Cliff Beard was born in 1931 in Alfreton, and in 1934 the family moved to Riddings when his father took up an engineering job at Riddings’ Forge. By 1939 they had moved to Wagstaff Lane, Jacksdale and Cliff transferred from Riddings Primary School to Jacksdale Council School, where he stayed till he was aged 14 years. At the time the war was on and Cliff remembers that all the teaching staff were female, as the male teachers had been called to war. Cliff was not able to go to Henry Mellish Grammar School as his father was not able to pay the fees, but he did get a place at the Pupil Teacher Training Centre in Nottingham, where he attended 3 days a week until the age of 18. The other 2 days were spent teaching in school. His first teaching position was at Matthew Holland but Cliff later moved to Jacksdale School Primary. Cliff has a treasured photograph of his class and can remember them all to this day. He says his pupils there were very capable. Cliff also taught at a primary school in Tibshelf, and was a head teacher at Giltbrook School and also at Underwood. Cliff’s father always a keen engineer, had a lathe in the cellar of their home and later went into partnership with a brother to form an engineering workshops at Pye Hill, next to Knightsbridge Garage. Cliff describes Beard Engineering as ‘a small firm with a large capacity’ working at precision levels to within microns rather than thou’s. A very clear and precise recollection, definitely worth listening to.
Photo courtesy Korky Mills: - Mr Cliff Beard with his class 1960/1961 at Jacksdale School BACK B1 Mick Astbury B2 Andris Vasaleski B3 Geoffrey Thorpe B4 Andrew Mardo B5 Tom Wilbraham B6 Carl Frost B7 John Huskinson B8 Michael Greaves? B9 Geoff Wilde d. aged 18, B10 Robin Fearn B11 Steven Rogers. MIDDLE M1 Maureen Lindley M2 Jean Wilson M3 Elsie Bacon M4 Barbara Parr M5 Teacher Cliff Beard M6 ???? M7 ???? M8 Betty Lounds M9 Linda Goodall M10 Susannah Lumb M11 Susan Cheeseman. FRONT F 1 Brian Davey F2 Robert Cummings F3 Sandra Cheetham F4 Linda Earnshaw (dau of Claude) F5 Pamela Fry F6 Yvonne Bradley F7 Ann Reynolds F8 Jane Brooks F9 Korky Mills F10 Dennis Taylor