Burnley Grammar School

"And now we have the forum police determining what can or cannot be posted." says Andy.

You have described your own behaviour. Nobody else's. YOURS!

You sound like you're going mad.

Gareth J on 1st June 2022 at 12:17

And now we have the forum police determining what can or cannot be posted.

As I've said before for a poster who clearly hasn't read it, I will choose what I respond to. Or not.

Just like everyone else.

What is all this naming and shaming all about and why are you so on the defensive?

Don't you think we are all adults that read this history forum and can make up our own minds about what others write up here without needing your opinion directing us all in a highly manipulative way against others.

Your choice, but how about answering my question from last week or Devon Lad's instead of lining up a group of others and being so dismissive. Cut it out please.

Lance on 30th May 2022 at 16:03

Jim on 30th May 2022 at 21:42

Tony on 31st May 2022 at 16:30

Freddie on 31st May 2022 at 23:59


Well, well. So many amateur psychologists and if I may say, none of them very good.

I believe Ambrose is nothing more than a bare faced liar.

It's hard to disagree with Lance and his analysis here I'm afraid. Jim has made some very good points too actually. What I'm seeing here is a microcosm of the schooldays environment. We all recall being in school and most of us behaved ourselves but there always had to be one or maybe two disrupters who would care little for others and acted plain selfish, affecting others. Then you get to the outright school bully types, luckily I had no first hand experience of such things but it's well known that if someone is bullied in school and others come to their help they then attract attention for doing so and find themselves slap bang in the centre of the firing line too just for standing alongside someone else. Well that is just what has happened on this discussion isn't it, where one person was being singled out unreasonably in my opinion, and a handful of others came along in defence and are now marked men for daring to do so, and for that matter hold differing opinions. What is it with some people who can't tolerate people with completely different views in life without resorting to insult and wanting to wield the cancel culture stick at them.

Johan, is this meant to be a discussion about 'boys' PE at school? It seems to be far more than that. The gym photo identifies one aspect of the school but is not meant to suggest that is the primary topic related to it and what should be discussed only. I'm left wondering why we have some asking others to 'keep away'. As far as I'm concerned the gender of those who leave a message is not important in the least. A memory is a memory. If you are saying that only a certain relevant section of people should be posting material on here then why are there nearly 4000 entries and nearly nobody among that lot is or has ever been a pupil at Burnley Grammar School, the title of the discussion. Technically this is a forum for those who went to that school isn't it, and nobody else should really be taking part. So why are they and what is it that attracts this thread with the posting traffic it receives over and above the others?

Lance on 30th May 2022 at 16:03

Well, well. We just need to scroll through a few pages to see how useful your posts are. Just like Alan's. Who would believe it? The few that there are want to find the experiences of others that are different to their own a matter of fabrication.

I suppose one day you might grow up but I'm not hopeful.

I do find the post of Tanya rather bizarre, in fact very bizarre. I always think it takes a very strange sort of 'female' to post here on a board that is about memories of boys PE at school. Very strange, I for one wish they would stay away.

Tanya.

It's a well worn schtick I've seen on other more well known forums Tanya with trolls and he's one for sure. They don't talk about the subject matter in hand but become highly personal especially when they realise their modus operandi has been found out by others, and they'll go after and accuse others of the actual behaviour that they themselves are doing with no end of desperate smear tactics. These people will always have to have the last and final word as well and you can absolutely guarantee that your and my post will be given their undivided attention with a snarky riposte. They also make grand claims about their abilities such as in this case bluffing about written word software to detect this and that, which anyone could see through for what it was. No engagement with others who spoke on that subject was there. It's all about the intimidatory nature of online trolling on forums where they attempt to portray themselves as super reasonable to others when the opposite is true. I also believe there is a minority on here who like to use this specific discussion for their own "F" words, fantasies/fabrications/fetishes on school life in the past and who are feeling they want to protect that narrative some of them come on here to indulge. It's undeniable.

The history of teaching is littered with those in all subjects who joined the profession for all the wrong reasons and there were rarely any meaningful checks and balances, a bit like on here infact.

What a monumental hypocrite! Self awareness isn't your strong point is it Andy love.

Comment by: Andy on 28th May 2022 at 15:45
Tom F on 27th May 2022 at 00:51
Please feel free to leave if you don't like the subject matter, others have.

Neal on 26th May 2022 at 16:52
Please hold your breath while you wait and keep your fingers off your keyboard. Like everyone else, I will choose what I do and don't respond to here.

Jim, just remember that in the services you weren't allowed to be anything other than a 'straight' man - but many weren't and just like in prisons and similar closed institutions that are single sex, all sorts of things go on that might not otherwise.

Biff, what a bizarre thing to do.

The polish of today is nothing like the polish we used to get for boots - called parade gloss which was oil based. The stuff you get now, all liquid is like water colour paint so no wonder it came off quickly.

You can probably still get parade gloss from Army Surplus stores, try that and come back here and say you got it off in one go. Getting it off your hands was bad enough and always involved a scrubbing brush, you certainly would not have wanted to clean your testicles with the amount of vigour necessary for that.

Tom F on 27th May 2022 at 00:51
Please feel free to leave if you don't like the subject matter, others have.

Neal on 26th May 2022 at 16:52
Please hold your breath while you wait and keep your fingers off your keyboard. Like everyone else, I will choose what I do and don't respond to here.

The things straight men used to do to each other in the services are really peculiar and often seem to have had a tendency to focus on each others genitalia. Long ago I remember my own two services grandparents telling me one or two, although nothing involving polish.

Perhaps you didn't rub the polish in hard enough Biff, that's one of the most unintentionally funny posts I've read on here in a while.

Well William, I can't believe I'm about to admit to doing this but loosened up with a late night drink or two I did a bit of late night research based on your black balling antics. You may laugh but just before I took a shower late I grabbed some of my 'Kiwi' brand named black shoe polish and gave myself a thorough dabbing over my scrotum (and penis actually) until well blacked up, because I didn't realise it was so hard to remove once applied and to be honest didn't believe it either. Well they must have changed the recipe in recent years because my black polish came off easily with no serious effort and left nothing behind, as I expected, with regular soap. I suppose I took a bit of a risk but I always like to do my own research.

William, if you got polish off in one session you were a lucky man, I always found it took days. I remember once about three days later a dark patch appearing on my rugby shorts during a game - white shorts - and it was because I was sweating and some polish was still oozing from my skin. Of course we didn't wear underpants for rugby so there was nothing to catch it!

Philip, I can see that shaving would be a solution but we were schoolboy cadets of 14 and 15 in the late '60s and would never have thought of such a thing. Besides, when our cadet sergeant warned us that this would happen I thought he might be pulling our legs - that was until the bedroom door was flung open just as I was going to sleep on the first night. And yes, my roommate and I spent a lot of time with soap and water at the wash basin the next morning.

Hi Richard, this seems so very 1970s nowadays but I saw that happen once to a guy in my class called George and I guess it must have been his 15th or 16th birthday or some reason for it. He got a couple of bags of flour tipped over him and a box of eggs in the boys toilets during the mid afternoon break followed by an attemtped flush I think it was but had water on him as well which made the eggs and flour bind like glue. He came out to the next class looking a real state, his long blond hair all sticky and gross. I also remember him smiling about it! He was the kind of guy who could handle himself quite well and it was done by his so called friends!! But it didn't go down very well with teachers who had all those responsible own up to it and lined up in the head of year's office for a serious going at. They also had to go back and clean the toilets up with the mess of it all across the floor. It was easy to get hold of the ingredients to do this as there was a small Spar convenience shop right opposite the school gates which often heaved with schoolkids especially at lunchtime. I used to try and keep my birthday quiet from everyone so that there was no chance of this kind of thing happening to me, or even getting grabbed for the bumps. One year on my birthday it was found out but absolutely nothing happened apart from some in class joking over the new coat I'd been given that morning from my parents which was rather colourful.

Uh-oh.

Someone reassure me that men getting shoe polish dabbed on their ballsacks is not going to be the new jockstraps.

I've recounted bits about my life in the navy before but I've never mentioned black balling. It happened to me and I was part of the gang who did it to others. Parade gloss was best - you could get quite a shine with it!

William, the best way to get it off pubes was to shave them otherwise getting it out of hair could take weeks. Many lads would shave coming up to their birthday and seeing them shaved in the showers was almost like an invitation to black them!

Trying to fight the guys off was futile and would probably lead to a more generous application of polish than otherwise perhaps including your arse and crack and you certainly didn't want a boot brush there.

It was a ritual, it was harmless, I did and was done unto, no regrets, it was lad behaviour though I doubt it happens now but I laugh when I think about it.

Talk of black balling, something new to me that, takes me back to the threats we always used to get of being egged and floured on our birthdays. Along with head flushing in the toilets. All these rumours swept around even before I began at secondary school, seemingly from older brothers and sisters of others I presume. I never ended up seeing anyone receive that kind of "treatment" on their birthday or at any other time, so my question is did anyone here ever get this or see others get egged and floured or flushed, or even worse is anyone prepared to admit doing this to someone? What is the general view about this and was it mostly just a wild rumour that swept schools at one period of time that ultimately amounted to very little in reality?

"In my professional life I have access to software that recognises similar writing styles. So many of the posts supporting your stance seem to be written by you."

Come on then Andy we're all waiting for your professional verdict. Perhaps Devon Lad can instead. I notice you swerved his question.

Reading the posts on blackballing brought back a memory of me having it done when I was 17 and had started on the railway as a railway engine cleaner, the first step on the ladder to being a driver, you basically did cleaning in and around the shed of spilt coal and cinders and climbed up and cleaned steam engines with a bucket of oil and a pile of rags, being the new boy I was chased around the sheds and eventually cornered, debagged and had thick oil and coal dust rubbed around my genitals, you had to take it then, or be called a wuss, it was an initiation ceremony which I would think be outlawed now.

Hugh, Good to hear from you again. I remember your very inteesting contributions a while back. I certainly agree that the best thing to do, if you were a victim of blackballing, was to lie back, let it happen and laugh it off. Resistance was pointless. Worst thing by far was removing shoe polish from pubic hair.

I haven't stopped by here for some time but I'm amused to see black balling referred to.

I was a navy medic back in the day and it certainly happened there often enough. It particularly happened to recruits either in selection - both officers and men or around occasions like a birthday or when a lad was going off to get married.

In those days - 1970s, group medicals were the norm with all the lads lined up naked for checks and it wasn't unusual to see that several had been black-balled for the occasion. I would say it was done and taken in good humour though from the medic's point of view, in a world where gloves were not the norm, checking black-balls did mean you got quite a bit of polish on your hands! Doing something for which gloves were issued, you usually only had one for the group anyway so you would have spread the polish around!

I was black-balled a few times, the best thing to do was lie back and let it happen because you could never win the fight. You just made sure you had plenty of polish ready when it was your mates turns.

I know some will find it in bad taste but we laughed at the time and it did no harm though it was best not to wear (white) underpants for a few days afterwards until you got all the polish off.

This below is an A+ from me.

Comment by: Mike on 23rd May 2022 at 15:23
The irony to me is that perhaps one of the most honest people who has submitted on this forum has been accused of being one of the most dishonest.

I see Alan has stormed off again.

Give it a month.

Nick, You are exactly right: black shoe polish applied to the genitals with a brush, usually at night-time when the cadets are on their own and wearing the least clothing.
Robbie, I wouldn't say that Alan did anything wrong, but he seemed to find it hard to accept the good faith of anyone who described in positive terms an experience he would have found negative.

William what is this 'ball blacking' ritual you mentioned? It seems hard to google a proper explanation. For some reason when I read your post the immediate thing that came into my mind, as you mentioned army nudity, was that it involved putting black boot polish on mens scrotums. Am I close or way out on that. I know the army is capable of some very odd initiations. If I'm right then I must have read it somewhere and it lodged in my sub conscious.