always bottled it. Fawcett seemed to except students kicked out of all other schools.

 

[Harry H]

None of those, early 80's to mid 80's Patcham Fawcett were considered the toughest, Longhill all mouth nothing more, Stringer, Varndean normally always bottled it. Fawcett seemed to except students kicked out of all other schools.

What Fawcett had was numbers.
Can't remember one hard person ever to come out of Fawcett other than Gargan and he always had a good back up.

 

[Harry H]

Johnny and Jimmy Farr were quite hard.
Longhill I think.

 

[Harry H]

Bad news that!
Shouldn't have happened.
Valley Social let him down.

 

[The Spanish]

Johnny and Jimmy Farr were quite hard.
Longhill I think.

jim was the first ever year of longhill. he has some good stories.

 

[Silverhatch]

Hate to say it , but Fawcett reguarally went to Stringer during dinner time and chased 'em all over their playing fields .

I was at Stringer 72-77 and your memory is slipping. Fawcett was generally a harder school because it was all boys - we had other distractions. But my recollection is of three or four proper dates from 3rd to 5th year that ended in honourable and bloody draws. We didn't have your strength in depth but our first team was a match for anyone.

 

[Guerrero]

What was the Stringer "First team"?

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

Me, I went to Stanley Deason ( Classs of 85 ). Hard as nails us lot. What about you?

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

None of those, early 80's to mid 80's Patcham Fawcett were considered the toughest, Longhill all mouth nothing more, Stringer, Varndean normally always bottled it. Fawcett seemed to except students kicked out of all other schools.

chin rub, as we used to say, I was at Falmer early 80's, Fawcett always used to run

 

[Meade's Ball]

I was in Stringer from 86-91 and some lads made me eat grass as punishment for accidentally dropping a coat on the floor and another one broke my cheekbone by bashing it with a skateboard. And i'm still alive and only sometimes have the dreams and curse my existence for those horrendous years. Who. Is. The. Hardest. Now? Huh?
Yes, them, mostly. But at least they were my them. Stringer! Stringer! Stringer!

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

There were some tasty get togethers back in the eighties from various schools, all part of growing up I thought. 29 years after leaving school are there any rivalries in the modern day or have health and safety intervened and put a stop to it?

 

[Peter Grummit]

Ingham looked a bit like Alf Garnett and I think he may have retired the year you started Fawcett, he also used to smoke in the class, his classroom was above miss Dockerell.
I remember Maurice Packham if you get the Argus look on the letters page he sends them in, usually moaning!

I was there 75-79. First years it was Comprehensive rather than Secondary Mod but it didn't change much. Max Gargan was in my class, bright lad, his brother Chris was in the year above. Packham taught my whole class the wrong History syllabus and we all got Us! Tw#t. Can't believe he still writes letters to the Argus.

PG

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

Knoll Boys School in the seventies was the HARDEST school I ever worked at.
I would arm myself with a hammer when walking around there.

 

[Taybha]

Thanks, but been there and done that.

See him most home games in the North Stand , jammy git still has masses of hair !