...........at Car Boot Sales.
A group of us from Stowmarket Grammar School went on an Educational School Cruise on board the SS Nevasa in October 1969 but I have nothing left to remind me of it - and very few memories .
So spotting this among the house clearance stuff at last Saturdays car-boot sale was a Huge surprise.
It's a scrapbook by Sally-Ann Rogers, a Bury St Edmunds Silver Jubilee pupil (a girls Secondary Modern school that amalgameted with the boys school in 1971 and no longer exists) who went on an educational cruise on the SS Nevasa in 1966.
She had kept a lot of the brochures they must have been given - I don't think we had any of these.
I kept my log book - like Sally's below for many years but don't have it now.
Her cruise was two weeks and they went to different places to our cruise (except for Gibralter). She even received letters from her mother and a friend sent to the ship and they did lessons everyday too. I don't think we did and certainly no one sent letters to the ship. From what I can see there were also other adult independent passengers on the cruise apart from the various school groups and their teachers, that's something I don't think happened on our cruise.
I'd not thought about my 1969 cruise for ages - I have no photos. My dad was into slides for photography and so any photos I took were made into slides and I don't remember seeing them. I do remember my camera going wrong somewhere so maybe I didn't get any photos at all.
I googled SS Nevasa to see what I could find online and discovered a facebook group
HERE just in case you are curious! By the time of our cruise there were just two ships doing Educational Cruises - The Nevassa and the SS Uganda.
I spent £2 on the scrapbook and it's been interesting looking at all the pages and finding things online about the ships and the cruises.
You just never know what's lurking in boxes at boot sales!
What a find. A bit different to your trip but interesting all the same. My school did a trip to Belgium. It was £40. There was no way my dad could afford for me to go. Only myself and a German girl called Helena didn't go . . . My kids - can't really remember what trips were on offer, but think there was one to America and one to China. We couldn't afford those either! Gabby went to the French battle fields, and Tam went to France on an exchange trip. The lass who came here was the fussiest eater out and arrived with a giant bag of chocolate and sweets to stop her from starving! I can remember we had a hogget hanging from a beam down in my mum's, waiting to be butchered (no end to our skills!) and when she encountered that she must have had quite a tale to tell when she got home!
ReplyDeleteIt was the one and only school trip!
DeleteI remember some from school saying many years later that their parents couldn't afford it, I asked if she remembered how much it was and apparently it was £50.
A marvellous find!
ReplyDeleteIt was a real surprise to find
DeleteWell…that was meant to be, sitting there waiting for you to come along. How lovely. June
ReplyDeleteI said to the man selling it when I offered him £2 rather than £3 he wanted that there might not be a single other person at the boot sale who would know anything about it
DeleteWhat a memory-raiser! My children's primary school did a trip to France for year 6 but mine didn't go on it. It was too soon after the tragic ferry disaster and I couldn't bring myself to send them on a ferry without being there myself. They went abroad with the next school when they were older; France, and even USA.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had photos of the trip but back then Dad wanted slides so that's what they had to be.
DeleteFascinating find. I wonder where Sally Ann Rogers is now! I wasn’t able to go on any of these trips either!
ReplyDeleteSadly I think Sally Ann may be no longer with us as the scrapbook was in house clearence boxes.
DeleteI shall share the photos with that Facebook group and see if anyone knows
I went on a school cruise on the SS Uganda around 1977. We sailed from Dundee and visited Amsterdam, Lisbon, Madeira and A Coruña. I remember we were allowed to explore the towns in groups of 4, which would never be allowed now! I didn't particularly enjoy it, to be honest, as there was a lot of time at sea with not much to do. I remember going through the Bay of Biscay and everyone being sick except me! A few years later when I was in my first year at uni (1981-82), my roommate's younger sister was supposed to go on it, but the cruise was cancelled due to the Uganda being requisitioned as a hospital ship during the Falklands War.
ReplyDeleteMy late sister in law missed our wedding in March 1969 as she went on a cruise with SS Uganda. She was undecided but I told her it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and she had a sister that she would probably be a bridesmaid for and perhaps one of her friends.
ReplyDeleteI was one of the few who went on a French Exchange to spend two weeks with a family and then return home with their daughter for another two weeks. It was a jam packed month and a lot of fun for little more than the cost of the ferry.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a find and fascinating to read about.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Well, that was a good find for you! I'm sure it brought back many memories. We didn't have any fancy school trips like that! For our 8th grade class trip we went to Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago! I screamed on the roller coasters and parachute ride! ;)
ReplyDeletewe love suffolk!
ReplyDeleteSplendid find! My parents went on an educational cruise as adult passengers and thoroughly enjoyed it. They were able to go to lectures if they wanted to.
ReplyDeleteI was one of eight students out of 100 in our year who didn't go. My cousin went, my best friend went. The families of the other seven left behind may well have not had the money for it. Honestly I think the school could have found the money somewhere so the rest could go. I was not going because my "wonderful" father thought it was a waste of money. He was never one to invest in his children.
ReplyDeleteThe scrapbook was a great find, and it brought back many good memories of your own travels on an educational cruise.
ReplyDeleteFinding this speaks to the wonders of Car Boot Sales.
This was fascinating for me too, Sue, as I went on a school cruise on SS Nevasa with Sudbury Girls High School, I think in 1968 so I just missed you!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic find. The only school trips I went on were a day to Alton Towers, before it was a huge theme park, and then the following year, a day trip to Eyam, the plague village.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! What a great find!
ReplyDeleteI do find it a little sad to see things like this at sales. It was probably from when someone died and the family gave away their things.