The Almondburian: March 2020

The ALMONDBURIAN

THE MAGAZINE OF THE OLD ALMONDBURIANS’ SOCIETY

(Opposite):

This drawing of the Chemistry lab with rooms N1 and N2 above was by Peter T Meal who attended King James’s Grammar School from 1934 to 1939. In the foreground is the ‘Big Tree’, the felling of which under mysterious circumstances in 1997 was the subject of considerable controversy.

The ALMONDBURIAN

Editor: Roger Dowling March 2020

The magazine of The Old Almondburians’ Society

A word from your Chairman

WALTER RALEIGH

MAY I welcome you to our first magazine of a new decade – I do hope you enjoy it.

As we begin 2020 I feel the Society is in rude health and our links with the School are as strong as they have been since the days of Alan Conley. This is primarily down to the work of the Principal, Ian Rimmer and Abbi Terry, one of the Assistant Heads, and we thank them for all they have done

to cement and develop this relationship.

This is, of course, an important year in the history of our Society. It is the year in which we celebrate the centenary of the Old Almondburians’ Society after it was re-formed following the devastation of the First World War. The committee have been busy putting together a programme of events to celebrate this anniversary. We can confirm our plans for the Annual Dinner

have taken a step forward with David Morphet accepting our invitation to speak. David (1951-58) was an outstanding student who went on to read English at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He later had a distinguished career in the Civil Service. I’m sure he will have some memories of the School in the 1950s! To respond to his toast we are at present shortlisting a number of students who attended the School since it became a comprehensive. I hope to have more news on this for the next issue.

Another exciting piece of news is that we’re planning to produce a new book to mark the centenary. Its title is No beating about the Bush and it is a fascinating final-year diary compiled (unknown to me and my colleagues!) by Dave Bush during his final year at King James’s School in 1995/96. To make the book possible we are now seeking initial subscribers whose names will of course be acknowledged in the book: see the announcement on page 36 of this issue. If, like me, you are intrigued to learn more about what used to happen ‘behind the scenes’ at King James’s 25 years ago, do subscribe using the slip enclosed with this issue or apply online at www.oas.org.uk/book.php.

One of the most disappointing things since I took office is the lack of progress in cataloguing our Archives. We have certainly moved on from when they were simply in boxes in a store room at the back of Dave Bush’s office but my aim to have them digitised so all members could access this wonderful store of information from home is still a pipe dream.

However, I can report there is progress. Following our conversations with the West Yorkshire Archive Service for the Heritage Weekends I am pleased to announce that they will be taking over the cataloguing of the archive material this year. We believe it will take about three years to complete, at no cost to School or the Society. Once completed the WYAS have promised to help us apply for funding to digitise the archive. For me and the Committee this is really exciting progress.

On the subject of the archives, Ian Rimmer has suggested producing a book of photographs from the Archives. We all thought this a great idea until we looked at the logistics of doing this. It will take time and no-one on the Committee felt they had the time to research all the photographs in the Archive in order to produce such a book as a longer term project. I am, therefore, seeking any members of the Society, ideally local, who would like to get involved with this project. Please contact me if you are available and interested.

And finally, as a result of the work of Roger Dowling and Christopher Mann some newly minted Dartmouth Medals will be presented to the outstanding boy and girl student at King James’s from this year onwards (see article on page 33).

It is fitting in our centenary year to bring this award back and we must, of course, again thank the Earl of Dartmouth for his considerable financial contribution which has made this possible.

ANDREW HAIGH

SINCE the last magazine was published, we have been delighted to welcome five new members to the Society:

l Harvey Smith (1948-1956), from Birstall,

l Andrew Battye (1979-1982), from Almondbury,

l Gary Hodgson (1979-1983), from Lepton,

l Andrew Wortley (1965-1970), from Waterloo, and

l David Malcolm Lee (1946-1951), from Birkby

Sadly, we have learned of two deaths:

l Robert Ian Chappell (1934-39), from York, and

l David Michael Earnshaw (1954-59), from Farndon, Cheshire.

For the few members who do not

pay their subscriptions by standing order, please remember that your £10.00 subscription for 2019-2020 fell due on 1st September last year.

Thank you to those who have recently brought their subscription up to date; however, if you do receive a letter with this magazine pointing out that your subscription is not up-to-date, please do send your payment without delay.

It does make life much easier if you can complete the updated standing order mandate that accompanies the letter and return it in the envelope provided.

Alternatively, 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.

Dates of Executive Committee Meetings, 2020

Executive Committee meetings are usually held on the first Monday of the month, although there is no meeting in August, nor in April this year due to the Easter holidays. 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 February

Monday, 2nd March

Monday, 4th May

Monday, 1st June

Monday, 6th July

Monday, 7th September

Monday, 5th October

Monday, 2nd November

Monday, 7th December

Executive Committee meetings are currently being held at School in the ODH at 6.00 pm.

Old Almondburians’ Society Calendar

QUIZ EVENING

The annual Old Almondburians’ Society Quiz will be held in the upstairs room at The Woolpack, Almondbury, on Wednesday, 13th May, at 7.00 p.m. for a 7.30 pm.prompt start.

We require eight teams of three or four members and their guests. It would be appreciated if teams could be entered in advance, although you are most welcome to turn up on the night and participate in what is always a very enjoyable evening. Quizmaster, as always, will be Keith Crawshaw.

GOLF

The Gothard Cup competition will take place on Sunday, 5th July at Woodsome Hall from 3.00 pm. It will be followed by a meal and presentation of prizes. If you enjoy a game of golf and a chance to catch up with some old schoolmates, do come and join in. For further details, please contact Robin Merchant: robin.merchant@talktalk.net.

BADMINTON

Played in the School sports hall every Thursday evening during term time between 7.30 pm.and 9.30 pm.until Thursday, 21st May and then again from Thursday, 3rd September. Afterwards we go for a drink in Almondbury Conservative Club.

TENNIS

Played at Longley Community Sports Club on Thursday evenings between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm from Thursday, 4th June until Thursday, 27th August. Afterwards we go for a drink in Almondbury Conservative Club.

ANNUAL DINNER

This year’s Annual Dinner is a very special one, since it marks the centenary of the founding of the Old Almondburians’ Society in its present form. The dinner will be held on Saturday, 21st November and full details, together with an application form for tickets, will appear in the next issue of the magazine.

It is always good to see members making a special effort to stage a re-union of their year at the dinner and such occasions are always enjoyable, so those with a special anniversary this year, members of the classes of 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 1995, 2000 or 2010 for example or, indeed, anyone else who takes a notion to do so, should consider starting to organise their class re-union earlier rather than later.

FOUNDERS’ DAY

The traditional Founders’ Day service will be held the day after the Annual Dinner, on Sunday 22nd November. Full details will be announced in a later magazine. There are also plans for a new Friday afternoon event (see page 15).

From the study

Ofsted introduced yet another inspection ‘framework’ in September 2019.After a two-day inspection undertaken in November by four inspectors, King James’s was confirmed to be a ‘Good’ school.

IAN RIMMER

YOU may have heard that, in November, the School was once again inspected by Ofsted, the schools’ inspection service.The role of Ofsted has been debated for much time and each person’s view of the organisation and its processes may be determined to some extent by their connection to a school or the education system more generally. Most now agree, however, that the stakes associated with an Ofsted inspection these days are far too high, with the resultant pressure passed on to Headteachers and their staff. It is no exaggeration to suggest that heads roll, or rather that Heads’ heads roll, if the process does not go well.

Before 2005 each school was inspected for a week every six years, with two months’ notice to prepare. In 2005 a new system of inspections came into being; generally two/three-day visits every three years, with two days’ notice.They focussed on how well the school was managed, and what processes were in place to ensure standards of teaching and learning improve. After an inspection, Ofsted published a re-

port and, in addition to written comments, schools were assessed on a 4-point scale:

l 1 Outstanding

l 2 Good

l 3 Satisfactory

l 4 Inadequate.

Schools rated ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Good’ might not be inspected again for five years, while schools judged less favourably were inspected more frequently, and might receive little or no notice of inspection visits.

January 2012 saw the introduction of a new framework, which itself was replaced in September 2012. Among other changes, the ‘Satisfactory’ category was relabelled as ‘Requires improvement’, with an expectation that schools should not remain at that level.

The latest framework was introduced from September 2019. This new framework, with less emphasis placed on final GCSE results and more on the quality of what is happening in school day after day, has been welcomed by many in the profession. Even colleagues who have had a result that wasn’t

good, say Ofsted helped, whereas under the old regime it was always “we’ve been done over”.

But even with these improvements, many concerns remain. Can a reliable judgement, from which so much is decided and on which so much depends, really be made in two days? Inspectors have to make significant, complex judgements about a school in a very short space of time with limited evidence upon which to draw. Inevitably incorrect conclusions are made. And in order to ensure that inspectors have all the available evidence (being “Ofsted-ready”), schools are then generating sig nificant additional workload. Because the implications of dropping a grade can be so high, in terms of additional inspections, falling school rolls and staff recruitment difficulties to name but three, headteachers’ reaction can be one of panic and vulnerability. This can lead to a ‘tick-box’ culture, where compliance with what Ofsted is perceived to want has become the overwhelming driver of improvement activity. The gradings, which no doubt are all that most look at, are the problem.

Quality of Education Behaviour and Attitudes

Personal Development Leadership and Management

So, despite all of what has been stated above, how did we get on, I hear you ask!

Well, if I may go back a step first, you may recall that on 3rd October last year, the School underwent a short inspection and retained its status of being a ‘Good’ school. However, given potential concerns over a couple of areas, which the team did

not have time to explore fully, a new team would return within one to two years to complete a more thorough inspection. On this occasion, we could be given any one of the four available grades (as above). So when the call came at 11.00 am on Monday, 4th November the stakes were high. This time a 90-minute phone call with the lead inspector set out the key lines of enquiry for the inspection proper, which would be undertaken by a team of four over two days. I could not begin to reflect adequately, in the space available, the degree of scrutiny under which systems and staff are placed. In summary, meetings with key senior team leads and the chosen heads of faculty (Science, English, Modern Foreign Languages and Art, Design & Business) set up Day One’s examination of the Quality of Education. Lesson observations and scrutiny of students’ work followed and meetings with selected children and their teachers completed that part of the process. Meanwhile discussions with key staff on Safeguarding, the Curriculum and Pastoral issues also took place. On Day Two, further meetings with staff including some focussing on Special Educational Needs, Pupil Premium (support for those children from disadvantaged backgrounds), Behaviour and Attitudes as well as Personal Development.

At the end of the process, a two-hour meeting (to which I was invited but could

GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD

How do we compare with other schools nationally?

Using overall national figures, 55% of schools are, like KJS, currently rated ‘Good’. However, the distribution of grades according to areas of deprivation paints a different picture (right). 36% of schools in least deprived areas are graded ‘Outstanding’ compared with 14% in deprived areas. It’s not a level playing field.

take no part) saw the inspectors discussing their findings and coming to conclusions over the gradings. I say gradings, as four areas were considered: Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development and Leadership and Management. I am delighted to report that all four were graded as ‘Good’, leading to an Overall Effectiveness grade of ‘Good’. As ever there are areas for development, which this time were identified as:

l As a result of leaders’ actions, the subjects where pupils were making less progress have improved. However, leaders know that there is still work to do to ensure that the improvements noted result in improved GCSE results in the relatively weaker subject areas.

l Improvements in the provision for disadvantaged pupils are clear. However,

this focus must continue, to ensure that the achievement of disadvantaged pupils leaving the school matches more closely that of their peers.

l Leaders work hard to support pupils who struggle with their behaviour and, as a result, overall exclusions are low and only used as a last resort. However, leaders must continue to reduce further the number of disadvantaged pupils who are excluded from School.

It was lovely to read, amongst many other very positive comments, that the inspectors felt “The School is a caring place in which pupils feel safe and secure. Pupils, parents and carers told us about the family atmosphere in the school. We agree.”

You can find the full report here: https://tinyurl.com/yeytdvrq. n

MOST DEPRIVED AREAS

AVERAGE AREAS (INC KJS)

LEAST DEPRIVED AREAS

The Almondburian Poets

THE death of Sir Winston Churchill on 24th January 1965 was too big an event not to be recorded in the pages of The Almondburian. Its Spring issue carried this thoughtful tribute by sixth former Eric Roberts.

Winston Spencer Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in 1874 and received his early education at Harrow School before joining the Army in 1893. In 1900 he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative MP. He was British prime minister from 19401945 and again from 1951-1955, and is best remembered for successfully leading Britain through World War Two. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.

Churchill received a state funeral and was interred in the graveyard of St Martin’s Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire.

The author of the poem, Eric James Roberts, attended King James’s Grammar School from 1958-65 and had a successful career in journalism.

He started life at the South Yorkshire Times and moved to the Yorkshire Post where he became deputy features editor.

THREE MONTHS AFTER

The blood does not flow through his body, But this is no cause for despair. Yet the toil of those ancient pall-bearers, Whose tribute was just being there, And the tears from the high and the lowly As the great man was carried to rest

And the sweat on the brows of those eight grenadiers, Cannon sounding, were almost the last souvenirs

Of the great man and of all his ninety full years. His bequest

To a nation with perpetual groundless fears Was courage indomitable: come to our ears

His great words?

They buried him deep down in Bladon, But deep in our hearts is his soul

Of pure courage, deep wisdom and genius; But avails not his gift to the whole Of the free world? Do we really care?

The fight now must be only in peace

As we remember the damage that war must do To the men who follow such leaders through All the slaughter that was so imperative to Our release

From the tyrant whose guns could have still threatened you But for him; yet corroding they remind anew. Do we herds Forget?

The

Almondburian

E J Roberts, 6 Arts

, Spring term

1965

Founders’ Weekend 2019

ANDREW HAIGH

IN the 99th year of the Old Almondburians’ Society, over 70 members and guests gathered for the Annual Dinner on 23rd November, 2019. Those attending spanned a period of seventy-three years, from those who entered the school in 1946 to those currently students and staff in 2019.

The prize for attendance this year goes to Simon Russell, who organised a table of ten former footballers as well as some former cricketers. A special mention is also due to Gary Croft, who last year organised a table of twelve for the fiftieth anniversary reunion of his Class of 1968. They had such a good time that he decided to follow it up this year and six of the Class of 1968 were there

again, making them the largest single year group for the second consecutive year. Unusually, we had no overseas member there this year, so the prize for making the best effort to attend goes to Rodney Walker (1951-1959), who now lives in Torquay. One other notable attendee, a guest of Richard Taylor, was Charlie Taylor, Captain of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club Under 12 A team and great-grandson of Harry Taylor.

On arrival, tours of the School were available to those who wanted one, conducted by one of the current students, before everyone took their seats and welcomed our top table guests: Ian Rimmer, Principal of the School; Matt Mills, Chairman of Gover-

Good turnout: the scene in the School hall at the 2019 Annual Dinner

nors; Ben Martin, Head Boy; Eve Haigh, Head Girl; Dr Judy Hirst

FRS, FRSC, Guest Speaker and Walter Raleigh, Chairman of the Society.

Christine Stocks and her team from the School kitchen served an excellent meal. To start, they offered a choice of leek and potato soup or fresh melon & prosciutto ham with mixed salad leaves. The main course was a choice of steak, mushroom and Irish stout pie, poached salmon with Hollandaise sauce, or a vegetarian dish, all served with creamed potatoes, baby new potatoes, garden peas, baton carrots and red cabbage. For dessert there was a choice of vanilla and blackcurrant cheesecake, strawberry pavlova, or rhubarb crumble with fresh cream. The meal was followed by coffee or tea and after dinner mints.

Following the meal and the toast to The Queen, our guest speaker, Dr Hirst, gave a very interesting and entertaining summary of her career to date, starting with her years at King James’s School from 1985-1988, be-

fore proposing the Toast to the School. An excellent response, with lots of news from the School today, was given by the current Head Boy, Ben Martin.The Toast to the Society was proposed by the current Principal of the School, Ian Rimmer and the response

Principal guest speaker: Dr Judy Hirst

Speakers (from top):

KJS Principal Ian Rimmer, Head Boy Ben Martin; OAS Chairman Walter Raleigh

was by Walter Raleigh, Chairman of the Society. After a rousing rendition of the School Song, the formal part of the evening concluded at 10:45 pm, allowing plenty of time for guests to mingle and reminisce further before the bar closed.

Organising the Annual Dinner at the School involves a lot of work and, of course, it rarely goes smoothly! We often borrow round tables for the event from the John Smith’s Stadium but, because Huddersfield Town were at home to Birmingham City in the afternoon, none were available this year. I therefore hired some from a company in Bradford which we have used on previous occasions when there has been a home fixture on the same day as our dinner. However, when I arrived on Friday evening, I found no sign of any tables having been delivered. Therefore, my daughter Eleanor, a currentYear 8 student who was with me, and I were forced to spend a couple of hours emptying three classrooms of their desks and arranging them as best we could!

I am also very grateful to Simon Russell, who came in to School on Saturday morning and helped to finalise the arrangement of the tables, set out the chairs, set up the bar, wash the glasses and even provided some additional tablecloths which were required due to the tables being a different shape! In fact, thanks are due to many people. Firstly, to the School for allowing us to use the premises and, in particular to the Premises Manager, Keith Ramsden, for his help in all kinds of ways.To Christine Stocks and her team for preparing a most enjoyable meal.To Old Almondburian Nick Briggs, of Mallinson’s Brew-

Continued on page 15

Surname Forename From To Travel from

Ainley Richard 1968 1976 Derby

Atkinson Liz. Staff Almondbury

Atkinson Liz. Guest

Battye Andrew 1979 1982 Almondbury

Bedford Godfrey 1949 1957 Honley

Bradley Peter 1948 1953 Bristol

Bradley David 1946 1952 Leeds

Brawn Mandy 1974 1976 Highburton

Broadbent John 1948 1954 Golcar

Broadbent Jean Guest Golcar

Broadhead Anthony 1968 1975 Lepton

Brook Robert 1966 1973 Alton, Hampshire

Brook Jeffrey 1947 1952 Almondbury

Calvert Millie Head

Dep Head Girl

Croft Gary 1968 1975 Almondbury

Davidson Robert 1968 1976 Uxbridge

Douglas Andrew 1963 1970 Fenay Bridge

Dowling Roger 1952 1959 Lymm, Cheshire

Dyson David 1968 1975 Oakes

Earles David 1947 1952 New Mill

Earles Patricia Guest New Mill

Earnshaw Mark 1976 1977 Thongsbridge

Field Robert Staff 1989 Kirkheaton

Surname Forename From To Travel from Hoyle Michael 1969 1972 Honley

Hussain Numaan D.

Dep Head Boy

Jepson Roger 1962 1969 Netherthong

Lee David 1946 1951 Birkby

Lightowlers Michael Guest

Lijka Maria 1974 1976 Stainland

Mallinson Dr R.F. 1955 1962 Stourbridge

Mallinson Jacky Guest Stourbridge

Martin Ben Head

Head Boy

Melling Angela Staff 2015 Bradley

Mills Matthew Ch. Of

Chairman of Board of Governors

Milnes H Graeme 1957 1965 Cardiff

Morrison David 1967 1970 Chigwell

Nash Brian 1964 1972 Cheadle Hulme

Norris Douglas 1961 1969 Lascelles Hall

O'Brien Patrick Staff 2013 Almondbury

Raleigh Walter Almondbury

Rimmer Ian

OAS Chair

Principal

Royle Prof Edward 1955 1962 York

Russell Simon 1964 1972 Thongsbridge

Searby Richard 1976 1979 Lepton

Sharp John 1951 1958 Leighton Buzzard

Shaw Dr Philip 1964 1971 Almondbury

Flatley-Holst Libby D. Lepton

Dep Head Girl

French Andrew 1968 1975 Durham

Green Richard 1957 1963 Netherthong

Green Nicole Staff 2010 Netherthong

Haigh Andrew 1977 1983 Almondbury

Haigh Eve Head

Head Girl

Hazle Christine Staff 1999 Thongsbridge

Headey David 1953 1958 Thurstonland

Heptonstall David 1949 1957 Matlock

Heptonstall E. Guest Matlock

Herbert Rev David 1969 1974 Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Hirst Dr. Judy 1985 1988 Cambridge

Hodgson Gary 1979 1983 Lepton

Sykes Graham Guest

Sykes Stuart

Taylor Dennis 1961 1969 Chesterfield

Taylor Richard 1954 1962 Ossett

Taylor Tim Guest

Taylor Charlie Guest

Teale Richard 1961 1968 Thongsbridge

Thompson Stuart 1949 1956 Cheadle

Thompson Helen Guest Cheadle

Walker Rodney 1951 1959 Torquay

Williams Robert 1964 1970 Bradley

Wortley Andrew 1965 1970 Waterloo

ery in Lockwood, for supplying the beer, and to Tim Marriott, of Taste Fine Wines in Almondbury, for supplying the other drinks. To teacher of Integrated Studies, Liz. Atkinson and her daughter, for their sterling work behind the bar. To the Head Boy and Head Girl, Ben Martin and Eve Haigh, and their deputies, Numaan Hussain, Millie Calvert and Libby Flatley-Holst, for conducting tours of the School before the meal, for selling raffle tickets with ruthless efficiency afterwards and for being such fine ambassadors for King James’s School. They were so good at selling raffle tickets that the raffle raised an impressive £271.25, comfortably beating last year’s amount, despite there being slightly fewer people at the dinner this year. Thank you to our speakers, Dr Judy Hirst, Ben Martin and Ian Rimmer. A huge thank you to my twin daughters, Charlotte and Eleanor, who are both inYear 8 and who came back in to school with me after the Founders’ Day service on the Sunday to help put all those tables back into classrooms ready for Monday morning!

Finally, a big thank you to all the Almondburians who attended and supported the Annual Dinner.This year’s dinner must have been a great success, because I received more positive feedback on the evening, at Founders’ Day and afterwards, than for many years, so thank you all for that.

Next year sees the centenary of the Old Almondburians’ Society, so the 2020 dinner will be a very special one. It will be held on Saturday, 21st November, so put the date in your diary now and let’s have a full house!

Founders’ Day

The Head Boy, Ben Martin, and Deputy Head Boy, Numaan Hussain, led the Chairman of the Society, Walter Raleigh, and a group of Old Almondburians and current pupils in the traditional procession up St Helen’s Gate to All Hallows’ Church for the Founders’ Day Service at 11.30 am.

The service this year was led by the Rector of Almondbury, Rev Mark Zammit, one of his final services before he left the rectory for pastures new in the Diocese of Lincoln.

Music from the School was provided by vocalist Anna Walkington accompanied by Imogen David on the piano, who put on an excellent performance of My HeartWill Go On by Celine Dion and For Good, from Wicked, The Musical.

The lessons were read by the Head Boy, Ben Martin, and the Deputy Head Boy, Numaan Hussain, and the Address was by Rev. Mark Zammit.The service ended with the school song, of course, and was followed by refreshments in the Church Hall provided by Hilary Pollard, to whom we were most grateful. n

l Consideration is being given to holding an additional Founders’ Day service on the Friday afternoon before the Annual Dinner, so that the School can be more directly involved.We’ll be announcing further details in the next issue of The Almondburian and online at www.oas.org.uk.

Charlie Taylor, Captain of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club Under 12 A team, with Richard Taylor

Annual General Meeting

6th January 2020

The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at ‘The Woolpack’, Almondbury, on Monday, 6th January 2020, at 7.30 pm.

Attendance

Walter Raleigh (chair)

Keith Crawshaw

Andrew Haigh

Apologies for Absence

Chris West

Richard Taylor

Roger Dowling, Edward Royle, Ian Rimmer, Peter Tracey, Peter Warry and Graeme Carby

The Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting

The minutes of the meeting held on held on Monday, 7th January 2019, were read and approved and there were no matters arising.

Chairman’s Report

Walter Raleigh thought that it had been another good year for the Society. Relations with the School are as good as they have been for many years and a number of initiatives have been completed.

The reintroduction of the Dartmouth Medal will take place in 2020 as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the Society, thanks to the hard work and tenacity of Roger Dowling and Christopher Mann.

We again opened the School for the Heritage Open Day, which was another resounding success, thanks to Abbi Terry and the Senior Students who showed people around. During that event, I spoke to the gentleman from the West Yorkshire Archive Service, who had brought the charter back for the day. This conversation resulted in an offer to catalogue the archives. This is expected to take up to three years, after which work on digitising the archive can begin.

Another way in which we have helped the School this year has been to promote reading through the provision of a leather bookmark for all students at the request of the English Department.

The Quiz Evening was another wonderful social event, for which we are grateful to Keith Crawshaw.

So, we have a good base on which to build as we look forward to celebrating the Society’s Centenary and explore different ways of celebrating it, not least at the Annual Dinner in November at which David Morphet has agreed to speak.

Treasurer’s Report

Keith Crawshaw presented the accounts for the financial year ended 31st August, 2019, noting that there has been a small fall in subscription income, which is happening every year. The cost of producing and distributing the magazine now accounts for 75% of subscription income, up from 70% in the previous year, but we are still striking a good balance. We have paid for items for the School totalling £1,078, resulting in an excess of income over expenditure for the year of 37p!

Richard Taylor proposed that the accounts were approved, and they were approved unanimously.

Membership Secretary’s Report

Andrew Haigh reported that, at the end of the last financial year, membership stood at 468. He noted that last year had been quite busy on the membership front, with five new members being recruited and another seven former members resubscribing. Sadly, these numbers had been offset by the deaths of thirteen longstanding members.

Subscription rate for the Financial Year commencing 1st September 2020

Following on from his Treasurer’s report, Keith Crawshaw said that he doesn’t want us to increase the subscription rate before we have to, and we are alright at the moment. However, he felt that the subscription rate for overseas members is an issue. The Secretary agreed, noting that the 5% of members who live abroad account for 23% of the postage costs for the magazine. Indeed, the postage cost of sending the magazine to Europe three times per year accounts for almost all of a member’s £10.00 subscription, whilst sending the magazine to other parts of the world three times per year costs significantly more than the £10.00 subscription rate, resulting in a loss to the Society. However, the Secretary was keen to point out that one member recognises this and voluntarily pays a subscription of £20.00 per year, whilst another takes the magazine by email. Indeed, there are UK members who also voluntarily pay a subscription rate higher than £10.00 per annum, or who have opted to receive the magazine by e-mail.

Keith Crawshaw proposed that the subscription rate remains at £10.00 per annum, with the Executive Committee being asked to contact the overseas members with the discretion to offer them the option of retaining their £10.00 subscription rate and receiving the magazine by email, or of moving to an overseas subscription rate of £20.00 to cover the cost of posting a hard copy. This was agreed unanimously.

Election of President

The Chairman proposed that the Principal should be invited to continue as President of the Society for 2020 and Ian Rimmer was duly re-elected.

President’s Remarks

Unfortunately, Ian Rimmer was unable to attend and had tendered his apologies, so there were no President’s Remarks.

Election of Executive Officers for 2020

Walter Raleigh agreed to continue as Chairman for 2020 and he was re-elected unanimously.

The other Officers were then elected as follows:

Vice-Chairman

Honorary Secretary

Honorary Treasurer

Media Editor

Ordinary Committee Members

Chris. West

Andrew Haigh

Keith Crawshaw

Roger Dowling

Graeme Carby

Martyn Hicks

Michael Powner

Simon Russell

Richard Teale

One vacancy

Chaplain

Vacant

Representative of the School Vacant

Keith Crawshaw said that he will be serving his forty-eighth year as Treasurer and noted that Andrew Haigh will be embarking on his thirtieth year as Secretary!

Any Other Business Executive Committee Meeting

The Secretary asked that the date and venue be fixed for the next meeting of the Executive Committee. The first Monday in February is the norm and Monday, 3rd February was agreed. It was further decided that we should continue to meet at the School in the ODH at 6.00 pm, for now.

Annual Quiz

Keith Crawshaw asked if we could set a date for the annual Quiz Evening. The Secretary said that it was moved to a later date last year, due to the late Easter holiday and a clash with the Champions League semi-finals, which are shown live in The Woolpack. He went to see the landlord to check the dates of the semi-finals this year, following which a date of Wednesday, 13th May was agreed for this year’s quiz.

The meeting closed at 9.20 pm.

(Signed)

A M Haigh P W Raleigh Secretary. Chairman.

Opposite: INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT BALANCE SHEET

W Raleigh (Chairman)

K Crawshaw (Treasurer)

J A Swift (Independent Examiner)

& EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2019

Executive Officers

2020

President Ian Rimmer King James’s School Work Telephone: (01484) 412990

e-mail: staff.irimmer@kingjames.school

Chairman Walter Raleigh 15 Thorpe Lane Home Telephone: (01484) 308452

Almondbury e-mail: walterraleigh@hotmail.co.uk

Huddersfield

Yorkshire

HD5 8TA

Vice- Chris West 7 Brookside Home Telephone: (01484) 843518

Chairman Crimble e-mail: cwest225@btinternet.com

Slaithwaite

Huddersfield

Yorkshire HD7 5BZ

Hon Secretary Andrew M. Haigh 2 Arkenley Lane Home Telephone: (01484) 432105

Almondbury Mobile Telephone: (07770) 220733

Huddersfield Work Telephone:(01484) 400032

Yorkshire Facsimile:(01484) 469567

HD4 6SQ e-mail: andrew@rdhaigh.com

Hon Treasurer Keith Crawshaw 5 Benomley Drive Home Telephone: (01484) 533658

Almondbury e-mail: keithcrawshawrhb@gmail.com

Huddersfield

Yorkshire

HD5 8LX

Media Editor Roger Dowling

Orchard House Home Telephone: (01925) 756390

Oughtrington Lane Mobile Telephone: (07815) 601447

Lymm e-mail: roger.dowling@oas.org.uk

Cheshire

WA13 0RD

Ordinary Graeme Carby 10 Rectory Drive Home Telephone: (01484) 302252

Committee

Members

Kirkheaton e-mail: graeme.carby@gmail.com

Huddersfield

Yorkshire

HD5 0JT

Martyn Hicks 12 Gernhill Avenue Home Telephone: (01484) 539409

Fixby e-mail: martyn.hicks@hotmail.com

Huddersfield

Yorkshire

HD2 2HR

Michael Powner 45 The Fairway Home Telephone: (01484) 423365

Fixby e-mail: mikepowner@ntlworld.com

Huddersfield

HD2 2HU

Simon Russell Phoenix Cottage Home Telephone: (01484) 685365

Upper Hagg Road e-mail: sarussell153@btinternet.com

Thongsbridge

Holmfirth

HD9 3TF

Richard Teale The Sycamores richardteale@hotmail.co.uk

239 Huddersfield Road Mobile Telephone: 07810 313315

Thongsbridge

Holmfirth

HD9 3TT

One Vacancy

Chaplain Vacancy

Represent- Vacancy ative of the School

Head Boy Ben Martin King James’s School Telephone: (01484) 412990

Head Girl Eve Haigh King James’s School Telephone: (01484) 412990

Badminton Andrew M. Haigh 2 Arkenley Lane Home Telephone: (01484) 432105

Section Almondbury Mobile Telephone: (07770) 220733

Representative Huddersfield Work Telephone: (01484) 400032

Yorkshire Facsimile: (01484) 469567

HD4 6SQ e-mail: andrew@rdhaigh.com

Golf Section Robin E. Merchant 26 Jagger Hill Mobile Telephone: (07933) 200475

Representative Kirkheaton e-mail: robin.merchant@talktalk.net

Huddersfield Yorkshire

HD5 0RA

Tennis Section Andrew M. Haigh 2 Arkenley Lane Home Telephone: (01484) 432105

Representative Almondbury Mobile Telephone: (07770) 220733

Huddersfield Work Telephone: (01484) 400032

Yorkshire Facsimile: (01484) 469567

HD4 6SQ e-mail: andrew@rdhaigh.com

Independent J A Swift Examiner

Vice-Presidents Ken G. Shaw J.Andrew Ward Richard J. Green

Keith Crawshaw Paul Balderstone

John M. Drewery Jack A. Taylor

Malcolm J. Taylor James N. Taylor

David A. Bush Graham Cliffe

J. Richard Taylor

J. Amanda Taylor

David Gary Croft

Robert Williams

Bryan Hopkinson Emily Murphy Nicky Murphy

Nicky Briggs Patrick O’Brien Robert Lamb

Andrew Haigh

ACROSS

9. 10:10 in the morning for the accepted truth (5)

10. One leaves out of order lavatories – he’s Italian (9)

11. Neat and tidy attendant (7)

12. Cash gets head of department switched (7)

13. Short tests, formerly a piece of writing (5)

15. Italian, Hungarian and Ukrainian leaders congregated here (9)

CROSSWORD by Hérisson

16. Replace grandfather, perhaps. Do it in the Autumn! (3,4,3,5)

18. Drink producer breaks stride, not well within (9)

20. Bend to the west, then north, for seafood (5)

22. Charge champ that is undone (7)

23. Sailor takes chunk back for 2 (7)

25. Lead on reserve, useful on holiday (9)

26. Shocking weapon found in junta service (5)

DOWN

1. Standard Spanish exclamation for a taste of freedom. (6)

2. Swallow porridge? (4)

3. Mixed-up Rambo is a food to die for! (8)

4. Spot east pays oddly. (4)

5. 2 could be spotted. (10)

6. Site of pleasure dome up in Bermuda, Naxos. (6)

7. Muppet within broadcast largocheesy outcome! (10)

8. Give sustenance to stern comment. (8)

14. Sick patient, shaken, and losing first of kidneys, may be grateful for this. (10)

15. In disarray, I hold nothing after similar probability. (10)

16. Gin cocktail replaces the French in pools of rainwater for afters. (8)

17. Limit sharpness, turn out volume. (8)

19. Pictures terrible ageism. (6)

21. Modern boat on the Trent. (6)

23. Not bad being constrained by French. I laugh at it. (4)

24. Doctor does medicine.

.

A bad day at the office for tube map designer Harry Beck

IT’S ironic that no less a figure than our benefactor

APOSTROPHE CORNER’

Hunstanton, Norfolk

You have to be joking, thought James Clayton as he stood outside ‘Britains Largest Joke Shop’

King James can cause problems to those who care for the correct use of the apostrophe. We recently reported that visitors to King James’s were being issued with security badges headed King Jame’s School, an error that has fortunately since been corrected.

The School did not realise that it was in good company in committing such a solecism. Step forward London Underground, whose famous tube map has had a love-hate relationship with the apostrophe ever since it was created by Harry Beck in 1931. In fairness, they do have a lot of apostrophes to keep an eye on — Baron’s Court, Regent’s Park, Earl’s Court and Shepherd’s Bush, to mention just a few. Most have appeared with and without apostophes over the years.

City of London

How many St Pauls were there, mused Dave Bush and his party on a recent visit to London

But in 1939, apostrophes were briefly back in fashion and Harry Beck produced what was to be his very last creation: a magnificent poster version of his beloved map.

A meticulous designer, one can only imagine his abject misery when, too late, he noticed the error in its labelling of a major station on the Circle/District lines.

Farnley Lines

YOU are very fortunate to be reading this, for around three months ago I decided to sever all my ties with Huddersfield.Those among you who have an interest in ‘The Beautiful Game’ may suspect the reason. Those of you who haven’t deserve an explanation.

I have followed the fortunes, often misfortunes, of Lincoln City Football Club for more than seventy years. For some considerable time they had languished in the wilderness of non- league soccer until the arrival, as managers, of the former PE teachers, the Cowley brothers. Remarkable success in Cup and League saw them visit Wembley and rise rapidly to the dizzy heights of League One.

Their success meant that some larger club with more financial clout would tempt them away from Sincil Bank: cor-

DAVE BUSH

rection – from the LNER Stadium. How unromantic: the River Sincil replaced by a railway franchise! ‘O tempora, O mores’ as Cicero once said.

So which club came aknocking and waving fistfuls of cash? Huddersfield Town FC! (second exclamation mark most certainly justified). Predictably the Terriers have improved and the Imps are in decline.

Hence a dilemma. Bob and Janice Field had booked in at my Chestnut Drive residence prior to the seismic changes mentioned above. Could we cancel their booking?

We relented. Consequently we enjoyed their company during the October half term. Despite reaching a certain age Bob continues teaching part time at Greenhead College so his holidays are still dictated by school terms. I have now lost track of how many times he and his lovely wife have visited Porthcawl but we have so much in common and the conversation and red wine flow so easily. If you ask anyone where the Royal Mint is located the majority will say London. In fact it is at Llantrisant, north of Cardiff

Mint source: Janice and Bob Field find where all the money comes from.

and a visit there was probably the highlight of their visit.

Visitors over the years

I have debated before if I dare list all those Old Almondburians who have made the effort to visit us in deepest South Wales. We appreciate it’s not the most convenient place to reach. However, here goes: Bob Field; Jack Taylor; Pat Reid;Walter Raleigh; Dave andWendy Bradford; Patrick O’Brien; Ken Leech; Nick Beaumont; Andrew Taylor; Denis Taylor; Richard and Nicky Green; Bryan Hopkinson; Jim Toomey; Andrew Haigh; Rachel nee Nixon; Dave Senior;Tony Cape; Bernard Redfern and Alan Bush.

I am sure there are others - if I’ve shall omitted you please do not be offended. Let me know of my oversight and there will be an addendum in the next issue.

Doreen Hinchliffe

Sadly there is one name which now will never appear on our visitors’ list: that of Doreen Hinchliffe. Doreen did visit the Gower Peninsula on more than one occasion but we were away each time. Her death last year (see page 42) brought great sadness. She was absolutely dedicated to King James’s School and an avid reader of The Almondburian.We shared many hilarious moments – she had a very earthy sense of humour- and many revolved around the time when Alan Conley was head. He had many fine attributes but facility with the English language was not one. This is the man who gave us such memorable phrases as ‘The Sexual Relations Act’, ‘The Vicious Triangle’, ‘The Infidelity Allowance’, and ‘Barking up a Dead Horse’. We loved him for them.

Doreen recounted that he once said “I’ll have you on the carpet, Mrs Hinchliffe.” I’m sure her reply of “Is that a threat or a promise, Mr Conley?” is apocryphal. Not surprisingly therefore, there were innumerable times when Doreen would come up to my room clutching a piece of paper on which AC had written a letter or article for typing up. “Mr Bush –we were always formal – what can we do with this?” We would pore over the item, full of crossings out and alterations and produce an acceptable version. I remember he once asked for the original version but Doreen lied that she had torn it up and thrown it in the wastepaper basket. She was a very gifted woman and reference to her talents will appear elsewhere in this issue. Her retirement speech at a hotel near Holmfirth was one of the finest I have ever heard. She was in every way a true Almondburian.

Doreen Hinchliffe, photographed with Harry Taylor who appointed her in 1966

The Almondburian Connection

Regular readers will recall that wherever I go on my travels I try to find some Almondburian connection. I should add at this point that despite my initial intention to cease long distance travel, this has been postponed. I have already signed up for another Big Birding Trip in September and plans are afoot for another in 2021. I digress.

Last October Margaret and I enjoyed two weeks in Cadiz. At dinner one evening I engaged a fellow Saga-ite in conversation and guessed correctly that he was Sri Lankan. In the seventies Sally Molligoda taught at KJS and proved a very popular teacher. Her husband, Gamini, a Sri Lankan, was studying textiles at Huddersfield Poly and played cricket for Almondbury. I mentioned him to my new acquaintance, Chandrin de Silva. “He was in my class at school in Colombo.” Now what were the odds on that?

Chandrin, who now lives in Bolton, also came to study textiles in Huddersfield from 2007-2009 and recalled that he lodged at 54 Meadow Park in Kirkheaton where his landlord was Mark Sawyer. I met Sally and Gamini when I was birding in Sri Lanka a number of years ago, a delightful couple as ever, and I was most upset to learn of his death in 2018.

Election promises

I usually try to finish my article on a positive note but this time I cannot. You must understand, dear reader, that

advancing years ensure Victor Meldrew syndrome increases in intensity (Jack Taylor will strongly agree) while the high horse I regularly mount has grown by several hands.

It has all been prompted by politicians making such ludicrous promises during their election campaigns: 20,000 more nurses, 20,000 more policemen, 20,000 more teachers and so on. For heaven’s sake these are caring professions which require a special kind of person. I do not believe there are such numbers around who can be recruited in a comparatively short time.

In the field of teaching I say yet again that it is a waste of resources, both human and financial, unless there is a revolution in the classroom to ensure strong discipline is the norm and pupils have a real desire to learn.

From snippets gleaned from various sources I believe King James’s School sets a fine example so Floreat Schola! n

l As part of our OAS centenary celebrations this year we’re planning to publish the daily diary Dave Bush compiled in his final year at King James’s School in 1995/96. See No beating about the Bush on page 36.

Back to the drawing board

Roger Sykes (1946-1953) revisits some of his favourite drawings

Ainley Top is a maze! The Ainley Bridges, shown here in a drawing that first appeared in the ‘In and About’ column of the Huddersfield Examiner, were an exciting feature seen from the front upstairs seat of a trolleybus. There was a good chance of another trolleybus coming the other way too. These were the only bridges on the whole length of the Number 30 trolley route from West Vale to Almondbury.

But like all familiar infrastructures, someone thought of a good idea to enlarge the friendly bridges into one enormous tunnel – and build a motorway over it! And call it The M62. Next, by way of embellishment, two complex roundabouts were added, one either side, to ensure total confusion for the infrequent traveller. That’s me. The trolley buses have vanished and so have all the overhead wires I recorded.

At the age of 85, with a good memory of a simple straight through road from Huddersfield to Elland, the Ainley Top configuration can be a problem. I have recently heard that the large first roundabout is now festooned with traffic lights. Every little helps!

I mentioned some time ago the loss of features along the Huddersfield Road and in particular the widening of the road at Birchencliffe. I like to think the ‘cliffe’ part of the name was founded on the huge rocky outcrop which was the feature that narrowed the road. So once again I recorded in the Huddersfield Examiner a view from the past that no longer exists. And no-one notices as they speed past.

Although I have lived in Bristol for over 60 years, I continue to think with a West Riding accent. My ‘Glossary of the dialect of Almondbury and Huddersfield’ is always there to help. This book, published in 1883, was compiled by the late Rev Alfred Easther, formerly headmaster of our School from 1848 to 1876, and edited from his manuscript by Rev Thomas Lees.

The full text of this book can be read online at https://tinyurl.com/tjuzx86.

Confessions of a serial skiver MEMORIES

SIMON THACKRAY (1965 - 1971)

I’ve always believed that good planning is at the heart of all successful endeavours. This even applied to my days as a regular King James’s Grammar School skiver.

THERE’S a common misconception made by those who have never skived that skiving must be glamorous and fun. From one who has to those who haven’t, it’s neither.

Skiving is actually a depressing, at times a nerve-wracking, and mostly a lonely experience. Until the 5th form, I wasn’t an habitual skiver. It was during the 5th form that it started and by the Lower 6th it had become a way of life.

My skiving day would start out just like a normal school day. Up at the usual time, leave home with my brother at 7.30 am in order to catch the single-decker bus that originated in Lindley and ran halfhourly, depositing me in Byram Street for 7.50 am. In Byram Street there would be a throng of KJGS boys looking to catch the Number 33 out of town up to Almondbury.

That bus ride, like most buses delivering a horde of schoolboys to their school, was a hive of activity and chatter. Who had done their Maths, French, Latin, History etc homework and who hadn’t; who

was prepared to ‘loan’ their homework for copying purposes and who wasn’t? After all, it was a shared risk; if caught, punishment would be brought to bear on both culprits in equal measure. There was quite an art to copying homework on the 15-minute bus ride. Some speed was required as well as some thought. The copier couldn’t simply produce an identical bit of work to the copied; some skill was required by the copier to throw in the occasional ‘deliberate mistake’ which would ensure lower marks than the copied but not such a ridiculous mistake that the teacher would raise an eyebrow and his suspicion. Trust between the copier and the copied had to be built up over long periods of time.

There was of course the happy chatter too, usually about what had been on the telly the previous evening or it might be forward planning of the social scene that coming weekend.

But I digress because on a skiving day, I didn’t get the Number 33 bus. Instead, once off my first bus from home, I would make a quick dash across

Far from holding back Simon Thackray’s work prospects, his skills as a KJGS skiver led to a successful career in Law. He set up his own practice in 1983 and later became CEO of nonprofitmaking company Law South. He retired in 2018.

Free sanctuary: Huddersfield Parish Church was an ideal venue in which to start a day’s skiving.

Byram Street and into Huddersfield Parish Church. There were four main reasons for this as my first destination of the day:

1. It was close by; not being visible was paramount;

2. The church was guaranteed to be open;

3. No money was required for entry or spending within; and

4. I could guarantee that I wouldn’t encounter any KJGS staff or boys in there!

I may well have offered up a prayer for divine protection to get me through the day ahead without detection, but other than that I’m afraid there was no communion with the Lord.

It required at least half-an-hour in the parish church. All school buses needed to be out of the way so that Byram Street was clear of boys who might otherwise be compromised if asked “Has anyone seen Tetley today?”

Around 8.20am, a quick sprint across Kirkgate and my next bolthole – the Merrie England

Oh joy! The Merrie England still exists and doesn’t seem to have rebranded since 1970! I don’t return to Huddersfield very often but I confess I was pleasantly surprised on a rare return trip to my home town last year to find that the coffee shop that produces the best roast beef & onion in a bun I’ve ever tasted still appears to be thriving.

Why was the Merrie England my next landing point?

1. It’s close to the Parish Church so it meant only a fleeting appearance in the open;

2. The Merrie England had a narrow street frontage and had depth. Get a coffee and sit a long way back and there was no chance of being spotted by any passers-by on the busy Kirkgate.

That one coffee had to last me until 10.00 am. My next jump-off point didn’t open until 10.00 am. Remember this was an era well before mobile phones and I wasn’t the sort of lad with a novel stuffed in my School satchel; I had nobody to talk to, so this was 90 minutes that dragged.

Just before 10.00 am it was time to make a move. This was likely to be the riskiest manoeuvre of the day. If con-

fronted by anyone who recognised me, I didn’t have any plausible reason for not being in school. My next destination was one of my regular haunts, as it was for many teenagers – Studio 58.

It’s perhaps not surprising that, even with the power of the internet, I can’t track down a single photograph of this coffee bar. Not surprising because it had no frontage. Up a narrow alley and up a flight of steps is how I recall the entrance. And once inside, joy of joys, there were no windows at all. This indeed was the perfect place to seek sanctuary.

It did require a circuitous route to get there as Studio 58 was just off New Street. First I removed my school blazer & school tie further reducing the chance of recognition. I recall leaving the Merrie England and sprinting in a clockwise direction which involved Cross Church Street, Queen Street and a cutback through Albert Yard. It was probably double the required distance but I had assessed that it cut my risk of exposure by more than half.

Walter Haigh (who was responsible for calling me ‘Tetley’ which stuck to me all through my school days and beyond) would have been proud of his maths student’s accurate assessment of probabilities.

Once within Studio 58, I knew I was safe. A frothy coffee (cappuccinos hadn’t reached Huddersfield in 1970) was the only required purchase and that might have to see me through the next five hours until 3.00 pm!

Now I could at least relax. Better still, I knew I’d have some company. There were a couple of guys a bit older than me who had already left school and didn’t work. They were part of my ‘friendship circle’. They were invariably holed up in the Studio. And of course I was probably not the only skiver in Huddersfield that day; there were a few ‘regulars’ who I got to know.

Around 3.00pm and my thoughts turned to girls. My ‘friendship circle’ included some girls from Greenhead High. They came out of school at 3.30pm so I’d make tracks up to Greenhead Park and seek a vantage point where I could view the girls coming out of the main school entrance. This sounds a bit sinister but it really wasn’t.

Still

there today: the Merrie England coffee shop in Kirkgate is one of eight located in Huddersfield, Halifax and Brighouse.

Huddersfield’s historic Pack Horse Yard

The Merrie England coffee bar in Kirkgate is located in what was once part of the White Swan Hotel, shown here on the far left of a photograph taken in the early 1900s.The Pack Horse Hotel is on the right. Packhorses were widely used in England for the transport of goods and materials until turnpike roads and canals were built in the 18th century. In the foreground, the building on the left is occupied by a drapery, and on the right are the premises of watchmaker and jeweller T Comyn. The Pack Horse Yard extended all the way from Kirkgate to King Street and was once the location of the Huddersfield and Upper Agbrigg Dispensary, the forerunner of the Royal Infirmary.The area was largely demolished in the late 1960s as part of the Pack Horse Precinct development.

Then, when I spotted the girls I knew, I’d emerge and join them and walk back to the town centre with them.

The only time that I know I was spotted was outside the school gates of Greenhead High. One of the Greenhead teachers must have spotted me, and even though I wouldn’t have been wearing my school blazer and tie, she must have identified me as a KJGS student. I guess she picked up the phone to the Gaffer or someone close to him and reported that one of his boys had been hanging around their school gates at a time when he should have been in school. I was the chief suspect but I honestly don’t recall what the repercussions were. I believe my parents were advised.

Once back in the town centre with the girls at around 4.00 pm, there were plenty of KJGS boys around as their school day had ended at 3.30 pm. I became just one of the many. I could then get my normal bus home if I chose to do so.

It seemed like a very long day. It was lonely and depressing. Plus I never knew for sure whether I’d been spotted and the following day in school whether punishment awaited. I was pretty good at forging a letter explaining my absence in my mum’s handwriting which I would give to my form teacher. I evidently suffered regularly from ill-health when I was 17!

My school days reached a natural conclusion at the end of the Lower Sixth. There was a parting of the ways by mutual consent. My parents had given up on trying to persuade me to stay on; they could see it was pointless. And the School had made little or no effort to encourage me to stay. And so that was that.

There is no moral to this story. I’ve simply told it like it was for me. I learnt from those unhappy days that there is no joy to be found in deceit.

If there are other KJGS skivers out there, I wonder if you recall happier times on your ‘days off’? n

Lord Dartmouth and his Medal

REPORTER: RICHARD TEALE

We conclude the story of King James’s School’s highest academic honour, now set to be re-introduced in the Old Almondburians’ Society’s centenary year.

IN part 1 of this article I reported on the importance of the Dartmouth Medal. It was introduced in 1854 for ‘exceptional application to studies’ and was awarded for 115 years until 1969 when Tony Cape and Martin Harrison were joint recipients. All medallists throughout the 115 year period are commemorated on the two boards now on display in the School library.

Unfortunately, the producers of the medals, John Pinches Medallions, was sold to an American company, Franklin Mint, in 1969. The consequential escalating cost of production of the silver-gilt medal unfortunately caused the suspension of financial support by the 9th Earl of Dartmouth for the award and it was not presented through the remaining decades of the 20th century.

However, the reawakening of interest in the 400 year history of the School brought about by the 2008 celebrations provided the impetus for the reintroduction of the award. The medal format was replaced by a glass cube with an embedded King James’s School crest hologram; it sits on a wooden base engraved with the recipient’s details. Produced in Almondbury by Ballcraft Engravers, the cubes are tasteful, but do

not confer the sense of Dartmouth history evident in the medal.

The award recommenced in 2009 and recipients are:

2009 Tom Sowerby

2010 Simon Hartley

2011 Paige Shaw

2012 Benjamin Burnley

2013 Bethany Smith

2014 Ben Peace

2015 Marcus Wade

2016 Amy Kettlewell

2017 Alana Firth

2018 Daisy Sanderson

2019 Joshua Boundy

The Old Almondburians’ Society, anxious to preserve the School’s heritage, has been increasingly concerned in recent years that the Dartmouth Medal might be lost in obscurity. Fortunately the original dies, which would have cost many thousands of pounds to re-create, had been safely preserved in the archives and the OAS decided to investigate the possibility of funding to restart its production. At this point, we approached a specialist medal company Toye, Kenning and Spencer Ltd who inspected the dies and confirmed to our relief that despite their considerable age they were still in satisfactory condition.

Current OAS medallists

David Anderson (1955)

David Anderson read Law at Leeds and then the LSE before joining the diplomatic service as a legal adviser, serving mainly in London but also at the embassy in Bonn and the UN Mission in New York. He worked on cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice and was a delegate at many international conferences, including the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea. On leaving Whitehall in 1996, he was elected a judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Now in retirement, he still writes about international law.

David Morphet (1958)

David Morphet studied English, French and Italian literature at Cambridge. He entered HM Diplomatic Service and subsequently served in the Department of Energy, later becoming UK Governor at the International Atomic Energy Agency,Vienna followed by a lengthy period in the private sector. David now has a major reputation as a poet and has published 13 volumes of verse. He will be a principal guest speaker at the OAS Annual Dinner in November.

Edward Royle (1961)

Edward Royle went from King James's to Christ's College, Cambridge where he took his BA and then PhD in Modern History before going on to be a Fellow of Selwyn College. In due course he returned to a post in the History Department at the University of York, where over a period of 32 years he became Chairman and then Head of Department. He has published widely in British social and political history and has been a Methodist Local Preacher for the past 55 years and an Emeritus Professor for the last 16 years.

Tony Cape (1969)

Tony Cape left King James’s Grammar School in 1969 to attend Cambridge University, and gained a Masters in English Literature. After working in provincial journalism, he moved to the United States in 1977 to study creative writing and Tibetan Buddhism. Subsequently he has published four espionage novels which have been translated into five languages and become bestsellers in England and Italy.

Martin Harrison (1969)

Martin Harrison also left King James’s in 1969 to study English at Cambridge University where he too gained a Masters in Engish. He progressed into lecturing in English and Performing Arts and finished his career as Director of Education at the Army Foundation College, Harrogate. He says that he is currently focused on retirement projects including writing and that he is “always happy to support, amuse, bore or hinder former colleagues, friends or passing strangers who approach me nicely.” Martin and Tony Cape were –and remain – the best of friends.

In May 2019, a decision was taken at the OAS Executive Committee meeting to authorise Christopher Mann (our Dartmouth Estate facilitator) to open discussions with the present Earl of Dartmouth in the hope that he would share our wish to re-introduce the Medal and thereby restore this historic link with the School. We were delighted when this was confirmed in July and that the Earl would make a very significant contribution to the cost of producing a total of 30 new bronze Dartmouth Medals complete with gold ribbon and presentation case at a total cost of just over £1,700

At the wish of Principal Ian Rimmer two Dartmouth Medals will be awarded each year, one to a boy and one to a girl, and the citation will change to the‘greatest contribution to school life’.

So, we are now pleased that 2020, the centenary of the Old Almondburians’ Society, is the year in which the prestigious Dartmouth Medal is once again being presented to deserving students. The new stock of Medals will take us through to 2034 – it will for others to ensure the Medal will continue to be awarded for many years beyond that!

William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth, usually known as William Dartmouth. was the South West England MEP from 2009 to 2019.

In conclusion, we are delighted to report that David Morphet, who was awarded the ‘old’ Dartmouth Medal in 1958, has accepted an invitation to speak at the OAS Annual Dinner in November. He will no doubt recall his award and how it has influenced his life and illustrious career. n

This glass cube containing a hologram of the School crest was awarded from 2009 to 2019.

No beating about the Bush

As part of our centenary celebrations, the Old Almondburians’ Society is planning to publish the final-year diary of a legendary teacher

LOOKING back on our schooldays, we all occasionally wonder what it was really like to have been on the other side of that great divide that separates the teachers from the taught. Perhaps we feel more than a pang of guilt at the hard time we must have often given our masters. Per haps we gave others too easy a ride. Perhaps there were even occasions when we should have shown just a little more gratitude for all their ef forts on our behalf.

And what really used to go on behind the door of the often-smoky staff room outside which many of us uneasily awaited retribution for one of our many misdemeanours?

Now all is set to be revealed in a new OAS book about the Bush to be published in November to mark the centenary of the OAS. Unknown to his colleagues, former senior Latin master and deputy head David Bush kept a daily diary as he counted down to his final day at King James’s School in July, 1996.

Dave Bush – a long-time contributor to the pages of this magazine – became a legendary figure who spent his entire career at King James’s. He joined the School, then a grammar school, in 1961 as a junior Latin, French and English teacher. In due course he became the dedi cated House Master of Jessop and, as his career developed, he became Deputy Headmaster and for a period Acting Headmaster.

The diary, with illustrations by Emmy award-winning artist and former pupil Charlie Starkey (1968-75), paints a fascinating picture, warts and all, of the gossip and in trigue of life at the School a quarter of a century ago.We think you’ll be surprised and amused in equal measure.

The 200-page diary, published as a hardback, will be priced at £15 and to make it possible we’re seeking ini tial subscribers who will be the first to receive their copies and whose names will appear in the book.To subscribe, go to www.oas.org.uk/book.php or complete and return the slip in this copy of The Almondburian.

Fond memories of my friend Ian

FRED SHAW (1946 - 54)

After a friendship of over 70 years since they met at School in 1946, Fred Shaw pays tribute to his old friend Ian Shaw who died a year ago

IAN and I kept in contact for over 70 years. In 1946 we first met as First Formers at Almondbury Grammar School, more formally known as King James’s Grammer School, having passed the 11-plus examination.

I found it boring fielding and catching (or failing to collect) powerful hits from Ian, a frustratingly accomplished batsman. I was often out in my first over. My main amusement was that I found Ian’s running style amusing and still did in later years. I am told that my own running style is probably equally amusing.

Memories of a Youth Hostel walking holiday in the Lake District come to mind. Before the planning was completed, I was invited to tea at Ian’s home to be interviewed, as an acceptable companion, by his parents. I remember little of the chat but do remember that we were served a rather grand fruit salad and that the

Shaws were‘classier’ than my family: the grapes were cut in half and the seeds removed. However, I must have passed as we were allowed to proceed with the planning.We were joined for the trip by Alan Sykes, so there was a future Geographer, Historian and Engineer in the group, a useful trio.

One outstanding memory of the trip is at the top of Black Sail Pass. Having struggled up from Grasmere, in sight of Wastwater and the encouraging view of the hotel some miles away, a Land Rover passed us and stopped.We were offered a lift to the hotel.AIan and myself thought that a brilliant idea but the third member of the party mumbled “I thought we were on a walking holiday.” Strong persuasion like “well then we will see you at the pub” won the argument. Under-age drinking was not frowned upon and we then proceeded to our night in the hut on Black Sail Pass.

Schoolmates in 1953: Ian Shaw (top) and fellow sixth-former Fred Shaw

After University Ian and I both ended up in North London. We met on a good few occasions in places such as Walthamstow and Barnet.

After we were both married we met in Filey for a drink in a pub and we were invited back to Ian and Barbara’s home and served a very nice home-made cake. My thought was that Ian had married well.

When we were both getting close to retirement, Ian invited Muriel and me to the opening of a new cricket pavilion for the school in Bishop Stortford where Ian was headmaster.The surprise was that it was named the Shaw Pavilion!

At about this time, both considering our imminent retirement, Ian suggested that it might be a good diversionary activity to get involved in the ownership of a race horse. As I came from a farming and betting family

background and was not averse to the odd wager, we entered – with the agreement of our spouses – into a race horse owner partnership. A lot of fun and some success ensued. Ian continued with a trainer who allowed more hands -on involvement in the training and racing decisions. I stayed with Mark Johnston our original trainer and am still involved. Thanks, Ian, for my reintroduction to the sport of Kings.

SHAW left King James’s Grammar School in 1954 to take a degree course in Electrical Engineering at Manchester University.This led to involvement in Civil Service work on guided missiles and industrial control and security systems.

FRED

His first appointment was in North London close to a school in Barnet where Muriel Rhodes, his Greenhead girlfriend, was teaching. Married in 1959, they subsequently moved to Stafford.

After 10 years and the takeover of his firm by Thorn Electrical Industries he moved his family – which by this time included a five-year old daughter and a new son – to Leicester where he was deeply involved as manager of a marketing division in the amalgamation of three large electrical companies.

He was then involved with some former Thorn colleagues in the takeover of Gent, a fire alarm manufacturer in Leicester.There he started as Engineering Director and in due course became Managing Director.

In the latter years of his employment, Fred spent much time developing British Standards for security products and ensuring they were enshrined in European and World Standards.To aid this he took on the chairmanship of British and European Trade Associations. He also became a trustee of his company’s pension fund and the Fire Service Research and Training Trust.

Fred retired at the age of 60 in 1995.

The joys of a good bookshop …

JOHN BRADLEY (1950 - 1957)

Many are the joys that accrue from time to time to booklovers, often in completely unexpected circumstances. I recently made a happy discovery.

THERE’S surely no greater pleasure than finding a previously unknown second hand bookshop, warm, inviting, comfortable and full of promise of enchanting reads.

I also love the serendipity that often comes from such visits. Like finding an ‘Ex Libris’with the name of someone well known; and marginalia, a source of endless interest in the thoughts, opinions and perhaps prejudices of previous owners; and neatly folded and dated press cuttings related to the subject of the book, perhaps extending it into more recent times; and business cards, used as bookmarks and often casting more light on previous owners.

In July this year, together with an introduction to a previously unknown genre of short verse, all the above happened to me on the same single occasion.

My wife Avril and I were enjoying a brief two weeks in Noosa away from the cold & damp of a midwinter Melbourne. In a hire

car we were spending a day exploring the hinterland behind the Sunshine Coast and stopped for lunch in the small market town of Eumundi (only the size of a medium village by English standards, with a population of 1900).

We wandered around enjoying the sunshine after lunch and stumbled on The Book Barn , a branch of the Berkelouw’s chain of new and secondhand bookshops.

What a delightful surprise! This is a big book shop, bigger and with a greater selection than can be found in many major cities; leather armchairs reminiscent of a Gentleman’s Club between the shelves each with a convenient side table for a stack of selected books; together with a cafe/coffee bar.

JOHN BRADLEY has lived with his wife Avril in Frankston. Australia since 1971.They have three children, Mark, Adam and Kimberley. He retired in 1999 and now occupies himself with golf, bowls, cryptic crosswords, reading, and collecting books.

A totally relaxed atmosphere, and all here in this little village, two hours drive away from the nearest major city.

Soon I had a pile of my usual fare, History and Biography, and settled down to

Books galore: the Berkelouw family has been trading in books for six generations.

browse. Avril disappeared into the literature and poetry section on an errand of her own.

I had no knowledge of what she had bought until three months later on the morning of 16th October, my eightieth birthday.

One of my presents was The Complete Clerihews of E Clerihew Bentley, published by Oxford University Press in 1981.

A clerihew is a four line verse form rhyming AABB. It almost always concerns some well known political, literary, scientific or other personality and the first line introduces the subject by name. It was invented by the eponymous E Clerihew Bentley when as a sixteen year old pupil at St Paul’s School in London he wrote:

S ir Humphry Davy

Abominated gravy

He lived with the odium

Of having discovered Sodium..

Bentley was a friend and contemporary of G K Chesterton who drew an illustration for this and many other of Bentley’s verses.

Neatly folded and dated inside the book were clippings from The Times Literary Supplement dated 9th October 1981, 16th October 1981 and 26th March 1982, all around the time of the book’s publication. There were also clippings from Sydney Morning Herald of 27th March 1982 announcing a competition for clerihews on Australian subjects, together with the competition results announced on 15th May. It was a rich source of new clerihews to add to those in the book.

Nicolas Bentley (1907-1978), the well known illustrator and author, was

Edmund’s son. He illustrated many of his father’s verses and wrote clerihews himself. One of his is a favourite of mine, encapsulating in four lines the crassness and complete lack of good taste of many Hollywood producers:

Cecil B de Mille

Rather against his will

Was persuaded to leave Moses

Out of ‘The Wars of the Roses’

During my career I had on occasions an association with the Iron & Steel industry, so the following is also a favourite:

“Corruptio optimi pessima!”

Grinned Sir Henry Bessemer.

“Judicio vulgi demens!”

Snorted Sir William Siemens

This one no doubt will appeal to Dave Bush and, if he were still with us, Jim Toomey.

Jim would be very surprised to see me quoting Latin as he knew that to my

everlasting shame I failed Ordinary level Latin twice.

One of the prize winners from The Sydney Morning Herald Competition was:

Dame Nellie Melba

Sang everywhere except Elba

She is remembered most

For peach puddings and thin toast. And in conclusion one of my own:

Tony Blair was in such a rush

To please George W. Bush

He had no time for instruction

On weapons of Mass Destruction . n

And now it’s your turn…

WE invite you to send in your own original clerihews, which should be strictly related to former pupils or staff of King James’s Grammar School or King James’s School. Entries considered libellous will not be published! The email address is clerihews@oas.org.uk or entries can be submitted by post at the editorial address given on the back page of this issue.

To get you started, here’s another offering from John Bradley: The school has a right to claim: René Artois of ’Allo ’Allo fame. But that's an alias, as they say, For the much more famous Gorden Kaye.

Illustration by Nicolas Bentley, best known today for his humorous cartoon drawings in books and magazines in the 1930s and 1940s.

Doreen Hinchliffe – KJS legend

DAVID HINCHLIFFE

David Hinchliffe pays tribute to the much respected and greatly loved former School Secretary who died at the age of 88 last September

MUM – Doreen or as the pupils who had to visit her office would have known her, Mrs Hinchliffe – joined King James’s in the autumn of 1966 as the Headmaster’s secretary. I believe it was her first full-time job since she was made a very young widow in May 1963. Her letter of appointment is the usual regimental recital of responsibilities, duties, salary and holidays, but her letters of recommendation speak much more warmly of her conscientious, diligent and highly-organised clerical mind, her neatness and attention to detail, and the admiration she had won from those who saw how she determinedly got on with bringing up a young child on her own at a time when such a situation was far from common.

Doreen was a Huddersfield girl, born in South Crosland and raised in Netherton. She moved to Thongsbridge when she married, and lived in what for me was the family home until downsizing into a retirement apartment in Holmfirth for the last decade of her life. The journey to St Helen’s Gate from Thongsbridge was one she loved, in part because she felt so fortunate to pass through such beautiful countryside on her commute to work, but much more so because of her passion and love for her job and for the school she was travelling to. I was barely 5 years old when she began to work at the school, but can recall even so from very soon after she joined the staff, how happy she was in her work. She had a particular admiration for Harry Taylor, her first Headmaster, whom she considered the perfect blend of coach, mentor, disciplinarian and, above all, leader. Mum stayed friends with Harry and his family after his retirement, and was always welcome at the Taylor household in Almondbury.

Harry had also been a pipe smoker, and Doreen clearly never let him throw away a tobacco tin that she could put to good use organising the various petty cash funds she was responsible for in the school office. It also explains the origin of several of the same tins among her own

personal effects that I am finding, neatly holding receipts and loose change for various societies who talked her into being their treasurer.

Those early memories are also littered with other names of teachers who – while they now have little personal resonance other than in the names themselves – remind me of the high esteem Doreen had for the staff at King James’s. Ken Ireland, Fred Hudson, Dave Bush, Dave Gregson, Alan Gaukroger all spring to mind, as well as some more recent names such as Walter Raleigh. She spoke very highly of them all, and was proud to be part of their community. Alan Conley, her second Headmaster, also became a good friend throughout his retirement, and never omitted to call in and see her whenever he was in the area.

Doreen had a great love of tradition and history, so to be part of a grammar school that

was so long established meant so much to her. I remember her office, tucked away just inside the entrance in the oldest part of the building, oak panelling and floorboards redolent of so many years of solid schooling, and can see her even now in front of her typewriter, or working the duplication machine, or organising the tuck shop. She said that the situation of her office, including the beautiful lawn outside, sometimes made her feel more like she was working in a grand old house rather than a school. A beautiful watercolour of the old school house and its gardens has hung in her home since she bought the picture from the artist in 1976, and I will have great pleasure in returning it to the school in the near future to hang in her memory.

way. It’s sobering to remember that there was once a time when the news wasn’t instantly served up on a mobile phone, and back in the day you’d either find the latest score on a piece of paper on her desk, if she was busy, or delivered in person if she had the time to tell you.

LBW meant Let the B*****s Wait!

Doreen also had her fun side. However formidable a new member of staff might have initially found her, once her respect was earned she would transition from Mrs Hinchliffe to Doreen, and be more than happy to share a joke and a bit of banter, pressures of work permitting. Her filing system in particular was a King James’s legend that illustrated her dry sense of humour, the three trays being labelled ‘in,’ ‘out’ and ‘LBW.’ In and out need no further comment. LBW, for all her love of cricket, had nothing to do with leather and willow. Basically you didn’t want your correspondence to finish up in that tray, the one where she’d put it if she decided to ‘Let the B*****s Wait!’

As for cricket, Doreen could be relied on to keep the staff up to date with the latest score whenever a test match was under-

Doreen retired from King James’s in 1993, having become part-time after reaching her 60th birthday the previous year.The great bundle of cards and letters wishing her a happy retirement, all of which she kept, speak of a lady who had won the admiration of all who had worked with her and whom she’d had the pleasure to serve. I know she was especially pleased in her later years at the school to be elevated to the position of Bursar, a role she’d all but developed through her own initiative from her original appointment as Secretary, and left the school as happy in her work as she’d ever been.

Throughout her long and active retirement Doreen never forgot King James’s, and was a frequent presence at OAS dinners and other events, proudly supporting the school she’d loved for so long. She endowed a prize for highest academic achievement, now renamed the Doreen Hinchliffe Memorial Prize, and I will have great pleasure and comfort in funding that prize in her honour now that the privilege of doing so has passed to myself.

The OAS was formally represented at the funeral at Holmfirth Parish Church by Walter Raleigh and Richard Teale. Doreen Hinchliffe born 1931, died 23rd September 2019 aged 88.

The room with the Big reputation

ROGER DOWLING

The ‘Big’ was in danger of becoming a white elephant as School numbers fell alarmingly following the ‘rugby rumpus’. Urgent steps were required

THE year is 1896 and, with only two new admissions in the year, the number of pupils on the School register had fallen to 11. Following the major building works of 1883, which included the ‘Big’, there were now more rooms than boys and the School was seriously facing the prospect of closure. Something had to be done – and urgently.

The first step was the departure of headmaster Rev Francis Marshall, whose preoccupation with what he saw as the commercialisation of his

precious rugby union had diverted him from the task of running the School. His successor did not last long. Leonard Griffiths, a graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford was the first layman to be appointed headmaster and he started well: by the end of his first year numbers had increased to 32. But it was a false dawn. By 1900 numbers began to fall again and Griffiths –a sad and uninspirational figure – was dismissed after only three years in the post.

His successor Robert Crump, also

Robert Crump was in the last two years of his time as headmaster when this exterior photograph of the Big was taken on a sunny day in 1910. By then School numbers were starting to fall again.

an Oxford graduate, was much more successful, increasing numbers to a peak of over 100 by 1909. The new buildings – not least the magnificent ‘Big’ – were in full use at last. But Crump too was destined to suffer a setback, though not of his own making. A controversial report by Michael Sadler from Manchester University commissioned by Huddersfield Corporation in 1905 recommended that Almondbury Grammar School should become ‘a first class secondary school for the boys of Huddersfield’. This would have been music to Crump’s ears had it not led to furious opposition from those with vested interests

Revival: the School’s fortunes were revived with the arrival of Taylor Dyson in 1912. It was he who conceived the idea of splitting the Big into two teaching areas by means of a folding partition.

elsewhere. Numbers started to fall again, down to 56 by the end of 1912, and Crump – a sensitive man who had not enjoyed being at the centre of the ‘Sadler Report’ storm –departed to take up fruit farming abroad.

The story of the growth of Almondbury Grammar School under Crump’s successor Taylor Dyson was related at length in the special Taylor Dyson issue of The Almondburian in July 2010. Suffice to say here that after only four years in the post the School numbers had risen to 172. The School was becoming desperately short of classrooms and, with the country at war, building operations were impossible. Taylor Dyson therefore had the clever idea of converting the ‘Big’ into two classrooms after Morning Assembly by means of a folding partition. This was installed during the School year 191819 at a cost of £95 10s 8d [£95.53], equivalent to over £6,000 in today’s money. It was money well spent for, as we shall see, this partition was to survive for many years.

A few years earlier, in 1915-16, the ‘Big’ had also benefited from the in -

The first librarian: Leonard Ash taught French at King James’s Grammar School from 1920 to 1953 and in due course became Second Master. He responded enthusiastically to Taylor Dyson’s request to set up a new School library in 1940.

stallation of central heating throughout the School at a cost of £162 4s 6d [£18,400 today].

And so, with the help of this and other steps such as the conversion of now unused dormitories into classrooms (still known for many years as Dorms 1, 2, 3 and 4) and eventually the renting of rooms in the Wesleyan School, the School soldiered on gamely despite pupil numbers continuing to increase. These were the golden years of the ‘Big’ as a teaching space, but by 1936 the School was again bursting at the seams with 286 boys on the register. Major expansion plans were drawn up in discussion with the Board of Education; in addition to new classrooms, the plans also included a new Art Room, a Woodwork Room, a Gymnasium and two new Laboratories at a projected cost of £16,500. The new buildings were completed in 1938.

The new classrooms, known as N1, N2 and N3, relieved pressure on the ODH and the ‘Big’ as a teaching area. This was fortunate, as the School was running out of space for its collection of reference books, looked after for many years in the tiny ‘Book Room’ by

French master Leonard Ash. Ash was initially asked to look into the possibility, supported by the local authority, of setting up a proper library in the ODH. Ash felt that that this was far too small and he was fortunately supported in this view by His Majesty’s Inspector of Schools. Ash therefore to his great credit produced a far more ambitious plan to house the library in the ‘Big’.

Leonard Ash had joined Almondbury Grammar School in 1920, a 1st Class Honours graduate of the University of Sheffield. Known as ‘Foz’ throughout his 33 years at the School, presumably on account of his curious ‘fuzzy’ hair-style, Ash was a French teacher of the very highest quality. He became Second Master to three suc -

Art master Edward Akroyd designed the fine stainedglass window which enhances the big window on the gable end of the ‘Big’.

cessive headmasters and House Master of Dartmouth, in addition to being a secretary of the Old Almondburians’ Society in the 1930s.

Ash set about his new task with enormous energy, helped by the generosity of the School governors and the Huddersfield Director of Education who provided generous funding. In March 1940, The Almondburian proudly recorded:

The ‘Big’ now looks most impressive with its new furniture and, as the School Library, is gradually assuming the appearance such a room should have.We cannot speak too highly of Mr Ash’s keenness as chief school librarian, and he has already set up an efficient scheme under which, with the help of library prefects and junior helpers, the whole system is working smoothly from the outset.

By December 1940 the library had more than 1,500 books on its shelves, of which nearly 1,000 were non-fiction. The appearance of the ‘Big’ was further enhanced by moving the folding partition from the centre of the room to the end near the ‘Small’,

forming for the first time a corridor to link the old part of the School with the new extensions.

A further enhancement was a fine stained-glass window in the centre of the big window on the end wall of the library which can still be viewed today. An heraldic window bearing the School coat of arms, it was designed by art master Edward ‘Teak’ Akroyd who had conceived the idea in discussion with a trainee art teacher Mr G Kelly. Like all good design, it is as attractive today as it was 80 years ago, though it still bears testimony to the long-held and mistaken belief that the School received its Charter in 1609.

Leonard Ash’s achievement in building up the library cannot be exaggerated. From 1945, the responsibility was passed on to fellow French master Dick ‘Reg’ Addy. Following his early death in 1964 the baton was passed to a number of other teachers over the next couple of decades. The library continued to perform a vital function during these years, the only significant change being the eventual disappearance of the shaky folding partition which had succumbed to the effects of old age.

But change was in the air, and it was inevitable that these would affect the library in the way that they also profoundly affected the School itself.

The grammar school era came to an end with the retirement of Harry Taylor in 1973 and the nature of the School and the number of pupils it admitted changed dramatically. Alan Conley took over from Harry Taylor as headmaster and was himself replaced by Clive Watkins in 1985.

Watkins faced formidable organisational challenges. The grammar school of Harry Taylor’s day had some 350 boys from 11-18. When Watkins arrived in 1985 there were 554 pupils on roll plus a sixth form of 90. Fortunately the present

6,000 square foot Design Block and adjacent 2,000 square foot teaching block had already been completed a few years earlier but there still remained a serious shortage of teaching space.

Watkins’ solution was met with shock by many of his staffroom colleagues. Why not dispose of the older books, which had become dilapidated, and disperse the remainder to specific areas around the School – Geography books to the Geography room; Science books to the Science rooms, and so on? The library could then revert to being a good-sized teaching area, the precise purpose for which it had been built 100 years earlier.

The plan was set into action, with a heavy heart in some quarters, and

Clive Watkins took over from Alan Conley as headmaster in 1985. His proposal to disperse the contents of the library around the School shocked many.

reverted to its original

as

over a period of time the library ceased to exist in the form in which it had been painstakingly conceived by Leonard Ash back in 1940.

With the library now back in use as a classroom, its open-plan layout following the removal of the folding screen began to be a problem. The Old Almondburians’ Society was therefore approached in February 1992 with a request to provide funding assistance for a new permanent timber and glass partition and thereby restore the corridor between the two halves of the School. After a great deal of fundraising masterminded by Bob Williams’ fundraising sub-committee, this project was completed under the supervision of Martyn Hicks in summer 1992.

Two trophy cabinets (still located on the walls of the present library) were also provided, the total project cost being some £10,000.

Clive Watkins’ plan may have temporarily eased the School’s pressure on teaching space but there remained many who had very serious concerns about the loss of such a vital School facility. It was beginning to look as though the valuable work of Leonard Ash and his successors had been in vain and that King James’s School was destined to be the only school in the country without a decent library to its name.

Until salvation came from an unlikely source… n

To be continued

The new screen: a rare photograph of the handsome new partition erected with OAS funding assistance in summer 1992. The library existed in name only at this time, the area having

use

a classroom.

Martyn Hicks

Happy sporting days at Arkenley Lane

JOHN EASTWOOD (1950 -1958)

WELCOME to Arkenley Lane, the Almondbury Spartans

(‘New use for cricket field: rugby league,’ The Almondburian, November 2019). The Spartans, a newly formed club, have two open age teams in the Pennine League playing on the old top soccer field, now a rugby field. They intend to run a ladies’ team later this year, and also to develop a section for youngsters aged between 3 and 12, both using the cricket field and pavilion. The club secretary – Kate Willcock –says new members will be welcome, and the Spartans can be found on their website.

Amateur Rugby League is a fine game for youngsters and adults of both sexes and their setting up at King James’s will be a community asset.

The field was well used by the School even before the Countess of Scarbrough opened a new pavilion to replace the old one in 1958. Indeed in the summer term, games periods were largely located here. A 100 and a 220 yard track were

marked out, and long and high jump pits prepared. Boys performed a full range of athletic activities, their performances being awarded points which were collated by House as a part of an interhouse sports competition culminating in Sports Day, an afternoon watched by the whole School, teachers, some in garish blazers, wives, families and guests.

And the sun always shone. Fenay House would win, being provided with the School’s spikes by Walter Haigh, the Fenay Housemaster who looked after them. It was only right, therefore, that Fenay boys should wear them. There followed some days later a match between King James’s and Huddersfield College, the other boys’ grammar school in Huddersfield, at Leeds Road playing fields. The College took this most seriously, and I don’t remember us ever winning.

In addition to athletics, there was, of course, cricket. After school there were junior and senior interhouse matches. The

The news that Almondbury Spartans are going to be using Arkenley Lane brings back happy memories of the days when the field was at the centre of School sporting activities

CRICKET

JOHN EASTWOOD graduated from UCL in 1961 with a degree in Geography. He taught Geography in grammar and comprehensive schools until 1990, ending as deputy head of a 13-18 comprehensive school of 1800 students. John worked as a teachers’ union officer from 1991 until he retired in 2008. He lives in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire.

School ran teams of various ages which played against other schools. But the team that counted was the 1st Eleven. Matches were played sometimes after school, sometimes on Wednesday afternoons, but often on Saturdays. Lunchtimes in those days were longer, getting on for two hours.This allowed for an athletics or cricket practice if one got on the first sitting.

Of course, things changed when Secretary of State Kenneth Baker imposed a new contract on teachers requiring that they work 1,265 hours a year as directed by their Headteacher. Until then, most teachers did what was expected that teachers should under the direction of the Head, and the Head explained what was expected.

Now, Heads did not want to waste di-

There is now a clear definition of the teacher's job. Parents, local authorities, heads and teachers themselves all need this, so that there can be no doubt about what can be required of teachers within their contracts. The teachers' working year is to be fixed at 195 days, allowing five days beyond the pupil year. It is also agreed that teachers shall be available for work at the direction of the head teacher for 1,265 hours a year.

Kenneth Baker Secretary of State for Education and Science Hansard, 27th November 1986

rected time on lunchtime practices and Saturday cricket matches. Classroom teachers increasingly spending time in evenings and on weekends writing schemes of work, lesson plans and detailed records of pupils’ progress, risk assessments and teacher led examination systems, decided voluntary supervision of after school and Saturday cricket and football could go. Heads decided lunchtimes should be shorter to reduce the need for teacher supervision, and where possible the end of the school day be brought forward for the same reason. After all, you had only 1,265 hours to play with. King James’s had little use for its cricket field, and when Old Almondburians cricket teams ceased, it seems neither had anyone else.

So, three cheers for Almondbury Spartans and their youth policy, and three for the School which has helped facilitate the use of the field. If Spartans youngsters are lucky as they sit on the steps of the pavilion, they may see the ghost of Billy Sutcliffe of Yorkshire, son of the great Herbert, leaning half forward onto a good length ball from Ken Burgess of KJGS, the ball speeding over the sward to the extra cover boundary.

Or they may see a young Derek Ibbotson on the 220 yard running track on his way to the world mile record. There’s a lot of history here. n

Medal winner: world class miler Derek Ibbotson regularly took part in the School Sports. Surprisingly he was often beaten by his contemporaries.

Almondbury news and views

Castle Hill: new proposals

CONTROVERSY still rages about what – if anything – to do to improve amenities at Castle Hill, of which nothing remains these days following the mysterious demolition of Castle Hill Hotel in 2005.

Now new plans have been submitted by the Thandi brothers who own the site for a substantial new building on the site. According to the planning application this will provide a restaurant, cafe and bar; six guest rooms; an exhibition/interpretation

room; WCs; carparking; and ancillary accommodation. The application claims that the development would create between 30 and 48 part-time and fulltime jobs.

The proposals have met with considerable local hostility, with complaints that the new building would dominate the site and detract from the landscape. However, there are some who claim that the development would keep the area cleaner and safer and would enable tourists, families and walkers to enjoy the area more.

Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, who has long complained that Castle Hill is becoming a blot on the landscape, has said that he will examine the new plans carefully.

But Kirklees councillor, Bernard McGuin, who represents Almondbury, says “This is an unacceptable attempt to build here because it is green belt land. It will affect the setting of Castle Hill, which is a listed building. In addition the road up to it is inadequate and any attempt to widen would cut into a national monument.”

Malcolm Sizer Planning Ltd

Goodbye

to the Rose & Crown

ONE of Almondbury’s biggest eyesores is set to disappear at last. The Rose & Crown public house in Northgate closed over seven years ago and became a derelict and vandalised building which local residents were keen to see refurbished or demolished. The building received Grade II listing status in 1978.

Plans have now been announced to convert it into a new Co-op store to replace the present inadequate small store nearby. The development includes 22 parking spaces, a bakery, staff room, offices and storage.

Westgate Development

W) ORK is well under way on the King James’s Foundation’s new development next to the historic Wormall Hall in Westgate, which will provide seven new homes through a mixture of new build and conversion of existing buildings. After delays caused by the presence of badgers on the site, the planned completion date is the end of May 2020.

We hope to carry a full report on the development in the July issue of The Almondburian . n

Bill

Godwin: my life in Canada today LIFE ABROAD

As we went to press, the UK press was awash with the news that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were withdrawing from royal duties and would spend much of their future life in Canada.We asked our man over there to give us a local perspective

Iwas born during a German air raid, so I am told, in Sevenoaks just south of London. It was a rather dysfunctional family and I did not have the happiest of childhoods.

Upon leaving Almondbury I worked in several cities, ending up managing a small wholesale company in Cheltenham. I was not impressed, to put it mildly, with the way Britain was heading in 1966 with Harold Wilson’s socialist government. Being a free market believer there must be opportunities elsewhere.

I considered South Africa since some of my friends moved there but my grand-

mother was furious because of Apartheid. Next on my list was Canada so I headed to the High Commission for an interview, medical etc and received landed immigrant status. After giving my notice I was on my way. To conserve weight and save money I wore an undershirt, sweater, wool worsted suit and overcoat. My geography teacher said Canada was cold. I got off the plane in Ottawa to a sizzling 96°F.

In week one I received several job offers and took one with an auto parts company. This gave me three times the discretionary income with less responsibility

Bill Godwin attended King James’s Grammar School from 1952 to 1957 and has lived in Canada since 1966. He and his wife Mary have four children, Chris, Kaila, Francesca and Thomasina, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

than I had in the UK. I progressed to Sales Manager and developed a franchise programme.

On the interests side I enjoyed angling on the rivers and canals of England but never caught anything edible. A friend took me fishing on the Rideau River and within a half hour I caught a 3lb bass. Decision made – I am staying here!

I arrived in Canada with just C$600 [around £200 in today’s money]. 30 months later I bought a year-old bungalow in Gatineau, a city in western Quebec. As well as full time employment I negotiated a deal with a friend to buy and develop 40 acres north of Ottawa into 1 acre lots. I got my private pilots licence at Rockliffe flying club.

I was subsequently transferred to Vancouver as Sales Manager for British Columbia. I also served as director of the Automotive Industries Association (AIA). The amount of travel I had to do was hard on my family life so in 1990 I left the industry and worked as a business broker with a Real Estate licence.

My amazing wife Mary hails from Newfoundland and Labrador. Everyone should have a visit there on their bucket list providing it be in July or August! In 2002 we sold our British Columbia home and spent six weeks travelling across Canada exploring places that were new to us. We then bought our current home in Ottawa again –and retired.

When we were younger we loved the winter: Nordic skiing and skating on the Rideau Canal, the world’s longest skating rink which connects Ottawa to Lake On-

tario Now we are older we prefer to winter in Florida. We love dancing, line dancing and dining with friends. We fly back to British Columbia as often as possible to see our daughters and grandchildren there.

However Canada is nothing like the country I arrived at. We are fortunate that we are comfortable in our senior years but young people do not have the opportunities that we had.Youth unemployment is high. We have a similar socialist government that drove me and others away. Classmates

Robert Arnold got his PhD at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. before becoming a professor at Colgate University in New York and Stewart Bottomley was a wandering spirit in British Columbia. I regret that I have lost touch with both.

Canada’s past was rich as a petrocurrency but that is now not wanted. The incompetence of our socialist government is causing a deep divide and Western separation is a distinct possibility. A new federal political party, the Wexit Party, is growing fast.

As to the Meghan Markle issue the vast majority of Canadians would politely welcome Mr and Mrs Windsor, without titles, to immigrate as we others did – but not at taxpayers’ expense! n

Right: the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have announced that they will spend much of their future life in Canada.

Every picture tells a story

War memorial was first initiative of ‘Old Boys’ Society’ 100 years ago

WHEN the ‘Old Boys’ Society’ was set up in 1920, its first step was to set up this memorial tablet on the wall of the ‘Big’ in memory of comrades who had fallen in the Great War. It was unveiled on 24th March 1923. Ironically, it was the War that had thwarted a previous attempt to set up such a society and it was not until a meeting on 17th March 2020 that it formally came into

SUDOKU

Difficulty: medium

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

being.The first Dinner, attended by about 50 Old Boys, took place on 7th May.

The unveiling ceremony was a major occasion, involving a service in Almondbury Church, a procession , a ceremony in the ‘Big’, tea at the National School and a Public Meeting.The unveiling was by Sir J G Beharrel, an eminent former pupil who had just been appointed managing director of Dunlop.

Woeful playing from the brass CONCERT REVIEW GORDON BROOK SHEARD (1937 - 1944)

Official: Almondbury Grammar School pupil attends two Hall é Orchestra concerts in Manchester and issues shock reviews criticising playing standards.

ORGANISED outings have always been one of the more pleasurable aspects of school life and countless such events have been recorded over the years in the pages of The Almondburian.

Two such trips in the 1940s were to Hallé Orchestra concerts in Manchester. The party included The Almondburian’s music critic ‘G.B.S’. He did not mince his words.

The Almondburian, July 1943

ON March 26th a concert was given by the Hallé Orchestra under its conductor Mr Forbes from the College of Music, Manchester…

The last two pieces in the programme were the “Valse des Fleurs” from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite,” and “Pomp and Circumstance No. 2,” by Elgar.The first of these was spoilt by some woefully weak playing in the brass section of the orchestra, the French horns sounding very badly indeed.

Worse was to come when the School paid its next visit to the Hallé the following year. Our reviewer was again in the audience, his pen at the ready.

The Almondburian, April 1944

On the afternoon of January 19th the upper school paid a visit to the Town Hall to hear another concert by the Hallé Or chestra. The concert had been previously given in the morning.The conductor was Mr

R G Forbes, of Manchester, and the orchestra was led by Mr Laurance Turner… The music was good on the whole, but the performance rather suggested that the orchestra had not practised the works, and so there was not the usual quality with it as one expects from the Hallé. One would think that ]ohn Barbirolli would have been rather critical of both the orchestra and the conductor if he had been present.

l The ‘Mr Forbes’ who so singularly failed to impress our reviewer was no less than Robert Forbes, a first-class musician who had become principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music (now the RNCM) in 1929. Laurance Turner was one of a long line of distinguished leaders of the Hallé Orchestra.

Badminton

ANDREW HAIGH andrew.haigh@oas.org.uk

THE first half of the 2019-20 badminton season can be considered to have been a success, if only because we emerged from it with a financial surplus of £4.96!

Twenty-three different people played at various times during the autumn term and the number of players reached into double figures for the majority of weeks. It’s fair to say that this year’s Year 11 GCSE students haven’t embraced Thursday evening badminton with the enthusiasm that last year’s Year 11 did, but we have been joined by a number of them on quite a few occasions and Kim Clarke, Head of PE, assures me that there are some very enthusiastic Year 10 students waiting in the wings.

The term ended with the traditional Christmas gathering following the last badminton before Christmas and this year there was a record turnout of twelve for the party

It’s fair to say that the new year hasn’t started with the same numbers as we had

last term, so we’d be pleased to see some new faces.We play in the School sports hall each Thursday evening during term-time, from 7.30 p.m. until 9.30 p.m., until Thursday, 21st May. The fee, to cover the hire of the sports hall, shuttlecocks and showers, is £5.00 per person per evening if eight people or fewer are playing, £4.00 per person if more than eight people play and £3.00 per person if more than twelve people play. Afterwards, we adjourn to the Conservative Club for refreshments.

Those who have ventured on court with us so far this season are: Neil Gledhill, Emily Murphy, David Parry, Craig Watts, Lydia Morton, Joe Schewtschuck, Andrew Haigh, Ian Daffern, Nicky Murphy, Bernie Gately, Robin Merchant and Matthew Booth.

We are delighted to also have been joined by the following students from School: Jake Ling, Keiran Morgan, Charlie Townend, Willow Hunter, Inés Gately, Lucy Walker, Ella McGlynn, Eleanor Haigh and Charlotte Haigh. n

Golf: Gothard Cup

ROBIN MERCHANT robin.merchant@talktalk.net

THE Gothard Cup 2020 competition is booked in at Woodsome Hall on Sunday 5th July with the first tee reserved from 3pm. As always the golf will be followed by a meal and the presentation of prizes. Last year we had only nine players,

slightly down on the year before, so could everyone who has played in the past make every effort to come and to anyone else who would be interested in meeting old schoolmates, enjoying some good banter and also a game of golf, do come and join us. n

The remarkable Wally Heap

From: Peter Tracey (1956-1963)

IN the July edition of The Almondburian, James Clayton wondered if ‘Wally’ Heap, his headmaster at Stile Common School, was the same Wally Heap who attended Almondbury Grammar School in the 1920s.

It brought back to me very fond memories of Wally, who was headteacher at Stile Common when I worked there as a student teacher for a year after leaving KJGS in 1963.

Mr Heap ran his school of about 120 children in the most lovingly paternalistic way imaginable. He was a big athletic man, a very good footballer and cricketer in his day, who would patrol the corridors and playground surrounded by a forcefield of energy, enthusiasm and genuine care for his flock.

But he could never hope to remember all the names of all his pupils and adopted an interesting ploy, inventing fanciful monikers in response to cheery greetings. One day a little girl came into my classroom, tears streaming down her face. I asked her what caused such distress. She told me that the headteacher had called her Georgina. “So what was wrong with that,” I asked. “Please Sir,” she said, “that is my name, but everyone else gets a fun name.” Wally was distraught!

He was so proud of the achievements of his pupils, especially, but not exclusively in sport. Ken Taylor was his shining star at the

time, but I well remember how he would tell me about a real prospect from Stile Common, a lad called Trevor Cherry who went on to great things as we all know.

During my year at his school he asked me to coach the school football team. So every Friday afternoon he would take my class, and I would teach and coach and encourage these 11 year old lads to enjoy playing the beautiful game. It may or may not have had anything to do with me, but when the school team reached the Huddersfield Schools FA Cup final there really was no holding back his joy and pride and a full school assembly became a rally for all to enjoy.

I well recall one day when he told me that the two of us were to do a lesson on the Battle of Hastings. He grabbed a large block of chalk and drew a squiggly line across the playground that sloped quite steeply from top to bottom. He divided the class into two. and sent the Saxons to the top of the hill, and the Normans had to go down to the bottom and imagine they were an invading army in boats arriving on the shore below. Then they had to figure out the strategy and the tactics required for a Norman victory over Harold. It was hilarious, and I remember it to this day.

Later, when all the kids had gone home, and we sat in the staff room he presented me with a monologue poem written by Marriott Edgar, and called The Battle of Hast-

THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS

I’ll tell of the Battle of Hastings, As happened in days long gone by, When Duke William became King of England, And ’Arold got shot in the eye.

It were this way – one day in October

The Duke, who were always a toff Having no battles on at the moment, Had given his lads a day off.

They’d all taken boats to go fishing, When some chap in t’Conqueror’s ear

Said “Let’s go and put breeze up the Saxons!”

Said Bill: “By gum, that’s an idea.”

Then turning around to his soldiers, He lifted his big Norman voice, Shouting: “Hands up who’s coming to England.” That was swank ’cos they hadn’t no choice.

They started away about tea-time, The sea was so calm and so still, And at quarter to ten the next morning They arrived at a place called Bexhill.

King ’Arold came up as they landed, His face full of venom and ’ate.

He said “lf you’ve come for Regatta

You’ve got here just six weeks too late.”

At this William rose, cool but ’aughty, And said “Give us none of your cheek; You’d best have your throne re-upholstered, I’ll be wanting to use it next week.”

When ’Arold heard this ’ere defiance, With rage he turned purple and blue, And shouted some rude words in Saxon, To which William answered: “And you!”

’Twere a beautiful day for a battle; The Normans set off with a will, And when both sides was duly assembled, They tossed for the top of the hill.

King ’Arold he won the advantage, On the hill-top he took up his stand, With his knaves and his cads all around him, On his ’orse with his ’awk in his ’and.

The Normans had nowt in their favour, Their chance of a victory seemed small, For the slope of the field were against them, And the wind in their faces an’all.

The kick-off were sharp at two-thirty, And soon as the whistle had went Both sides started banging each other ’Til the swineherds could hear them in Kent.

The Saxons had best line of forwards, Well armed both with buckler and swordBut the Normans had best combination, And when half-time came neither had scored. So the Duke called his cohorts together And said: “Let’s pretend that we’re beat, Once we get Saxons down on the level We’ll cut off their means of retreat.”

So they ran - and the Saxons ran after, Just exactly as William had planned, Leaving ’Arold alone on the hill-top On his ’orse with his ’awk in his ’and.

When the Conqueror saw what had happened, A bow and an arrow he drew; He went right up to ’Arold and shot him. He were off-side, but what could they do?

The Normans turned round in a fury, And gave back both parry and thrust, Till the fight were all over bar shouting, And you couldn’t see Saxons for dust. And after the battle were over They found ’Arold so stately and grand, Sitting there with an eye-full of arrow On his ’orse with his ’awk in his ’and.

Marriott Edgar

l Marriott Edgar (1880–1951) was a Scottish poet and comedian, best known for writing many of the monologues performed by Stanley Holloway,

ings. It’s fun and tells a vivid tale just right for the imagination on a Thursday afternoon. I commend it to all who like to take lessons and life less seriously than we often do today.

I left Stile Common then to go on to Uni-

versity but after a serious accident found myself in the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, in plaster and splints, when one day Wally Heap came to visit me. It took him fully 20 minutes or more to get from one end of the ward to my bed, for he seemed to be on

good and familiar terms with everyone there. That he had made me the target of his visit cheered me immensely and raised my profile to the roof.

He was a fine man, an inspirational teacher. As to whether he was an Almondburian, however, I know not.

Whitley Bay, Northumberland l Through social media enquiries, The Almond-

burian believes that James Clayton’sWally Heap was almost certainly the W E ‘Wally’ Heap who was recorded in Taylor Dyson’s History of King James’s Grammar School as one of the 53 pupils who joined the School in 1924. One Facebook correspondent reports that he played in a brass band inWally’s annual Pip Hill [Primrose Hill] procession; another thatWally was‘her Dad’s best friend’ and thatWally would have been born ‘around 1910’.

Errant apostrophes ‘down under’

From: Ken Leech (1947-1952)

YOU may be pleased to learn that the errant apostrophe has been spotted in the daily Melbourne newspaper, migrating even further down the Mornington Peninsula from John Bradley in Frankston to us in the aptly named Rosebud.

We have two daily newspapers in Melbourne - one, the Herald Sun, owned by the well known Murdoch dynasty and the other, The Age, (recently bought from the Australian media Fairfax family) by television Channel 9 .

The Age (previously regarded as slightly more up-market) presents on page 2 a daily gossip column called ‘CBD’ and contributions are invited from whistleblowers etc. On the right is a recent report about the annual Head of the River Regatta which contains some outstanding apostrophe sins. I am sure you will enjoy searching for them.

Thank you for the magazine which is read and eagerly looked forward to by both myself and my wife Janine, especially Farnley Lines since Dave Bush and his granddaughter Anna have stayed with us here Down Under.

In discussions with Dave I have

promised to write a biography for inclusion in The Almondburian , but so far have failed to accede since part of my working life was spent at the Government Communications Headquarters QCHQ and sundry other secret places. but now this is out in the open in the film Official Secrets I might set to and write some of it.

Rosebud South,Victoria, Australia

l The founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society John Richards (96) recently announced his retirement, sadly claiming that “fewer organisations and individuals are now caring about its correct use.”

Obituaries

Dennis L Beaumont

(KJGS 1937-1943)

Multi-talented design draughtsman who worked on the Bluebird land speed record friendships through the rest of his lifetime. The corner of the school photograph of 1940 in which he features, also contains his future best man, Bernard France, and his groomsman, Brian Meal.The latter’s funeral was the last that Dennis attended in the months before his own final illness.

Dennis Beaumont passed away on 8th May 2019, aged 92 years.The comment that featured in the majority of the hundreds of messages of condolence was that “he was a lovely man”.

Dennis’s time at Almondbury Grammar School was dominated by World War Two; hence his most recounted school memory was the downing of a German plane in the Farnley Valley. Despite an edict from Taylor Dyson banning all boys from visiting the crash site, Dennis joined almost the entire school in sneaking up there, only to find that the route was guarded by prefects. He turned back to avoid punishment.

A shy boy, Dennis enjoyed his time at the school, and he kept some of his school

Though not an active sportsman, Dennis did make his contribution to the cause of Dartmouth by becoming school chess champion.

From 1970 onwards he always said that he was born in the middle of a roundabout, when in fact, on 20th December 1926, he was born at New Hey Road, Mount, in a house that was destroyed to make way for the Outlane junction of the M62. During

My impersonation of ‘Skip’ Toomey

From:Tony Cape (1963-1969)

DAVE BUSH mentions the scout camp at Mold in the last issue of The Almondburian

I was at that dreadful camp, among several others. In my recollection, no one took photos in those days, certainly not we scouts ourselves.

his time at the school, Dennis lived first at the corner shop that is still in Broad Lane, Moldgreen, and later in Long Lane, Dalton. He returned to another house in Long Lane three years after marrying his wife of almost 68 years, Jean, and never left. His son, Robin, attended KJGS and the family was completed by daughter, Carina. He is also survived by grandsons, Liam and Jordan, and by granddaughters, Francesca and Isabella. For Dennis, the single most important thing in his life was his family.

His School Certificate shows three passes, three credits, and a ‘very good’ in Maths, which Dennis used in his mechanical engineering apprenticeship at Brook Motors, and in his long career at David Brown Gears as a design draughtsman. As the company’s specialist in cutting tool design, he worked on the Aston Martin DB series and the racing cars, and he also worked on the Bluebird land speed record car. Dennis was the operator of the first computer to be installed in Huddersfield, but he never joined the digital age in his private life.

It’s an ill wind…

From: Prof Colin Robson (staff 1946-1953)

Iwas sorry to learn in the last issue of the death of David Aldridge who came to AGS when I did, from the same Highlands Avenue council estate and the same Fenay Lane council school where the formidable Miss Clark drilled us relentlessly in test papers for the Eleven Plus exam. His piece about the war in Almondbury awoke further memories, particularly his mention of evacuees.

As a devout Christian, Dennis attended Dalton St Paul’s Methodist Church for 83 years, serving in many posts, including leading the Youth Fellowship in the 1960s and 1970s, which was attended by several KJGS pupils. He lost his shyness at 17 years old when he joined the church choir, and then went on to become an accomplished bass soloist. Dennis was also a founding member of the church’s amateur dramatic society. Besides directing and acting in many productions, he was the society’s first and only treasurer in its history.

Dennis renewed his association with the

Mrs Taylor Dyson played an important role in assigning these young Londoners to local homes. In 1941 she had to meet a group of six evacuees due to arrive in Wakefield. Extra transport was needed and Clarence Lancaster, a baker at Fairbank’s in the village, with his essential user petrol allowance, offered to lend his car. Mrs Lancaster had agreed to take one of the evacuees and, rather against the rules, Mrs Taylor Dyson let them choose one. Given Mr Lancaster's

I used to do a mean impersonation of Skip Toomey and on one memorable occasion did my ‘rounds’ and issued demerits to a platoon for talking after lights out. They duly confessed this at flag break the next day, to the great merriment of we Senior Scouts.

Somerset,New Jersey, USA

school in the 1970s whilst supporting his son’s participation in the football teams, even though for the first four years the teams were terrible. Home and away, rain or shine, Dennis was on the touchline every Saturday morning, sometimes having taken a series of buses to reach distant parts of the West Riding. During the last two (more successful) years, his dedication was rewarded by being invited by Bob Field to travel on the team coach to away games. And then in the afternoon he would be at Leeds Road playing fields to watch his son play for the OAS 4th XI. Forty years on from that, he was always glad to read The Almondburian through which he recalled happy memories of his own contemporaries and those of his son.

fondness for curly hair, the curliestfour-year-old Pat Wells with her Shirley Temple ringlets was chosen.

It was a fortunate choice and Pat spent the rest of the war years very happily with the childless couple. After the war, she came back to Almondbury regularly, spending every August with her war-time carers.

Something of a polymath, Dennis was a rabbit breeder for meat and pelts during the war; played tennis, sketched and painted as a young man; enjoyed cycle touring and hiking; was an avid fan of the Goon Show; supported Fartown through the 1950s and into the 1960s; switched to watching Town with his son in the 1970s; used his graphic design skills for the amateur dramatic society; and wrote poetry in his middle age (winning a competition in the Huddersfield Examiner).

In his retirement he travelled extensively (having started driving at 54 years old), and immersed himself in researching the history of both his own and his wife’s families.

I got to know her well over the years as the Lancasters lived next door to one of my best friends in Kaye Lane. We would enjoy hanging around there. Almondbury Wesleyan’s cricket ground was just behind their houses. So, most sunny days we played there, or in Penny Spring wood. On a rare wet day, we would play poker in the old pavilion for pop bottle tops.

Like most Almondburians, he believed that his time at the school had played a large part in creating the man that he was.

Robin Beaumont (1968-1976)

Reader, I married her – and last year, we celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary.

Dennis Beaumont, born 20th December 1926, died 8th May 2019, aged 83.

It's an ill wind, as they say.

Bath, Somerset

Donald Richard Sykes (KJGS 1943-1951)

English dialect expert who achieved distinction in the laundry and dry cleaning industry leading member of the Guild of Launderers and Cleaners and in 1987 he became a freeman of the City of London as a recognition of his service to the Guild and the industry in general.

Donald Sykes,who died in August 2019, was a life-long active member of the Old Almondburians’ Society.

Donald was born and raised in Crosland Moor, Huddersfield and at 18 won a scholarship to study English at Leeds University. It was whilst there that his lifelong passion for language and dialect in particular was developed and by the end of his BA degree he had been taken on by Professor Harold Orton to be a field worker for the Survey of English Dialect (SED). He was one amongst 10-15 such people from the University who created this internationally important body of work which is still used on a daily basis today.

Donald returned to the University in February 2018 to be filmed re-telling of his time as a field worker, one of only two or three original field workers still alive at that time. Leeds University have just received a £500,000 Heritage Lottery Fund Grant to digitise the entire archive for future use.

After this academic stage of his life he married in 1956 his long-term sweetheart, Jean Kaye, also from Crosland Moor, and they had just short of 60 years of happy married life together.They raised three children, Jane, Richard and Helen and had eight grandchildren and eventually three greatgrandchildren who were a constant source of joy and pride to them throughout their lives.

Donald’s career was built in the laundry and dry cleaning industry, both industrial and domestic. As he progressed into senior management positions he became a

His later career was taken up by running a small drycleaning business in Sussex which enabled him to participate in village life whilst retaining use of his skills up to 2002 when he retired.

In his retirement he devoted his life to his family spending time with all of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Jean and Donald moved to Portsmouth in February 2016 to be nearer to their two daughters. Jean died in June 2016.

Donald Richard Sykes, born 25th January1932, died 25th August 2019 aged 87.

My impersonation of ‘Skip’ Toomey

Steven Burns (KJGS 1966-1974)

From:Tony Cape (1963-1969)

Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award winner who had a successful career in pharmaceuticals

DSteven Burns died unexpectedly and peacefully at home from a heart condition.

AVE BUSH mentions the scout camp at Mold in the last issue of The Almondburian

I was at that dreadful camp, among several others. In my recollection, no one took photos in those days, certainly not we scouts ourselves.

his food! He was proud to be an Old Almondburian and never lost his Yorkshire roots.

Son of a Huddersfield doctor, he attended KJGS from 1966-1974 where he made lifelong friends. He loved playing football whenever he could and was a keen Venture Scout, enjoying his potholing adventures along with using (and repairing) the glass-fibre kayaks. He achieved his Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. He lost his sense of smell after a freak accident in the Chemistry Laboratory but that never stopped him enjoying

I used to do a mean impersonation of Skip Toomey and on one memorable occasion did my ‘rounds’ and issued demerits to a platoon for talking after lights out. They duly confessed this at flag break the next day, to the great merriment of we Senior Scouts.

It’s an ill wind…

From: Prof Colin Robson (staff 1946-1953)

Steven obtained a degree in Pharmacology in Sunderland and spent the rest of his working life in the pharmaceutical industry. He was a senior manager at Paydens Group and responsible for Group Logistics and Group IT. He was an active member of the Healthcare Distribution Association, specialising in liaising with government and reviewing potential legislation as it impacted the pharmaceuticals industry.

Somerset,New Jersey, USA

Iwas sorry to learn in the last issue of the death of David Aldridge who came to AGS when I did, from the same Highlands Avenue council estate and the same Fenay Lane council school where the formidable Miss Clark drilled us relentlessly in test papers for the Eleven Plus exam. His piece about the war in Almondbury awoke further memories, particularly his mention of evacuees.

Steven was a devoted husband, father and friend. He met his wife Alina, a Maths teacher, in Huddersfield and she moved to Brentwood, Essex where he lived. His hobbies of puzzles, model making, high-end German model railways and Lego took a back seat when he became a father to Jonathan and Imogen and he fully immersed himself in proudly supporting and watching his children grow up, acting as the usual chauffeur for Jonathan’s football and Imogen’s drama and dance. He loved marriage and family life and was also godfather to his friendJohn Waga’s two sons.

Steven was a member of the United Reformed Church both in Huddersfield and Brentwood, where he became an Elder in 2005.

Mrs Taylor Dyson played an important role in assigning these young Londoners to local homes. In 1941 she had to meet a group of six evacuees due to arrive in Wakefield. Extra transport was needed and Clarence Lancaster, a baker at Fairbank’s in the village, with his essential user petrol allowance, offered to lend his car.

Peter Burns (1967-1974) and John Waga (1966-1974)

Steve Burns, born 16th April 1955, died 23rd September 2019 aged 64.

Mrs Lancaster had agreed to take one of the evacuees and, rather against the rules, Mrs Taylor Dyson let them choose one. Given Mr Lancaster's

Now on sale

All who remember Harry Taylor will enjoy this book about the School’s respected Headmaster from 1951 to 1973. A well-known Almondbury figure, he was also a regular reader at All Hallows’ Church, the transcriber of the local parish registers, and one of the authors of a respected history of Almondbury. He played cricket for Almondbury Casuals, and earned a reputation throughout Huddersfield as a witty and entertaining after dinner speaker.

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

Get your copy NOW!

Copies of Morning Assembly cost just £10 plus £1.30 pp*. Please send your cheque, payable to the Old Almondburians’ Society, to Andrew Haigh, R D Haigh & Co, Oakhill Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 1SN. Alternatively, you can order on line at http://tinyurl.com/bw9ms88 or through any good bookshop.

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

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

Orchard House, Oughtrington Lane, Lymm, Cheshire WA13 0RD

Tel: 01925 756390/07815 601447

Email: almondburian@oas.org.uk

Assistant Media Editor

RICHARD TEALE

The Sycamores, 239 Huddersfield Road, Thongsbridge, Holmfirth HD9 3TT Tel: 07810 313315.

Email: richard.teale@oas.org.uk

KJS Representative

ABBIGAIL TERRY

King James’s School, St Helen’s Gate, Almondbury HD4 6SG

Tel: 01484 412990

Email: abbi.terry@oas.org.uk

Website: www.oas.org.uk The