The ALMONDBURIAN

Editor: Roger Dowling November 2022

The magazine of The Old Almondburians’ Society

A word from your Chairman

Walter Raleigh

SUMMER is usually a time when the Society is less active with fewer meetings and lots of holidays away. However, this year seems a little different and so I have a number of items to tell you about.

First of all, on behalf of the Society we must send our sympathies to King Charles and all the Royal family for the sad loss of our Queen on 8th September.

Our own Royal Correspondent Christopher Mann was very busily involved in the preparations for the funeral and on page 12 you can share some of his many memories of Her Majesty.

In the last magazine we mentioned that we had contacted the Yorkshire Archaeological Society regarding ownership of the Royal Charter. Our President, Ian Rimmer received a response which was not very encouraging saying they had considered our proposal but had decided to refuse a change of ownership. However, a few days later I received an email from Sylvia Thomas, one of those involved at the YAS. She said she had spoken to Robert Clegg, the archivist at the West Yorkshire Archive Service, who is involved in cataloguing our School archives. Robert told her our main concern was not taking back ownership of the Royal Charter but gaining access to it for events in School. Ms Thomas said this was not a problem and told Robert we could have the Royal Charter any time we wanted and they would wave the necessity for expensive insurance, provided we promised to treat it with the reverence it both needs and deserves. We agreed and were delighted with this resolution to the problem.

I soon had an opportunity to put this new willingness to be more pragmatic to the test. As part of the English Heritage Weekend School was again open to the public on 17th September and on view for all visitors to see was the Royal

Charter, in pride of place in the ODH. May I publically thank Robert Clegg because without his involvement this simply would not have taken place. As you might imagine we hope to do the same at the Annual Dinner when the Royal Charter will be on view for all members to see.

Staying with the Heritage Weekend may I once again thank Ian Rimmer for allowing the Society to open School up for this event. Similarly, I should like to thank Abbi Terry, one of the Assistant Heads in School, for her part in getting students prepared to show visitors round our old School as guides. As usual they were wonderful ambassadors and were a delight to work with in this project. The number of visitors was a little down on previous years but there was probably a degree of uncertainty about the event as many of local buildings such as the Jubilee Tower on Castle Hill were closed by Kirklees as part of the respect by the council for the Queen’s death.

Ian and his team had planned for the official opening of the New Block on 17th September. This has been a pro -

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held in the ODH at School on Monday, 9th January, 2023 at 6.00 p.m. For those who wish to join the meeting by Zoom, the details are given below.

Meeting ID: 739 6718 4858

Passcode: 3DEWC2

Nominations for office on the Executive Committee are required by the Secretary in advance of this date, so that the election of officers can take place at the Annual General Meeting in accordance with Rule 7.

All members are urged to make every effort to attend the Annual General Meeting.

Andrew Haigh, Secretary

tracted event as School has had to find a date suitable for so many guests involved in the project. Unfortunately, at the last minute Kirklees officers contacted Ian and requested the event be again postponed because of the period of mourning for the late Queen. I am sure Ian and his team will eventually find another date and I hope to report back with photographs of the event. We wish him ‘good luck’ with that one!

A new builder has now been found to erect the seating area in the Big Tree