July 2014 issuu

The ALMONDBURIAN T H E MAGAZINE O F TH E O LD AL MONDBURIANS’ S OCIETY

July 2014

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IN THIS ISSUE

A word from your Chairman From the Study …and back at the School Triumph! Promotion to Division 1 The secrets of a Pennine graveyard Sudoku In the footsteps of Nevil Shute Every picture tells a story Graham Gelder—his life and death Aspinall of IVa – school playwright No comb or toothbrush in Barcelona Reigning Quiz champions dethroned Annual Dinner Founders’ Day Why did they leave so early?

Terry’s Teaser Farnley Lines Vicar moves to Berwick-upon-Tweed Membership Pavilion project Level field? The answer lies in the soil The Almondbury Poets Badminton/Tennis Golf Football Cricket Postbag Obituaries

(Opposite): The present ‘office’ entrance to the School via the old kitchen

The ALMONDBURIAN Editor: Roger Dowling

July 2014

The magazine of The Old Almondburians’ Society

A word from your Chairman

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B RYA N H O P K INSON

ACK in January I was telling you about the rising cost of postage and its effect on Society finances. Now I want to present an idea which should help, and which will also bring the Society a bit further into the digital age.The committee thinks it likely that at least some members might be happy, or even prefer, to receive their copy of The Almondburian electronically as a pdf file rather than by post. One advantage to the member is that you will receive your magazine rather earlier than at present, indeed before it even comes off the press, which could be especially useful for those living overseas. It will also serve those who prefer to keep their archives on disk rather than on a shelf.The advantage to the Society as a whole is that, if enough people take this up, it could forestall 3

or limit any rise in subscriptions next year – no guarantees, but you can see how it would help. So please consider whether this is something you might like, and if so then please drop an e-mail to the editor or the Society secretary (see back page for addresses).

We had an enjoyable and well-attended quiz on 30th April. A new name is on the trophy and a full report appears on page 31 of this issue.The team containing the Chairman was eliminated in the first round by the team containing the Chairman’s wife, a fact which has not gone entirely unmentioned at home.

At the time of writing, the committee which will oversee the project to build a new sports pavilion at the School has not yet met, but your Chairman has been invited to join it, and will represent the Society as a member ex officio (see page 42).This is not an OASled project, though naturally all its leading lights are in fact OldAlmondburians, so the role to be played by the Society itself remains to be defined, but there should be more to tell you in the next edition of The Almondburian.

OLD ALMONDBURIANS’ SOCIETY CALENDAR

DATES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS, 2014 The Executive Committee of the Society meets upstairs at theWoolpack in Almondbury at 7.30 pm.

Dates for the rest of this year are 7th July; 1st September; 6th October; 3rd November; 1st December (all Mondays). Any member of the Society who would like to attend one of these meetings will be made most welcome.

(see below) is doing likewise with the Class of 1964.

But what about the members of the classes of 1934, 1939, 1944, 1974, 1984, 1994, 1999 or 2004? Start planning now!.

FOUNDERS’ DAY SERVICE The traditional Founders’ Day Service will be held at All Hallows’ Church,Almondbury on the day following the Annual Dinner, Sunday, 23rd November.Almondburians are invited to assemble in front of the school for the traditional procession up the hill.The Executive Committee would urge all Almondburians to make every effort to attend this event. It would help if you are able to indicate in the space provided on the Annual Dinner ticket application form or website whether or not you expect to attend the Founders’ Day Service as well.

ANNUAL DINNER The return of the Annual Dinner to the school last year was a resounding success and we have received nothing but extremely positive feedback from those who attended. Consequently, this year’s dinner will again take place at the school, on Saturday, 22nd November, at 6.30 pm for 7.30 pm.

Please put the date in your diary now to make sure that you don’t miss out on a great evening.The speaker this year will be Old Almondburian Tony Cape.The ticket price will remain at £27.50 and an application form is included with this issue or you can apply online at www.oas.org.uk/buydinner.php.

It is always good to see members making a special effort to stage a reunion of their year at the dinner and such occasions are always enjoyable. Paul Balderstone and Richard Taylor are organising a reunion of the Class of 1954 and Keith Crawshaw

BADMINTON/TENNIS Reports: page 45

GOLF (GOTHARD CUP) Report: page 45 FOOTBALL Report: page 46

CRICKET Report: page 47.

Class of ’64 will be holding a reunion centred around this year’s Annual Dinner. Many of our former colleagues have been contacted and will be attending but we are keen to discover the whereabouts of the following: I A Bradley, C Duffy, S T Harling, J T Harlock, J L Hart, G J Hirst, J D Lindley, T J McKenna, L G Mallinson, D Mann, S H Moorhouse, D Mortimer, G Mosley,A M Pickup, A Robinson, D J Roelants, C G Sykes, D J Sykes, P R Talbot, P Thornton and A Torbett.

If you can help with our search please email keithcrawshawrhb@gmail.com.

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From the study

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RO B E RT LA MB

It’s been another busy and successful term – and the School continues to attract more applicants than it can find places for HE past term has been very memorable with numerous highlights. Yet again our students have achieved success in sporting events, excelling in several local and national competitions. They have won prizes in mathemagical competitions and experienced a variety of activities that have enriched our curriculum.

But the event that has been most memorable to a lot of the school's community was our production of Grease. It was, in the opinion of everyone I have spoken to, one of the best, if not the best, School production that we have ever performed. Everyone who had the privilege of seeing it was full of praise for our talented students.

The acting and dancing were absolutely superb and it was wonderful to see and hear our own School band play the music.

I would like to congratulate all of

Grease: a scene from the major School production in March

the 80-plus students who took part for their fantastic performances. They really are an extremely talented group.

It was a show that will live in the memory for a long, long time.

I am also pleased to report that the popularity of the school continues to rise. At the beginning of March we heard, yet again, that the School is vastly oversubscribed.We have received a record number of applications and all the places for September have been filled with ease. Our waiting list is the largest we have ever had and provides evidence of the increasing popularity of the School.We are absolutely delighted that we are the school of choice for an increasing number of parents.

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…and back at the School

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Read Around Britain Book Challenge

Pictures: Jenny Ainger

EAR 7 have been taking part in a Read Around Britain Book Challenge as part of the School’s drive to promote literacy and reading for pleasure.

Each time a student read for 30 minutes, a ‘stepping stone’ around Britain was signed off by a parent or carer, and details of the books read were recorded by the students.

There were winners in all three categories:‘top mileage’,‘most authors read’ and ‘most genres read’.

(Back row l-r): Warwick Connolly, Tyler Richards, Paige Tinsley, Caitlin Ashwell, Daniel Berry

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Author Liz Million visits King James’s School

(Front row l-r): Charlotte Ackroyd, Leah Manning, Sophie Parr, Priscilla Lancelot

OP children’s author and illustrator Liz Million paid a visit to the School to demonstrate illustration and writing techniques.

Based in Darlington, Liz has been a successful writer and illustrator of children’s books since 1999. She visits schools, libraries and museums all over the world to talk about her work and to show youngsters how to draw. She describes it as her ‘dream job’.

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School experiences ‘Pi-mania’ on 14th March 2014

HE School had 'Pi-mania' once again on Friday 14th March (International Piday).The event which celebrates all things to do with the mysterious repeating numberV – the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter – marked the start of a season of cross-curricular events which have taken place over the past months.

The Mathematics department led the way, with students conducting experiments to find an approximation to V, making pi chains and looking into the musical aspects of pi. But many other subjects got involved too.

In Drama,Year 9 students made their own version of the Bond classic, Pi-fall. In it they developed characters who could track down missing agent 3.14.

SomeYear 8 students had the chance to look at a musical interpretation of the number V to several decimal places.

In Integrated Studies (IS), some Year 8 students looked into the history of V and saw where it appeared in the Bible.

Year 9 French lessons featured a game, using the decimal places of V. Each student had to count in French from the beginning of V and then had to add on their number, whilst in ICT students had to decode a message about V. The school kitchen joined in the fun too, by providing some delicious V biscuits and pizza.

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O

UK Mathematical Trust Team Challenge

N 11th March, four students fromYears 8 and 9 represented the School at the UK Mathematical Trust Team Challenge Gaby Piccioni, Rachael Swallow, Jacob Anderson and Steven Richards – four of the best mathematicians in their respective years – travelled to Bradford Grammar School to compete against 40 other schools from theYorkshire region.The competition included four rounds in which the students were required to solve a variety of mathematical and logical questions.

Dumbing down? Try the schools challenge

See if you can answer these three typical questions – and then ask yourself if schools really are dumbing down these days…

15951

A car’s milometer shows that the number of miles it has travelled is 15951.This number is palindromic which means that it reads the same forwards and backwards.

The next time a palindromic number appears on the milometer is exactly two hours later.What is the average speed of the car during these two hours?

A cube is divided into 64 identical smaller cubes. Seven of these small cubes are removed.The resulting shape has a volume of 1,539 cm3.What is the total surface area of the original cube?

10cm

A sunflower in my garden doubles its height every 24 hours. It is 1.5 m tall just before midnight on Sunday. On which earlier day did it measure 10 cm?

Send your answers to almondburian@oas.org.uk or text 07815 601447.

Successful entrants will receive a special editorial commendation in the November issue 8

SOCCER

Triumph! Promotion to Division 1

It’s 10th May 2014 and we need to win the last match of the season.A player gives a goal-by-goal account of a victory that leads to First Division next season

NED FISHER

Middleton Park 1–7 Almondburians

Team: Atkinson, Dunn, Fisher, Thompson (capt), Bedford, Duff, Robinson, Jowett P, Walker,Lumb and Lightowlers.

Subs:Taylor,Mellor,Brearey and Antich.

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LMONDBURIANS needed only a point, and Colton were relying on their cross-town rivals, Middleton Park, to pull off a shock and become only the second team this season to take the spoils against this dogged ’Burians outfit.

The omens were good forAlmondbury, as the noises coming from Middleton hinted at player unavailability, with a stag do in the legendary party town of Cleckheaton the supposed cause. Spirits were high as the team headed out for its date with destiny.

The venue was perfect for the occasion, lending a cup final vibe to proceedings with the recently laid pitch Wembley-esque in both size and con-

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dition.There could be no excuses and we quickly set about stringing passes together and applying some pressure.After ten minutes, a cute passage of play paid dividends, with Lightowlers getting the early, nerve settling goal.The ball was worked down the left as Bedford passed to Walker who fed the run of Lumb in space in opposition territory. Lumb advanced towards the left of the box before crossing for Duff to send the ball goalwards.With the ball rolling towards the back of the net, Lightowlers pounced and smashed it home for his twenty fourth, and easiest, goal of the season. 0-1.

Middleton hadn’t read the script though, and were back on level terms within a matter of minutes. A lofted through ball was chased by their dangerous looking number fifteen who somehow got it tangled in his legs, inadvertently back-heeling it to a following Middleton midfielder. The Middletonian bought himself half a yard and hit a powerful shot that saw the unfortunate Atkinson parry straight back for the man in Middleton green to have another go, with the second ef-

Save for a couple of cynical Jowett fort squirming into the goal via another fouls that saw him somehow evade the touch from the ’Burians stopper. 1-1.

Goal gluttons soon had a third helping to book, that was that for a first half perenjoy, asWalker picked up the ball near the formance that put Almondbury on the half way line and set off towards goal,giving cusp of glory.

The second half got underway but travthe home support a front row view of his close control as he weaved his way past a elling fans had to be patient for goal numhandful of opponents and into the box be- ber five, as ’Burians dominance didn’t fore inviting a clumsy challenge and hitting bear fruit until midway through the half.

Duff picked the turf to YORKSHIRE AMATEUR LEAGUE DIVISION 2 TABLE up the ball earn a ’BuriPlayed W D L F A GD PTS on the right ans penalty.

24 16 7 1 68 29 39 55 and swung Lumb put Almondburians 24 15 7 2 73 37 36 52 an inviting the ball on the Colton Institute spot and stuck it away nervelessly with the ball towards the back post, where the slightest of touches from Lightowlers set 'keeper going the wrong way. 1-2.

With barely thirty minutes on the clock, up Walker, who had charged in from the Lumb was in the thick of it again, as he left wing to power home his second of the grabbed his second to give the visitors the game. 1-5.

The gaffer made a couple of changes two goal cushion that put them firmly on course for the win.The goal came from the shortly after, with Brearey and Antich ’Burians left again, as Robinson got on the coming on for Lumb and Duff respecball to fire in a low cross-cum-shot that the tively.And it didn’t take long for Brearey keeper could only rebound into the path of to get in on the action as he collected the Lumb who made no mistake from a few ball on the edge of the box, moved to his left and wrongfooted the ’keeper as he hit yards out. 1-3.

There followed a lull in the scoring, with a low drive into the bottom right hand the fans’highlight for the spell coming cour- corner of the goal. 1-6.

Almondbury’s final substitution saw tesy of tennis fan, James Duff. It was a case of “new balls, please” for the winger, as he Bedford withdrawn forTaylor to come on took one in the groin, with the crowd thor- at centre back withThompson shuffled to left full back. And there was still time for oughly entertained as always.

With half time looming,’Burians pushed the ’Burians defence to join the goalscoron in search of more goals. A corner was ing party, as Dunn overruled Fisher to join won, allowing Bedford the opportunity to Taylor in going up for a corner. The set send his customary whipped delivery into piece was swung in by Robinson, skimmed the danger zone. The Middleton defence off Taylor’s pate, and was powered home managed to repel the cross, but only as far by the leaping Dunn, who celebrated as as Walker who hit a crisp half volley though he’d just clinched the title. 1-7.

A famous victory – and well-earned prothrough the crowd and into the goal from motion to Division One next season.

twelve yards. 1-4.

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ARCHAEOLOGY

The secrets of a Pennine graveyard

AlmondburianAndrew Robinson – now a senior reporter at theYorkshire Post – joined his old Head of History John Hargreaves in search of the remains of a Luddite hanged in 1813.But they didn’t find quite what they were expecting.

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A ND R E W RO B I N SON (1981 -1986 )

Pennine hillside was the backdrop for an archaeological dig which witnessed the exhumation of human remains in an attempt to solve a mystery dating back to the turbulent times of 1813.

With the warm sunshine on our backs

in April, I joined two archaeologists and a local historian to oversee the recovery of remains from the oldest surviving Methodist graveyard in the world, at Greetland, near Halifax.

The graveyard land has been sold to make way for housing in order to fund a

(Left to right):Former KJS Head of History John Hargreaves with Methodist minister Rev Colin Sherwood and project manager Geoff Butler

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new £500,000 Methodist Church. For former Head of History at King James’s School Dr John Hargreaves, it was an opportunity to learn more about the suspected burial of a local Luddite, John Hill, who was hanged outsideYork Castle prison in 1813.

Hill, a cotton spinner, was executed for burglary and stealing arms, one of 17 Luddites put to death at York that month. It was the largest number of executions for a series of related offences since the Jacobite disturbances of 1745.

At the time, Britain was at war with Napoleonic France and there was great unrest in the West Riding and beyond due to food shortages and changes in production which angered textile artisans who attacked mills and new machines.

It has been long suspected that John Hill’s body was transported to Greetland fromYork for a decent burial, despite documented evidence that Methodists preachers had locked the cemetery gates to prevent Luddite burials.

Only a modest stone with the initials JH marked the plot, which was thought to be the last resting place of Hill, his young widow and five-year-old son, who both died shortly after his execution.

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Andrew Robinson writes: IT’S almost 30 years since I left the sixth form at King James’s School with a modest clutch of O and A levels but the passing of time hasn’t wiped the memories – mostly fond – of the place, the pupils and the staff.Thanks to superb teachers such as Mrs Walshaw, Mr O’Brien, Mr Hargreaves and Mr Raleigh, my results were good enough to get me accepted onto a course to study history and politics at the-then Huddersfield Polytechnic.

After graduating, I took a course in newspaper journalism in Sheffield and got my first job as a trainee reporter on the WharfeValleyTimes in Otley.

I then moved onto the Wetherby News and later became a sub-editor based in Harrogate.

Happy days, even if the salary was barely £10,000!

In the mid-1990s I was appointed as a reporter at the prestigious Yorkshire Post and have held various positions on the newspaper in the past 20 years, including Bradford chief reporter and West Riding chief reporter.

I am now happily based at the paper’s new head office in Leeds, having recently moved from the old Wellington Street concrete ‘bunker’ which is currently being demolished.

My reporting career has seen me cover all manner of stories, from stormy council meetings to street protests, big court cases and Royal visits – and winning a couple of journalism awards along the way, one for the paper’s in-depth coverage of the Bradford riots in 2001.

I have had the pleasure of writing travel articles for the paper, including features on snowboarding in France, campervanning across Europe, life as a soldier in Cyprus, the culture of Finland, cruising the Adriatic, and so on.

I currently live in Longwood, Huddersfield with partner Ellie and our two children, Harry, two, and Lottie, who was born in April this year (pictured).

I remain in contact with friends from school days but would love to hear from anyone else who remembers me or my brother Allan, also a former pupil, who now runs his own joinery business in the town.

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Over a period of several hours, archaeologists Anna Bloxam and Chris Scurfield recovered various bones.

They had been half-expecting to find an adult male skeleton with damage to its neck bones consistent with execution.

But the reality was very different. They found the remains of an elderly man, an elderly woman and a child aged about one.

It wasn’t the ending that was expected but for John Hargreaves the dig and the overarching project to conserve important headstones were both worthwhile.

“We are now left with one of two conclusions. Either the Methodist authorities prevented a Luddite burial during a sensitive climate or they showed compassion and maybe Hill was allocated an unmarked grave. There are a lot of unanswered questions in history.”

John Hargreaves, who is general secretary of the Wesley Historical Society and a historian of Luddism, welcomed the preservation of the most important headstones in the graveyard.

“Graveyards are as valuable a source for

historians as documents. If John Hill were buried here it was on terms that the grave would not be recognised.”

Other headstones at Greetland are reminders of a troubled past and record the deaths of many children. One headstone being preserved is that of Eli Gledhill, a soldier who served under the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Gledhill lived for another 50 years after that battle, dying at 81.

Geoff Butler, project manager for the new church building, which is almost finished, said the graves and headstones had to be treated in a sensitive manner. Permission for exhumations was granted by the Ministry of Justice and John Hargreaves has helped with the conservation of the important heritage items.

“The church is looking towards the future but not ignoring the past because it has helped to make us what we are now.

“The selling of this land has helped us develop the church building that will maintain Methodist Christian witness in Greetland.”

Reprinted by permission ofTheYorkshire Post

SUDOKU

3 9 5 2 3

Difficulty: medium

Each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the digits 1 to 9

4 8 13

2 8 6

1

7

6

4 3 6

1

6 3

8

9

7

5 3 2

In the footsteps of Nevil Shute Two Old Almondburians live on the Mornington Peninsula in south east Australia.Now a third is making regular visits to this popular playground

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JOHN BRADLEY (1950 - 1957)

N 1950, the author Nevil Shute bought a house about 10 km from Frankston in south-eastAustralia (see panel opposite).

In choosing the beautiful Mornington Peninsula for his retirement Shute chose wisely.

Similar wisdom was demonstrated by two OldAlmondburians: regular correspondent, renowned raconteur and all round intellectual Mr Ken Leech and your somewhat less frequent correspondent Mr John Bradley. Now, a third – Mike Powner (1959-1967) – has been discovering for himself the joys of visiting the Mornington Peninsula for a few months each year and in March 2014 we all met to exchange fond memories of life atAlmondbury Grammar School many years ago.

So how did three OldAlmondburians end up following in the footsteps of Nevil Shute?

Readers will remember Ken Leech’s story from the article in The Almondburian in November 2013. He left Almondbury Grammar School in 1952 and as part of his National Service was

On the Bradley deck in Frankston (left to right): John Bradley, Ken Leech and Mike Powner

diverted into some sort of work for the Foreign Office about which he can say nothing on pain of death – except that it brought him to Australia and theAtomicWeapons testing site atWoomera in SouthAustralia.A determined sleuth may find some indication of what he was doing by reading the novels of Len Deighton and John Le Carré,or perhaps Keith Jeffrey’s official history of MI6 He returned having paid his 10 quidArcadia fare with first wife Pat (from Greenhead, like manyAGS wives and girlfriends) in 1960.

After a varied career in pharmaceuticals, the travel industry withAmerican Express and real estate he retired in 1998 from the position of CEO of a real estate business.

He and present wife Janine then spent three years in a motorhome travelling around Europe before settling back in Rosebud on the Peninsula.

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I left Almondbury Grammar School in 1957, before crossing the Pennines to Manchester to spend three years studying Chemical Engineering at UMIST. In 1960 I joined the Davy Corporation in Stockton-on-Tees, an engineering and construction company serving the metallurgical, chemical,and oil and gas industries.I married Avril Kimberley in Middlesbrough in 1963.

Throughout the 1960s I travelled widely in Europe,the USA and Japan,including extended assignments in Spain in 1963,France in 1966/67 and Sala,60km east of Bratislava in what is now the Slovak Republic.The latter coincided with the short but exciting ‘Prague Spring’ ofAlexander Dubcek.

In 1970 I came to Melbourne on a sixweek assignment to manage a feasibility

Nevil Shute settles on the Mornington Peninsula

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RITTEN in 1953, the autobiography of Nevil Shute (full name Nevil Shute Norway) opens:“A year or so ago I was driving on the coast road to Mornington, forty miles south of Melbourne in Australia. …I was driving along between the red cliffs and the blue sea thinking no evil when I was stabbed suddenly by an intense pain in my chest.”

He was 54 years old. He had had heart attacks before, dating back to 1939, and it was this latest one that decided him to start writing his autobiography before it was too late.

He called it Slide Rule,The Autobiography of an Engineer, because although by this time he was a famous novelist earning large royalties from his books he had always considered himself first and foremost an aeronautical engineer. He had kept his day job up to when he retired from the Board of Airspeed Ltd, the Company he had founded in York in 1931 jointly with HessalTiltman.

Nevil Shute Norway always used his full name in his professional engineering capacity, and his two given names as a writer.

He had been to Australia before, and in retirement decided to come back and settle.

He bought a house between Langwarrin and Mt Eliza in open countryside some 10 km south east of Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula, arriving with his wife and two daughters in 1950.

Coincidentally the film version of one of his best known novels OnThe Beach starring Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck, and Anthony Perkins was shot very largely in and around Frankston in 1959, a year before Shute’s premature death.

Nevil Shute Norway parted company amicably with Airspeed Ltd in 1938 but the company continued in business until finally merging with De Havilland.The last plane they built was the Airspeed Ambassador which first flew in 1947. BEA bought some and flew them under the name Elizabethan. It was one of these that crashed in Munich on the 6th of February 1958 killing among others eight of the ‘Busby Babes’ of Manchester United.

On that day I was in the workshop behind the Chemical Engineering Department at UMIST.When we went out in the street we saw people all over the centre of the city bursting into spontaneous tears.

John Bradley 15

Melbourne’s winegrowing summer playground Frankston

Langwarrin

Somerville

Rosebud

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HE MORNINGTON PENINSULA is the summer playground for Melbourne’s four million inhabitants.There are more than 50 wineries and many more vineyards, which supply them with Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.This area is particularly renowned for its elegant cool climate Pinot Noir, and after a great deal of trial and error with this fickle variety now produces some of the best Pinot Noir in the world.

Many of the wineries have opened gourmet restaurants where you can eat exceptionally well after tasting the local wine to choose which one (or two…or three) to drink with your meal.

For the golfers this relatively small area has no less than 19 courses of which eight are rated in the top 100 in Australia.They vary from windswept links courses to manicured parkland and all types in between.

Having both the calm waters of the two bays (Port Phillip and Westernport) and the open sea of Bass Strait, the Peninsula is a Mecca for the recreational fisherman who can catch such fish as flathead, snapper, bream, leatherjacket, whiting, gummy shark and garfish.

study for a large methanol plant to be built on French Island in the middle of Westernport. Fortunately it was never built.

I fell in love with Melbourne and returned the following year with Avril and two boys Mark and Adam. Daughter Kimberley was born in 1972.

I retired at the end of 1999 from the

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position of sales director of the Melbourne subsidiary of Davy Corporation.

Back in 1993, in an initial burst of enthusiasm, Ken and I formed an antipodean branch of the Old Almondburians’Society.

The inaugural meeting in The Sherlock Holmes public house in St Kilda Rd (Watney’s Red Barrel and Draught Guinness),was conducted strictly in accordance with proper

procedure, and the minutes were duly dispatched on suitably headed paper to the Secretary of the Old Almondburians’ Society and acknowledged in the July 1994 edition of the Newsletter.

As I recall, Ken – because of his greater skills in the use of the English language and in finely drafting minutes to advance any particular political purpose – was elected unanimously as Secretary. I was given the purely nominal title of Chairman.

However when it came to the critical position ofTreasurer, neither (beingYorkshiremen) was able to trust the other with the cash, so we were elected JointTreasurers.

Although there were only two members present we did receive apologies from Prof Tom Ledwidge in Queensland and David Oxley inWestern Australia.

The third member of our group, Mike Powner, worked for David Brown before joining Thomson Yellow Pages where he worked in sales, sales management and human resources for the best part of 20 years.

Then he became a Scottish Widow –

complete with black cloak – working as a financial advisor specialising in retirement planning and corporate financial advice for small and medium sized businesses. He retired four years ago.

Mike marriedAlice in 1981 and they have three children.Their daughter, a nurse, is married to an Australian and lives in the small town of Somerville about 15km SE of Frankston with their two young children.

Mike andAlice now visit their daughter and her family regularly and spend up to three months a year in the area.

Before leaving Huddersfield for this trip Mike ran into Andrew Haigh in that well known delicatessen and wine merchant Czerwick’s in Brighouse,and asked him for the names and addresses of all Almondburians living inAustralia.Mike was delighted to find two within easy reach of his base in Somerville.

Some time in late February he phoned me having already spoken to Ken and made the welcome suggestion of a meeting. It was arranged that we and our wives would meet at our home for an aperitif and to enjoy the view over the bay.We then walked the 200-300 metres to the Boathouse Restaurant on the banks of Kananook Creek for lunch (with such a name it couldn’t be anywhere else butAustralia),returning via a footbridge over the creek for coffee back at home.

We all enjoyed the occasion very much and it may perhaps become an annual event.

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At the Boathouse Restaurant (left to right): Avril Bradley, Janine Leech Ken Leech, John Bradley, Mike Powner,Alice Powner

Every picture tells a story

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‘Born grumbler’ Jim Armitage surveys the school yard in the 1920s

IM ARMITAGE joined Almondbury Grammar School as caretaker and oddjob man in 1913. He was never seen to wear an overcoat, whatever the weather: his standard apparel was a waistcoat and short sleeves rolled up above his elbows.

On the left side of his neck was a fleshy growth ‘the size of a man’s fist’, beneath which he would often tuck his brushhandle as he grumbled about the state of the world.

The versatile Jim also ran the school tuckshop comprising a number of cardboard boxes filled with aniseed balls and the like placed on a bench outside the ODH. Jim is standing where the school entrance is today. On the extreme left are the exposed roots of ‘Big Tree’, not yet surrounded by the familiar slatted seats.

The building behind is the ugly Art and Woodwork building (‘a monstrosity’ according to Taylor Dyson) erected in 1901 and the school laboratories are on the extreme right.All would be demolished in

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1938 to make way for new physics and chemistry labs, with N1, N2, N3, a new staff room and an art room above.The ‘monstrosity’ was demolished to make way for changing rooms for the new school gymnasium.Today, another new laboratory, erected in 2002, is located here.

‘Big Tree’ survived until 1997 when, in what many to this day regard as an act of vandalism, it was declared unsafe by the school bursar and felled during the Easter holidays.

SPECIAL REPORT Part 2

Graham Gelder: his life—and death

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We conclude the story of the former Head Boy of King James’s Grammar School who died at the age of 30 on the Cliveden esate in Buckinghamshire

N our March issue we presented Part 1 of the story of former Head Boy Graham Gelder who died in 1966 under unusual circumstances at Spring Cottage on the Cliveden estate in Buckinghamshire – previously the residence of the osteopath and socialite Stephen Ward. Three years earlier, Ward had committed suicide following revelations involving the War Minister of the day John Profumo.

We take up the story as Gelder had achieved excellent ‘A’ level results – a Distinction in Biology and passes in Physics and Chemistry – and was awarded a Borough Scholarship to continue his studies at the University of Sheffield.

These went well and he obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. His first post was at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport and he then took up a position at Sheffield City General Hospital. In 1961

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he was awarded a medical scholarship to take up a year’s study and work at the American Hospital in Paris. Later, at Ashford Hospital in Kent and at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, he specialised in gynaecology.

Meanwhile, he continued to maintain a close association with the School, and presented a cup for the House Cross-Country competition. He also showed an active interest in the Old Almondburians’ Society and was a welcome figure at a number of London Branch dinners as well as attending several Huddersfield functions.

The next major milestone in Gelder’s life was marriage. On 13th January 1962 he married a fellow medical student, Elizabeth Ann Bryceson Griffiths. She qualified as a doctor in December 1961 and had also worked at Stepping Hill hospital in Stockport.

Elizabeth was 24 at the time, the daughter of the

county pathologist for High Peak, Dr Griffith John Griffiths, and she had a four year old son, Thomas,whom Graham adopted as his own son. The marriage took place at Buxton Congregational Church in Hardwick Street, Buxton.

The couple’s first child, Ghislaine, was born in Sheffield on 6th November 1963.

Around this time, Gelder secured a major new appointment: he became Registrar of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital on the Cliveden estate near Taplow. CRCMH had its origins in a small Canadian military hospital built during World War 1 on land donated by the Astor family. Most of the buildings were demolished duringWorldWar 2 to make way for a larger hospital – the CRCMH

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– which after the war was donated to the UK for use as a general hospital and research centre.

In due course, it gained a large maternity unit and it was no doubt this that induced Gelder, as a recently qualified gynaecologist, to apply for a position there.

Presumably, it was the Astors’ early patronage of the CRCMH that led to Gelder being given the opportunity to take over the occupancy of Spring Cottage following the death of Stephen Ward.

It was at Spring Cottage that Graham Gelder died on Saturday, 14th May 1966. His body was found by an estate worker. The death was a great shock: Gelder was well-known locally and often frequented the local pub.The funeral in Huddersfield was well attended and those present included school colleague Norris Bonser (1947-1954) and second master Fred Hudson.

The inquest, which opened on 16th May 1966 and was adjourned until 9th June for further enquiries, recorded a verdict of‘misadventure’.The death certificate recorded the details of the death in succinct terms: Asphyxia due to drowning due to collapsing over a kitchen sink so that his face was immersed in the water of a plastic bowl standing in the sink.

It was a curious verdict. Death by drowning in a kitchen sink (while washing hair according to police reports) is not generally regarded as a hazardous pursuit. Certainly, kitchen sinks have never been required to carry a Government health warning.

Not surprisingly, there were some how managing to drown himself. who found it unconvincing and wonOr did he? In the March 2010 issue dered if the verdict of misadventure of The Almondburian, we published an might have been a euphemism for sui- unsolicited article by Gelder’s longcide. But this seems highly unlikely. time friend Carl Goldsmith. GoldGelder, a man with a zest for life, was smith, a respected former solicitor, only 30 and had been married for only recalled a telephone call from Gelder a three years. He had a two-year-old few weeks before his death in which daughter, and his wife had – just one Gelder reported that he ‘had been atmonth earlier – given birth to their son tacked and was in considerable pain’.

James. Gelder’s career was going well* Goldsmith immediately drove over to and he was looking forward to taking see him and Gelder told him that someup a major new appointment at the one had hit him on the head with a Middlesex Hospital in July. hammer, causing a nasty injury on his And would not a doctor wishing to forehead. Goldsmith drove him to the commit suicide, with ready access to a local hospital where he was detained a wide range of drugs, not choose a night or two for treatment. A few method more practicable than the al- weeks later Gelder was dead. most impossible challenge of drowning His funeral service was held in New oneself in a kitchen sink?

North Road Baptist Church and his So maybe the coroner was correct in ashes were afterwards scattered in the concluding that it was all an unfortu- grounds of King James’s Grammar nate accident – that Gelder had perhaps School – the School he loved so much. dozed off (after Where it all happened: Spring Cottage today on the Cliveden esperhaps taking a tate in Buckinghamshire sleeping pill too many) while washing his hair, slumping into the bowl of water and some*Gelder died intestate, leaving £7,526, equivalent to some £230,000 today. In 1966, such a sum would have been enough to buy a goodsized house in the home counties for cash.

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Secrets in the Profumo Affair† by Anthony Summers and Stephen Dorril. Summers is a respected Pulitzer Prize finalist and journalist, and Dorril is also an experienced author and journalist who – by coincidence – is senior lecturer in journalism at Huddersfield University.

The book includes startling new testimony about the death of Stephen Ward from a Exorcism: Lady Astor was formerly the model Bronwen Pugh. She former MI6 operative left Cliveden in 1968.

Lee Tracey. Tracey told A few months after Gelder’s death, Summers and Dorrill that it was deGoldsmith received an unexpected cided that Ward had to die. An MI5 lunch invitation from one of Gelder’s agent with Ward convinced him on the doctor friends whom Goldsmith had night of his death that he ought to have met on a visit to Spring Cottage some a good night’s sleep and take some time earlier. Out of the blue, the doctor sleeping pills. Half and hour later, he suggested that someone on barbiturates woke him to remind him again about – sleeping pills – could readily be the pills and the process was repeated placed on a seat and drowned against untilWard had overdosed.According to his will.Goldsmith could not at the Tracey: time understand why this information “It’s the easiest thing in the world to should have been imparted to him. do. Once the victim is drowsy, he will Shortly after submitting the article, agree to almost anything.”

Goldsmith – a sick man – died.

The journalist friend of Stephen As we related in our March issue, a Ward, Tom Mangold, was with him new Andrew Lloyd Webber production shortly before his suicide and had no StephenWard—the Musical opened at the Aldwych Theatre in London last De- *It closed on 29th March 2014 cember*. Not surprisingly, a number of †The SecretWorlds of StephenWard: Sex, new books about the Profumo affair Scandal and Deadly Secrets in the Prowere published at around the same fumo Affair by Anthony Summers and time. One of these was The SecretWorlds Stephen Dorril. Published by Headline Pubof Stephen Ward: Sex, Scandal and Deadly lishing Group 2013.

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doubt that Ward intended to take his own life anyway. But did he receive any assistance and encouragement from MI5? And does the remarkable similarity of the assertions of Lee Tracey and Gelder’s doctor friend suggest that Gelder’s ‘misadventure’ may also not have been all it seemed?

It was at this point in our investigations that there was an important development: the acquisition by James of a copy of the original coroner’s report back in 1966.This was a document we had sought at the outset but was not available to us because the present Buckinghamshire coroner was only willing to release a copy to someone with ‘good cause’ such as a surviving relative of the deceased. The obvious applicant in this case was Gelder’s son James, but this posed a further complication as James did not even have a copy of his birth certificate to demonstrate his relationship. As a result, obtaining the relevant document and securing a copy of the coroner’s report inevitably took a little while.

It was, however, well worth the wait as the document clarifies many issues surrounding Gelder’s sad death.

In particular, it explains why the HM Coroner, Mr Percy Nickson OBE, decided – despite the unusual circumstances – that Gelder’s death was truly a case of ‘misadventure’.

The inquest was held at Burnham Police Station on the 9th June 1966 and the cause of death was recorded as asphyxia due to drowning. It became apparent during the investigation into Gelder’s death that for many years he had suffered from insomnia and had been a regular user of barbiturates to assist his sleeping. His insomnia was attributed to being overworked. He was in the process of seeking help for his excessive use of barbiturates prior to his death.

He was living alone at the time of his death in Spring Cottage as his wife had moved to her parents’ home in Derbyshire with their young children. She had been unwell during her recent pregnancy and was being cared for by her family whilst Gelder studied for his next exam to become a Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) and prepared for his next job at the West Middlesex Hospital, London which he was due to

An ongoing contribution to the profession of obstetrics

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WO correspondents have drawn our attention to the existence of so-called ‘Gelder’s forceps’ used by obstetricians, suggesting the these may have been the invention of Graham Gelder.A document produced at the inquest confirmed that this was indeed the case. Dr James Scott-Findley, a surgical registrar and colleague of Gelder at the Hammersmith Hospital, wrote:‘He had a great deal of enthusiasm for his work [as Registrar at Hammersmith] and had even designed a new surgical instrument which had been adopted by the hospital.’

‘Gelder’s Forceps’ are still available from specialist suppliers today.

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Graham Gelder’s ‘local’: The Feathers atTaplow.

Although not a heavy drinker, Gelder would often visit the pub for a Guinness.

start at the end of June1966.

Gelder was found by a Cliveden estate worker, who called at Spring Cottage at 10.45 am on 14th May 1966 and looked through the kitchen window. He saw Gelder collapsed with his head in a plastic bowl over the kitchen sink. According to witnesses, everthing at the cottage appeared otherwise normal: the door was locked, a light was on in the kitchen and a record player was switched on.

The last person to see Gelder alive was a friend at the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital who had a drink with him at The Feathers on the evening of 12th May. The following Monday, Gelder was due to start a few weeks of locum work at the hospital and he was very much looking forward to this.

A post mortem examination revealed that Gelder’s lungs had fluid consistent with water and his blood levels showed an overdose level of barbiturates, though not a fatal amount.

His heart was above normal size and it was also noted that there was ‘severe almost confluent atheroma [partial blockage] of all the main arteries, far more extensive than normal at this age’.

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It was concluded that Gelder collapsed into the washing up whilst washing dishes at the kitchen sink and ingested water. He had suffered a heart attack at some time either before the collapse (which caused it) or during the collapse and subsequent drowning. It was a truly tragic end to a life which had held so much early promise.

There remain two or three questions that can only be answered by conjecture. Firstly, why and how did Gelder (and, initially, his wife and children) end up living at such an intriguing address as Spring Cottage, Cliveden? It is worth recording that they moved to Spring Cottage in July 1965, just two years after StephenWard’s death.There can be no doubt that Gelder was well aware of its notoriety, and it may be that the notion of actually living there was something that appealed to his extrovert personality.

There also remains the strange episode of the attack on Gelder, reported by Goldsmith, only a few weeks

before Gelder died. We will probably vinced that Cliveden must be jinxed never know for certain the identity of and she decided to ask the Roman the assailant, but a clue may lie in Gold- Catholic exorcist Dom Robert Petitsmith’s revelation in his article in The pierre to perform an exorcism, first on Almondburian in March 2010 that the house itself and a few weeks later around that time Gelder seemed to on Spring Cottage. Petitpierre rehave established a new relationship ported that “the evil powers emanating with a ‘blonde bimbo’. If she herself al- from the cottage were some of the ready had a partner, Gelder may have strongest I’ve ever encountered”. been only too aware of the likely idenNot suprisingly, Lady Astor decided tity of his assailant. This might also ex- to leave Cliveden for good in 1968 and plain why he chose not to identify him the house was handed over to Stanford to his friend Goldsmith or indeed – so University on a 21-year lease to profar as we can establish – to the police mote Anglo-American relations.When or to the hospital at which he received the lease expired, Cliveden became a emergency treatment.

28-bedroom luxury hotel and restauSo what has become of the principal rant. Christine Keeler, no less, atplayers in this sad episode? tended the opening ceremony.

Graham Gelder’s son James is now Spring Cottage itself has been exten48 and lives in the south of England. He sively refurbished and is even available assumed the surname of his stepfather for marriage ceremonies and recepbut we are respecting his wish not to tions at a bargain price of just £370 per reveal his full name and location in guest including champagne and wine. order to protect the privacy of his famStephen Ward paid Lord Astor £1 ily. His sister Ghislaine, 51, lives in per annum for the use of Spring Cotthe Midlands. Neither of them knew tage. The exorcism must have done the anything about their father until this in- trick.

vestigation by The Almondburian.

Their mother Graham Gelder’s son James writes: GRAHAM’S surviving children are happy Elizabeth remarried after with the findings of the Inquest despite Gelder’s death but in recent knowing no details for the past 47 years.

Graham’s widow, Elizabeth, passed away years became a widow for the in April 2014 surrounded by her children. second time. She died at the As Graham’s youngest son, born just four age of 77 in April 2014. weeks before he died, I am extremely As for Spring Cottage, grateful on behalf of my brother and sister for the that the Old Almondburians’ Society has Lady Astor never recovered help provided in understanding and learning from the death of Stephen about our father – his active and Ward in 1963 and the deaths rewarding school life, his passion for and the circumstances of her husband Lord Astor medicine, surrounding his tragic and untimely and Graham Gelder three death. years later. She became con-

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WHATEVER BECAME OF…?

Aspinall of IVa – school playwright

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HE April 1936 issue of The Almondburian was somewhat preoccupied by radio, possibly as a result of the recent purchase of a new school ‘wireless set’ located in the ODH (see The Almondburian Poets on page 44).

But there was another reason why some of the pupils of the day may have listened in with special interest.The School’s playwright, Aspinall of IVa, had had a play accepted and performed by the BBC, much to the approval ofTaylor Dyson.

“I wonder,” writes Taylor Dyson in his Editorial, “how many except his own pals know that the play broadcast on the Children’s Hour on 18th March 1936, under the pen-name of C I Gare, was written by Aspinall.

“Did the BBC know that the play was by

a schoolboy, and if so why did they not announce it for the children to get even more interested?

“We understand that the BBC are considering a second play sent to them by C I Gare.”

According to the ever-helpful school records cards in the OAS archives, ‘Aspinall of IVa’ was Gilbert Aspinall, the son of cloth shrinker ErnestAspinall.The family lived in Cross Lane, Primrose Hill.

Born in 1920, Gilbert entered Almondbury Grammar School in September 1931. He took his School Certificate in 1936 and his Higher School Certificate two years later, leaving in 1939 to take up a place at Leeds University. In 1943, he married Muriel Boothroyd at Southgate Methodist Church, Honley.

Beyond that, we have no record of the careers of either Aspinall or the budding playwright‘C I Gare’. Can any reader tell

us more?

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TRAVEL

No comb or toothbrush in Barcelona

F

John Aspinall and his intrepid band of explorers pay a visit to Catalonia

JOHN ASPINALL (1956 - 1961)

OLLOWING our successful and most enjoyable trip to Paramé last year (The Almondburian, July 2013), we decided we had to arrange for a few days this year at a different venue.

Various suggestions were tabled at one of our regular soirées in The King’s Head pub at the railway station in Huddersfield.

After some discussion, but not a lot, we decided on Barcelona.An open invitation to join us was sent to several of our peers of the class of 1956 but the touring party was to be the same as for Paramé: Mike Hellawell, Mike Gibson, John Linton, Colin Ainley, Peter Fisher, and me.

On this occasion, Mike Hellawell arranged for the flights and they were very good value with Jet 2 from Leeds/Bradford Airport.The flight times were sensible and the return cost was £113.40 per person.

For the accommodation we booked at the Peninsular Hotel in Barcelona. It is a ‘no frills’ hotel situated a minute’s walk from ‘La Rambla’ and is excellent value for money. Sheila and I stayed there the previous year following recommendation from a friend and I had no hesitation suggesting it to my pals. For the record, we paid £194 for each single room for four

‘Enjoying’ a drink at €12 a litre (£5.50 a pint) in La Rambla (left to right): John Aspinall, John Linton, Michael Hellawell, Colin Ainley and Michael Gibson

27

nights’ bed and continental breakfast and £272 for a twin room. All rooms were en-suite and air-conditioned.The hotel is a former monastery which may have something to do with there being no bar. Anyone planning a trip to Barcelona should take a serious look at this hotel as I think it would be difficult to match it for price and location.

Regretfully, Peter had to withdraw less than two weeks before we left due to his wife being ill. (I am pleased to report that Diane is now recovering well).

On Sunday, 8th September 2013, four of us had a pleasant on-schedule flight to Barcelona. Mike G flew direct from Gatwick.Well, he does live in Brighton.

Within half an hour of landing, John Linton and I had lost Colin and Mike H.They had wandered off looking for the place we could buy ourTravel Card for the four days of our stay.We received‘duff’ information but got there eventually and decided to buy the cards which proved to be good value.We used the cards to travel from the airport to our hotel via bus and metro.The rooms are small but adequate for a single user. I unpacked and discovered that I had packed neither a comb nor a toothbrush. Those of you who were teenagers in the 1960s or fans of Sir Cliff Richard will recall he also travelled light.

Mike G was waiting for us and after

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booking in we went off for a few beers. After a drink or two in one of the squares just off ‘La Rambla’, we ventured on to the famous street. La Rambla is the main tourist area and has a lovely busy, bustling, and noisy ambience. There are street performers, stalls selling all sorts of memorabilia, plenty of cafes and restaurants, and pick-pockets. We were to experience them all, including the latter. La Rambla is also the most expensive place to drink and we paid €12 for a litre of lager. We only had one drink there (each, not one with five straws). Mike H had warned us not to choose a place which had chairs and tables upholstered in blue. He was right.

In the evening we ate at a randomly selected restaurant and it was a winner, both in quality and price.We went for a stroll after our meal and walked into a seedier district where we were approached by some local girls. We didn’t linger there. Incidentally, for those who may decide to stay at the Peninsular, don’t turn right when you walk out of the lobby doors: keep left and head for La Rambla.

The following morning we enjoyed a continental breakfast and decided to go on a walking tour of the Gothic area, i.e. turn left from the hotel and across La Rambla. It is an excellent tour lasting two

walking down La Rambla towards our hotel, occasionally stopping to look at a stall. Unfortunately one of us was relieved of €40 by over-attentive ‘locals’.

It was time to return to sample more culture the next morning; so we used our passes again to go and have a look at Sagrada Familia, designed by Gaudi and

hours or so and is free to join but the guide explains that tips are quite acceptable.The website is www.travelbar.com.

The tour ends at a bar adjacent to the sea front and the first drink is subsidised.

After lunching there we had a walk along the paseo to the beach; nice and steady and relaxing.We used ourTravel Card to bus it back. In the evening we ate well once again and then walked up to La Plaça Catalunya, a large, open square where several roads converge and it is the hub of the public transport system: buses, open top tourist buses, and metro all available.We called for a nightcap before The astonishing ‘Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família’ is Barcelona’s mostvisited monument. Designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, building work commenced in 1882 and the cathedral is not expected to be finished until 2026 at the earliest. Gaudí, who died in 1926, declared that ‘his client was in no hurry’.

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Another extraordinary Gaudi creation: the Park Güell was built between 1900 and 1914 and is one of the most impressive public parks in the world.

still unfinished, but impressive nonetheless. We didn’t go in as the queues were all around the block. Probably pre-booking would be advisable. From there we ventured by metro to Park Güell, a large public park – another of Gaudi’s creations and well worth a visit.

In the evening we elected to go to an English-run bar recommended by the walking tour guide and watched England draw 0-0 against Ukraine. The game wasn’t bad and we had a great meal of steak and ale pie and chips all round – very Spanish!

The weather up to now had been hot and fine, but Wednesday morning brought rain. John L, Mike G and Mike H decided they needed yet more culture so went in search of a Salvador Dali mu-

30

seum. I think they found it but I didn’t hear much about it. Colin and I went shopping and sightseeing before our rendezvous with our intellectual friends at the Travel Bar where we had lunch.

Colin, Mike G and John L attended a Spanish Cooking Experience (making a paella) organised by Travel Bound in the evening and enjoyed it.We all met up for a meal afterwards.

Thursday morning and it was time to go home.We chickened out and went to the airport by the team bus (taxi) and had plenty of time. If we had gone by metro and bus with our Travel Card it could have got messy. The flight back was uneventful and on time to conclude another successful short break with my old but treasured friends.

QUIZ NIGHT

Reigning Quiz champions dethroned

A

1970s Quiz team is edged out after three successful years at the top

KEITH CRAWSHAW (1964 - 1971)

FTER holding the trophy for three years, the 1970s (Bryan Hopkinson, Alan Thomas and MarieThomas) were beaten by the 1960s (Doug Norris, Jez Whitehead and David Sinclair) in the annual quiz at Almondbury Conservative Club on Wednesday 30th April 2014.

Seven teams took part in the now usual format of two eliminating semifinals with five similar rounds of questions in each match. This year the categories were: Round 1: Multiple choice with

points awarded depending on the number of teams answering correctly Round 2: Faces Round 3:T.V theme tunes, Round 4: Dingbats, Round 5:General knowledge on the buzzer.

In the first match, only five points separated the teams after Round 3, but ExStaff (Walter Raleigh, Patrick O'Brien and Dave Bradford) and the 1960s scored very heavily in Round 4 to move through to the final at the expense of OAS (Odds and Sods: Richard Taylor, Sue Cope and

The winning team with their trophy (left to right): Doug Norris, Jez Whitehead and David Sinclair

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Apart from the first and last rounds, the 1960s dominated the others to comfortably lift the trophy with 108 points. Ex-Staff were the runners-up with 97 followed by Badminton with 93 and the OAS Ladies on 82.

No one seemed to miss the supper this year as Andrew Haigh, otherwise engaged at the John Smith’s Stadium for most of the evening, turned up later as our official photographer. Walter Raleigh organised the buzzers in the absence of Angela Melling who has been a regular supporter of the event and staff team over many years.We wish her well on the road to recovery and look forward to seeing her back in action in the future. My thanks also to our resident, impartial scorer, Jack Taylor.

Congratulations to the 1960s who will be defending the trophy next year when we hope a Staff team will join us again to complete a full set of eight teams.

Nicky Green) and Cricket (Graham Cliffe, Michael Buck and Michael Powner).

The second match saw Badminton (Reggie Byram, Denis Taylor and David Parry) progress to the final along with OAS Ladies (Maria Lijka, Stephanie Hopkinson and Ruth Scholefield) as they edged out the 1970s, who had a poor result in Round 2, by just two points despite some frantic buzzing by our Chairman in the last round as he tried to keep ahead of his wife’s team!

The four teams in the Final faced sixcategories of questions which were: Round 1: Events of 2013 Round 2: Faces Round 3: Matching dances to their country or area of origin Round 4: Missing words round (Have I Got News ForYou style) Round 5: Animals of the Chinese Year Round 6: Buzzer round.

It’s eyes down as the Quiz gets under way: Keith Crawshaw (right) keeps the teams in order

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Annual Dinner

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A N D R E W HAIGH

ONY CAPE (1963-1969) will be guest speaker at this year’sAnnual Dinner on 22nd November. Now resident in Massachusetts, Tony attended Cambridge University and later worked as a journalist in Northern Ireland and suburban London. In 1977 he moved to the United States to study meditation and writing at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

He has taught writing at Bard College andYale University and now teaches English and drama at Hartsbrook Waldorf School in Hadley, Massachusetts.

He is the author of four works of fiction

Founders’ Day

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and a memoir Diamond Highway, published in 2013.

The return of the Annual Dinner to the school last year was a resounding success and consequently, this year’s dinner will again take place at the school, at 6.30 pm for 7.30 pm. Please put the date in your diary now to make sure that you don’t miss out on a great evening. The ticket price will remain at £27.50 and an application form is included with this issue. Alternatively you can apply online at www.oas.org.uk/buydinner.php.

Disabled facilities available

R E V ST UA RT RO EBUCK

he traditional Founders’ Day Service will be held at All Hallows’ Church, Almondbury at 11.00 am on Sunday, 23rd November.Almondburians are invited to assemble at 10.30 am in front of the school for the traditional procession up the hill.

We were delighted that the School played a full part in last year’s Service by providing piano and violin soloists together with a 15-strong choir. We hope that there will be another strong represen-

33

tation from the School at this year’s event.

The Executive Committee would urge allAlmondburians to make every effort to attend the Service. It would help if you are able to indicate in the space provided on theAnnual Dinner ticket application form (or on the appropriate page of the OAS website) whether or not you expect to attend the Founders’ Day Service as well.

However, this is not essential and you are most welcome to turn up on the day if you are able.

Why did they leave so early?

I

BOB GOLDSMITH (1935-1942)

Many pupils in the 1930s failed to stay at Almondbury Grammar School for their School Certificate examinations. Our contributor wonders why.

T has always puzzled me to un-

common. There was a selection process. Although all the 70-odd starters must have passed the socalled 11-plus (it was often the 10plus), there was a division between Form 1(A) and Form 1(B) based on marks achieved in the entrance examination. And after that,there was a further selection process:at the end of the first year, the top two or three boys from 1(B) were ‘promoted’ to 2(A), while the bottom two or three boys in 1(A) were ‘relegated’ to 2(B). This smallscale selective process continued each year.

By 1940, the numbers in the two forms had dropped from 70odd to 44: 22 in Form 5 (Latin) and 22 in Form 5 (General or Arts), the nomenclature having changed over the years.

It was rare for a Almondbury Grammar School in the mid-1930s: the laboratories on boy in the (A) the left would soon be demolished to make way for the major forms to leave building programme that commenced in 1938. Lawn tennis in the School in under five foreground was a popular summer pursuit. derstand why so many pupils in the 1935 intake left School early instead of staying on to take their School Certificates.

In September 1935, the intake comprised a little over 70 boys. By the 1940 examination only 40 or so were still there – and some of those were boys held back from the 1934 year or boys who joined the School after the original entrants.

One reason must have been fairly

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How did they fare in the 1940 School Certificate?

The School Certificate was established in 1918 by the Secondary Schools Examinations Council. It was usually taken at age 16 and it was necessary to pass Mathematics, English and three other subjects in order to gain the certificate. Some pupils who did so then stayed on at school to take the Higher School Certificate at age 18. Both certificates were abolished in 1951 following the introduction of GCE O-Level examinations.

FORM 5 (LATIN), 1940 [22 PUPILS] A

English Language History French

15 10 12 14 11

38 107

TOTAL

P

15

8

Chemistry

5

5 3

Physics

9

11

9

Mathematics

7

4 1

Latin

F

12

5

Geography

P

2 1

English Literature

C

F

7 5 2 2 4 1 4 2

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FORM 5 (GENERAL), 1940 [22 PUPILS]

1

English Language

2

History

English Literature

0

0

Physics

1

0

Chemistry

16

0

1

Mathematics

1

0

0

Art

0

0

0

0

French

6

C

1

Geography

0

A

2

TOTAL

A

F

A: Very good C: Credit P: Pass F: Fail

P

C All 22 students were awarded School Certificates Top student got 7 ‘A’s and 2 ‘C’s Bottom student got 2 ‘C’s and 5 ‘P’s Excellent performances in Maths & Chemistry Good performances in Geography & French Fair performances in Eng Lang, History & Physics Poor performances in Eng Lit and Latin No failures in Geography, French or Maths

A: Very good C: Credit P: Pass F: Fail

P

F

5

7

2

10

6

6

5 5 9 5 3 6

41

0 0

4

2

7

0

2

1

4

2

5

4

2

45

4

20

A

C

Only 12 students were awarded School Certificates; of these, five had been in Form 1(A) in 1935 Of the 10 who failed to get a School Certificate, only one was in From 1(A) in 1935 Most students did well in Art Only three subjects (Eng Lang, History & French) in which all students obtained at least a Pass Poor performances in Eng Lit 35

The much-coveted School Certificate: it was a happy day in 1940 when young ‘Bobby’ Goldsmith was able to show his parents the fruits of his labours. He went on to obtain his Higher School Certificate in five subjects two years later.

years; on the other hand, a large number of those in the (B) forms failed to keep going.Why? Possibly parents and pupils found themselves disappointed by the relatively poor performance of those in the (B) forms.Then again, the 1930s was a period of high unemployment and low pay. In many families, it must have seemed only sensible for parents to send their kids to work at 14 or 15, especially when their school reports were discouraging.

My mother was a lady with a high regard for the printed word. She never discarded school magazines.

Given that the three Goldsmiths –

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thanks to brilliant family planning – were on the books of Almondbury Grammar School in every year from 1935 to 1955, the magazines were carefully hoarded.This enables me to offer some surprising statistics.

Of the 70-odd boys who joined AGS in 1935, only one of those allocated to 1(B) succeeded in getting a School Certificate in 1940.

Conversely, only one boy allocated to Form 1(A) failed to get a School Certificate in 1940, even though several of those ‘relegated’ to the (B) forms remained there for the full five-year period.

The obvious conclusion from all this is that the Town Council’s examinations in Church and Board Schools in the 1930s resulted in near-perfect predictions of likely success or failure of those being examined.

One might go further. It is unlikely that the average performance in those pre-grammar school examinations varied much from year to year. So what are we to think about the claims made by the present Head Teacher of King James’s that classes improve each year?

Are we to believe that the standards of teaching before the war were grossly inferior to those of today?

TERRY’S TEASER NO 12 Compiled by Terry Buckley (1948 - 1953)

Entries to the Editor (address/email: back cover) by 1st October 2014 1 7

2

3

5

4

Prize: 12 months free OAS membership

6

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 16

17

18

19 20

22

23

21

24

25

26 27

DOWN 1. A sergeant-major in the arsenal (4) 2. American Channel 'B' turned killer (6) 3. For instance, in seed around the town (7) 4. Foreign girl on horseback, lacking energy (6) 5. Arranges cleft stick in battlefield (6) 6. Poor quality of fawn (14) 8. In truth, the limit is revued, I contest (14) Me, a plus, staggering for the 10. A most satisfactory evening (8) hypodermic (7) 13. Author of 'The Third Man' ? (8) Theatrical loudmouth ! (4,3) 16. Seek in clothes basket (3) Tackle Christopher (3) 17. Play the lion badly (3) Soft assortment, to be smashed (6) 21. Pressure indicators, or basis of change (7) Work is put by, about taking tissue 23. Was confused, hearing of high chair (6) sample (6) Henry and his dog take the air ! (8) 24. Strange fellow makes a dogged broadcast (3,3) Move back through merits (4) Jewels discovered in a stage smash hit (6) 25. Re a pub fracas – keep smiling ! (4,2) Showcase drudge reveals titled lady (7,7) 29. Suffer through a chest problem (4) 28

30

ACROSS 7. Always common, brush around in the garden (9,5) 9. Peter's interfering with the alarm function (6) 11. The last word in churches (4) 12. Set questions, disturbing one with fuzzy IQ (8) 14. Large, tailless rodent of a grey metal element (6) 15. The lad is querulous, holding the European record (6) 16. Boy going back and forth in Casablanca (3)

18.

19.

20.

22.

25.

26.

27.

28.

30.

29

Name Email Tel

There was no fully correct solution to Terry’s Teaser No 11 (March 2014)

Across 1. Rainbow filter 9.Adverb 10. Canadian 11.Terence 15. Exile 16.Art 17. Scrub 18. Lot 20. Hat 22. Raglan 22. Gothic 25.Veg 27. Son 28. Luigi 30.Abe 32. Inane 33.Valetta 36.Tuition 37. Bosnia 38. Going straight Down 1.Advising 3. Bible 4.Wicker 5. Ionic 6. Editor 7. Cathedral city 8.Antibacterial 11.Tel Aviv 12. Rat 13. Nth 14.

Estonia 19. One 21.Ago 24. Hyacinth 26. Gal 27, Set 29. Indigo 31. Bed-sit 34.Along 35.Tibia

37

Farnley Lines

I

DAV E BUSH

am sure you glanced at the photo of the handsome couple below before beginning to read my latest contribution to The Almondburian. Some will be wondering who they are; the ageing one –’tis I, while the other is ‘The Almondburian Connection’ which I hinted at in my last Farnley Lines. I wrote that, during my next exotic birding trip, I hoped this ‘connection’ would occur and indeed it did. Along with seven other birders from South Wales I flew at the beginning of March, via Mumbai, to the beautiful island of Sri Lanka.

There in the city of Kandy, while the rest of the group went to visit The Temple of the Tooth, I spent three delightful hours with Sally Molligoda and her husband. Sally is one of those

teachers who spend a comparatively short time at King James’s (1976-1980) but who leave a deep impression on pupils and teaching colleagues alike. She was, and still is, such a bubbly, enthusiastic person that once met she is not forgotten. I invited her, for a future issue, to contribute some memories from her time at KJ and a summary of her career since leaving.

The trip to Sri Lanka was one of the most rewarding I have ever made. Of course, we are all aware of the terrible things that happened in the north of the island, but I felt that most Sri Lankans now want to move on. They are a delightfully friendly people and value education very highly. The school children, always immaculately turned out, always greeted us with the broadest of smiles.

An abiding impression is of children, accompanied by mother, torch in hand, walking for half an hour over the roughest of tracks at 6.30 am to reach the ‘main’

38

Dave with former KJS teacher Sally Molligoda in Kandy, Sri Lanka

road where the school bus would pick them up.

And in the evening… I nearly forgot!

It was a birding expedition although we also saw numerous animals including leopards and the endangered Sri Lankan elephant. We managed, thanks to our brilliant guide, to record all 33 endemic species. ‘Best bird?’ as fellow birders always ask. Either the very elusive and endangered Serendip Scops Owl (pictured right) or the Blue and White Flycatcher which had been seen only the day before for the first time ever in Sri Lanka.

The long haul Sally mentioned the long haul up St. Helen’s Gate to the school in Fenay Lane next to the large house where school caretaker, Arthur Stockdale, used to live. All now demolished for a housing estate. This site had to be used to accommodate increased numbers when the school became a 13-18 mixed comprehensive, necessitating building work down St. Helen’s Gate.

This prompted thoughts of how important are the rooms where pupils receive their education (there’s probably a PhD here). How fortunate those who have attended King James’s. I sometimes look at modern school buildings; two stories of much glass and red brick and wonder how any room can differ much from any other. Not so for Almondburians. Although sadly but inevitably many rooms with historic connotations are no longer used for conventional teaching – the Big, the Small, the ODH and Dorms 2 to 4 to list a few – others do remain.

39

Readers might like to write in with particular memories.

May I mention one and issue a challenge for anyone to describe another with a more interesting history? Younger members may not even know of its existence or how to reach it. So it’s up the stairs outside the Head’s Study and along the corridor to the very end. On the way you pass what in my time was Pat Reid’s room, next mine (formerly Fred Hudson’s and now, I believe, a type of King James’s Mission Control). Up three steps and there it is. The …what shall I call it? For here was taught at various times a whole range of different subjects including Music, German and Economics. It was once a book room, Patrick O’Brien’s Examinations Office and Christine Hazle also had an office here. I even interrupted a lunch time meeting of The Honey Bear ( Sugar Puffs) Appreciation Society. (Who were those bright souls who perhaps were just avoiding having to go outside on cold days?). But it was a fire hazard. So in its earlier days it had a trapdoor in one corner with a ladder down to The Old Kitchen below. In the ceiling you could still see the hook around which a rope, kept coiled in the corner like a somno-

lent boa constrictor, was to be secured in the event of an emergency.This was then to be lowered through the window. On the sill there was secured a piece of wood presumably to prevent chafing.

Those trapped could then in theory lower themselves to the Old Kitchen Yard below. Now would this conform to Health and Safety standards today?

My own preferences? N3*, the old geography room where more than once I stopped a lesson to usher my charges over to their right to appreciate the beautiful colours of the turned Library tiles glistening in the rain or in early November over to the left to drink in the glorious range of autumnal tints in the Farnley Valley. I stressed how lucky they were to be educated in such an environment rather than in the centre of Leeds; I felt they did appreciate their fortune. The ODH, such an ideal historic setting for teaching Latin and, of course D4 where it all began for me on teaching practice in 1960. Is there a small indentation in the wooden ceiling outside? On one occasion, being a little late for a lesson, I bounded up those three steps outside the room to make a dramatic entry, the class waiting in their accustomed silence. Unfortunately my *I believe many rooms have been renamed so it may be N3 no longer. I was never happy when this happened as I felt that history was needlessly being destroyed. ‘N’ stood for ‘New’ when that block was opened in 1939 which, I have just realised, means it is its 75th anniversary this year.

bound was too enthusiastic and I cracked my head a fearful blow. I staggered into the room as I struggled to maintain my dignitas? Was there a suppressed smile or a surreptitious snigger? Starry vision prevented my seeing.

Spare a thought for Patrick So another soccer season is over.The Lincoln City mug has been pushed to the back of the crockery cupboard, Town and Leeds had mediocre campaigns andThe Shaymen just missed out on a return to the Football League.

But, in conclusion, I want you to share some sympathy with a highly revered and most long standing King James’s teacher. For on the last day of the season, for the first time in their 90+ year history, Patrick O’Brien’s beloved Bristol Rovers were relegated to the Football Conference. Ah well, Patrick, perhaps we can meet up in 2014-15 at the Memorial Ground to watch The Pirates v The Imps?

40

Vicar moves to Berwick-upon-Tweed

W

aE shall miss them. Rev Dennis Handley and his wife Catherine have recently moved from Almondbury to Berwickupon-Tweed where Dennis has taken up the position ofVicar of HolyTrinity with St Mary Church.

The family came to Almondbury just over seven years ago when Dennis was appointedVicar of All Hallows’ Church.

We have appreciated his friendship and his encouragement to strengthen the links between King James’s and All Hallows’. He arrived in Almondbury in time to help to organise our 400th Anniversary celebrations in 2008, he has enjoyed attending our OAS Annual Dinners and has always welcomed Almondburians to All Hallows’ for the Founders’ Day Services. Catherine’s presence has also been appreciated, especially in her work as an administrator in the Special Educational Needs Unit at the School.

We wish them and their grown-up family every happiness in the years ahead.

Rev Stuart Roebuck, OAS Chaplain

Membership

S

A N D R E W HAIGH

INCE the last membership report was published, we have been delighted to welcome five new members to the Society: Robert Adam Brook (1966-73), from Alton, Hampshire John Howard Lofthouse (1952-59), from Sheffield

41

Steven Walsh, yet another Old Almondburian who has settled adjacent to the school in Arkenley Lane, Almondbury Samuel Atkin (2002-07), from Lepton, Captain of the First XI CricketTeam John Redfern Gothard (1951-56), from Solihull.

PAV I L I O N PRO JECT

And now the fundraising…

T

GRAHAM CLIFFE (1959-1966)

We reported in our March issue the good news that we have received planning permission to build the new pavilion.Now we just have to find the cash.

HINGS have continued to move forward since we announced a few months ago that we had received the full go-ahead from the Kirklees planners to demolish the old pavilion and replace it with a building more suited to the requirements of today.

The cost is expected to be in the order of £450,000-£500,000 and the King James’s School Foundation, which I chair, has agreed to contribute 50%.The balance will be raised through contributions from national sporting bodies and through fund-raising activities on the part of the School and the Old Almondburians’ Society.

Over the past few months we have been busy setting up the committee who will be responsible for coordinating the fund-raising activities. I have agreed to chair this committee and the other members – most of whose names will be familiar to fellow members of the OldAlmondburians’ Society – will be: Professor Colin Bamford (former chairman of the KJS Board of Governors and currently Associate Dean of the Business School at the University of Huddersfield) Martyn Hicks (originator of the pavilion project who will be specifically seeking funding assistance from major national sporting organisations) Christopher Mann (professional fund-raiser who played a major role in promoting the 400th anniversary activities in 2008) Keith Crawshaw (OAS HonTreasurer) Bryan Hopkinson (present OAS Chairman) ChrisWest (project architect) King James’s School representative (to be announced).

A number of OldAlmondburians have also agreed to give us the benefit of their expertise as the project proceeds and we are most grateful for this.

Our current target is to prepare a fund-raising prospectus with a view to formally launching the funding appeal at the OAS Annual Dinner this November. A copy of this prospectus will be included in the November issue of The Almondburian.

One other issue we have been investigating is the cost and practicability of levelling the playing field as part of this project (see John Aspinall’s article opposite).We will report on the outcome in our next issue.

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CRICKET

Level field? The answer lies in the soil

H

JOHN ASPINALL (1956-1961)

The cricket field’s‘mound’has been a feature for many years.Studies have now been undertaken to establish the feasibility of producing a level playing field through planning and legal hoops has thankfully not been my problem. I know Graham Cliffe, Martyn, and Chris – and no doubt a few others – have stuck manfully to their tasks and I think there is now a light at the end of the tunnel as long as it doesn’t go out before we get there.

An addendum to my original brief was added last year when it was suggested that it may be a good idea to level the outfield from the edge of the square up to the

AVING attended our School from 1956 to 1961, I was at the opening of the existing pavilion in 1958 and have fond memories of the occasion. So I responded to an appeal by Martyn Hicks in the March 2011 edition of The Almondburian for a ‘Call to Action’.

My job is to estimate and provide budgets for the cost of constructing the new pavilion designed by Chris West. The crossing of several bridges and jumping

Excavations commence: the JCB gets to work at the top end of the cricket field

43

ployed by Rogers Geotechnical Services, who have kindly completed the investigation works for a reduced fee.We met up at the field and watched the JCB excavate trial holes in several places.

The outcome is that rock is indeed present though it is not too severe; it is approximately one metre below the surface.

The excavation for the levelling should not be as expensive as I feared and as a bonus it means that the new building will be on a firm foundation.

Incidentally, how deep do you think the excavation would have to be at the top adjacent to the existing pavilion steps? The answer is on page 51.

boundary in front of the steps of the existing pavilion. Funnily enough I didn’t really notice the slope when I was playing cricket at school. Perhaps it is because I was over 50 years younger in those days.

To estimate the costs of building structures and levelling of fields it helps to know what is under the existing surface.

The slope of the outfield was possibly dictated by the presence of hard excavation or even rock quite near the surface. So it was decided to commission the excavation of trial holes and a Ground Investigation Report.

We were lucky: a former pupil of the school, Rob Lewis, is an engineer em-

I

The Almondburian Poets

N 1936, the School purchased its first wireless set. This was one of a number of acquisitions made possible by what Taylor Dyson described as the ‘brilliant success’ of the 1935 School Fair which raised £160 (over £9,000 in today’s money) for the School Fund.

But one third-former was soon a bit disillusioned by the use to which it was being put…

A ‘wireless’ came the other week, And now the ODH we seek To sit like lambs so mild and meek While M Stephan French does speak.

But what we’d really like to hear Is Henry Hall; but have no fear.

A dance-band does not help the mind And so we leave such thoughts behind.

Another ambition’s wilder still, For when of work we’ve had our fill A wireless on the window-sill Would cheer detention up until The master, pining for his tea Says,“Bring your papers out to me.”

And then he’d let us scamper off —After he’d turned the wireless off.

But education’s what we need And to these pleas they take no heed.

So talks for schools are all we get Out of the brand new wireless set.

‘The Wireless Set’ by G Lumb, III Lower The Almondburian,April 1936

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Badminton/Tennis

T

The Old Almondburians’ Tennis season started on Thursday, 5th June and we will be playing on the school tennis courts on Thursday evenings, from 7.30 pm until dusk, until Thursday, 28th August.

The fee to play is only £4 per person per evening and we embrace all standards, so please come along and

join us.

HE Old Almondburians’ Badminton season ended on Thursday, 22nd May and the new season will start on Thursday, 4th September. We play every Thursday evening during term time from 7.30 p.m. until 9.30p.m. The fee to play is six pounds per person, per evening, including court hire, shuttlecocks and showers, and we embrace all standards.

Golf

D

UE to copy deadline dates, I am writing this before our annual Gothard Cup event on the 27th June 2014.We will carry a full report in the next issue.

Our spiritual golf home,Woodsome Hall, improves year by year both in course terms and in the actual

A NDREW HAIGH

SIMON RU SSELL

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clubhouse and its facilities.It’s a fantastic evening of sport,good chums and wonderful food and wine so if you’re keen on golf why not come along some time? We’ll make you very welcome.

You can always contact me at

sarussell153@btinternet.com.

Football

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MARTYN HIC KS

Champions! After a great season we top the Division 2 table

HE big news is that following our final match of the season, when we beat Middleton Park 7-1 (match report: page 9), we topped the Division 2 Yorkshire Amateur League table to earn promotion to Division 1 next season. The team has, above all, been hard to beat, conceding one goal or less in 18 fixtures to give them the tightest defence in the League. From last season, the new faces to have made a big impact include Pete and Dave Jowett, James Duff, Matthew Brearey and Adam Lightowlers. It’s pats on backs to all concerned for a triumphant season and a job well done.

Meanwhile, the Reserve XI struggled all season with inconsistency, one week beating teams at the top of their division and in other weeks losing heavily to teams at the bottom. A total of 41 players was used during the season and that just about

says it all.

YORKSHIRE AMATEUR LEAGUE DIVISION 2 TABLE Almondburians’ FC Colton Institute

Grangefield OB Res Woodkirk Valleys Middleton Park

Old Modernian Reserves Huddersfield YMCA

Amaranth Crossgates

Leeds Medics & Dentists IV St Bedes AFC Res Bainbridge

Gilderstone Spurs OB III

Woodhouse Moor Methodists

Played

W

D

L

15

7

2

24

16

24

12

24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24

11 11 11 11

8 7 7 6 6 4

7 6 5 4

41

8 9

13

9

5

12

1

17

14 14

73 59 55 49 51 51 55 37 40 51 37

YORKSHIRE AMATEUR LEAGUE DIVISION 3 TABLE

Wheelwright OB

Old Batelians Res

Morley Town AFC Res Middleton Park Res FC Headingley Res Norristhorpe

Ealandians Res

Heckmondwike GSOB Almondburians Res Thornesians Res

Old Modernians III

Colton Institute Res

Calverley United Res

East Ardsley Wanderers 46

Played

W

D

L

F

17

3

6

77

5

68

26

17

26

17

26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26

15 13 12 11 10

9 8 8 7 7 3

5 2 6 5 5 6

8 9 9

13

2 2

12 15 16 17 21

58 72 81 57 48 53 63 60 43

55

26

42

-3

4

-4

43

8

49 59

2

-4

69 -32 58 -18 78 -27 64 -27

52 38 37 34 33 31 29 26 12 19 18

A

GD PTS

43

34

50

79

39

53

7

5 3

51

44

12

3

62

4 101

4 5

36

67

8

6

37

6

8 4

GD PTS

29

12

8

A

68

1 0

F

1

42 63

57

56

29

53

26 -5

59

13

53

4

66 51

15 -3

69 -16 81 -18 82 -22 70 -27

37 124 -87

54 50 44 41 39 33 32 29 27 23 21 11

Cricket

JACK TAYLO R

O

Rain mars the start of the season but we notch up our first wins

clement weather, two out of the first three fixtures for both XIs were abandoned.However, on the fourth weekend both teams recorded their first victories, the FirstTeam againstWoolley (atArkenley) and the Second Team away at Leymoor.After the early season fixtures, the club’s league positions are as follows.

UR Presentation Evening to celebrate season 2013 was held at Grappolos restaurant, Lockwood, on Saturday, 8th March. Some 64 people attended,including representatives from the ‘Rock’ Cricket Club, our Sunday morning tenants at Arkenley. An Italian carvery was available during the course of the evening.

After the meal, humorous resumés of last season were presented by First and Second Eleven captains, Sam Atkin and Ben Hodgson. Prizes in recognition of last season’s performances were presented by the Chairman as follows.

FIRST ELEVEN BATTING TimTaylor BOWLING Steve Slack FIELDING Joe George SECOND ELEVEN BATTING Peter Hepworth BOWLING James Holder FIELDING Peter Hepworth PLAYER OFTHEYEAR

PREMIER SECTION

Heckmondwike (leaders) Almondburians (sixth)

Horbury Bridge (leaders) Almondburians (seventh)

(Presented by RichardTaylor in memory of his father HarryTaylor) Joe George

Richard Taylor announced that Joe Atkin, younger brother of First’s captain Sam, had attended a two-day coaching course at Lords, supported by the‘HarryTaylorTrust Fund’.

Under a new league structure for 2014, the First XI started the season in a re-formed Premier Section with the Second XI playing in Section C. Unfortunately, owing to in-

47

SECTION C

53 PTS 28 PTS 40 PTS 22 PTS

President’s/Gala Day will take place on Sunday,17th August at Arkenley.Teams already committed include ’Burians,‘Rock’ CC (Brockholes),Lagan CC (Leeds),andAlmondbury Casuals CC. Given a fine day we hope to emulate the success of last year’s corresponding event. It is pleasing to note the return ofTom Slack,son of Steve,this season.

He is joined by DaneWinterbottom, son of former prominent player Dale Winterbottom. The average age of the squads is now reduced considerably, together with the‘retirement’of stalwart veterans Graham Cliffe and RichardTaylor.

Please join us at Arkenley on any Saturday afternoon over the coming four months and you will be assured of a very warm‘Almondburian’ welcome.

Postbag

YO U WRITE …

T

A successful ’43 reunion at the Dinner

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More memories of Huddersfield cinemas

From: Rev David Oxley (1943-1950) HE March edition has arrived today and it has motivated me to email you. Thanks for the coverage of the Annual Dinner in November last year.

It is my fault that I did nothing about it before your editorial closing date but it was great to have our Class of ’43 Reunion .When I mentioned to Andrew that I would be in the UK and would be coming to the Dinner he suggested I try to organise such a reunion for the ’43 Class.

He gave me some names and with one contact I had kept over the years we managed to get four of us there – all now in our 80s; we had a great dinner table conversation of past memories, being also joined at our table by Michael Dyson.

From: John Goodall (1953-1960)

enjoyed reading Reggie Byram’s piece on the cinemas of the Huddersfield district in the 1940s and 1950s in the last Almondburian. The ‘then and now’ photos are fascinating as are the reminiscences of the cinemas and the films.

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So a special thanks to David Ward from Oxford; Stan Kilvington (Stockport) and Don Sykes from Burgess Hill for making the effort to come back to Almondbury for the occasion. They certainly made my trip back to the UK memorable as did the Dinner itself.

I too think it was one of best decisions the Society has made to come back to the School to hold the Dinner.

I might also add it was quite an experience to visit David Micklethwaite and his wife Molly at Penistone and reminisce of those days 60 or more years ago.

Best wishes to the Society. It’s great to be kept informed although I am half the world away.

Meadow Springs,Australia

Allow me to share some of my memories – all happy ones, I’m glad to say.

I recall there was often a choice, when a popular film was released, to catch the bus into town and pay a bob or two extra for a ticket at the Ritz/ABC, Princess,

Tudor, Grand, Picture House or Empire or wait until the run in town had finished and see the film in one or other of the suburban cinemas where tickets were cheaper. The two other town centre cinemas did not get the new releases. The Majestic, perhaps because of its proximity to the railway at the ‘bottom end of town’ was the only cinema that I recall being dubbed an authentic ‘flea pit’ complete with the eponymous fauna; and the ‘Ranch House’, as Reggie points out, specialised in westerns. I recall this cinema in Buxton Road being called the Curzon at the time from 1958-60 when I had a Saturday job as washer-up in Studio 58, the café in the yard off New Street that was run by Huddersfield’s first openly gay couple.

The films which I recollect most vividly from that time are the ‘Doctor’ series, based on the novels

by Richard Gordon that starred Dirk Bogarde, Kenneth More, James Robertson Justice et al and war films such as The Notable survivors: the Picturedrome in Holmfirth nd the Rex in Elland 49

The Cosy Nook is however indelibly ingrained in my cerebral cortex by virtue of its amply dimensioned‘courting seats’ and the lingering taste of my girl friend’s perfume! Sadly, I can’t remember a single film I saw there!

Wakefield,WestYorkshire

Dambusters and Reach for the Sky. I remember seeing Doctor in the House circa 1955 at the Premier because I laughed so much I wet my pants, an event which my Mum learnt about from a neighbour before I got home! Such was the social cohesion of a mill-village like Longwood!

I can think of a few additions to Reggie’s list .The Lounge, on the junction of Tunnacliffe Road and Newsome Road at Stile Common, was well served by the number 20 trolley-bus that cruised effortlessly up the hill to Newsome South. It had a reputation of being a cut above the other suburban cinemas. It's now a carpet warehouse. Honley had the Palladium in Eastgate, now a squash club; there was the Excelda in Lockwood (on Lockwood Road) and the Alhambra in Meltham.

The Rex in Elland and Picturedrome in Holmfirth are the only two cinemas in ‘Greater Huddersfield’ that survive as independents. The latter four and the ones you list in Brighouse (‘The town that missed the bus’!) and Gomersal (Where’s that?!) were‘over the border’of my mental map of the area in my youth.

T

PS At one time the Sla’wit cinema was called the Winston (after Churchill?) The Star is the presentday name of the pub at the junction of Manchester Road and Back o’ t’ Dam – one of the umpteen stop names on the number 40 Bradley - Marsden route that you had to learn as a conductor! The Electric in Marsden was founded and run by Tommy Leyland, a travelling showman, who turned his tent into a permanent building with the development of the movies. His granddaughter still lives in the village.

Reggie Byram comments: I also omitted the cinema at Stile Common, and cannot remember seeing a picture there.

In the 1960s,I used to teach evening classes in rooms behind the Ritz. Liberal studies for grease monkeys, two hours every Friday evening. “It was not easy,”as Inspector Clouseau says in The Pink Panther.We could not hear anything when pop groups performed.When the Beatles came, the manager of the cinema told me that on entering the next day the stench of urine was very strong, and seats had to be replaced. Moved by emotion, young girls cannot control their bladder sphincter.

Graham Gelder was a charismatic character

From: John Eastwood (1950-1958)

HANKYOU for the most recent issue of the magazine. When the post arrives I invariably open first the envelope containing The Almondburian. Always informative, entertaining and provocative of memories, I think this edition excels.

Very special was the article on

50

Graham Gelder who, being three years older than I and in my House, Siddon, was a charismatic character – though some might have said a wide-boy. I remember his persuading Siddon juniors to save Victorian bun halfpennies which he went around the dining room at lunchtime to collect. He had realised that

there might be value in them as they were being phased out of general circulation.

I remember, too, the story going round school that Gelder had‘ringed’ Dr Haigh, mistaking the good Doctor for Valder as he leaned over a bench in the physics lab.

He did have a Damascene-like vision in the sixth form and started working.

Later in his career he developed and has named after him Gelder’s Forceps, used in births, and still current. I look forward to your July 2015 issue with the next part of the story.

I imagine that Reggie Byram is a

O

magazine editor’s dream. Always an erudite comic at school – nobody could or would have dared read the morning lesson in assembly as did Reggie, and the staff couldn’t touch him for it. He anticipated Alan Bennett’s sermon in Beyond the Fringe by some ten years. And here he takes us back to the 1950s with the memories we all of that generation must have. A cracking article.

I do not know Tony Cape or Ruth Ainley, but read with interest their experiences. The piece on Jim Toomey was excellent and the obituaries are always of interest.

Sowerby Bridge,WestYorkshire

When Graham Gelder got into hot water

From: Richard Taylor (1954-1962)

cricket teas. Unfortunately he didn’t know how to get them out again!

Ossett,WestYorkshire

N Graham Gelder, I remember him putting the tea leaves (no bags of course) directly into the hot water geyser to speed up the

T

Harry Maffin in the 1940s

From: Rev Ron Lancaster (1942-1950)

to be our doctor – he may have died or retired – but by the early 1940s there was only Maffin around and his occasional helpers one of whom had Parkinson’s and dribbled saliva all over my pyjamas when listening to my chest.

Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire

HE old photo on page 19 (March 2014 issue) is interesting.The re-built house in my youth however was owned by Dr Ogden; Harry Maffin was at the other end of the village.

I am not sure when Dr Ogden ceased

How deep do you think the excavation would have to be? (page 44) The excavation at the top of the cricket field adjacent to the existing pavilion steps would have to be approximately 2 metres (6ft 8in).

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Obituaries

G O N E B U T N OT FO RGOT TEN John Earnshaw (1948-1956)

Career teacher and educationalist who on retirement became a cathedral guide It was with regret that we heard that John Earnshaw passed away on 14th November 2013, leaving his wife Margaret and their son Simon, to whom we extend our sincerest condolences.

John received his early education at Moldgreen Council School and viewed his progression to Almondbury with some trepidation.

He had heard about the Bunk! The whole thing was quite a daunting prospect but John was both a hard worker and a good sportsman. He flourished at AGS. He later re- John Earnshaw (left) on holiday with John Broadbent in 1955.The 1937 Austin Ruby was Broadbent’s first called that his years atAlmondbury August car and was stolen on the last night of the holiday in instilled a sense of heritage and Torquay. It was later recovered – minus their overcoats – conveyed a feeling of continuity. by the police.

He enjoyed the extra-mural activities including the model railway club, photography lessons and chess. He became a regular member of those early school trips to France. Of all his school activities John particularly valued his involvement with the Jacobean Society, which he later said was probably “the largest single formative experience of my early life”.

John elected to take a science course leading to ‘O’ levels and passed into the 6th form where, with guidance from Chris Perraton, he began an interest in zoology, which he felt might lead to a career in teaching. He went on to degree studies at Bristol University and Fred Hudson told him he was the first Almondburian to do so, and probably the first also to read zoology.

Whilst at University he became interested in rowing and achieved success in one of the University Eights finishing Head of the River on the Boat Race course. His progress in this direction was however curtailed when it was found that 30% of his left lung was not functioning, probably the result of infant broncho-pneumonia. He underwent surgery and staged a successful recovery.

He graduated with Honours and went on to his post-graduate education year followed by teaching experience which led to a successful career.Whilst teaching in Gloucester he met and married Margaret, also a teacher.

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In the early 1970s John had participated in lectureship courses with the British Council and this enabled him to travel to Jamaica, Malaysia and Kenya but he remained in England to pursue his teaching career which saw the family, John, Margaret and their son Simon, move to Hertfordshire where John became deputy head at Borehamwood followed by head at Bushey Meads School, where he was in post for 11 years.

At the age of 49 John was granted a six month sabbatical withArthurYoung, chartered accountants, to study management practices in business. Most unexpectedly this led to a job offer resulting in a huge leap into an entirely different world. John rose to the challenge but unfortunately the role soon ended with re-organisation and redundancy. However within eight months he had become senior adviser in management to Bedfordshire County Council followed by 3 years as education adviser to the Department of Employment.There followed further promotion to Director of Education at the Central LondonTraining and Enterprise Council where he wrote and delivered a generic management skills course for head teachers.

In 1998 came a well-earned retirement during which John and Margaret spent much time travelling throughout Italy, which they loved. Moving to St.Albans presented another new opportunity to John who became an official guide at the Cathedral and Abbey Church, a post to which he was well suited and which he enjoyed very much. It would undoubtedly have pleased him immensely that following his death, just short of his 76th birthday, a Memorial Service was held at the Abbey. Equally he would have been very pleased, and somewhat humbled, that so many of his old school friends attended the service.His goddaughter,Sarah Hall,read one of John Donne’s poems which included the lines:From Rest and Sleep,which but thy picture be, Much pleasure,then from thee much more must flow; And soonest our best men with thee do go – Rest of their bones and souls’delivery!

John would have liked that.

John Broadbent (on behalf of the Class of ’48)

Dr Ron Edwards (1936-1943)

Former Moldgreen Council School pupil who championed tungsten carbide research We are saddened to report that Dr Ron Edwards died on 5thApril 2014. In November he had suffered a fall which prevented him from attending the 2013 OAS Dinner (although he insisted on recording a video message recalling the help he had received fromTaylor Dyson) and his health declined rapidly in the following months.

Ron’s education started at Moldgreen Council School, where his father was caretaker. He went on to Leeds University where he gained a BSc in Physics and Mathematics.With the help of a glowing reference fromTaylor Dyson, he joined the research department of MetropolitanVickers in Manchester during which time he took an external MSc, followed by a PhD at Durham University .

One evening when he was just 15 years old and still at Almondbury Grammar School the maths homework was proving to be a bit tricky,so he arranged to go round to his friend Gordon’s 53

house to work together on it.Two heads proved to be better than one and the problems were soon solved. Gordon suggested that they both go to the local youth club as it was his girlfriend Joan’s 16th birthday and therefore her turn to buy the fish and chips. Ronnie’s initial reluctance was soon superseded by his innateYorkshire instinct for a free meal. Ever the gentleman, he offered to help Gordon’s girlfriend fetch the fish and chips.This proved to be a big mistake on Gordon’s part: Joan went to the shop as Gordon’s girlfriend but came back as Ronnie’s.

Ronald Edwards and Joan Mary Evans were married at HolyTrinity Church on 23rd June 1949 and went on to have a long and happy life together. He called her‘Joanie-Mary’ and she called him‘The Boss’.

After 11 years at Metropolitan-Vickers,Ron becameWorks Manager of Metro Cutanit Ltd and later Managing Director of PlanseeTooling Ltd at Grappenhall, nearWarrington. He undertook further development work in Austria before retiring in 1990. He also lectured and acted as a consultant around the world and in 1994 was awarded the prestigious Ivor Jenkins Award of the Institute of Materials which recognises individuals who have made a significant achievement in the field of Powder Metallurgy.Ron is the author of a book CuttingTools published byThe Institute of Materials.

In the same year, Ronnie was asked to produce a paper for the Department ofTrade and Industry setting out the case for continued funding for research at the National Physics Laboratory into tungsten carbide;the department was proposing to withdraw funding in a cost-cutting exercise.He told them that while the industry itself wouldn’t necessarily be the major beneficiary, almost every other industry would. However, Ronnie felt that just providing a long list of types of companies who used tungsten carbide wouldn’t have much impact on the politicians and civil servants, so he wrote his response in the form of a story. It worked and the Department of Trade and Industry withdrew its proposals.

In 2009 Ron and Joan celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at their home in Frodsham, surrounded by family and friends. Sadly, Joan’s memory started to fail and Ron reluctantly accepted that she needed full time professional help as a result of which she went to reside at the Oakes Care Centre in Huddersfield.After only one day he missed his Joanie-Mary and it was there that he joined her for his final weeks.

Our thanks to Ron Edwards’niece Kath Perrin An interview with Ron Edwards, recorded in 2006, can be heard at http://tinyurl.com/mu57wv3.

We have also been advised of the deaths of John David Jenkinson (1951–1956) from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham and Ronald CourtleyYoung (1939-45) from Norwich.

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Now on sale

All who remember Harry Taylor will enjoy this new book about the School’s respected Headmaster from 1951 to 1973.

A well-known Almondbury figure, he was also a regular reader at All Hallows’ Church, the transcriber of the local parish registers, and one of the authors of a respected history of Almondbury. He played cricket for Almondbury Casuals, and earned a reputation throughout Huddersfield as a witty and entertaining after dinner speaker.

Morning Assembly gives a fascinating and often humorous account of Harry Taylor’s life and includes, in facsimile form, 100 prayers – ancient and modern – which he assembled over the years for use in School assemblies.

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Yorkshire HD6 1SN. Alternatively, you can order on

line at http://tinyurl.com/bw9ms88 or through any good bookshop.

*in UK. Mainland Europe: £2.70; Rest of World: £4.30 33 55

Chairman BRYAN HOPKINSON Apartment 206,1535 The Melting Point Commercial Street, Huddersfield HD1 3DN Tel: 01484 469804 Mobile: 07595 175835 Email: bryan.hopkinson@oas.org.uk Secretary ANDREW HAIGH 2 Arkenley Lane, Almondbury HD4 6SQ Tel: 01484 432105 Email: andrew.haigh@oas.org.uk

Treasurer KEITH CRAWSHAW 5 Benomley Drive, Almondbury HD5 8LX Tel: 01484 533658 Email: keith.crawshaw@oas.org.uk

Media Editor ROGER DOWLING Editorial address: Orchard House, Oughtrington Lane, Lymm, Cheshire WA13 0RD Tel: 01925 756390 Email: almondburian@oas.org.uk Archivist NICH BRIGGS Tel: 07771 865330 Email: nichbriggs@hotmail.com Website: www.oas.org.uk

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