Fareham man spends seven years trying to recreate a Fareham Park School photo after joining a Facebook group

Rob Clarke, 60, has been on a mission for more than seven years to try and reunite friends from school when he was a youngster so that he could recreate one of his favourite school photos in celebration of them all turning 60.

He began the search back in 2015 after joining Fareham Nostalgia on Facebook, which sparked an urge to recreate a photo that had been taken in the 1970s while he was at school, and has spent years trying to track them all down.

When the pandemic hit, it put a spanner in the works and the search was put on pause for nearly two years, but fast forward and Rob decided he was not done yet and he managed to, after seven years, find everyone on his list to go ahead with the photograph.

The seven boys attended Fareham Park Secondary School during the 1970s, leaving in 1979 to go their separate ways, but Rob never forgot the memories they shared. One of his fondest memories was when Gareth Satherley bought in his birthday present, which was a table tennis bat and it sparked a craze throughout the school.

The youngsters would meet up every day during lunch to play the game and they recalled pushing all of the science tables together to make the right-sized table.

SEE ALSO: Classmates from Hillside and Paulsgrove Infants have had a nostalgic reunion

After years in the making, the group finally met up at the Carisbrooke Arms where they had a chat and a catch up about what they have been up to over the last forty years and how their life has changed since they were younger.

At the shindig, the men also bought their wives who found it funny how nervous they all were at seeing each other again, and Rob had made sure that the evening was perfect for everyone by putting on a spread and bringing along his camera equipment so he could conduct a mini photoshoot to get the famous photo.

Amongst the crowd, there was Liam Newton, Rob Clark, Nicky Pellatt, Paul Smith, David Bernice, Chris Hyde and Gareth Satherley.

Rob said: ‘I followed Fareham Nostalgia on Facebook and it went from there really, it all started back in 2015, and I began a mission to retrace the people in the photograph.

‘It is nice because I got a little bit of information from everyone as well so I can see what they have got up to over the years. They were all very nervous about it because it has been such a long time and I was a bit worried because I wanted everything to go right and for everyone to turn up because if one person in the picture let me down, the recreated photo wouldn’t happen.’

Not only has Rob created a new version of the photo that was taken in the 1970s, he also created a video of photos during the event of the men and their wives having a nice time during the reunion.

As well as the original men in the photo turning up, word had got out to a few others who attended Fareham Park School during the same time.

Rob added: ‘Everyone absolutely loved it, the wives came up to me saying how good it was.

‘It is seven years since I started the mission but it is 40-odd years since we all met up like that; 1979 was when we left school, the actual event was brilliant. They had come in very sheepish with it but by the end everyone was having a brilliant time.’

Nicky, 60, now lives in Stubbington. Since leaving school he got married, had two kids and is now a proud grandad to a 20-month-old baby. He works in ventilation and set up his own company in the 1990s and has been running it ever since, but wants to slow down now so that he can retire and spend time with his family.

He said: ‘It was brilliant to be honest, there is a couple of lads that I have seen while going to the football but it was great to see everyone together.

‘It was like catching up like we had seen each other last week so it was really incredible and obviously it has taken so long to get it going and luckily enough we are all here.’

Gareth, 59, has worked at Fareham Borough Council for more than 20 years and was the person who contributed to the table tennis craze at school after bringing his birthday present in. He got married and has two ‘grown up children who both left home and one is a teacher and one is a radiographer’.

He said: ‘They have both done very well.

‘Rob had that ambition to recreate the photo and what he did was absolutely amazing and got everyone back together, and I think that Rob did an amazing job.’

During the evening, there was also a discovery after one of the men had gone 40 years thinking one of the other men in attendance had shot him with an air rifle at school, but had got it wrong all this time, and it was in fact someone else.

David Bernace, 59, was also at the school photoshoot and he said that it was amazing that Rob had managed to get everyone back together again.

He said: ‘I can remember 1976, we had the heatwave and loads of the pupils went on strike because it was so hot and I remember them all doing that. I don’t know why but it has always stuck.

He said: ‘It was great to catch up with everyone and we to see how much we have all changed over the years.’