Evans, Mike (BGS 1955-60)
I attended BGS from 1955-1960. I was an East-the-Water boy who had previously attended the ETW Primary School down by the Torridge, as did my friend, Alan Stevens.
To help you place my particular year group, it included – in no particular order – Martin Fishleigh, Chas Povey, Clive Segal, John Morgan, Tony D’Alberti, Peter Couch, Peter Diwell and others. We also had two disabled boys by the names of Chubb and Boundy. At least one of them was in a chair; perhaps they both were. The school was never designed for wheelchairs and their fellow pupils would help them to get from place to place around the school. Poor lads; neither of them reached their teens.
I was placed into Stranges. Hopefully, I gained more house points than I lost.
The Headmaster, Charles William Stephenson, wrote of me at the end of my time at the school as ‘..being of average ability for a grammar school’.
Sports wise, I had one moment of glory by winning the half mile when I was 14 or 15. On the home straight I was joined by Roger Crowther, my House Captain, who I remember saying, ‘These are unexpected points, Evans’. Quite so. Unexpected and not to be repeated. On the strength of that victory, I entered the open half mile at the next Regatta Sports. Quite what competition I was expecting I cannot now recall, but it certainly did not include Brian Kent Smith and ‘Barefoot’ Bruce Tulloh! Let’s not dwell on that, other than to add that after the event, in the crowd, I saw a classmate of mine with a girl and I heard her say to him, ‘I thought you said he was good’.
Coming last while swimming in the river for the Sea Cadets and being one of the crew of Bideford Blues under 18 fours, which was disqualified after colliding with another boat. completed my contribution towards the local sports scene during that particular regatta week.
As I moved through the school, I found that I was drawn more towards the humanities rather than the sciences. Chemistry was hard work and I remember one particular lesson with Mr Parry who was talking about deposits in water at the same time as I was looking out of the window. He was saying something about men having to get inside boilers to chip off deposits when he broke off to suggest to me that I might care to listen to this as I might be after a job one of these days!
My father was a carpenter and one would have thought that I might have inherited some of his skills. George Rice probably took another view! In Year 3, when it was assumed – one should never assume – that we knew all about joints and so on, we were entrusted with some wood to make something. My intention was to make a tea tray using dovetail joints. Unfortunately, the wood got shorter and shorter as I had to saw off my attempts at creating these joints. I ended up with a teapot stand!
All was not lost. I enjoyed history, English, English Literature and geography. Dennis Harle and Duke Norman were two of my favourite teachers. The set books for the G.C.E. examination in 1960 were ‘Great Expectations’, ‘Nun’s Priest’s Tale’ and ‘First Men in the Moon’. I knew those books inside out and I was mortified when I failed my English Lit.. To this day, I don’t know why and nowadays I guess that one would question it. Different days then. However, Mr Stephenson also wrote of me that ‘his main trait was his dogged determination’. The retakes that year were held at Edgehill College. By that time, I had left school and was working in Torbay. Failing that exam and letting Duke Norman and myself down rankled with me. I paid to take the exam again and was the only boy sat in that hall in amongst all these girls. I had not opened any of those books since the previous May. I passed.
I never did clean the inside of boilers. I joined the Post Office and worked as a counter clerk in Torquay and Paignton before moving back to Bideford in 1961. The Post Office on the Quay was my workplace until 1967. I took every opportunity to do relieving work in other places and as well as local towns – Bude, Torrington, Barnstaple and Minehead – I worked in London and in Birmingham. However, it was nothing other than a job and by the time I reached 22 I wanted something more than just a job. What I can say about those years dealing with the general public was that I could talk to anybody. Nothing is wasted.
Just before my 23rd birthday I joined the Devon & Exeter Constabulary which was soon to amalgamate with the Plymouth City and Cornwall County forces to create the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary. I served for almost 30 years, retiring from the police at the tail end of 1996. As a uniform Constable, I was stationed at Okehampton, Exeter and Combe Martin. Whilst at Combe Martin I had to go across to Bideford one day with a file for the North Devon Coroner. Who should I see standing at the bottom of the High Street but Duke Norman. We had a good chat. That was the last time I saw him.
After Combe Martin I was a Detective Constable at Ilfracombe. Promotion to Sergeant found me at Plympton and Plymouth City Centre. I returned to CID in 1982 as a Detective Sergeant at Crownhill, Plymouth. Promoted to Inspector in 1984, I was posted to Truro which was the start of 7 years living and working in Cornwall. After a stint at Redruth it was back to Plymouth and from there to Ivybridge and retirement.
I enjoyed my time in the police. I spent five weeks up in Derbyshire during the Miners’ Strike. I was in Bristol for the riot in St Pauls. I was in Coventry for the visit of Pope John Paul. I worked on numerous murder enquiries, was a village policeman patrolling his beat on a motor bike, policed football matches and was able to help people who were having the worse day of their lives.
I never ran another 880. I did run several half marathons and in 1989 I ran the London Marathon. During my time at Truro, I joined a former Mayor of Truro and two RAF guys from St. Mawgan in organising the first Truro Half Marathon from scratch. It was such a success that the Cornwall Amateur Athletic Association asked if they could stage their annual championship on the back of our event.
In retirement I have done all sorts. For three years I worked for the Serious Fraud Office and I was fortunate in spending a couple of weeks working in Cape Town.
I have already mentioned that one of my contemporaries at BGS was Chas Povey. He and his wife had walked from Lands End to John O’Groats, something which I did in 1998. He got to hear of this and when he heard that I had written up my journey he did the same and presented me with a copy. He lives in British Columbia and I was invited over there. I agreed to go over there, on the understanding that we worked on a project. I did not want to be sitting around waiting to be fed and taken places. Did I fancy working with him in building a drystone wall? That is what we did. Very satisfying and I got to travel by train across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver, see a few black bears and see Niagara Falls and Lake Louise as a bonus.
Now, I am totally retired. I do nothing for financial gain. As a spin off from being a school governor, I sit on School Admission Appeals for Devon. I work half a day a week for St Luke’s Hospice, Plymouth. On Saturday mornings I can be found working in their book shop on the Broadway at Plymstock. I have married twice and have a wife, two sons, two step sons and seven grandchildren. I have an allotment, my own garden and a season ticket for Plymouth Argyle. I am content.
