THE Almondburian July 2017

The ALMONDBURIAN T H E MAG AZINE O F TH E O L D AL MO ND BU RI ANS ’ S O C I ETY

July 2017

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IN THIS ISSUE

A word from your Chairman Old Almondburians’ Society Calendar Membership Sudoku Annual Dinner Back to the drawing board Almondbury: a village of change The Almondburian Poets Bryan leads new team to glory Writing for The Almondburian From Gothard tripe to Gothard Cup That was the me that was How I built my own televisor Gorden sparks suit-making spat Farnley Lines Pavilion project to go ahead Happy times at King James’s Meanwhile, back at the School… Gothard Cup Badminton Tennis Terry’s Teaser Postbag Obituaries

(Opposite): The drawing on the left (artist and date unknown) shows the headmaster’s well-stocked garden in the foreground and the ‘Big’ and old (pre-1938) laboratories in the background. It contains some curious errors: the windows to the ‘Big’ are quite wrong.

The drawing on the right, showing the short flight of steps into the headmaster’s garden is by John Lancaster (1941-1946)

The ALMONDBURIAN Editor: Roger Dowling

July 2017

The magazine of The Old Almondburians’ Society

A word from your Chairman

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WA LT E R R AL E IG H

INCE the last edition in March your executive committee has been busily involved in a wide range of activities some of which will be reported on in detail later in this issue. I was contacted by my former Geography teacher at Heckmondwike Grammar School to ask if School would like to be involved with something called HeritageWeekend.This is an occasion when, on a weekend in September, local buildings of historic interest that are normally private or places of work are invited to open up to the public. Ian Rimmer, Principal at King James’s

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was keen to get involved and asked if the OAS would like to take a lead role. After a number of meetings I’m delighted to announce that the old, historic part of the School will be open to visitors on Saturday, 9th September between the hours of 10.00 am and 2.00 pm. Guests will be escorted round School by senior students. If you are interested in a walk down Memory Lane please contact School to reserve a place or simply come along on the day. We shall be delighted to see you. Working with the OAS on this project is Abbi Terry, acting assistant principal in

pack. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening in no small part down to the fantastic quiz compiled by Keith Crawshaw. May I send him our thanks for all his hard work. For those who love a Quiz Evening there will be one in School at 7.00 pm on the evening of Thursday, 13th July (see page 47). It will be held as part of the celebrations of the success of the School this year. Parents, students and OAS members are invited to come along. I hope to see many of you there. We are now starting to prepare plans for this year’s Annual Dinner on 25th November. As we go to press, the country is still reeling from the aftermath of the terrorist bombings at the Manchester Arena and London Bridge, so it is singularly appropriate that the principal speaker at this year’s Dinner is Old Almondburian barrister Peter Carter QC, one of the country’s leading legal experts on terrorism. Further details of this year’s Dinner are on page 6. And finally, it would be remiss of me not to pass on the heartiest of congratulations to Huddersfield Town who, after a thrilling penalty shoot-out,were successful in their bid at Wembley to reach the promised land of Premiership football next year. n

charge of Wellbeing and Ethos at King James’s.Along with the HeritageWeekend Abbi is also involved in producing a ‘Timeline’ to run along one of the main walls in a busy social area in School. She has asked for OAS help and sponsorship and as part of this Martyn Hicks has agreed to become involved with boards to fix to the walls. I hope all this will be available to view at the Dinner in November. I can’t wait to see what I believe will be a stunning piece of art and history on the wall. An update on the silk scarf we are producing for the ladies. We exhausted all our local textile contacts and initially failed to find anyone who could produce the long awaited scarf from Christine Hazle’s design. However, we eventually found a Gloucestershire company Beckford Silk which makes printed silk scarves for theVictoria & Albert, the National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum. Our initial run is for 26 scarves. We have just received the proof scarf from Beckford Silk and it is stunning.They are bespoke silk scarves which will be much sought after: full ordering details can be seen on page 8. I should like to thank all who came along to the OAS Quiz Night held in the Wool-

OLD ALMONDBURIANS’ SOCIETY CALENDAR

DATES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS, 2017 The Executive Committee of the Society usually meets upstairs at the ‘Woolpack’ in Almondbury, at 7.30 pm. Meetings are mainly held on the first Monday of the month, although there are exceptions due to Bank Holidays and school holidays. Please note that the July meeting this year will be held at the School at 6.00 pm (see announcement on opposite page) and there is no meeting in August. Any member of the Society who would like to attend one of these meetings will be made most welcome on the following dates: Monday, 3rd July;

Monday, 4th September; Monday, 2nd October; Monday, 6th November; Monday, 4th December.

ANNUAL DINNER This year’s Annual Dinner will be held on Saturday, 25th November. Full details, together with an application form for tickets, are included in this issue of The Almondburian.

FOUNDERS’ DAY The traditional Founders’ Day Service will be held the day after the Annual Dinner: Sunday, 26th November, 2017.

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Membership

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AND R E W HAIG H

HINGS have been very quiet on the membership front in terms of new members since the March

l David Michael Stead (1960-68), from Dorset l Derek Ibbotson (1943-48), from Ossett. For the few of you who do not yet pay your subscriptions by standing order, please remember that your £10.00 subscription for 2017-2018 falls due on 1st September. You may renew online using PayPal, or a debit or credit card, by visiting www.oas.org.uk and clicking on the ‘Join/Renew Online’ button. n

issue. We have been saddened to learn of the deaths of the following long-standing members of the Old Almondburians’ Society: l Peter L Burns (1945-48), from Cirencester l Gordon Stanley Green (1948-53), from Stratford-upon-Avon

Executive Committee Meetings

A reminder that members of the Society are always most welcome at the monthly meetings of the OAS Executive Committee. We are also keen to develop much closer links between the OAS and the School and are responding to an invitation to hold meetings at the School from time to time. The first such meeting will be at 6.00 pm on 3rd July. Do join us.

SUDOKU

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6 1 8 2 3 7 6 7 5 2 9 9 8 1 4 1 7 3 5 5 9 2 3 7 4 1 2 5 8 9 4 9 7 2

Difficulty: tough

Each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the digits 1 to 9 5

Annual Dinner

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AND R E W HAIG H

HIS year’s Dinner will take place at the School – its spiritual home – on Saturday, 25th November at 6.30 p.m. for 7.30 p.m.The main speaker this year will be the barrister Peter Carter QC, a member of the Old Almondburians’ Society who attended King James’s Grammar School from 1963 to 1970 (see panel opposite). The ticket price will remain at £27.50 and an application form is included with this magazine; alternatively you can purchase tickets online at www.oas.org.uk/buydinner.php. Please be aware that when the Annual Dinner is at the School spaces are limited, so early applications are recommended. Gentlemen, why not order, at the same time, a new Society tie to wear at the Dinner? Ladies, how about ordering one of the lovely new Society silk scarves when you apply for your ticket? Full details are on page 8. The 2016 Annual Dinner was attended by 133 members and guests, the largest gathering of Almondburians since the 400th Anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter in 2008. Those attending the Dinner spanned a period of 71 years, from those who entered the school in 1945 to those currently studying at the school.They travelled from all over the United Kingdom, as well as from Ireland, the Channel Islands and Germany. Organising the Dinner at the School does involve a tremendous amount of work. Last year’s Dinner was not perfect; it was unfortunate that our caterer had staff call off ill at short notice, resulting in very slow

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service, so we will be taking steps to ensure that does not happen again. The Dinner is still a work in progress since returning to the School and there is still room for improvement.We could certainly benefit from some additional help, since those who currently help cannot do much more than they already do. If you can spare a few hours to help organise the 2017 Annual Dinner, then it would be much appreciated. Even an hour or two on the day, or on the day after, to help set up or tidy up afterwards would be a big help. It is a wonderful and most enjoyable occasion to gather 133 Almondburians together, so let’s make it even better this year! Last year, top marks for attendance went to the nineteen members of the Class of 1966 for their 50th anniversary reunion, organised by David Parry and Robin Merchant. David Earnshaw has already started work on a 2019 reunion for the 60th anniversary of the Class of 1954 leaving in 1959, but what about this year? Come on the members of the classes of 1937, 1942, 1947, 1957 1967, 1977, 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2007; you have anniversaries to celebrate, so start planning now. Also, those of you that were here last year can do it all again! Who can better the Class of 1966? Put Saturday, 25th November, in your diary and book your ticket now to make sure that you don’t miss out on a great evening. The traditional Founders’ Day procession and service will follow on Sunday, 26th November. n

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This year’s principal guest speaker

Peter Carter QC

Peter was Chair of Advocacy at Gray’s Inn from 2008 to 2009 when he ran and continues to run international sessions teaching advocates how to use and question expert witnesses. From 2003 to 2005 he was chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee. He has appeared in the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, before the UN Human Rights Council and the EU Social Justice Committee. Peter regularly lectures on rule of law and human rights issues, including counter-terrorism, privilege and human trafficking. For Human Rights Day 2015 he delivered a lecture on Magna Carta entitled Human Rights at the Point of a Sword. He is a visiting Professor of Law at Birkbeck, University of London.

ETER CARTER QC is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, a leading chambers dedicated to defending freedom and civil liberties. Born in Birchencliffe in 1952, Peter attended King James’s Grammar School from 1963 to 1970, leaving to study Law at University College, London. He was called to the Bar in 1974 and took Silk in 1995. Peter undertakes most types of criminal law work either for defence or prosecution, but with a principal emphasis on fraud, terrorism, homicide and trafficking and cases with a trans-national or international element.He has appeared in many of the major terrorist trials of the past twelve years.

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Look your best at the OAS Annual Dinner…

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For him

OAS TIE

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If your old OAS tie is crumpled, the wrong length, the wrong width or soup-stained (or possibly a combination of all four) it really is time to treat yourself to the latest design. In navy, with gold diagonal stripes, it features the school crest in colour. Dimensions 150 cm by 9 cm

Price: £15.00

Packing and postage: 75p (UK); £2.50 (Mainland Europe); £3.00 (Rest of world)

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For her

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NEW: LADIES’ SILK SCARF

Specially created in response to requests from lady OAS members. Designed by former Head of Textiles at KJS, Christine Hazle, our new top quality scarf is based on the historic stained glass window by Edward Akroyd in the library (‘Big’). It is specially manufactured by Beckford Silk Ltd, who produce scarves for the Victoria and Albert Museum, the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design. Dimensions 163 cm by 51 cm.

Special introductory price: £42.50 Packing and postage: £1.25 (UK); £3.00 (Mainland Europe); £3.75 (Rest of world) Order NOW from www.oas.org.uk/buymemorabilia.php or by post from: Andrew Haigh, c/o R D Haigh & Co, Floresco House, Oak Hill Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 1SN 8

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Back to the drawing board Roger Sykes (1946-1953) revisits some of his favourite drawings

ESTLING near the church in the village of Etwall some six miles from Derby on the road to Uttoxeter was the delightful Port Hospital Almshouses dating from 1681. The drawing was one of a series commissioned for the 1955 Derbyshire Guide. Research for the Derbyshire Guide showed the village to be the home of Sir John Port who founded Repton School in the 16th century and lived in Etwall Hall. Repton School of much the same age as King James’s Grammar School, had been founded through a bequest from Sir John (who died in 1557), leaving funds to establish a grammar school at Etwall or Repton provided the students prayed daily for his family's souls. Records show that the village was mostly destroyed in the storm of 1545. Etwall Hall itself was demolished in 1955 and is now the site of St John Port School. On a philosophical note, you should never go back. Not really.You can revisit places you saw in the past – but they are never the same. It is the changes that you notice and they will obscure the original memory. This sketch is like looking through a window into the past with all the details of the stonework preserved – it was then, not now. The smell of hot oil from my old 1935 BSA 350 motorcycle was part of the experience n too!

The Port Hospital Almshouses, Etwall 9

PART 3

Almondbury: a village of change ROGER DOWLING (1952 - 1959)

Spot the difference: your Editor continues his tour of the locality to see the changes - not always for the better - that have taken place over the years

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HEN the larger photograph below was taken in 1910, residents in these houses in Kaye Lane could feel that they were well and truly ‘out in the country’, enjoying open views towards the east of Farnley Tyas and beyond. Although the three houses on the left remain today, they are part of a much more urban scene, with new neighbours to the side and new housing on the opposite side of the road stretching in a virtually unbroken ribbon all the way back to the centre of Almondbury.

Photograph by courtesy of Kirklees Image Archive: www.kirkleesimages.org.uk

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HE view of Northgate below will be very familiar to those who attended the School in the 1950s. In the distance, one can just see a trolleybus in the newly-constructed turning circle which obviated the inconvenient need to reverse into Wormald Street. As one would expect, the church and war memorial are largely unchanged today, though a new pavement has sensibly been constructed along the wall of the churchyard to make life safer for pedestrians. Rather sadly, the old cottages to the right, opposite the church, disappeared during the extensive changes to this part of Northgate in the 1960s.

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HE former importance of Almondbury as a woollens centre has left a legacy of weavers’ cottages around the village. From these cottages, the handloom weavers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries would have taken their finished products by packhorse to the local

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market for sale.These excellent examples are both in Lumb Lane: above is Reins House and on the opposite page is a small group of weavers further along the same road towards the east. The obvious characteristic of these cottages is the long row of south-facing windows on the first floor, essential to maximise daylight and the length of the working day. At Reins House, all twelve upper windows have survived to the present day, which is unusual as it was common practice to fill in some of the windows when the houses became conventional dwellings so as to avoid the dreaded

Window Tax. It also made the houses far more comfortable as the large expanse of glass often made the upstairs areas bitterly cold in winter and excessively

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hot in summer. Window Tax was introduced for private dwellings as early as 1686, though weavers’ cottages were always exempt. It was a relatively easy tax to police, as the number of windows was clearly visible from the street. In 1747 for a house with 10 to 14 windows, the tax stood at 6d [2½p] per window; 15 to 19 windows cost 9d [3¾p] each; and 20 windows or more were taxed at 1s [5p] each. The tax was repealed in 1851.

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HE larger photograph below, taken in 1913, shows electric tramcar number 81at its destination in Northgate.The driver is in the act of swinging the trolley boom for the return journey to Huddersfield.The tram was one of a batch of ten purchased in 1912 from United Electric Car Company which employed 2,000 workers at its plant in Preston. It remained in service until 1937. These were exciting times for the tram network. On 1st October 1913, work began laying tracks for the route from Huddersfield to Elland and West Vale via Ainley Top, some 716 feet above sea level. One of the most spectacular routes in the Huddersfield system, it ascended 420 feet in little over a mile, presenting extensive views over the Halifax area on a clear day. The steepest part of the Ainleys was near to Sharratt’s Brickworks, where the gradient was 1 in 11. The line opened on 14th January 1914, followed by a further extension to West Vale two months later, making it possible to travel by tram between Almondbury and West Vale for a fare of 7½d [3p].

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HIS view of the Woolpack and the adjacent Wormall Hall has hardly changed over the past 100 years, though the inevitable handcart and distant horse and cart in the 1910 photograph below have given way to the motor car today. Wormall Hall was the former home of Isaac and Israel and bears the date 1631 over the centre door.There have always been historic links with King James’s and until very recently the building was owned by King James’s School Foundation. According to Canon Hulbert’s monumental Annals of the Church in Almondbury, the governors of King James’s School ‘…were indebted in 1633 for the grant of an annual rent charge of five shillings [25p] for the use of the schoolmaster and his successors for ever.’

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The Almondburian Poets

HERE can be no doubt that our winters are becoming milder these days: the arrival of the slightest flurry of snow is invariably greeted with great excitement followed by the closure of schools across the entire country. In the ‘olden days’ we used to have proper winters, such as the one which hit Almondbury Grammar School in 1933. The Almondburian and its poets gave a full account. “This term will go down in the history of the School as the ‘Blizzard Term, 1933’,” wrote Taylor Dyson. “Not within living memory can such a snowstorm be recalled. We were quite isolated for days, for St Helen’s was well nigh impassable and even the telephone failed us.” The snowstorm started on the evening of Thursday, 23rd February and by Saturday the snow lay a yard deep everywhere, drifting in places to ten feet or more. Buses could not run until Wednesday, 1st March and St Helen’s Gate was not cleared of snow until Friday, 3rd March. “Between 50 and 60 enthusiasts tramped to School for the first couple of days and we made some pretence at organised work, but it was too farcical,” continued Taylor Dyson. “There were no buses or trams running, and only boys in the vicinity of the School could get here. So we decided after consultation with the Director of Education to proclaim a holiday until Thursday morning.” Sadly, the news didn’t quite reach keen fourth-former H W Gledhill who just kept ‘shovelling along’.

SHOVELLING ALONG

One morning when I did awake, And out my window gazed, To my surprise I saw a sight Which made me quite amazed.

The snow was here, the snow was there, The snow was all around. The depth thereof six feet or more, As it lay on the ground. Oh, where can I find a trusty tool? Let no man say me nay. For I must surely go to school, No matter what the day.

Oh bring me hither a shovel strong, A really trusty tool, And I will go shovelling along, I’ll dig my way to school. Onward! Onward! we dig on, My trusty shovel and I. My shovel is like a fiery steed As it makes the flakes to fly.

Yonder appears the top of the school From out a wide, white sea; And now that I’ve achieved my goal, I could lay me down and dee. For there was not a soul about, I felt a complete fool As 1 heard a most distressing shout, “To-day there is no school.”

H W Gledhill, Form 4a The Almondburian, April 1933

Harry Willie Gledhill was born in Huddersfield in 1915 and attended Almondbury Grammar School from 1926 to 1933. On leaving school he studied Law and emigrated to Australia where he died in 1958. 16

QUIZ NIGHT 2017

Bryan leads new team to glory

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KE I T H C R AWS H AW ( 1964 - 1 971 )

‘The Walkers’ enjoy a triumphant Quiz Night at the Woolpack

as it unfolded are shown in the table overleaf. Doug Norris was missing from the usual Dartmouth team, so they had recruited Dennis Taylor of Jessop and thereby became The DJs to reflect their coalition status. First & Last, confident in their formation, retained the same four players. Only David Parry remained from the previous Badminton side as they opted to boost their chances by including Andrew Haigh and sending out a team of five players. Walter Raleigh was back in the Former Staff team in place of Sue Cope and with new

new squad TheWalkers, captained by Bryan Hopkinson who led last year’s victorious 1970s team, were the winners of the 2017 Quiz Night at the Woolpack on 10th May. Also in his successful team were Mike Hoyle, Mandy Brawn and Nick Ainley. In a different format from previous years, this year’s contest featured a single match with all teams competing throughout the evening. Five teams battled through twelve rounds of questions with a comfort break for refreshments, review of strategy etc, and the full details of the competition

Happy winners with their trophy (left to right): Bryan Hopkinson, Mike Hoyle, Mandy Brawn and Nick Ainley. Old Almondburians’ Society chairman Walter Raleigh looks on. 17

DJs Jez Whitehead Dennis Taylor David Sinclair

First & Last Andrew Hill Maria Lijka Ruth Rutter Tim Rutter Badminton Craig Watts Emily Murphy Matthew Booth Andrew Haigh David Parry

TOTALS

Missing words

Politics faces

Buzzer C

TV drama

Music places

Fun? Gee!

Buzzer B

Movie quotes

Huddersfield

Sport faces

Buzzer A

The Walkers Nick Ainley Mike Hoyle Mandy Brawn Bryan Hopkinson Retired & Happy Nicky Green Walter Raleigh Patrick O’Brien David Bradford

Year 2016

writing down the answers to a series of questions about the year 2016. After a time for a rub down and to regroup, the teams listened to musical extracts, each being a clue to a place. Round nine was about identifying TV drama series from their DVD covers with the titles removed and was followed by the last buzzer round. The faces of political figures (mainly female) required naming in the penultimate round before the final Missing Words round featured as its guest publication, the Yorkshire Post, all the headlines appearing in April issues. At the end of a hard fought battle, Badminton, who had been in third place at the break, took the wooden spoon on this occasion, behind DJs and First & Last in joint

signing, Nicky Green, they became Retired & Happy. Once the technology had been tested a few times, the competition eventually got under way with twelve general knowledge questions on the buzzer, the first of three similar rounds. With 2 points to be gained for a correct answer but with the loss of 2 for an incorrect one, tactics also came into play. The next three rounds covered naming sporting faces (mostly male), the identification of the locations by district of public toilets and libraries in Huddersfield, and the matching of movie quotations to the films in which they appeared. The Fun? Gee! round required the allocation of names of fungi to their photographs and round seven involved

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Photographs: Andrew Haigh

Left foreground, then clockwise:The Walkers, First & Last, DJs, Annabel ‘Vorderman’ Haigh and Keith Crawshaw, Retired & Happy and Badminton.The empty seat has been vacated by photographer Andrew Haigh.

new Carol Vordeman) who helped to keep the teams under control. We aim to repeat the format next year and hope that the teams and players missing this time will be back, along with new members who may be inspired to join us and put their very general and sometimes obscure knowledge to the test. n

third place. Retired & Happy were the runners up, a significant 46 points short of Walkers, who were presented with the famous trophy by our chairman. Congratulations to them but also to all the players who ensured another entertaining and enjoyable evening. Finally thanks to Annabel Haigh, our scorer, (the The ALMONDBURIAN THE MAGAZINE O F T HE O LD A LMO NDBUR IANS’ SO CIET Y

July 2017

Writing for ‘The Almondburian’

“Whatever become of …?” We’re all curious to know more about what became of our old school colleagues. Everyone who attends King James’s School has a unique story to tell: schoolday memories, career successes and failures, family activities, holiday travels, hobby pursuits, retirement activities and so on. So why not put something in writing to share with our readers? The Almondburian is always keen to include contributions from OAS members. Articles should be around 1,000 to 1,500 words in length, preferably with one or two photographs, and should be emailed to almondburian@oas.org.uk. 19

GOLF

From Gothard tripe to Gothard Cup

George Gothard was a pupil at King James’s 100 years ago. His son – also called George – explains how this led to the Gothard Cup for Golf.

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GEORGE GOTHARD (1945 - 1950)

UR family links with the Huddersfield, Geoff Arrowsmith, and he School go back a long way. It’s came to the Annual Dinner with me last quite a story, complicated by November as my guest. the fact that we have always tended to I joined Almondbury Grammar re-cycle our forenames, all beginning School in 1945, at the end of the war. with the letter ‘G’. My older brother Guy had joined the My father – also called George – previous year. I remember we used to joined what was then always known as pay half a crown a week [12½p] for our Almondbury Grammar School in 1918. five lunches. I didn’t find them very exA year later he was joined by his broth- citing as I was getting much better food er Geoffrey. Both at home, my faof them went on ther being in the to join the famimeat trade. They ly tripe business were happy days that was being at school though run at that time I wasn’t very acby my grandfaademic and was ther Guy. more interested There were in sport. I preother family conferred crossnections with the country running School too. My to football and mother’s sister cricket: Walter was married to Haigh was in Reg Lightbody charge of gym at who attended the that time. He School from gave my brother 1922-1929, as Guy and me did his brother extra coaching Raymond (1922in maths which 1927). must have paid George Gothard was Captain of the Royal Jersey I still have a Golf Club in 1993/4. His wife Anne was Lady dividends as cousin living in Captain in 1988/9. Guy later be20

came a chartered accountant and I became a chartered surveyor. Later ‘Dusty’ Binns was sports master – he was an ex RAF pilot, I believe. John Baldwin was headmaster. He ticked me off one day when he was at the top of the stairs and thought I had tripped the lad in front of me (which I hadn’t). I remember he said my father would never have done that! I also remember Fred Hudson the Geography master and Leonard Ash who taught French. I used to play golf with him at Woodsome Hall after he retired, before I left Huddersfield. Reg Addy also taught French – my first trip abroad was with Reg when a group of us went to Paris. When we left AGS, Guy became a

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chartered accountant and I became a chartered surveyor. I was in London for a time where I met my wife Anne and studied at the College for Estate Management. My wife’s father was a chartered surveyor and was also much involved in housing developments in south east London. He persuaded me to come out to Jersey in 1958 where he was thinking of developing some land and he thought I was “just the chap to sort it all out”. Anne and I married in 1959 and we’ve been over here ever since and life has been very kind to us. I had my own practice as a chartered surveyor and my father-in-law bought a site on which we built 50 houses which provided the bread-and-butter work which enabled me to open an office and put my name over the door. I eventually retired in 1989. The tripe business had been originally set up by my greatgrandfather George, who came from Leeds, in 1856. The company originally used horse-drawn wag-

the houses there. At the back were the dripping refinery and the tripe dressing sections of the works. Although noted for the tripe, Gothard’s was a wholesale and retail butchers and they even had fish and chip shops at one time too. Gothard’s was the largest tripe dresser in Yorkshire before the war. Then my father lost a lot of employees because they were called up, and he had to work very long hours to keep things going. His brother Geoff worked for the Ministry of Food during the war, so he was there in the background. After the war, things started to im-

gons but around 1916 they went over to motorised transport and there was an auction of the horses and carriages that were no longer needed. The wholesale side of the business used to operate from the slaughterhouse that was not far from the works in Myrtle Street, near the viaduct. I used to go down there when I was a youngster, not turning a hair at watching the animals being slaughtered, but I wouldn’t want to do it now. I still remember the steam trains running along the top. We had quite a large block of properties there and my Granny Gothard used to live in one of

Winners of Gothard Cup 1932 - 2017

1932 J Priestley 1933 A W Nettleton 1934 W S Fitton 1935 W L Sellers 1936 L R Kendall 1937 L R Kendall 1938 I A Chambers 1939 L R Kendall 1940-1946 Not contended 1947 W S Fitton 1948 J Priestley 1949 R C Jones 1950 L R Kendall 1951 R O Jones 1952 P W Levell 1953 C Howarth 1954 I A Chambers 1955 C Howarth 1956 C Howarth 1957 C Burgess 1958 C Burgess 1959 G H Horsfall 1960 B Haigh 1961 G H Horsfall

1962 T A Blackburn 1963 G H Horsfall 1964 G H Horsfall 1965 B Haigh 1966 D E Hinchcliffe 1967 Dr G V Firth 1968 J Priestley 1969 N D Beaumont 1970 B Haigh 1971 J D Jenkinson 1972 D H Rockett 1973 S A Russell 1974 A K Lockwood 1975 J W Bosworth 1976 W E Holmes 1977 R Marshall 1978 R K Brown 1979 D H Rockett 1980 P H Shaw 1981 J M Lodge 1982 J M Lodge 1983 D Parry 1984 D H Rockett 1985 N D Beaumont 22

1986 G Richardson 1987 D H Rockett 1988 D E Hinchcliffe 1989 D E Hinchcliffe 1990 J C Whitefield 1991 D E Hinchcliffe 1992 D E Hinchcliffe 1993-2001 Not contended 2002 R D Jenkinson 2003 N Mallinson 2004 P H Shaw 2005 D Parry 2006 R C McCarthy 2007 Not contended 2008 M T Jenkinson 2009 C Joyce 2010 R E Merchant 2011 J S Lodge 2012 Not contended 2013 R K Brown 2014 R E Merchant 2015 Not contended 2016 R E Merchant 2017 A Humphries

prove, though sales of tripe started to ern dish, in Yorkshire and Lancashire in fall dramatically and the company di- particular; however, I have a Scottish versified into products like meat pies friend here in Jersey who was a great tripe fan so they must have and even dog biscuits. It was eaten it up there too. a shame in some ways The Gothard Cup that Gothard’s Ltd did was presented to the not keep going, as it had Old Almondburians’ Soa good name in Hudderciety by my father sfield for wholesale and George in 1932. It is retail meat products eight inches in height generally. and 3¾ inches in diamThe process of dresseter. ing tripe involved boiling Even in 1932, it was it and cleaning it. It was quite an old cup: according very hard work. The tripe to its silver hallmark it was came from the cows and manufactured in London around sheep slaughtered in the slaugh1879-80 by a company of silverterhouse. smiths called Ardwinckle & Slater. I used to eat my fair share of The initials on the hallmark refer to tripe when I was younger, though I John Aldwinckle and James Slater. It don’t eat it any longer – it’s no longer is top quality (97.5%) silver. His faa very fashionable food. When my father Guy (my grandfather) ther came to retire in Jersey, was keen on horses where we now live, he and dogs and won said that our local tripe various cups over was ‘a load of rubbish’ the years and he but I think that was just probably passed on what you might exone of these pect a bluff Yorkcups which shireman in the became the business to say! I Gothard Cup. think tripe wasWe still have a n’t helped by its number of his own name – callcups around the ing something ‘tripe’ house now. is not a good start. In 1954 the In fact, it’s a good cup was won product and it’s by my father very digestible. It but it was achas always been an tually preessentially north23

All you need to know about tripe

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RIPE is a type of edible lining from the stomachs of various farm animals. The most common tripe is beef tripe, usually made from the muscle wall of the first three chambers of a cow's stomach. The normal practice is to ‘dress’ the tripe before sale. To dress the tripe, the stomachs are cleaned and the fat trimmed off. It is then boiled and bleached, giving it the white colour more commonly associated with tripe as seen on market stalls and in butchers’ shops. Dressed tripe was a popular nutritious and cheap dish for the British working classes from Victorian times until the latter half of the 20th century. While it is still popular in many parts of the world today, the number of tripe eaters, and consequently the number of tripe dressers, in the UK has rapidly declined.Tripe has come to be regarded as a pet food, as the increased af-

sented to ‘Ike’ (Irvin) Chambers. It was traditional that as the cup was presented by the Gothards it would never be received by a Gothard as a winner. I remember Ike Chambers – he was a close friend of my parents and attended AGS from 1919 to 1923. Oddly enough I didn’t ever enter the competition myself – perhaps it was because even if I had won I would not receive the cup anyway! The Gothards also presented a

fluence of postwar Britain has reduced the appeal of this once staple food. Tripe has its own jokey website www.tripemarketingboard.co.uk. The ‘Tripe Marketing Board’ (originally ‘The Association for the Legal Disposal Of Unwanted Cow Products’) is chaired by the fictitious Sir Norman Wrassle. Since its re-launch under its new name it claims that visits to its new website have increased by 500% and have now reached double figures. The Tripe Marketing Board makes some extravagant claims, such as: l Leaving a bowl of tripe out overnight either kills household pests or persuades them never to return. l Prisoners of the Spanish Inquisition were forced either to eat tripe or be burnt at the stake. Many chose the latter. l A diet of tripe can increase libido by up to 400%.

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swimming cup. I don’t know what became of that. Guy and I were both quite good swimmers but never received the cup as it was always passed on to the boy who was second. Guy was the best swimmer in his year at school and represented Yorkshire as a county swimmer. I’ve been a member of our golf club here in Jersey since 1958, and my handicap was down to 4 at one time. Now I’m in my 80s I’ve let my handicap lapse and

From The

Almondburian, July 1932: the Gothard Cup competition is launched. It was set up by an OAS subcommittee comprising G Gothard, A Lee and A W Nettleton.The latter won the Cup the following year.

just play for the pleasure and the companionship. I was Captain in 1993 and 1994 so I think I’ve put something back into the game too. The Royal Jersey Golf Club received its Royal Charter in 1878, and it’s one of 64 Royal Golf Clubs around the world. As Captain I was lucky enough to attend four Royal Centenary events including our own in 1978: Royal Sydney in Australia; Royal Norwich and Royal St David’s in Wales. We have two daughters Jane and Sarah, and a son – yet another Guy – all of whom live here in Jersey. Between them they’ve produced eight grandchildren and it’s great to be able to see so much of them as they live so close.

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Life has been very good to us. We were very lucky to be here at the right time, when Jersey was really taking off. n l The 2017 Gothard Cup competition took place on Sunday, 11th June. Full report: page 48.

That was the me that was

David Beach (1958-1966) remembers the great days of school chess

Back row, l to r: A B Irvine, D M Gledhill, M J Wortley, N D Beaumont, D T Beach, J S Derham, Mr G L Beach, J Rangeley, I Smith Front row, l to r: P A Shaw, J Moorhouse, J E Graley, J M Pearson, S A Bremner, C M Graley

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HIS photo was taken in the autumn of 1963 and features a number of the leading chess players in the school, from all age groups, including many who took part in a Congress earlier that year. And standing behind, their mentor, my father (and senior maths master) George Beach. George came from a chess playing family. His grandfather, father, brother and nephew were all strong players for university, club, and in some instances county or country, so clearly it was in the genes, and all were high ranking mathematicians. I, the weakest player of the set, scraped my way into the KJGS senior team and ended up teaching maths to ten year olds, so clearly the genes were on the wane! George never reached the dizzy chess heights of other family members. What he lacked in top rank ability he made up for with enthusiasm and organising skills, particularly at KJGS, and he was for a time a Vice President of the Yorkshire Chess Association. He organised at least one Yorkshire Schools Chess Individual Championships Jamboree and a School Teams event at KJGS, as well as hundreds of normal inter-school matches, house competitions and individual school championships. A team of six seniors entered for a competition run by the Sunday Times, but did not progress beyond the Yorkshire area rounds.They had more success in the Watkinson Trophy competition against teams from local clubs and Huddersfield New College. KJGS certainly won at least once, but after this photo was taken. Players received a ‘handicap’ which meant that a team of less successful or younger players could sometimes pull a fast one over their older and wiser opponents. On one occasion I was summoned as a last minute substitute, aged 11, to reduce the handicap. Remarkably I fluked a win, but I had to wait another three or four years before my next call-up! I went on to play for my college team, but on taking up teaching found a colleague had the ‘chess billet’ already, so other interests took over and I have scarcely played in the last twenty years, other than against a computer which inevitably beats me without n difficulty. 26

FROM THE ALMONDBURIAN JULY 1930

How I built my own televisor Keen not to miss out on the latest experimental ‘television’ broadcasts, a 17-year-old enthusiast describes how he built his own successful receiver

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RONALD COCKCROFT KAYE (1925 - 1930)

have always been interested in into light impulses wireless matters, and having con- l a scanning disc to spread these light structed innumerable sets includ- impulses in the correct order over an ing ultra short wave sets, small area corresponding with that occupied transmitters, etc, I came to the conclu- by the object in front of the transmitter sion several months ago that something l a suitable means of driving the disc more interesting was necessary. Thus I steadily at the correct speed of 12½ revs decided to construct a ‘televisor’. First per second (750 revs per minute). and foremost, the apparatus was not to Probably this seems very inexplicit, cost much, since I had not much to but as I have said before, I cannot go into spend on it. details. And now I RONALD COCKROFT KAYE went on As I have been asked to become a distinguished academic will tell you how I acto keep this article and a world expert on polarography – tually built my appaelectro-chemical technique for non-technical, I am an ratus. I already had a studying solutions and emulsions which prevented from giving is extremely important for the efficacy moderately good even the broadest out- of drug preparations. For most of his wireless receiver and he was based in the Departline of the televisor career this, after a little ‘ginment of Pharmacology at Leeds Unisystem employed in versity. gering up’ proved to Ronnie Kaye left Almondbury Gramthis country, so I will be sufficiently powermar School in 1930 to take up an apdescribe briefly the prenticeship in his uncle’s pharmacy. ful. receiving end. The He studied part-time for his BSc and Next I purchased a bare essentials for re- PhD as an external student of London neon lamp. This was for the latter whilst teachceiving televisor im- University, one of the Osglim type ing at Bradford Technical College (later ages by the Baird Bradford University). and cost 3s 3d [16p]. From boyhood he had taken a keen system are: I can well remember interest in amateur radio: his call sign l an efficient wireless G6RO was one of the earliest in the when I connected it set capable of giving a UK. He was also an excellent self- to the set and large, undistorted taught linguist and a fine cellist who switched on. Disapplayed regularly in a string quartet, in output pointment of disaphis local orchestra in Baildon and in l a neon lamp to the South Yorkshire Symphony Or- pointments! Far from translate the electrical chestra. flickering, the lamp He died in 2007 at the age of 94. impulses from the set refused to light. Then 27

John Logie Baird: misguided inventor

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F you asked any loyal Briton who invented television, the chances are that he or she would reply ‘Logie Baird’. Not so. Baird’s early experiments made no contribution at all to the development of television as we know it today. John Logie Baird was born in Dunbartonshire in 1888. From an early age he was an enthusiastic inventor, not always successfully. In his twenties he tried to create diamonds by heating graphite and shorted out Glasgow’s electricity supply. Later he invented a glass razor, which was rustresistant but shattered in use. But he had more success with his patent Baird undersock which earned him some £1,600 in the first year alone, equivalent to over £30,000 today. His interest in television developed in the early 1920s, but his mistake was to pin his faith in mechanical systems based around large spinning discs, with holes configured in a spiral, through which light scanned the scene being viewed. (Even this idea was ‘borrowed’ from the German inventor Paul Gottlieb Nipkov, who patented it in 1885). As the discs had only 30 holes, the resulting pictures had only 30 lines (today’s high definition pictures have 1,080). A photocell converted the flickering light into a low frequency signal (sounding like severe buzzing), which was then transmitted on the medium wave to enthusiasts’ receivers using similar ‘Nipkov’ discs in reverse. It was this simple type of receiver that Ronald Cockroft Kaye describes in his article. The BBC was not impressed by Baird’s demonstrations, believing there was no future for a system of such poor resolution.

However, in the early part of 1929, it succumbed reluctantly to pressure from Baird, journalist Sydney Moseley and the Postmaster General to commence experimental transmissions outside regular broadcasting hours. From then until 1932, regular programmes were transmitted in the early hours of the morning. Meanwhile, work was going on at EMI under Romanian-American electronics engineer Isaac Schoenberg to develop electronic television offering much higher quality pictures. Audaciously, they developed a system with 405 lines, cleverly interlaced to minimise flicker. Baird soldiered on with his mechanical system, eventually achieving through great ingenuity as many as 240 lines by 1936. For several months, until February 1937, programmes were transmitted on the Baird system and the EMI system in alternate weeks. Soon, however, it was obvious even toBaird and his team that electronic television was the only way forward and the Baird transmissions were closed down for good. It is a tribute to Isaac Schoenberg and his EMI team – the true inventors of television in the UK – that the 405 line system they developed in a year would remain virtually unaltered until 1985. Baird continued to work tirelessly, eventually moving into electronic colour television systems and radio direction-finding. But none of these brought significant successes and riches, and he died from a stroke in Bexhill-on-Sea in June 1946. He could so easily have become Britain’s first undersock millionnaire.

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ratus working that I very rashly tried to make a hand-turned arrangement. What a weird affair it was! A large, ricketty frame constructed from Meccano parts and a small driving handle geared up enormously on to the shaft carrying the disc. And you should have seen me that night when I finally assembled this collection of junk. First I tuned in the signal, got the neon lamp flickering, and hastily moved it behind the disc, turned out the light, and then commenced to crank feverishly away at the crazy contraption. What I saw was a jumbled patch of light and dark rushing downwards, but as my speed increased these patches began to arrange themselves in some sort of ordered formation. Faster and faster I turned, but I failed to reach the correct speed, and, alas, the Meccano frame refused to stand the strain. The nuts and bolts worked loose; the whole contraption swayed drunkenly, and finally collapsed. However, I had seen enough to con-

followed a visit to the Free Library, and, after reading a page or so on the subject, I discovered that a neon lamp required a certain voltage before it would strike. This voltage was in the neighbourhood of 200 – and I had only 120! That night I approached a kind neighbour, and after a lengthy explanation succeeded in borrowing her 100 volt high tension battery. That put matters right, and with 220 volts on the last valve I had no trouble in getting the neon lamp to flicker beautifully. Next I constructed a very rough scanning disc out of cardboard. I knew very little about it beyond the fact that it must have thirty holes in spiral formation, and that there was to be a certain ‘picture ratio’, as it is called. Next came the problem: a means of turning the disc steadily at a speed of 12½ revs per second. No money to buy an electric motor! No electric mains in the house with which to drive it, had I got one! What was I to do? Well, I was so keen to get the appa-

The Baird mechanical television system Photocell

Amplifier Mask

Scene

‘Nipkov’ disc with spiral holes

Electric motor

Radio transmitter Lamp

Radio receiver

Neon tube

Electric motor

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Mask

‘Nipkov’ disc with spiral holes

Viewer

The image was vince me that if I quite easily recoghad a suitable nisable, but the driving means, I half tones seemed should be able to lacking, and the receive television. whole picture was Here I was at a rather dull. More loss, but D—y and more high came to the restension was the cue with the order of the day. bright idea of On one occasion I constructing a had well over 300 water motor. volts on the last I purchased a valve. and on the large piece of sheet iron, and “The image was quite easily recognisable, but same occasion I after much te- the half tones seemed lacking, and the whole received a rather picture was rather dull.” nasty shock. This dious labour, and with the help of a small and very anti- was brought about by regulating the quated lathe, I succeeded in turning out speed of the motor (with my hand on a small water motor of about one-fifth the cold water tap) and accidentally horse power. This cost only two shillings touching the neon lamp terminals. Of [10p]. At the first opportunity I rigged course, as high tension negative was up the disc and neon lamp and settled connected to earth, and the neon lamp was at 320 volts positive, it is no wonder down to have another try. I adjusted the speed of the motor as I received a shock. Another rather dangerous side of the finely as I could, and finally obtained synchronism by pressing my finger and business is the disc itself. It is not genthumb on the motor spindle. To my erally realised that a disc of 25 inches digreat joy I saw the image forming, and, ameter when rotating 750 times a when speed was correct, there it was. minute has a peripheral speed of a mile But what an image! Instead of the head a minute, or 60 mph, and should a heavy and shoulders of a man that should have iron disc break loose when going at this appeared, I beheld a distorted, skull-like speed considerable injury may result to head. Then I realised I was receiving anyone standing in the way. However, this article has gone on what is known as a negative picture. This was soon remedied by reversing the pri- quite long enough. The making alone of mary leads of the last transformer. And the apparatus provided many hours of then I saw the image in its correct light- interesting labour, and since it cost ing, but still drawn out and distorted. under 10s [50p] and really works, one This was due to a wrong disc ratio, and feels that one’s labours are more than justified. `n a new disc put matters right. 30

I

Postcript

n the 1930s, The Almondburian carried advertisements so it was no surprise to see a panel promoting the ‘Radio Equipment Co’ adjacent to Ronald Cockroft Kaye’s article. The advertisement proudly proclaimed that the company was under the managership of an ‘Old Almondburian’. The Old Almondburian was actually quite a new Almondburian: none other than the young Clifford Stephenson (later Cllr Clifford Stephenson) who had set up the shop six years earlier when he was 21. These were the pioneering days of home wireless construction (many readers will also remember Taylor’s of Macauley Street which kept going until the late 1970s). Stephenson built up a chain of shops and later became chairman of the Radio and Television Retailers’ Association. He also had a 37-year link with Huddersfield soft drink firm Benjamin Shaw & Sons of which he was a director. He served on the former Hudders-

field Council for 19 years and was chairman of the central area redevelopment committee. Observing that the town’s narrow streets were ‘only suitable for horses and carts’, he acquired a degree of notoriety in the early 1970s for pushing through redevelopment plans which, amongst other changes, resulted in the loss of the old market hall. He served on 21 committees at national level. Born in 1903, Clifford Stephenson became a pupil at Almondbury Grammar School in 1914, the year after the arrival of Taylor Dyson as headmaster.

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LOCAL HISTORY

Gorden sparks suit-making spat

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In his biography, the late ’Allo, ’Allo actor Gorden Kaye claimed that John Crowther’s mill had made a suit in 3 hours 37 minutes. But was he wrong?

response from Bedfordshire reader Barry Livesey (1955-1962) who confirmed that John Crowther had indeed achieved this record, adding “…a friend’s mother was in the team and I remember seeing the team photo.” The friend was Will Mullineaux who obligingly produced the photograph shown below, a treasured possession of his late mother Gwendoline. But Mullineaux had doubts about the quoted time: “I understood it was wool

Photo: Will Mullineaux

T all started with the obituary of Gorden Kaye (1952-1958) in the March 2017 issue of The Almondburian in which we mentioned that Gorden had worked in his younger days in the sales office of John Crowther’s of Milnsbridge. In his autobiography René and Me, he records the achievement of John Crowther’s of taking wool from a sheep and putting it on a man’s back in 3 hours 37 minutes. The obituary provoked an immediate

No exaggeration: John Crowther’s of Milnsbridge really could turn wool into a suit in doublequick time and this was the team that met the challenge. Ringed is Gwendoline Evans Gledhill, the mother of Barry Livesey’s friend Will Mullineaux. She had the very skilled and painstaking job of worsted mender. 32

actually on the sheep, and that would need the full processes of shearing, scouring, drying, dyeing and carding. I am sure my mother told me it was less than 24 hours from ‘sheep to suit’ and it is highly unlikely that all the raw wool processes could be carried out in under 4 hours.” Meanwhile, Livesey was undertaking further research leading to the surprise revelation that Gorden Kaye had indeed got his numbers wrong – but in the opposite direction. The true figure was the astonishing time of two hours 10 minutes, recorded in Colne Valley Folk, a book published in 1936 by Ernest Lockwood. The event took place on 24th June 1936 in the presence of Lockwood himself. The original record time of 6 hours 4 minutes had been set up by a firm in America Colne Valley Folk/Ernest Lockwood (1936) but a Batley firm had trimmed this to 3 hours 20½ minutes by the time Crowther’s of Milnsbridge took up the challenge. Some 94 Crowther’s employees took part, together with 40 staff from the Leeds tailors Prices Ltd. As a treat, the employees were taken on a trip to Blackpool. There is a little footnote to this tale. According to Gorden Kaye, when James Callaghan was Prime Minister he had some cloth woven by John Crowther (whose initials he shared) with a stripe which, if studied carefully, was formed of the initials JC. He bought two suit lengths and presented the second to Jimmy Carter – a third JC – when he became US president. n

l Our thanks to Barry Livesey,Will Mullineaux and the very helpful staff of Kirklees Library Local Studies Department.. 33

Farnley Lines

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DAV E BU S H

O I shall be toddling along to Rod- I immediately texted Andrew Haigh to ney Parade next season.Those not congratulate him. I was very touched for, interested in football have my full despite all the chaos around him, he manpermission to skip this first paragraph. aged to text back straight away. ‘Thank Others who are, would think I had suf- you. I’m exhausted. I feel as if I’ve kicked fered some mental decline if I did not every ball!’ mention the exploits of Lincoln City F C You’ll be one of many, Andrew. this year. After all, when one has waited nearly seventy years for such stirring and Missing: loyalty and commitment sterling achievements, they cannot pass From the delightfully positive to the without comment. Promotion back to depressingly negative. I had been hoping the Football League, quarter finals of the that there would be news of the revival of FA Cup, numerous appearances on TV - it an Almondburians soccer team. None forthhas all been a little overwhelming.To save coming. Au contraire: I now hear that The you googling Rodney Almondburians cricket Parade it’s the home of Where’s the team has also folded. Newport County who What a shock and discommitment avoided replacing The appointment! Imps in the Confer- today? And what What does this mean ence by remaining in for the Pavilion ProjLeague Two with a do people do with ect? Perhaps, taking an couple of minutes of optimistic view, brand all this gained their final game to new facilities might entime? spare. courage a renaissance Of course you Terin our sporting secrier fans will regard this as a very minor tions. However, it does seem that The Alachievement when set alongside that of mondburians are following a local and naHTFC. I cannot pretend that I am a pas- tional trend. I was amazed to hear from sionate follower of those in blue and white Bob Field that the once so successful stripes but having lived in Huddersfield Storthes Hall FC are no more and that for thirty-six years and having so many there’s no longer Sunday League soccer in dear friends who are devotees, I share in the Huddersfield District.When I started your unrestrained delight in having a team playing badminton in Porthcawl twenty in the Premiership. I watched the game on years ago there were five leagues in and TV and when the winning penalty nestled around Bridgend. For some time now in the back of the net I shared your ecstasy. there has been none. 34

Thanks to the kindness of Gorden Kaye, it was possible to arrange a number of school trips to the BBC studios at Television Centre and Elstree to join the audience at recordings: readers may be able to spot themselves in the group photographs. On the left, Dave Bush enjoys a cup of tea with the great man and below he establishes friendly links with actress Vicki Michelle (‘Yvette Carte-Blanche’)

his topYear 10 French class.While Gorden waited outside N1 (now re-numbered: it still infuriates me that the historic names of KJ’s rooms were ever changed) I entered to announce that the popular Mr Redfearn was leaving at the end of term as the governors had deemed him ‘insufficiently French’. He was to be replaced by a M. Artois whom I had brought along that afternoon to meet them. I opened the door with a flourish to admit the ‘replacement’. An audible gasp ensued. Gorden played the part, needless to say, perfectly. He signed exercise books, made some comments in his trademark Franglais and left with a promise to bring his sister, Stella, along next time. Magic!

What has caused this change? What do people do with all this gained time? In a recent phone call with Jack Taylor we donned our rose tinted spectacles and agreed there was generally no longer any sense of loyalty and commitment to one’s club. Notable exceptions do come to mind such as Martyn Hicks and John Headey but clearly their admirable efforts go largely unsupported.

Memories of Ibbotson and Kaye More negative news was the passing of two of our most illustrious members, Derek Ibbotson and Gorden Kaye. I met the former on a couple of occasions when he came down St Helen’s Gate, the latter I got to know very well. He even visited us in Foxglove Road to discuss his presenting The teaching of Latin Oh dear! Yet another negative.Writing of prizes at Speech Day. He confessed he was more nervous thinking about his role about languages at King James’s reminds in Huddersfield Town Hall than he was on me of a recent exchange with Patrick appearing on a London stage; the evening O’Brien. I was asking him about the current state of Latin at King James’s. He has was an enormous success. come out of retireThe visits to the There is a danger ment to teach a small BBC studios to see recordings of ’Allo that there will be extra-mural group but there is nobody ’Allo were an absolute delight. Very happy no Latin taught in qualified to introduce memories for so many the School for the it in the Lower School. ConseKJ students and staff. Gorden once manfirst time in over quently there is a real danger that soon aged to smuggle us 400 years there will be no Latin onto the set of Eastenders; I have photos of colleagues leaning on taught in the School for the first time in over 400 years. the bar of ‘The Old Vic’ to prove it. The thought of this, perhaps somewhat Yet for me the abiding memory of Gorden is his visits to his alma mater. These selfishly, upsets me greatly. I am told that were usually unannounced. Typical was the head teacher is keen to see Latin rethe occasion when I colluded with Head of tained so the position is not without hope. Languages, Bernard Redfearn, to set up I have always believed that the teaching of 36

Getting to the bottom of it: how many Almondburian backsides once graced the Bush family’s dining table? The oak benches from which it was made were part of the fittings and fixtures of the PE changing rooms.

Latin helps to make King James’s, as Taylor Dyson said, ‘slightly difother any from ferent school.’(Hinchliffe,A History of King James’s Grammar School, p297). Thus an appeal to fellow Almondburians, to governors and to any others with influence to support my plea for the retention of a subject which has enriched KJ’s curriculum over the centuries.

The Tale of the Table Let’s finish on a lighter note.The tale of a path, a bird bath and a table. When the school was being renovated and extended to accommodate the comprehensive intake, much valuable material was assigned to skips. D4, now part of the staffroom complex, was re-roofed and damaged or surplus tiles were dropped into the Old KitchenYard.Via Foxglove Road they now provide a pathway in our garden. A beautiful stone surround for an outside drain was rescued from a skip and is now much appreciated by our avian population but the pièce de resistance is The Tale of the Table. When Old Almondburians sit down to dinner with us, I delight in telling them that once they sat on, not at, the table in front of them. However, they have to be of a certain vintage. I can sense your eager anticipation, dear reader. Come with me through Big Tree Yard entrance, turn left

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and go to the end of the corridor. The room on the left, when I departed in 1996, was a Head of Year 10 office. It had previously been a Science Department store room but prior to the major changes mentioned above, had been a changing room. (The labs next door were once the Gym). When it was about to be gutted I bought, for a nominal fee, duly billed and signed for with the contractors, all the solid oak benches contained therein.They had been fitted in 1939 when the school underwent a large scale enlargement. A master carpenter friend turned them into various items, the prize one being our six foot dining table. If, therefore, you were at school between 1939 and the comprehensive expansion, the chances are that you once sat on our table. Even if not of that vintage, do come and sit at our precious souvenir. n

Pavilion project to go ahead

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The demise (hopefully temporary) of the Almondburians’ Cricket Club will not derail

the plan to build a new pavilion, says project chairman GRAHAM CLIFFE

N the last issue of The Almondburian Sam Atkin reported on plans for the Almondburians Cricket Club to join the Drakes League following the closure of the Huddersfield Central League last year. Sadly, this is not now to be: in a move described by Sam Atkin as ‘extremely disappointing’ the Almondburians Cricket Club itself has now had to abandon its plans for the coming season because of problems in attracting an adequate number of regular players. It is hoped that this will be no more than a temporary setback. Inevitably, this has led to some concern that this could affect the Sports Pavilion project, for which substantial funds have been committed by the King James’s School Foundation.We are happy to report that the project is not affected by the demise of the Almondburians Cricket Club and is continuing to proceed normally. Chairman of the Foundation, Graham Cliffe, writes: “TheTrustees want the project to proceed because it is for a Sports Pavilion rather than just a cricket pavilion, to enable the site to be used throughout the year.The position of the Almondburians Cricket Club does not determine the project – there may be other ‘tenants’ who wish to rent the field for league matches in the summer (as

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Holmbridge have done for the first six weeks of this season). “The present position regarding the Pavilion is that the documents required for going out to tender have now been completed and project architect ChrisWest and I recently met someone who is interested project managing the scheme and who is now considering whether he can take on the work given his present commitments. We, in turn, are waiting to see if his charges are reasonable for the Trust. We can seek tenders within three or four weeks if we can reach agreement.” Funding support for the Pavilion project from the Foundation is to some degree dependent on parallel plans to redevelop the site which it owns in Westgate adjacent to Wormall Hall – the so-called ‘Westgate development’ (The Almondburian, July 2015). TheTrustees hope to go out to tender on the first phase in July. It has been decided that that will involve a substantial renovation of the two terraced houses and the‘old joiner’s shop’ (to be converted into two more houses). It will also include the construction of a pair of new semidetached houses adjacent to the road which will be very similar to the former houses on that plot which were demolished in the late 1950s. n

MEMORIES

Happy times at King James’s

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NICKY GREEN (staff 1991 - 2010)

“I could not believe my good fortune in getting a job at King James’s as my father Les Holroyd and husband Richard had both attended the School in previous years.”

Y family’s links with King James’s School date back nearly 90 years as my father Les Holroyd, a former chairman of the Old Almondburians’ Society in 1972, had been a pupil at King James’s Grammar School from 1930 to 1936. But in more recent years, I had another reason for knowing the School well: my husband Richard – another former OAS chairman attended King James’s from 1957 to 1963. I was born in Oakes in 1950. After we were married we first lived in Meltham before moving to a semi in Golcar. We moved to our present home in Nether thong in 1983. I was educated at Oakes Junior School and then Salendine Nook Secondary Modern School. From there I did a secretarial course at what was then Ramsden Technical College, later Huddersfield Technical College. In 1968 I went

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to be a typist at National Provincial Bank in King Street and I was there till 1975 when it amalgamated with the District and Westminster banks and became a single National Westminster Bank. The following year I left to have our first child. My first contact with King James’s School had been a few years earlier. In 1969, when I was going out with Richard, my first ‘date’ was actually on the stage when Richard presented me with a sheet of sandpaper and asked me to get on with sanding down a boatwhich the Scouts were making. I used to go regularly to all the social evenings at the School as my parents used to go along and Richard became OAS social secretary. There were lots of activities going on in those days – garden par ties, dinner dances and so on. All this was long before I had any thoughts of working there. I felt as if I knew the

permanent full-time at King James’s in 1992. I have many memories of my time at the School, and the staff in particular. There was Jack Taylor, whose footsteps and booming voice could be heard long before he appeared; and Dave Bush, roaring “You, boy! On the bridge!” to some unfortunate youngster who had committed some misdemeanor. The Head of Languages, Bernard Redfearn, was absolutely marvellous – I was in awe of him. His French was absolutely perfect and he also spoke Spanish, French, German and many other languages. Amongst the pupils, I particularly remember having French conversations with Ryan Sidebottom who of course went on to become a top Yorkshire and England cricketer. Even then his hair was quite long! He was a quite a character. Bernard had heard that I was fluent in French and needed someone who could hold one-to-one French conver sations with his pupils. The reason I am fluent in French is that my mother comes from Brussels. My

School really well. The staff used to attend the functions too in those days, like Dave Bush, Jack Taylor and the late great Fred Hudson and Harry Taylor. It just so happened that my friend who lived in Netherthong taught at the School and she happened to be going through to the secretaries’ office one day when she heard Doreen Hinchliffe chuntering under her breath that she was struggling to find someone to come and work in the office as a temp to cover for somebody who was going into hospital. My friend said, “Have you thought of Nicky Green?” “Nicky who?” “Nicky Green, the wife of Richard Green, in the OAS.” So Doreen rang me up and said she had this temporary job going and wondered if I was interested. I had a a very informal interview with Doreen and Clive Watkins who asked me how soon I could start. I already had a little lunchtime supervisor job at a local primary school in Netherthong so for a while I did both jobs. Then I was made

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Rehearsal time: music is important to Nicky and husband Richard, a former chairman of the Old Almondburians’ Society. Both sing in local choirs.

The ‘Crosland Road Sunday Afternoon Football Club’: Nicky Green’s father Les Holroyd (back left) was a regular member of the group of dads and children who met up on Sunday afternoons for an informal game of football. Huddersfield Town manager Bill Shankly (front row, with ball) would invariably join in and was presented with this cartoon by Les Holroyd when he left Huddersfield.

Cartoon: Les Holroyd

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father met my mother during the liberation of Brussels during the war and brought her over in 1946. My grandmother was Flemish speaking and my grandfather was French-speaking so we spoke both languages. I’m not fluent in Flemish – just odd sentences – but I am still a fluent French speaker. Bernard told me that I spoke French with a Belgian accent and used to take the mickey! He told me that the French

make fun of Belgians just as the English enjoy Irish jokes. My last day at the School was a sad occasion for me. I took out the non-teaching staff out for a meal in Almondbury but the last day itself was fairly quiet – just a small presentation at lunchtime. That’s how I wanted it to be. My father, Les Holroyd, was an accountant and company secretary –he worked in various accountancy offices. He worked for Fred Sheard & Sons with Fred Sheard and Michael Dyson and later he moved on to become company secretary at the mill in Batley. He was a very good self-trained artist and he had a great sense of humour too. Every year, he would draw family birthday cards, some of which were quite rude! Some of his caricatures of teachers appeared in The Almondburian in his schooldays.

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Talented: although a keen cartoonist, Les Holroyd was also an able painter of watercolours.The top picture is of Smith’s Farm off Crosland Road, Oakes; below is a view of Holmfirth

He was very close to Bill Shankly, the former Huddersfield Town manager from 1956 to 1959, who lived just a few doors down from us. The house he lived in was actually owned by the club – as a girl I often used to go there for tea. He was quite a disciplinarian and you daren’t put a foot wrong. He had two daughters, one of them around my age. On a Sunday afternoon, my father and a lot of other fathers and sons, would go into the field for a kick around with a football and Bill Shankly would usually join in. My father had a lot of contact with Gerald Dobson at one stage – Dobson is generally regarded as the ‘saviour’ of the grammar school in the late 1940s when Huddersfield Education Department had a plan to convert it into a secondary modern school. In the early 1970s, similar problems arose again when there were major plans in Margaret Thatcher’s time to take away the grammar school’s status. Gerald Dobson obviously found out that my father was Chairman of the OAS at that time and there were endless telephone calls together with the generation of a great many documents in an attempt to maintain the status quo. Gerald was chief cashier at the King Street branch of National Provincial Bank, which was quite a coincidence as this is where I had worked too! Singing has always been an important part of my life, as it has for

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Richard too. I used to sing in my schooldays and school plays too but in later life I never had the time to commit myself to joining a choir. Then a new local ladies’choir Vocal Expressions was formed in 1997 – it was set up by the wife of the musical director of New Mill Male Voice Choir. I was one of the 20 founder members and we are about to celebrate our 20th birthday with a dinner at Meltham Golf Club. Richard sings in New Mill Male Voice Choir. A recent highlight was a concert they gave in Huddersfield Town Hall in April when the guest artist was the Welsh tenor Wynne Evans, the twirly-moustachioed Gio Compario in the Go Compare.com insurance advertisements on television. He is a great singer, and a fine raconteur too. Apart from singing, our main interest is looking after our three grandsons Isaac, Archie and Albert. They are adorable and we’re very lucky. n

Meanwhile, back at the School…

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HE King James’s School 30-strong choir Vocalize appeared along with 6,500 school students from all around the country in a YoungVoices event at the Genting Arena in Birmingham. They rehearsed for three months, and their performance ranged from traditional British and African folk music to modern classics such as ‘Birdhouse In Your Soul’ and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’.

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EAR 7 students have raised just over £400 to help seriously ill and disabled children by taking part in a ‘Readathon’ – a means of raising sponsorship money by reading books. The Readathon took place over the course of a month and is the third time the School has hosted such an event. Ben Martin said: “I enjoyed sitting down and reading – it’s relaxing and made me feel good that I was helping to raise money for others.” Caitlin O’Brien said: “I love reading; it’s calming and lets you put everything behind you. It feels good helping children who are struggling in life.” 44

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HE School organised a very successful ‘Shakespeare Week’ recently, whereby the students experienced Shakespearean/ Tudor themed lessons in a variety of subjects. Students produced newspaper stories with a Shakespearean theme and completed a ‘From Quill To Keyboard’ Web Quest, using Shakespearean images to learn about layering in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In addition to this,Year 8 enjoyed a production of Macbeth by the ManAct Theatre Company whilst a group of Year 10 and 11 students travelled to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to see Romeo and Juliet.

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EAR 7 ICT students took part in the BBC’s 11th annual School Report project, where they learnt to create their own news content and gained an insight into the television news industry. BBC News School Report gives 11-16 year-old students in the UK the chance to make their own news reports for a real audience. Using lesson plans and website materials, and with support from BBC staff and partners, teachers help students develop their journalistic skills to become School Reporters. The Year 7 group visited the BBC studios at MediaCity, Salford and were able to view the Match of the Day studio and the studio used for CBeebies. They also went behind the scenes in the production galleries to see how the production teams put programmes together, and were able to gain hands-on experience of using technical facilities such as sound desks and camera systems.

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ING James’s 15 ‘Young Leaders’ demonstrated their leadership skills by officiating at the finals of the level 3 School Games Pathway competition at Huddersfield Sports Centre.They were acting officials at the sports hall athletic events. Over 500 children took part in the competition. The Yorkshire Sport Foundation, who organized the event, said they were “very impressed” by the professional approach of the Young Leaders.

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group of Year 10 students took part in a day learning about forensic science. Two qualified forensic scientists came in to teach students the importance of finding critical evidence for a criminal investigation and why it is needed. Later, the students created a courtroom to hold their own hearing about the crime they had investigated

Summer Quiz at King James’s

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S announced in the March issue, there will be a special fun Quiz Evening at the School to mark the 40th anniversary of the introduction of comprehensive education at King James’s. The event will be open to students, staff, parents and OAS members. The date will be Thursday, 13th July at 7.00 pm. For further details see our website www.oas.org.uk or you can contact OAS chairman Walter Raleigh (contact details on back cover). 47

QUIZ Summer

Golf: Gothard Cup

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RO BI N ME R C H ANT

LLEN HUMPHRIES was the winner of this year’s Gothard Cup tournament, held on Sunday, 11th June at its traditional home of Woodsome Hall Golf Club. The expected occasional shower held off and we enjoyed a lovely, late afternoon of sunny intervals. This year we had 10 players, two better than last year although we also did have two late cry-offs. The players were Simon Russell, Paul Grant, Robin Sharman, Edward Wetton, Allen Humphries, Tim Roberts, Jon Roberts, Mark Waring, David Parry and myself. Allen was a deserved winner, not only because he is a first-time winner but also due to his fantastic sand play! I witnessed this hole after hole with Allen saving par on four out of the five occasions he was in a green-side bunker. I shall now always refer to him as the ‘sand-man’!

ro b in . m erc h a n t@ta lk ta lk . n et

Winner

Allen Humphries

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Best front 9

Tim Roberts

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2nd place

Best back 9

Jon Roberts Paul Grant

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This year’s special prize, to the player who had travelled the furthest was presented to Mark Waring, who had travelled to join us from another country – Wales!! Woodsome Hall certainly looked after us again: we found the course to be in wonderful condition (particularly the bunkers for one of our players!) and we enjoyed a great meal after the golf. The banter after the golf this year, tended to focus on the wonderful

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(Top): Allen Hump hries (right) receives the Gothard Cup from Robin Merchant (Bottom):Tim Roberts tees off, watched by Edward Wetton and Jonathan Roberts

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exploits of Huddersfield Town and their return to the top league. Too many of us round the table could even remember those heady days of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when they last graced the top flight! After the meal, the School Song was sung and as pointed out to me after, we unfortunately failed to make the chandeliers shake, as Harry Gledhill would have said. We will again be holding the Gothard Cup in mid-June next year and if you think you might enjoy some good company mixed in with some golf do try and join us. n (Top): Mark Waring who had travelled from Wales to take part, watched by Paul Grant (Below left): Jonathan Roberts (Below right): Robin Sharman tees off, with David Parry looking on

Photographs: Andrew Haigh

Badminton

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AND R E W H AIG H

am delighted to report that, following a few years of struggling for numbers, the Badminton Section has enjoyed its most successful season since 2011-12. Although only twelve people played during the season, they have all played regularly. Most weeks, we have had sufficient people playing to have both courts in operation, which is exactly what we need to be viable. We have had nine people playing on quite a number of occasions and there have even been a couple of weeks when we have had ten players, something that we haven’t achieved since 13th October, 2011! We would love more people to come

a n d rew. h a igh @o a s . o rg. u k

along and join us when the new badminton season starts on 7th September. We play in the school sports hall on Thursday evenings during term time from 7.30 p.m. until 9.30 p.m. Because of the better numbers this season, we now pay only ÂŁ5 per evening towards the hire of courts and showers, the purchase of shuttlecocks and the donation of a prize at Speech Day, but with just a few more players, this fee will reduce further. The twelve players who played this season were Matthew Booth, Ian Daffern, Neil Gledhill, Richard Green, Andrew Haigh, Annabel Haigh, Robin Merchant, Emily Murphy, Nicky Murphy, David Parry, Chris Pickles and Craig Watts. n

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Tennis

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AND R E W H AIG H

a n d rew. h a igh @o a s . o rg. u k

week Annabel Haigh, a current Year 8 (2nd Form) pupil, joined us to make up a ‘quorum’ on the doubles court and she won her first service game to love. Some of our regular players, on the other hand, are better known for the large number of deuce points that regularly appear during their service games! Finally, the active part of the evening is always followed by convivial conversation in the Conservative n Club, of course.

HE tennis section is once again enjoying the hospitality and facilities of Longley Tennis Club for the 2017 season. We play there each Thursday evening, weather permitting, from 7.00 p.m. until dusk. The season ends on Thursday, 31st August. The fee, to cover the cost of court hire, balls and showers, is £3.00 for members of Longley Tennis Club and £6.00 for non-members, per person, per evening. Almondburian tennis is purely social and anyone is welcome to join us. Last

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TERRY’S TEASER NO 18 Compiled by Terry Buckley (1948 - 1953)

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Entries to the Editor (address/email: back cover) by 1st October 2017 2

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Prize: 12 months free OAS membership

37. A fit help ordered furthest from the sun (7) 38. Northern fusilier fences badly, to say nothing of injuries (6,2,7)

DOWN 1. Scramble hurriedly back as a means of stopping (9,6) 2. 2002 could be her year (4) 22 23 24 25 26 3. Leather ornithological apparatus (4) 4. Commercial for allotment 1001 fills one with awe (10) 27 28 29 5. Off base (3) 30 31 32 33 34 6. Country where chaps stop in midsong (7) 35 36 37 7. Selfishly law-abiding? (7,3,5) 9. Do the French go to Heaven on bidding farewell? (5) 38 10. Decided to find ‘passenger transport’ in dictionary (5) ACROSS 21. Back in foreign Africa, a small 12. Burlesque mashed veg (3) 1. Hit crisis – swindler meets big amount of ivory (4) 18. 1152-lever decoration (10) fish! (10,5) 22. Third power sweetener (4) 20. 3 points to former name (3) 8. Lozenge did contain a Scotsman (7) 24. Being naughty, end in ruin (10) 21. Distant note is heard (3) 11.Two mothers and a dubious 27. Being boss, suffer in back and in 23. House unfurnisher? (7) housekeeper (5) pelvic region (5) 25. Sphere of the broken heart (5) 13. Steep sauce (3) 29. Youngster seen parking up (3) 26. Move back – put a garland round 14. He’s in the library (3) 30. Being fit, use the parallel bars in the Premier (5) 15. Look both ways (4) reverse (4) 28. Seduced into listening to Heavy 16. Boxer back from Milan (3) 31. Sound hesitant, and wrong (3) Metal!(3) 17. Season for North Pier development (5) 33. Article found in North-East (3) 32. Deserts – Bother! (4) 19. Local facility has the shirt off your 35. Perfect round by pointless 34. Man is a goddess! (4) back! (10) ladies (5) 36. She’s in large vehicle (3) 18

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Name Email Tel

l The winner of Crossword by Hérisson (March 2017) was Peter Tracey

Across 1. Contact 5. Mansion 10. Minx 11. Distribute 12. Pascal 13. Infringe 14. Fibonacci 16. Ruins 17. Nymph 19. Withstand 23. Adherent 24. Coerce 26. Midshipman 27. Ides 28. Shadowy 29. Oysters Down 2. Origami 3.Toxic 4. Cedillla 6. Adrift 7. Sobriquet 8. Octagon 9. A stitch in time 15. Oppressed 18.Yiddish 20. Hockney 21. Nuclear 22. Review 25. Evict

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Postbag

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YO U WRITE …

The breached dam behind the football field

From: Keith Brier (1947-1953)

not uppermost when we were on the last lap to the school. The remnants of an ancient corn/fulling mill at the Woodsome end of Farnley Line is well documented. Behind the goals on the football field, opposite at the far end from Arkenley Lane were the remnants of a breached dam which I believe once supplied water to the mill The comments about the Dinner I can endorse, and would like to add ‘cold plates’ and the limited variety of alcohol available. Assuming BREXIT does not stop us, see you at the Dinner, our year’s 70th anniversary. Holmfirth,WestYorkshire

IRST of all let me say the March edition was probably the best OAS magazine that I have read. It always keeps us informed of the current happenings at the school. The local history comments referring to the TARDIS , property at the bottom of Somerset Road, the Co-op buildings and the Regal Cinema memories! (Even the contribution from fellow 1947’er JMC on printing). Having worked in ‘the mill ‘all my life the item about the Birks Mill was enlightening. I have always been aware of its former life but have never come across photos or details. Like all of us doing cross country, the history was

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…and talking about the Annual Dinner

From: James Clayton (1947-1951)

S this is a big year for the 47’ers, I thought I would send you this photo. Eleven years ago, my son bought this for my 70th birthday. As this year is the 70th year since we started at Almondbury, the number has taken on a new significance. Additionally, the football club have come up trumps for us. If you were to publish this, it may be a timely reminder for our former class members to put the Dinner date in their diaries. I understand there are other 70th anniversaries which coincide with ours, such as the Edinburgh Fringe and, I believe, the NHS, so we are not alone. Norwich, Norfolk

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The spinning jenny – and a little dribbling from Bill Bryson

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From: Rod Sykes (1955-1962)

member Gordon Kaye, though we never met in the classroom. He roamed the corridors in a strange way that attracted attention, a portent perhaps of his latent ability to entertain. However, success came quite late. Something else I meant to mention – I recently read Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling, in which he mentions a friendship he had with Old Almondburian Peter Livesey when they lived in the same Yorkshire Dales village.Though a bit older than me, I remember him at school as a great athlete against whom I hoped never to have to run! He was a member of Longwood Harriers and became an expert rock climber and wrote a book about it. Tragically he died young at the age of only 54. Saint Plancard, France

ANY thanks for another riveting read between the covers of March’s Almondburian. I particularly enjoyed the pieces about old Almondbury, and the history of Birks Mill. Having spent my first 18 years living at the top of St. Helen’s Gate, the area is still very familiar. About 40 years ago I was involved with the establishment of Golcar Museum [now Colne Valley Museum], and had reason to read as much as I could find about the spinning jenny because I wanted to construct a replica jenny (I am pictured operating it below) for the museum. This machine can be seen still in operation at CraftWeekends. I understood from this research that the word ‘jenny’ is a corruption of ‘engine’, and not necessarily connected with any female operative! Although three years my senior, I re-

Colne Valley Museum

l Peter Livesey attended Almondbury Grammar School from 1954 to 1960.

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Article on printing brings back Adana memories

From: David Beach(1958-1966)

RECEIVED The Almondburian yesterday, for which my thanks, and it’s an excellent publication all round. Two memories spring to mind. Firstly, the fascinating item on typesetting and printing. After Albert Makinson left and Bill Chapman took over in the printing room at KJGS I became involved in typesetting and printing and became familiar with the Adana press and the professional style trays of type as shown in the photo on page 51. I seem to remember that Graham Steadman (photo: page 49) was also a printer – he was a very tekkie person and was also involved in the stage lighting and I think radio-ham activities. My memory makes me think he was a member of the Air Training Corps as well. At Horris Hill where I spent my entire teaching career I took on the printing club in1980 and was able to put into good use the knowledge gained at KJGS, including for example type-setting the page for a cricket scorebook! The advent of computer typesetting resulted in a a parent who owned a printing firm donating two more presses and much of the redundant equipment from his business, but it was an Indian Summer and in the end most of the kit was discarded to make space for other things. Secondly, I am reasonably confident that your photo on page 49 is actually the new physics lab, as built into the far end of the old gym. It is clearly not the room which

was underneath the N1 classroom, as that had large windows down the left hand side looking out onto the playground, and also a long side bench which means the door could not have been so close to the corner of the room anyway. The door in the far left of the photo led into the corridor which runs alongside the other classroom inside the shell of the old gym, which was GLB’s Maths Room (where we played chess!) and at the far end of that corridor would be the original changing room area. The work stations in this photo are the new ones fitted in the new lab, with removable sections for when greater access was needed. Funnily, it is quite probably only the camera angle which stops me from being in this photo myself, as it is clearly my form, Transitus Science, presumably autumn 1963, and all the characters are the ones from my year group including John Chapman and Ian Lodge with whom I am in occasional correspondence still. I am guessing another of the staged photos concurrent with the one of the chess group. Amusingly, it is clear that any portable equipment available has been put out for the pupils to be pretending to use – no normal lesson would have had different equipment at every work station. Minehead, Somerset

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l David Beach is quite correct: the photograph was indeed of the new physics lab.We regret the error. Ed.

Obituaries

G O NE BU T NOT F O RG OTTEN

Derek Ibbotson MBE (1943-1949) Popular athletics legend who became known as the ‘four-minute smiler’

passed his 11-plus and took up his place at Almondbury Grammar School on 7th September 1943. Colleagues remember him as a pleasant, quiet pupil – not particularly academic but with a deep love for sport. Running was his speciality - not as a sprinter but as a long distance runner where he could exploit his grit and determination never to be beaten.

Derek Ibbotson was the fastest runner ever to attend King James’s Grammar School, sealing his place in the record books by succeeding Roger Bannister as world record holder for the mile with a time of 3:57.2 seconds in July 1957. Born in Berry Brow in 1932,‘Ibbo’ was the younger of two sons of John, a joiner and coachbuilder for Huddersfield Corporation buses, and his wife, Mabel. He

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In his early years at the School, he was 1955 won the inter-counties three mile clearly still work in progress, beaten into title with a time of 13:59.4. In 1956 he became AAA champion and second place in the School Sports HalfMile Handicap by Terry Haworth (1945- was selected for the Olympic Games in 1950), who must surely have felt great Melbourne in 1956. There he won a pride in his achievement in later years.The bronze medal in the 5000 metres, sharing following year he suffered the indignity of the podium with Vladimir Kuts and Gorbeing beaten in the same race by Alan don Pirie. Derek’s finest achievement was in Pratt (1943-1948). 1957. Three years earlier, Roger BannisHe particularly enjoyed the school ter had become the first cross-country run, though CAREER BEST TIMES man to run the mile in again he did not always under four minutes when come first. In an interview DISTANCE TIME YEAR he returned a time of with The Almondburian in 880yds 1:52.2 1958 3:59.4 at Oxford Univer2007*, he recalled the oc1500m 4:41.9 1957 sity's Iffley Road track. No casion in 1947 when he inBritish runner beat this 3:52.2 1957 advertently took the wrong 11 mile record until Derek’s soturning. “The marshall had 2000m 5:12.8 1955 called ‘miracle mile’ at disappeared for a pee,” he 3000m 8:00.0 1959 White City Stadium in Lonrecalled, still indignant 60 don where he won in 3 2 miles 8:1.2 1957 years after the event. (‘The minutes 57.2 on a cinder trail was hard to follow be- 3 miles 13:20.8 1957 track. En route, he set a cause of a shortage of wood 5000m 13:54.4 1956 British record of 3:41.9 for shavings,’ the school maga6 miles 28:52.0 1955 the 1500 metres. Derek ran zine later reported diploin the Commonwealth matically). To his credit, the Games of 1958 in Cardiff and 1962 in unfazed Ibbotson turned back and came Perth. very close to catching up the winner, He set up two records which are David Hinchliffe (1942-1948). greatly appreciated by lovers of pub Although a keen runner at school, quizzes. At White City in 1958 he became Derek’s first love was Longwood Harrithe first man literally to run a four minute ers, the running and athletics club origimile with a time of 4:00.0. The following nally set up at St Mark’s Church, year, he achieved another novel distincLongwood in 1888. A lifetime member of tion, completing a 3000 metre race in the club, he supported it enthusiastically 8:00.0. throughout his life. Derek worked for the electrical firm Derek wasYorkshire junior mile chamPlessey for many years, combining his runpion between 1949 and 1951. He served ning career with full-time employment his National Service in the RAF and in _____________________________ and still finding time for his punishing *https://goo.gl/66EHMn training schedules. His first wife Madeline, 58

who later married squash star Jonah Barrington, was second in the WAAA Mile in 1962 and 1963.They had three daughters, Christine, Nicola and Georgina. He later married Ann, and they had one daughter Joanna. He spent the latter part of his life with partner Lynette. A cheerful long-time member of the Old Almondburians’ Society who earned himself the nickname the ‘smiler miler’, Derek Ibbotson passed away in a care home near Wakefield, having suffered from dementia in recent years. Roger Dowling l Richard Taylor (1954-1962), a close neighbour in Derek Ibbotson’s home town Ossett adds: During my time at King James’s Grammar School the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships were held at School. I seem to remember that they did two or three laps of the school grounds and adjacent fields (no roads as in the school races) and a very muddy Derek Ibbotson came in first. I remember his world record mile (with a constant reminder from the very fine photograph in the cricket pavilion) and his Bronze medal in the steeplechase at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. I have handled the medal on a visit to Derek after he

came to live in Ossett. On the record mile, readers may recall the video at the Old Almondburians’ Society 400th Anniversary Dinner. in 2008 when the whole race was shown.The whole room fell silent until, at the end, there was a spontaneous outbreak of applause. Derek admitted to being deeply moved by the reaction. In my rugby playing days at Huddersfield at the old Waterloo ground we trained on a field where Morrisons now stands. Derek, his athletics career now over, came and trained with us on several occasions. I think I can safely say he would never have made much of a rugby player, but my word, could he run! His non stop running at high speed was a revelation. At this time in his life he had taken up squash and I believe played at county standard. I got to know Derek quite well in the later years of his life when he had moved to Ossett. It was rather sad to see such a great athlete crippled with arthritis, eventually doing his shopping on crutches, but he remained cheerful. George Derek Ibbotson MBE, born 17th June 1932, died 23rd February 2017.

Phillip Denley Davies (1941-1946) Old Almondburian who courageously fought off three Post Office robberies Phillip Denley Davies was born in Almondburian to the end. After leaving 1930 in Dalton, son of George Denley school, he went to work for his father’s and Annie Davies. He was followed by grocery business G D Davies & Sons in two younger brothers, Glyn and Roger. 1946. This was originally on Cloth Hall The family moved to Marsh, then Street, and then later moved to Dundas Berry Brow. Phillip went to Almond- Street in Huddersfield town centre. bury Grammar School on 8th SeptemPhillip did two years’ National Servber 1941 and remained a proud Old ice from 1948 to 1950, based at RAF 59

Hornchurch. There he played centre half at football for RAF Hornchurch and Emerson Park Town. Upon his return, he played for the Old Almondburians in the Old Boys League and the District League. Phillip met his future wife, Margaret Mahon, in 1951. Her father, John Mahon, owned a tailor shop next door to the family business on Cloth Hall Street. After a seven year courtship, Phillip and Margaret were married on 22nd January 1958 at Holy Trinity Church. They settled in Fartown where they took over the Post Office and opened a second branch of G D Davies & Sons which they ran for 41 years. His two brothers joined him at the Fartown business in 1983. Phillip fought off three separate robberies at the Post Office, two of which were thwarted. In the second one he was injured and required hospitalisation. He received a medal of honour from the Post Office for his bravery. The three brothers retired in 1998 and sold the business. Along with his father and brothers, Phillip was an active member of the Huddersfield Grocers’ Association. He was secretary of the Association from 1953, and held the post for over 25 years. He was President of the Hudder-

sfield Chamber of Trade in 1966. He was also a governor of Ashbrow School. Margaret and Phillip shared a love of classical music. Phillip taught himself to play the piano in the RAF. He also loved golf and used to play on Wednesday afternoons at Woodsome Hall Golf Club, when the post office and shop were closed for the afternoon. Phillip loved watching all sports, especially rugby union, snooker, cricket and football. Margaret and Phillip were avid supporters of Huddersfield Town FC and used to go to the matches once they were retired until they were no longer physically able. Sadly, Margaret passed away in 2009. He attended a weekly U3A Music Ap60

preciation Society at Gledholt Methodist Church and attended Huddersfield Pennine Probus Club, where he enjoyed the speakers and intellectual minds of his co-members. Phillip greatly enjoyed the Thursday Night Quiz at the Marsh Conservative Club, forming an often winning team. The winners would compile the next week’s quiz and he enjoyed doing this task very much! He was first diagnosed with cancer in 2007, and he had a kidney removed. Phillip fought a long, hard battle against

various forms of cancer. He had a lobe of his lung removed in 2013. His renal cancer sadly returned in January 2015. Phillip leaves three children, Mark, Julie and Alison, and five grandchildren Robert, Rebecca, Ryan, Ellen & Jamie. As he wished, Phillip passed away peacefully in his sleep, at home, surrounded by his children. His funeral took place at Huddersfield Crematorium on 2nd February 2017. Mark Davies

Phillip Denley Davies, born 6th May 1930, died 25th January 2017.

Joyce Lillie Hudson (widow of Fred Hudson) ‘Soapy’ Hudson’s wife who was a friend to the School throughout her long life

Joyce Hudson, widow of former King James’s Grammar School geography teacher and deputy headmaster Fred ‘Soapy’ Hudson, passed away peacefully at Burley Hall Nursing Home on 19th March 2017 in her 98th year. Although not strictly an Old Almondburian, along with other staff wives like Jessica Taylor and Joan Bareham she made significant contributions to the life of the School and the Old Almondburians’ Society. Brought up in Great Horton, Bradford, Joyce – a bright scholar – went to Hull Teacher Training College. During the course she volunteered as a ‘fire watcher’ in the Auxiliary Fire Service when World War 2 broke out and the relationship with Fred, a dashing RAF flight lieutenant, developed. Joyce accepted his proposal of marriage on the banks of the Strid at Bolton Abbey on

her 21st birthday but they waited 5 years until he was demobbed before being married. She saved enough ration coupons to be able to wear a wonderful white velvet, medieval styled gown, which was eventually dyed orange and used by a King James’s Grammar School boy in one of the Shakespearean plays! Married life began in Almondbury and Fred’s promotion to the School’s youngest deputy head coincided with the birth of daughter, Ann. Joyce supported Fred in the School community particularly in helping with costumes and make-up for the Gilbert & Sullivan productions. Her favourite story was of the time a visiting dignitary was shocked to find ‘girls’ in the boys’ toilets when, in fact, they were first and second formers comprising the girls’ chorus in The Mikado. Such was the high standard of costumes and make-up!

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She was also involved with baking for garden parties and cricket teas, helping with school trips, sports days and scout barbeques (before most folk had even heard of them). Within the OAS she would accompany Fred to the many social activities and always welcomed ‘old boys’ and staff to their home, maintaining contact with many throughout her long life. Away from KJGS, Joyce was a key part of the church community through Young Wives socials, Mothers’ Union activities and becoming the first female church warden at All Hallows. She accompanied Fred on geographical society outings and also on archaeological digs especially in the Castle Hill area. A great nature enthusiast, Joyce loved the wild flowers, birds and insect life in the Almondbury countryside. She was a good cook and baker, an accomplished needlewoman and shared her husband’s love of classical music. Joyce enjoyed a nostalgic tour of Canada with Fred, as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, visiting places last seen in his wartime service and in connection with his best-selling text books. In the late 50s she returned to teach-

ing and some Almondburians will fondly remember being taught by her at Almondbury County Junior School in Southfield Road before moving up to KJGS. She eventually returned to teaching her best subject, biology, at Huddersfield Girls High School before taking early retirement and enjoying 20 years of happy retired life with Fred. After 48 years in Almondbury they joined their family in Otley and soon became fully involved in their new local community. Sadly only 3 years later Fred died suddenly in 1993. Joyce retained her strong Christian faith and a positive attitude on life, taking a keen interest in her grandchildren and even managed a visit to France to meet her first great grandchild as a baby prior to dementia taking hold of her life. Her final years were difficult but comfortable as she was well cared for in the nursing home. Whilst Fred’s enormous lifelong contribution to King James’s Grammar School is legendary, Joyce’s busy and dedicated supporting role will also rightly go down in the annals of our School. Ann Walker/Keith Crawshaw Joyce Lillie Hudson, born 29th June 1919, died 19th March 2017 62

King James’s in Words and Pictures

THE HISTORY OF KING JAMES’S GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN ALMONDBURY

Gerald Hinchliffe’s detailed formal history of King James’s Grammar School from 1547 to 1963 384pp, hardback

£10

P&P UK £2.50 EUROPE £4.50 REST OF WORLD £7.75

AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF KING JAMES’S SCHOOL IN ALMONDBURY

Full-colour illustrated history of the School from 1547 to 2008, the 400th anniversary of the charter granted by James I 112pp, hardback

£10

P&P UK £2.50 EUROPE £5.25 REST OF WORLD £9.25

MORNING ASSEMBLY Daily Prayers for a Yorkshire School

An account of the life of former headmaster Harry Taylor, with his unique compilation of prayers for use in school assembly 104pp, hardback

£10

P&P UK £1.30 EUROPE £2.70 REST OF WORLD £4.30

FLOREAT SCHOLA!

Full-length colour DVD in which former teacher JACK TAYLOR tells the story of King James’s School through video clips, photographs and recorded interviews. Running time: 87 minutes; PAL, 16 x 9 format

£15

P&P UK £FREE EUROPE £1.00 REST OF WORLD £1.50

400TH ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND

Full-length colour DVD of the anniversary celebrations, produced specially for us by Yorkshire Video Arts. Running time: 97 minutes; PAL, 16 x 9 format

£15

P&P UK £FREE EUROPE £1.00 REST OF WORLD £1.50

Order online at www.oas.org.uk or by post from Andrew Haigh, R D Haigh & Co, Oakhill Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 1SN. (Cheque payable to the Old Almondburians’ Society).

Chairman WALTER RALEIGH 15 Thorpe Lane, Almondbury HD5 8TA Tel: 01484 308452 Email: walter.raleigh@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

Website: www.oas.org.uk

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3ykffo3

The Almondburian is distributed to OAS members free of charge. Price to non-members: £3.00