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Twin brothers who both overcame 11-plus failure
John Blount admits that he and his twin brother, Tony, were more interested in sport than academic subjects when they were at junior school. But despite not quite making it to grammar school, following the dreaded and divisive 11-plus, they both went on to become successful Derby businessmen. John, currently managing director of Ivygrove Developments, talked to Pat Parkin, above, about those formative years.
It loomed at the end of junior school years and sent fear into the hearts of both parents and children. For a pass brought the privilege of a choice of grammar schools, where you were given the opportunity to follow any career you wanted, while a failure meant an education in a secondary modern, where you were pushed out into the world of work at 15, with few qualifications and little hope of a good job.
Of course, things have changed dramatically over the years but, in those early days, so rare was it for a youngster who had failed the scholarship to succeed that newspapers reported stories on those who did make good.
Yet a great many of those unfairly labelled “failures” went on to achieve great success. Among them were a number who attended Pear Tree Junior School, in Derby, where, according to former pupils, there was a team of highly competent and motivated teachers.
One of Derby’s most successful businessmen, John Blount, a developer who also heads up a highly successful removals and storage business in the city, attended the school in the 1950s with his twin brother, Tony.
“We went to the infant, junior and senior schools throughout the 1950s and, though neither of us passed the 11-plus, I think it would be fair to say it didn’t have too bad an affect on our attempts to progress in life,” he said.
John feels no bitterness at being written off after an examination on a single day just before his 11th birthday.
He recalled how one teacher motivated him and his brother to improve their reading when they began to lag behind their classmates.
“We were both good at sport and Mr Reeves gave us a big shock when he banned us from playing football until we could read as well as anyone else.
“It goes without saying that we both achieved that within two weeks. He certainly knew how to get our attention but, at the time, we really thought we had been very hard done by.”
John’s favourite teacher was Mrs Taylor who would take groups of children to her home for tea.
“We all looked forward to this wonderful treat. Miss Temple was also a popular teacher, very kind and understanding. We liked all the lady teachers but we probably thought that because the men were more strict.”
When they were coming towards the end of their junior school years, the brothers knew they had little chance of a place at grammar school.
“We weren’t that bothered at the time. However, on reflection, I think we were only given basic teaching which, considering the size of the classes – most of them had more than 40 pupils – was not surprising.”
For John, there was one highlight which he still remembers with relish – none of the top stream, most of whom were destined for grammar school, could talk for a minute without stopping, as he could.
“Sometimes, their teacher, Mrs Waring, would fetch me, stand me in front of her 4A class and say: ‘Now Blount J, show this lot how its done’.
“I duly obliged but I don’t remember any satisfaction in doing it at the time. But Mrs Waring took great delight in someone from 4C upstaging her class.”
John has mostly fond memories of his junior school years but it was not until much later that he realized how unfair it was that children were singled out at such a young age for grammar school while the rest were often regarded as second-class citizens with less of a chance to do well in life.
His main memories of senior school days are of playing football, though the sports facilities were non-existent compared with new secondary schools like Mackworth and Shelton Lock.
Pear Tree pupils had to walk to Osmaston Park to play football, changing in an open fronted pavilion or under a tree. They trekked to Normanton park for cricket and to Reginald Street Baths for swimming.
“We didn’t envy the facilities that other schools had; we just got on with it,” said John.
Most of the lads went on to jobs as apprentices at local companies like Rolls-Royce, International Combustion, the Loco Works and Carriage and Wagon, or to smaller companies as apprentice plumbers or electricians, studying at night school.
“We all received a good grounding, certainly adequate for our chosen professions. Going on to higher education may not have been an option for us but some of us, including myself, my brother, Maurice Evans, Dave Brown, John Keith and Graham Taylor went on to run our own businesses and, looking back, I like to think that Pear Tree did us proud.”
“Both Tony and I tried to bring what we learned about family values and good morals into the way we brought up our families. We always tried to stick by our values and believed that the harder you worked, the luckier you got.”
John’s career began to blossom after he spotted the fact that Derby Highways Department hired lorries for some of their work. So he bought a lorry and hired it out to them.
Soon he had three and then he bought a removals van in 1969 and taught himself how to do house removals.
Though their early careers took different roads, the brothers eventually moved into business together, both becoming property developers and, together, they ran the Derby-based B E Webbe international removals and storage company, with its modern fleet of vehicles. Tony sadly died 18 months ago and, since then, John (63) has run the company on behalf of the family trust.
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