Hatfield Record 2021
Notes from the Assistant Master and Acting Vice-Master
Katie Stobbs, Assistant Master (and Acting Vice-Master) 2020-21
(January to June 2021) Hello there and I trust all is well with you as we make our way to the end of what has been an interesting year, to say the least! I joined Hatfield as the new Assistant Master in July 2020, following Dr Ellen Crabtree’s departure in April. I spent the next five weeks at my kitchen table navigating my new role and getting to know my new colleagues, whilst endlessly fighting with my cat for access to the computer keyboard. In August, I was finally able to cross the threshold and come into College for the first time. This year has been like no other and there hasn’t been much time for reflection until now. Going back to that first day where I was able to start working from the Rectory, I remember feeling a real sense of pride that I was now a Hatfielder. Just before the first national lockdown in March 2020, I had been to visit Durham Miners’ Hall. For those of you who have never visited Redhills, the crowning glory is a spectacular debating chamber, nicknamed
the Pitman’s Parliament, in which each numbered seat corresponded to a colliery from the Durham Coalfield. Deliberately designed to resemble a mine-owner’s country estate, Redhills is a unique and extraordinary monument to working-class pride, ambition and self-organisation. Seat number 39 was Eden Colliery’s designated seat and now bears a token under the seat engraved with the names of my greatgrandad and his brother. I never met my great-grandad, but by all accounts, he was a clever man. However, University would never have been an option for him. It would have been within touching distance, but only in a physical sense. I wonder if he ever peered into Hatfield when he was in Durham for the Miners’ Gala, whether he and his “marras” even knew of the world inside of the College gates. It wasn’t that my greatgrandad wasn’t capable, just that he didn’t have the opportunity. It may seem unfathomable that pit-men who earned very little to start with, donated a portion of their wages each month to support the Durham Miners’ Association (DMA) and
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