Hi Everybody I was a Pupil at Yew Tree High School Northern Moor, Manchester between 1979 and 1984. I am an Artist now and thought I would share some memories of my time at the school by way of Art and Stories of those days gone by. Hope you like the painting and video stories.
The school has long since been demolished and also Arden sixth form college that replaced the school has also been demolished on the same site. It is has now been turned into a new housing estate with house prices sky rocketing with many houses out of the price range of local people.
So to keep the schools history alive I have produced these paintings and video stories to remember times gone by.
A3 Limited Edition Print available £50 or original £490 contact me andrewalanmatthews.co.uk
Story by Andrew Alan Matthews
Yew Tree High School Northern Moor Aim True
What’s the score I hear you say
Chetham, Oldham and Hulme
Make room
For the naughty kids
knockin round class
Motto of the School
Aim True
Naughty kids tryin to undo
No clue
Yew Tree High l do
From 79 to 84
There’s more
And In class
Mr where boy
taught Maths
and Mr English
taught English
He was Funny enough
And a teacher
nick named slap head
Knocked you round yer head
Or givin Detention instead
Writin lines over and over again
On the old school table
that flipped up and down
giggling town
teachers frown
and get down
years of scribblin
etchin yer name in the table
able
And metal work teacher
with steel rulers
Smacked yer ass
with chalk mark
fool or tool
on yer bum
don’t look glum
it was fun
couldn’t get away with it these days
too PC Brigade
naughty kids ran amok
back in the day
Bunsen burners
shootin water fountains
In chemistry class
It was class
In A block
From 79 to 84
dinner hall
condoms in metal water jugs
from thugs
fights in playground
circling and spittin greeneys
at two in a fight
teachers outta sight
then there was me
tryin to learn
and earn
needed glasses
wouldn’t wear em
didn’t want to be called
specky four eyes
so I sat at the front of class
tryin to see the blackboard
holes in me shoes
soakin freezing feet
no treat
soggy butties at dinner time
wished I could have
hot food
in the dinner hall
they had pizzas and chips
I was lickin me lips
So now and again
when I got money
From me newspaper round
Or mind yer car Mr
in the Moss
I’d buy 25p dinner ticket
Off one of the lads
Glads
At Dinner time
Knockin about
with me class mates
Playin hide n seek
in the bushes
At the back of the school
Or down the Mersey
In me Yew Tree Jersey
And A block
where they taught Art
Mr De Vere
a cool teacher
wasn’t a preacher
a good teacher
Encouraged me
let me be free
express myself
be an Artist he said
look to history
mystery
I Lived for the days
when they taught Art
So lookin back
At the good old days
With Nostalgia in my eyes
I can say
“I Aimed True”
Cos now
I’m an Artist in Northern Moor
Painting a scene
A Yew Tree Scene
So Yeah
Yew Tree High School Northern Moor
What’s the score I hear you say
Chetham, Oldham and Hulme
Boom
The Artists in the room
https://youtu.be/c9vlgiGnCDI
please write a review and critique on my painting and story of Yew Tree High School Aim True.
ChatGPT said:
Thank you for sharing your painting and poem “Yew Tree High School Northern Moor Aim True.” This is a vibrant, nostalgic, and personal tribute that really captures a sense of time, place, and youthful mischief. Here's a review and critique of both the painting and the accompanying story.
🎨 Painting Review:
Your painting is bursting with energy, character, and sentiment. The vibrant red brickwork of the school immediately commands attention, giving a strong sense of the school’s imposing, institutional presence, now lost to demolition. The slightly abstract, textured style gives the building a dreamlike, memory-soaked quality, appropriate for a recollection of the past.
Highlights:
- Color Palette: The contrast between the lush green field and vivid red buildings is striking and emotive, echoing the playground vibrancy of childhood.
- Figures: The students are stylized with a cartoonish charm — gangly limbs, animated gestures, and distinct body language convey motion and attitude. There's a palpable sense of play and chaos.
- Brushwork: The loose and expressive brush strokes, especially in the sky and foliage, convey a sense of memory — hazy, fluid, and imperfect, just like our recollections of school days.
- Perspective: The building tilts and warps slightly, which may be unintentional or stylistic, but it enhances the sense that this is being remembered through the eyes of a former student — part dream, part reality.
Suggestions:
- Consider adding slightly more detail or variation in the figures to distinguish individual characters and hint at their personalities or school antics (though this may be a stylistic choice).
- The sky is dynamic, but its white smears might benefit from softer blending or layers to create more natural cloud forms unless the goal is to suggest turbulence or raw memory.
✍️ Poem and Story Critique:
Your poem/story reads like a spoken word piece, with a rhythm and authenticity that evokes a working-class youth experience in 1980s Manchester. It’s honest, raw, and humorous, with a healthy dose of rebellion, vulnerability, and nostalgia.
Strengths:
- Voice: Strong, personal, and unique. It’s you on the page. There’s no filter, and that’s what gives it power.
- Details: The small memories — “holes in me shoes,” “25p dinner ticket,” “soggy butties,” “specky four eyes” — are what make this vivid and relatable.
- Social Commentary: You touch on the transformation of the area — the demolition of the school, gentrification, and rising house prices — grounding your personal story in a broader societal change.
- Humor and Heart: Even in the chaos — rulers, spitballs, Bunsen burner mayhem — there's love here. Especially in the part about your art teacher who encouraged you. It’s a tribute.
Suggestions:
- The poem might benefit from occasional punctuation or clearer line breaks, especially for those unfamiliar with spoken word rhythm. This would improve readability without taking away from the style.
- A title card or introductory stanza could prepare the reader for the mix of anecdote, humor, and social memory. Maybe something like: “A memory in motion, of a school now gone / Where rules were bent, and lessons drawn.”
💭 Final Thoughts:
This work is a love letter to a vanished school, a powerful blend of personal memoir and community history. The painting and poem work beautifully together — the visual and verbal layers complement each other, creating a moving tribute. You're not just preserving memory, you’re reclaiming space and identity in a city that’s rapidly changing. And, like your art teacher told you: you aimed true.
Comments from the general public
Love this Andrew, brings back lots of memories x by Susan
That’s brilliant Andrew! I was at Yew Tree same years and loved Mr DeVere. Glad you are enjoying being an artist x by Gill
Used to be Yew Tree Secondary Mod, Knicknamed “Borstal of the North”, went there myself full of dubious characters, the whole school had to witness a caning, imagine that today, my whole class got the slipper. The Headmaster was Dr Davis, deputy was William Worthington, knickname “The Beak”. Sports Day was the favourite, everybody went home early. When they were constructing the six story block, someone stole the concrete rivet gun. Happy Days. Oh school dinner one day was salad, and my lettuce was moving around the plate; what fun. by Trevor
I went there when it was Yew Tree Comprehensive, which I believe was the first comprehensive school in Manchester. Hated it. Got bullied. I was supposed to stay on until I had done O levels. Legally though, at the time you could leave school aged 15. I just left July 1967, and never went back. There was talk of them fining my parents but it never came to anything. I told them I would be able to pay any fine. At 15 I had got a full time office job, a Saturday job in a ladies/ childrens clothes shop. I also worked 3 nights behind the bar (cash in hand) at The Woodcourt hotel. My Mum worked at the Woodcourt and the landlord gave me a job there before I even left school. I looked old enough with my make up and false eyelashes on! It was easy to get jobs when you were under age. The year I was 13, I got a full time job for the summer holidays in the cafe at Duncan and Fosters in Sale on School road. That was cash in hand. Happy times! by Elaine
Dr Davies was the headmaster and I think his deputy was Miss Hindlyg by Sandra
They are very good, well done you by Susan