Kettering Grammar School was a boys'

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

(selective) that had a number of homes in

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

throughout its history.

History

The school was based in a building in Gold Street which, together with the master's house, was completed in 1857. It then relocated to Bowling Green Road, a building designed by

John Alfred Gotch John Alfred Gotch (28 September 1852, Kettering, Northamptonshire – 17 January 1942, Kettering, Northamptonshire) was a noted English architect and architectural historian. His brother was the Pre-Raphaelite painter and illustrator Thomas Coo ...

in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...

and completed in 1913. The building was occupied on the left side by Kettering High School (for girls) and on the right side by Kettering Grammar School (for boys). After the school moved to Windmill Avenue, to the east of the town north of

Wicksteed Park Wicksteed Park is a Grade II listed park in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, which includes an amusement park within its grounds. The park is located in the south-east of Kettering, on the western edge of Barton Seagrave village. The par ...

, in 1965, the Bowling Green Road building became the Kettering Municipal Offices.

Comprehensive

In later years the Windmill Avenue buildings housed Kettering Boys School, with many of the same teachers as the Grammar School but no longer selective, and now part of the area's Comprehensive education system. It operated on two sites - a lower and upper school. The Kettering High School became Kettering School for Girls on Lewis Road (near

) and then Southfield School for Girls on Lewis Road.

Further education college

The Windmill Avenue site has been occupied by

Tresham College of Further and Higher Education Tresham College of Further and Higher Education (formerly Tresham Institute of Further and Higher Education) is a further education college in the East Midlands of England. Specifically located within Northamptonshire, the main campus is locate ...

, (Kettering Campus), since 1993. The former Grammar School buildings were knocked down in 2007 to make way for the Tresham's new block.

Space research

In the 1960s, Geoffrey Perry, head of the school Physics department experimented with using satellite signals and the Doppler effect as an aid to teaching. The activity soon grew into regular monitoring of Soviet launched satellites and expanded into an international collaboration that became known as the ''Kettering Group''. The group was headed by Perry, who by then had become Head of Science Teaching. On the technical front Perry was partnered by the head of the Chemistry department, Derek Slater - a Radio Amateur, G3FOZ. The activities of Perry and his team created considerable interest: an article which had been published in Aviation Week magazine in 1957 had revealed that the U.S. had been tracking Russian missile launches from advanced long-range radar units in Turkey. The article caused a furore, with President Dwight D. Eisenhower's special assistant for National Security Affairs, Robert Cutler, referring to the article as "treasonable". It was claimed that the story started out with Perry and his students and that Perry had advised a writer at the magazine that a radar in Turkey was doing important space intel tracking, so the writer dug deeper into the story. In 1966 the project went international when Swedish student Sven Grahn contacted the group with a recording of the signals from

Kosmos 104 Kosmos 104 ( meaning ''Cosmos 104'') or Zenit-2 No.36 was a Soviet, first generation, low resolution, optical film-return reconnaissance satellite launched in 1966. A Zenit-2 spacecraft, Kosmos 104 was the thirty-second of eighty-one such satell ...

. The same year it discovered Soviet launches from

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome ( rus, Космодром «Плесецк», r=Kosmodrom "Plesetsk", p=kəsmɐˈdrom plʲɪˈsʲet͡sk) is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 ...

, officially unacknowledged until 1983. In 1969, a group used simple radio equipment to monitor the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...

mission and calculated its orbits. According to the group, in December 1972 a member "pick dup Apollo 17 on its way to the Moon". In 1973 the group tracked Skylab and in July 1975, the team supported ITN in their coverage of the Soyuz - Apollo link up which took place 140 miles over

Bognor Regis Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns i ...

on 17 July 1975. In 1978 the group predicted the crash of Kosmos 954 spacecraft. In May 1985, Geoffrey Perry talked about the project in the Radio 4 programme ''The Kettering Project''. In March 1987, Channel 4 featured the Group in the programme ''Sputniks, Bleeps & Mr Perry''. Pictures of the school's space tracking team, originally published in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' newspaper, would later find their way onto record covers of

The Wonder Stuff The Wonder Stuff are a British alternative rock band. Originally based in Stourbridge in the West Midlands, England, the band's first lineup released four albums and nearly 20 singles and EPs, enjoying considerable chart and live success in th ...

for their album, ''

Construction for the Modern Idiot ''Construction for the Modern Idiot'' is The Wonder Stuff's fourth album from October 1993, and their last studio album before their split on 15 July 1994. The album was a UK Top 5 Album (#4) which yielded 3 UK hit singles, of which "On the Rop ...

''.

Notable alumni

H. E. Bates Herbert Ernest Bates (16 May 1905 – 29 January 1974), better known as H. E. Bates, was an English writer. His best-known works include ''Love for Lydia'', '' The Darling Buds of May'', and '' My Uncle Silas''. Early life H.E. Bates was ...

- writer * Thomas Cooper Gotch - painter *

Jim Dale Jim Dale (born James Smith; 15 August 1935) is an English actor, composer, director, narrator, singer and songwriter. In the United Kingdom he is known as a pop singer of the 1950s who became a leading actor at the National Theatre. In Britis ...

- entertainer * John Gill (theologian) - theologian * Sir Kenneth Parker - High Court Judge *

Keith Roberts Keith John Kingston Roberts (20 September 1935 – 5 October 2000) was an English science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of '' Science Fantasy'' magazine, "Anita" (the first of a series of st ...

- science fiction writer * Phil Sawford - Labour MP from 1997 to 2005 for

Kenneth Woolmer, Baron Woolmer of Leeds Kenneth John Woolmer, Baron Woolmer of Leeds (born 25 April 1940) is a British university lecturer and politician. Coming into politics through local government in West Yorkshire, Woolmer was elected to Parliament for the Labour Party in 1979. ...

, Labour MP from 1979 to 1983 for Batley and Morley * Tony Wright - Labour MP from 1997 to 2010 for

Cannock Chase Cannock Chase (), often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed by Forestry E ...

and from 1992 to 1997 for Cannock and Burntwood

References

External links

Kettering Old Grammar School Foundation

Kettering Grammar School Satellite Tracking Group

Satellite Tracking Group - a personal experience

* {{authority control Defunct schools in North Northamptonshire Boys' schools in Northamptonshire Defunct grammar schools in England Educational institutions disestablished in 1976 Amateur radio history 1976 disestablishments in England Cold War