Emails to the website (4)
1. Linda Collingwood 1962-69
Dear Dave,
Well done on the development of HGS website. Most of the form photos I have are also the same ones as Joy Midgley. We were in the same form all the way through except first year. I was in Romans. I was looking at the Holiday and Society sections and remembered something. Did the Christian Society change into the Ichthus Club? I remember Dennis Bavister, RE teacher, taking us all to Beddgelert in N. Wales for at least two holidays staying at a Christian Hostel. We went climbing up Snowdon via the P.Y.G. (Pen-y-Gwryd) track, and eating our lunch above the clouds. This would have been later on, maybe 1967 or even 1968. Does this ring a bell with anyone? George Pacy was a brilliant teacher. He taught me Maths for at least two years. I remember him telling us that we had finished the syllabus early in the second year, so he took the time to teach us Binary Maths. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but several of us from that class ended up doing Maths A-level, then at University and into computing as part of our careers. I’m sure it is down to his influence and love of his subject. What is also obvious, is the quality of teaching throughout the school and the influence it must have made on us, judging from the number of us who went into teaching. More thoughts later,
Linda
(December 2002)
Dear Linda,
Thanks for the compliment about the site. It has been fun putting it together this year. One of the pleasant things about the job is receiving so many interesting emails that prompt different lines of thought. I did not know about the Ichthus club at all. George Pacy got me through Maths O level. He did a great job. On the sports field too, he helped many pupils to enjoy the competitive aspects of extra-curricular life. In my case it was Rugby. He is, of course, a sportsman himself. Thank you very much for getting in touch again at this busy time.
Dave
The Ichthus Club 1964
When mysterious badges, bearing a stylised fish design began cropping up last September amongst the second and third-form pupils, it was the sign that a new School society had been formed - the Ichthus Club - a junior Christian society. The sign of the fish is a symbol which was used by the early Christians. The meetings have been varied in form and success. Debates, discussions and films have played their part (though the epidiascope, looking like some vintage field gun, failed to play its part in one chaotic meeting), but the highlight was undoubtedly the Christmas meeting with its games, its hymns set to ‘pop’ tunes and its mince pies. The club was organised by Miss Mathers, Mr. Murray and Mr. Hassall and we thank them for their help in making the club’s activities both useful and enjoyable.
Susan Smith. 3B
Dear Dave,
I have just been reading about the schoolyard, and the slides which the boys used to make on the slope. This led to one poor little first year (me), rushing to get to the school bus to Shafton at 4 o’clock, skidding and sliding half way down the yard. I stopped before I went under the wheels, and was so embarrassed, I laughed. The teacher on duty was furious with me, but I couldn’t help it, I was probably in Shock. Talking about the Dog ‘ole and the rooms beside the yard - I think I remember having recorder lessons at lunchtime in the classroom up the wooden stairs, probably so that no-on could hear the noise we made. It must have paid off, because eventually I joined the orchestra. I also sang in the Junior, Senior and Madrigal choirs. I remember Speech Days as our busiest time of year. Thanks to whoever sent you the 1963 Panorama and to you for putting it on the site. So many faces, so many good friends, some I’ve kept in touch with, some lost forever. We were so young, so happy and enthusiastic - it gave me quite a funny feeling to see those faces.
Linda Collingwood
2. Ian Townsend 1955-60
Morning Dave,
Just to wish you and that appallingly addictive website all the very best in 2003!
Ian S Townsend
(December 2002)
Dear Ian,
Thank you very much for your good wishes for the New Year. I will try to make the site even more addictive in 2003! I have really enjoyed putting the site together this year. Sheila Kelsall has been a great help. Obviously, the direction it takes depends, to some extent, on what comes in on the daily emails. We will see what 2003 brings. If you can find time to pen something about HGS, please do.
As ever,
Dave
3. Irene Wright 1944-51
Dear Dave,
Leighton Smith sent me your web site in his Christmas mail. What a wonderful Christmas gift! Seven happy years spent at HGS. It was an excellent school with beautiful grounds. I am proud to be a pupil and an Old Hilmian. 50 odd years later I look forward to
catching up on the news. Any news of Anne Woodcock or Brenda Shelton? I have lots of school photographs but alas no scanner. I’ve only had my computer for three weeks so I am very much a learner.
Irene
(December 2002)
Dear Irene,
Hello and welcome to the web-site. Thank you very much for getting in touch. I also spent seven very happy years at HGS (1955-62, Holgate). The lovely buildings and grounds remain in my memory to this day as do many other excellent things about the school. Leighton has made quite an impact on the site. He has provided lots of photos and memories. I will add your email and email address to the site. If you would like to contribute photos to the site, a scanner is not necessary as you can simply post them to the site. They will be scanned and returned to you. If you want to do that, just let me know. Please enjoy the site. As time goes on it will develop further. If you have any specific memories that you would like to contribute just type them and send them in. There are lots of Hilmians who would love to hear about your time in school. I am one of them.
Dave McKenzie
Dear Dave.
Thank you for your reply. Yes, I would be willing to send all the photos I have. You could scan any of them that you think would be of any use. Many years ago I was staying with friends in Exmouth in Devon and contacted Russell Hamilton and asked if I could visit them one morning. I was cordially invited to coffee and was made so welcome. Russell and I chatted about Hemsworth until lunch time. It was a very odd but wonderful experience. Although I was in my late thirties, I was still in awe of him, but he put me completely at ease.
Irene
(December 2002)
Dear Irene,
I hope you had a pleasant Christmas Day and are now ready for some Homework! It would help me if you could identify as many people on the photos as possible, especially the two girls you have specifically mentioned. If you could also identify each photo - 2A, Choir 1949 etc.- that would help too. I will scan them at a high resolution so that individual faces can be picked out - just in case the people contact the site. Obviously a photo of you is a must! I will get them back to you quickly. Please include your address for the photos return. I am sure they will be a great addition to the site.
Best wishes,
Dave
Dear Dave,
Holgate background! Thanks for the info. regarding address and tel. nos. I will post them next Tuesday, so they should be at school for your return. Never learnt typing, all self-taught. We didn’t need it in the nursing profession. I am really looking forward to 2003 and hopefully making contact with some old school friends.
All the best for the New Year,
Irene Wright
Dear Dave,
Just to let you know that the Photo’s arrived here this a.m. Glad they were of use. Just one question, what made you set up the web site? Whatever reason, you have given one lady a new interest in life.
Irene
Dear Irene,
Thank you for letting me know that the photos have arrived. They were indeed useful. One person who emailed the site thought that you may have been a teacher at HGS as you had so many staff photos. In the autumn of 2001, I was just surfing one evening when I decided to type Hemsworth Grammar School into a search engine (Google). This is one of the larger search engines. It found nothing. I then typed in R.W. Hamilton - nothing. In other words we were not represented at all on the Internet. Leighton Smith also had the same result. HSS/HGS served the community for nearly half a century and yet no record. I decided to start a small HGS section as part of the website where I work. I advertised its existence through my entry on Friends Reunited and several others from my year got in touch. The site section grew and grew so it had to go independent. That happened in March 2002. Steady growth has brought it to its present state. When I retire next year it may get larger. I will have more time for it. I must admit to being fascinated by HGS. I wish I had taken more notice of it when I was a pupil. A camera and a tape recorder then would have been really useful tools. I never considered that I should record what was happening around me - others did!
Best wishes,
David
Dear Dave,
I was looking at the article on Prefects on the web site yesterday, and I wondered in your days at HGS did you have Prefects and Assistant Prefects throughout the year? In my days we only had Assistant Prefects when the Prefects in the Sixth Form were taking their Higher School Certificate exams, I think this was only a fortnight or maybe three weeks span.
Irene
4. Miss. K. Ward (HGS Teacher 1948-68) and Clive Mason
Dear Dave,
I never attended Hemsworth G.S. but my relative Kath Ward was a teacher there for many years. I would like to say thank you because Kath and I have spent a pleasurable afternoon visiting the web site of the school. As a result of this I am sure you will be receiving some additional photographs from Kath in the near future. Thank you again for putting in so much work on the HGS site. I hope you have a very happy New Year.
Clive Mason
(December 2002)
Dear Clive,
Thank you for your email. Lovely to hear from you and Kath. Season’s Greetings to you both. You are to be complimented on your detective work with regard to the finding of the HGS site and I hope Kath is happy with what she has seen. The HGS site is getting lots of hits at the moment and comments so far have been very favourable.
Best wishes,
Dave
Hello again Dave,
Unfortunately Kath did not have time to put anything together for the HGS site because she travelled home today, however she has read your message and will be in touch soon. In the mean time she wanted me to send her reply, which is included below, to your note.
Clive
Dear Dave,
Thanks to the good detective work of Clive, I was able to see most of the information on the HGS site. I shall sort something out for the HGS site when I get home and send you some comments for the site but I will have to think about that first. Glad to hear you remember Romans! (How could I ever forget History in 2A 1956/57 with Miss. Ward?!!! Dave McK.)
Best wishes,
Kath.
5. Mr. R.J. (Dick) Whittaker 1943-51 and HGS teacher 1961-62
Dear Dave,
I was a pupil at the school from 1943 to 1951 and taught there 1961 to 1962. As a pupil I was in Talbot House and Captain of the House in 1949-50 and 1950-51. My wife was a member of staff (Dorothy Elliot- French) from 1954 to 1962. I have form photographs for the seven years I was at the school and many team photographs, including the first rugby 7-aside team that was a finalist at the first Ilkley Sevens. I also have photographs of the staff and of staff plays. I also have a photograph of the First XV for 1943-44. If any of this information is of use to you, please let me know and I will either download it to you or arrange to bring it over. The cohort that started at the School in 1943 meets each year (or a fair selection of it does), organised by Mick Cleaver. We are meeting in 2003 on the 26th March. I will be happy to help in any way I can in the provision of information.
R.J. (Dick) Whittaker
(December 2002)
Dear Dick,
Thank you very much for contacting the web site. I do hope you have enjoyed your visits. The 40 years since we last met at HGS do seem to have flown by very quickly. Your offer of material for the site is very welcome. All the items you mention will give a substantial boost to the content of the site. Perhaps the simplest method of transferring the material would be for you to scan it and send it to the site. Lots of other people have used this method to transfer material and it has worked well. Once again, thank you very much for getting in touch and for the offer of material.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
6. Ron Dyson 1961-68
Just dropped on this site by accident and found it really nostalgic. I was in Danes then 2A etc up to UVIA. Anybody around from 1961-68? I am still living locally and would like to establish contact. I still meet Terry Mills, Carol Bonser, Janet Perry and Maureen Penn and am married to Lynne Milner. Anyone else want to contact? This site is excellent and will take many hours of navigating!
Ron
(January 2003)
Dear Ron,
Thank you for contacting the site and for the details you have supplied. I hope you have enjoyed your visits so far. The site is growing steadily and, as you have acknowledged, there is a lot of material on it already. If you could add anything please do. Photos and text memories are always welcome and are well received by our growing audience. Please spread the word of the site’s existence.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
I have still not explored this entire site yet. One question, can anyone let me know what happened to Miss Smith, after 1968 when I left. She was my inspiration, and have many happy memories of her lessons, albeit with a healthy amount of fear! I continue to be fascinated by the site and I am being contacted via the site and FRU by old school friends near and far.
Keep up the good work.
Ron
7. Caroline Colley 1955-58
Dear Dave,
Having been informed from the other side of the world by my younger brother that this site existed, I am using my somewhat scant IT knowledge to attempt to find out if any of my ex form-mates are still in the land of the living! It would be great to hear from anyone who remembers me - what about Kath Priestly, Gaynor Vaughn-Birch, Joan Heyward, Jenny Kelly, all out of the same year as I was, plus others from different years, such as Ellen Toulson, Pat Beevers, Ruth Green, Pat Griffiths, etc. and then in the Upper VI at the time, such lords of creation (to quote R.W. Hamilton) as Sid Kenningham, Bob Moore, Roy Homer, Tony Gough, Dave Toulson, and, as they say, many many more!!
I lived for many years in Manchester but I am now back in S. Yorkshire, and would be really interested to find out more! I left HGS in1958, after a year in L6R, and have lost touch with virtually everyone apart from Sue Butcher, who, like me, moved on to pastures new. We meet every couple of years or so. My younger brother is John (otherwise known as Jez or Jes). John and I joined the school later than most, having had our education changed rather a lot, due to our parents’ moving around - HGS was my third grammar school. We arrived at the end of the 1955 school year. John went into 1C and I was put into 4C. The following year I was in 5T, and I remember our form room was the Chemistry Lab and our form master was Mr. Owen. We had some really good times. Anyone remember the bus strike, and Sue Butcher coming to school on her horse, from Crofton, and having her picture in the paper? I am trying to locate old form photographs, but due to several changes of address over the years, I may have to go and plunder the family archives in my mother’s loft!! Names I remember: John Mansfield, T. Edwards, T. Lockett, Peter Lockett, Bob Bacon, Winnie Taylor, Kath Ratcliffe, Mavis Bradbury and June Croft. They are not all from my year but I am sure at least some of these names must be remembered. Older than we were Helen Guest, Howard Peel, John Riggot, Gloria and Sam Farnsworth, Alec Wall, Tony Gough, Tony Pickering, and many, many more.
Incidentally, before closing down, I must add that John and I were both in Price - and I would like to know when these Danes, Celts etc. arrived on the scene!!
Caroline
(January 2003)
Dear Caroline,
Thank you for contacting the site. Lovely to hear from you and I hope you have enjoyed your visit. The site is still in its infancy but growing steadily. John was in my form in 1C, 3A, 4S, 5S, L6S and U6S. We played rugby for the school in the same teams. There are photos on the site which he will probably have seen. You mention names that are very familiar. They contributed a great deal to the life of the school. If you could obtain those photos and/or describe some of your experiences at the school, I am sure that many of our audience would be very interested. Hopefully some ex form-mates will get in touch.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
8. Patricia Cockburn 1955-62
Dear Dave,
To say that I was surprised to receive your e-mail is certainly an understatement! I had not realised that you had set up the school web site. It was with some excitement (and trepidation) that I scrolled the pages and memories flooded back. How embarrassing to see oneself 40 years ago with pig-tails! It was brilliant to see people I was so close to and know the link is now there. Peter Kaye always the budding actor, Sheila Kelsall my rival on the athletics track, Janet Marston our goalie for hockey matches, yourself for your prowess on the sports field and Margaret Birkin (who I would love to get in touch with again). I have old school Speech Day programmes, photos galore, athletics, hockey, orchestra, Form groups and of course good old Green Report Book. I have many fond memories of H.G.S , a beautiful building with those gorgeous magnolias as you walked up the driveway, the shuttered windows and that impressive staircase. The Green Gate was the entry to a special world. During the Summer I sat with a fellow Old Hilmian (two years my senior Barrie Longden) in Durban, South Africa reminiscing about pupils that we both knew and members of staff. It was amazing just how much we had both remembered - one name sparked off another. I often wondered what happened to Gordon Knox - the Science teacher. If you organise another re-union then please let me know. Sorry if this seems to be rambling ... it could be the shock factor!
Best Wishes to all,
Pat Cockburn
(January 2003)
Dear Pat,
Thank you for your email. The thing that still amazes me is that we went our separate ways in July 1962 and here we are 40 years later and I do not feel that gap. It’s the same for the others who have contacted the site. So many memories, so many lessons, so many things in common. The site is yours to use as you wish. In particular, those memories as text would be of great interest to many people. Sheila has done a great job so far. Please add material as you wish.
Lovely to hear from you again.
As ever,
Dave McKenzie
9. Sue Butcher 1952-59
Dear All,
All I can do is reiterate many of the wonderful things that have been said about having had the privilege of going to H.G.S. I didn’t
have time to work at school and failed ‘O’ levels with honours twice but eventually managed to get a Masters Degree in Education
Management. Yes, I became a teacher and gained a reputation for understanding the miscreants, unhappy or just plain disturbed children. Who else better than someone who had been there themselves. But, back to the Alladin’s cave of HGS. I took part in all sporting activities, sang in the choirs, played in the school orchestra (although my bow was frequently noted for going in the opposite direction to the others), took part in the school play, was President of the Lit. and Deb. one year, but not noteworthy for it.
I have now retired. After meandering through teaching for many years, I finally realised that I could have a career. I followed the beautiful setting of HGS with a year at the Cambridge Insitute of Education where I became a full-blown member of the Students Union. Not quite the oldest one to turn up to meetings and of the course the Union Debates. To add to my interesting places of study I finished my academic ambitions at the Danbury Park Management Centre where we piloted a Masters Degree in Education Management. This was the Bishop of Rochesters Summer Palace in about 1500. I forgot Chichester and Bishop Otter College which was the second leg of the learning curve. So throughout my life I have been blessed with beautiful surroundings.
I ended up as deputy head of a large inner city, multicultural school in Ilford, the London Borough of Redbridge. I retired last July and am just getting used to living a normal life with some quality to it. The only person I have kept in touch with is Caroline Colley. There are so many people I would be pleased to hear of again. I was particularly pleased to read Dick Whittaker’s missive as his wife, Miss. Elliot, started at H.G.S. the same day as me. She wasn’t a pupil!! If anyone is a golfing junkie please get in touch. I started playing 5 years ago ready for my retirement and can’t get enough of it.
I’m actually overwhelmed by the site and just want to hug everyone. Best wishes to every one for the New Year and especially to all the folk who have put in the time and effort to bring joy to an OAP who still feels about 30. Some of you may remember my brother Chris. He is living in Leeds and working in the archives at the University. He sends me photo copies of stuff that he thinks I will find interesting. We have both been drawn back to our roots in Crofton, he to write a learned piece about Richmall Magnol and myself a whimsie of memory about the places where we used to play that are no longer used or exist
Sue Butcher
(January 2003)
Dear Sue,
Happy New Year and I hope you are enjoying your retirement from our much altered profession. I retire next year. Thank you very much for your positive comments about this young site. You feature in several parts of the site. It would be great if you could let us have your thoughts about anything you have seen on the site or perhaps relate memories you would like to share with our growing audience. If you still have photos or memorabilia, any input with regard to those would be very well received.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
I am riveted. The first name I picked up was Elaine Picken. I had just written in another part how my bow (violin/orchestra) was always going a different way from everyone elses. Elaine’s was always right - which leads me on to Buck Wright. I have a photo of the school orchestra about 1953/4. The other name was Ralph Winstanley who was in my class. What about Kath Ratcliffe, Joan Hayward, Marlene Bateman etc., etc.? Thank you for putting the request for the cricket photo out for general viewing. I had a response a couple of days ago. Terry McCroakam ‘e’ mailed the photo. After playing with various bits I managed to get it printed off. I did not even have to resort to bashing the top of the computer. So I learn a little more. I forgot to congratulate you on a very full year. You have started something here, Dave. I suspect that sometimes you might get inundated with information, requests etc. Well keep at it. It really has brought a great deal of pleasure to me and I am sure many others.
Thanks again,
Sue
(April 2003)
10. Christine Kelly 1956-64
Dear Dave,
Thanks for all the time and effort that you and others have spent on this excellent web site. I can browse on this site for hours and enjoy looking back at those heady days at HGS. I’ll look through the photographs and see how many people I can recognise.
Eva on the photograph sent in by Peter Kaye’s mum was my Aunt.
Keep up the good work.
Best Wishes,
Christine Kelly
(January 2003)
Dear Christine,
Thank you very much for your lovely email. I am very glad that you enjoy your visits to the site. Hopefully it will continue to progress. There does seem to be a significant body of sentiment for the old school. Rightly so. An era now gone? Probably, but it was lovely to be involved. There were very few negative aspects.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
11. Michael Dixon 1955-63
What a compulsive site! I was alerted to its existence a few days ago (early Jan. 2003) by my sister Joyce who attended HGS between 1943 and 1950. I attended between 1955 and 1963. We were both members of Talbot House, as was the tradition, and had happy times at the School. By strange coincidence Sheila (who was in the same year that I was, but different Form) had been given Joyce’s address (unaware of any family connection) and was writing to ask if the School Song music was available. I see Joyce has written it out and it is now posted on the site. She tells me that she has photographs, and possibly newspaper cuttings, coming your way, after about the middle of Feb, 2003. So... watch this space! I must confess I have given my School days scant thought since I left, but this event has changed things and I find the site is now compulsive ‘viewing’. I, too, have to be dragged away kicking and screaming after long log-ons!! Keep up the good work. I would certainly be interested in coming to any reunion for the 1955 intake.
By today’s post I received a copy of the 1949 Speech Day programme from my cousin Dennis Anderson who attended HGS from 1940 to 1947. I haven’t checked to see whether you already have this, but interestingly I see that there are 10 teacher names which do not currently appear in the site’s listing. Rather than list them here I intend to provide this document for scanning along with the promised stuff from Joyce, my sister, whom I shall be seeing this weekend in London. I understand that she has looked out photographs for me to bring back ‘up north’. I shall then arrange to get them to you for inclusion into the website. I have printed off the school song music and played it a few times - it doesn’t seem like 40+ years since I last heard it!!
Best wishes to all ‘old’ pupils.
Mike Dixon.
(January 2003)
Dear Mike,
Time certainly has flown since we were in the same forms together! I hope you have enjoyed your visits to the site. Hopefully as time passes it will grow into a more comprehensive record of our old school. All material is very welcome. Memories really are precious. Thanks to your sister, before too long we may have the music of the School Song in place on the site. If I can help with the processing of material please let me know.
As ever,
Dave McKenzie
12. Ian Donaldson 1964-71
Dear Dave,
I have enclosed a Form Photo. I am pretty sure this was our class photo in 1966. The only small doubt is that I thought Mr. A.V. Davies was our form master, a fact backed up by my report book, however, as you can see, it is Mr Greensmith on duty that day. I remember all my days at HGS with great affection. My younger brother (Brian) and sister (Elaine) also attended. They still live in the surrounding area and I regularly come up to visit them from my home in Swansea. To make it a proper family affair my mother used to work in the school kitchens as well! I am still regularly in touch with Jack Wotherspoon who was in 2S in 1965/66. Keep up the good work.
Best Wishes,
Ian Donaldson
(January 2003)
Dear Ian,
Thank you for the photograph and the names. I will put the photo on the site this evening. HGS does indeed figure prominently in many memories - even now in a different century. My years there were demanding but personally very rewarding. You were at HGS when the Comprehensive era was brought in. The change has brought quite a bit of reaction on the site. HGS was just one of many grammar schools that went at around the same time. The site aims to coordinate our fragmented memories of a time gone by. I hope you will be able to let the site have your particular thoughts about HGS.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
Thanks for the swift reply, Dave. I will post some thoughts in the near future, but suffice to say at the moment that I agree totally with Terry McCroakam’s views of those times. In particular the impromptu singing of the schoolsong. My sister who was only in the 2nd form then, still remembers it vividly. The thing that hurt me and my friends the most was the collapse of the sports teams. I think I played for and captained one of the last men’s hockey teams in 1971. I don’t think they continued long after we left. After Dickie Owens left in 69/70, George Pacy took over. He was absolutely brilliant, and along with Maurice Shelton they were my favourite teachers. I owe a great debt to both.
Ian Donaldson
Dear Dave,
Well done on the development of HGS website. Most of the form photos I have are also the same ones as Joy Midgley. We were in the same form all the way through except first year. I was in Romans. I was looking at the Holiday and Society sections and remembered something. Did the Christian Society change into the Ichthus Club? I remember Dennis Bavister, RE teacher, taking us all to Beddgelert in N. Wales for at least two holidays staying at a Christian Hostel. We went climbing up Snowdon via the P.Y.G. (Pen-y-Gwryd) track, and eating our lunch above the clouds. This would have been later on, maybe 1967 or even 1968. Does this ring a bell with anyone? George Pacy was a brilliant teacher. He taught me Maths for at least two years. I remember him telling us that we had finished the syllabus early in the second year, so he took the time to teach us Binary Maths. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but several of us from that class ended up doing Maths A-level, then at University and into computing as part of our careers. I’m sure it is down to his influence and love of his subject. What is also obvious, is the quality of teaching throughout the school and the influence it must have made on us, judging from the number of us who went into teaching. More thoughts later,
Linda
(December 2002)
Dear Linda,
Thanks for the compliment about the site. It has been fun putting it together this year. One of the pleasant things about the job is receiving so many interesting emails that prompt different lines of thought. I did not know about the Ichthus club at all. George Pacy got me through Maths O level. He did a great job. On the sports field too, he helped many pupils to enjoy the competitive aspects of extra-curricular life. In my case it was Rugby. He is, of course, a sportsman himself. Thank you very much for getting in touch again at this busy time.
Dave
The Ichthus Club 1964
When mysterious badges, bearing a stylised fish design began cropping up last September amongst the second and third-form pupils, it was the sign that a new School society had been formed - the Ichthus Club - a junior Christian society. The sign of the fish is a symbol which was used by the early Christians. The meetings have been varied in form and success. Debates, discussions and films have played their part (though the epidiascope, looking like some vintage field gun, failed to play its part in one chaotic meeting), but the highlight was undoubtedly the Christmas meeting with its games, its hymns set to ‘pop’ tunes and its mince pies. The club was organised by Miss Mathers, Mr. Murray and Mr. Hassall and we thank them for their help in making the club’s activities both useful and enjoyable.
Susan Smith. 3B
Dear Dave,
I have just been reading about the schoolyard, and the slides which the boys used to make on the slope. This led to one poor little first year (me), rushing to get to the school bus to Shafton at 4 o’clock, skidding and sliding half way down the yard. I stopped before I went under the wheels, and was so embarrassed, I laughed. The teacher on duty was furious with me, but I couldn’t help it, I was probably in Shock. Talking about the Dog ‘ole and the rooms beside the yard - I think I remember having recorder lessons at lunchtime in the classroom up the wooden stairs, probably so that no-on could hear the noise we made. It must have paid off, because eventually I joined the orchestra. I also sang in the Junior, Senior and Madrigal choirs. I remember Speech Days as our busiest time of year. Thanks to whoever sent you the 1963 Panorama and to you for putting it on the site. So many faces, so many good friends, some I’ve kept in touch with, some lost forever. We were so young, so happy and enthusiastic - it gave me quite a funny feeling to see those faces.
Linda Collingwood
2. Ian Townsend 1955-60
Morning Dave,
Just to wish you and that appallingly addictive website all the very best in 2003!
Ian S Townsend
(December 2002)
Dear Ian,
Thank you very much for your good wishes for the New Year. I will try to make the site even more addictive in 2003! I have really enjoyed putting the site together this year. Sheila Kelsall has been a great help. Obviously, the direction it takes depends, to some extent, on what comes in on the daily emails. We will see what 2003 brings. If you can find time to pen something about HGS, please do.
As ever,
Dave
3. Irene Wright 1944-51
Dear Dave,
Leighton Smith sent me your web site in his Christmas mail. What a wonderful Christmas gift! Seven happy years spent at HGS. It was an excellent school with beautiful grounds. I am proud to be a pupil and an Old Hilmian. 50 odd years later I look forward to
catching up on the news. Any news of Anne Woodcock or Brenda Shelton? I have lots of school photographs but alas no scanner. I’ve only had my computer for three weeks so I am very much a learner.
Irene
(December 2002)
Dear Irene,
Hello and welcome to the web-site. Thank you very much for getting in touch. I also spent seven very happy years at HGS (1955-62, Holgate). The lovely buildings and grounds remain in my memory to this day as do many other excellent things about the school. Leighton has made quite an impact on the site. He has provided lots of photos and memories. I will add your email and email address to the site. If you would like to contribute photos to the site, a scanner is not necessary as you can simply post them to the site. They will be scanned and returned to you. If you want to do that, just let me know. Please enjoy the site. As time goes on it will develop further. If you have any specific memories that you would like to contribute just type them and send them in. There are lots of Hilmians who would love to hear about your time in school. I am one of them.
Dave McKenzie
Dear Dave.
Thank you for your reply. Yes, I would be willing to send all the photos I have. You could scan any of them that you think would be of any use. Many years ago I was staying with friends in Exmouth in Devon and contacted Russell Hamilton and asked if I could visit them one morning. I was cordially invited to coffee and was made so welcome. Russell and I chatted about Hemsworth until lunch time. It was a very odd but wonderful experience. Although I was in my late thirties, I was still in awe of him, but he put me completely at ease.
Irene
(December 2002)
Dear Irene,
I hope you had a pleasant Christmas Day and are now ready for some Homework! It would help me if you could identify as many people on the photos as possible, especially the two girls you have specifically mentioned. If you could also identify each photo - 2A, Choir 1949 etc.- that would help too. I will scan them at a high resolution so that individual faces can be picked out - just in case the people contact the site. Obviously a photo of you is a must! I will get them back to you quickly. Please include your address for the photos return. I am sure they will be a great addition to the site.
Best wishes,
Dave
Dear Dave,
Holgate background! Thanks for the info. regarding address and tel. nos. I will post them next Tuesday, so they should be at school for your return. Never learnt typing, all self-taught. We didn’t need it in the nursing profession. I am really looking forward to 2003 and hopefully making contact with some old school friends.
All the best for the New Year,
Irene Wright
Dear Dave,
Just to let you know that the Photo’s arrived here this a.m. Glad they were of use. Just one question, what made you set up the web site? Whatever reason, you have given one lady a new interest in life.
Irene
Dear Irene,
Thank you for letting me know that the photos have arrived. They were indeed useful. One person who emailed the site thought that you may have been a teacher at HGS as you had so many staff photos. In the autumn of 2001, I was just surfing one evening when I decided to type Hemsworth Grammar School into a search engine (Google). This is one of the larger search engines. It found nothing. I then typed in R.W. Hamilton - nothing. In other words we were not represented at all on the Internet. Leighton Smith also had the same result. HSS/HGS served the community for nearly half a century and yet no record. I decided to start a small HGS section as part of the website where I work. I advertised its existence through my entry on Friends Reunited and several others from my year got in touch. The site section grew and grew so it had to go independent. That happened in March 2002. Steady growth has brought it to its present state. When I retire next year it may get larger. I will have more time for it. I must admit to being fascinated by HGS. I wish I had taken more notice of it when I was a pupil. A camera and a tape recorder then would have been really useful tools. I never considered that I should record what was happening around me - others did!
Best wishes,
David
Dear Dave,
I was looking at the article on Prefects on the web site yesterday, and I wondered in your days at HGS did you have Prefects and Assistant Prefects throughout the year? In my days we only had Assistant Prefects when the Prefects in the Sixth Form were taking their Higher School Certificate exams, I think this was only a fortnight or maybe three weeks span.
Irene
4. Miss. K. Ward (HGS Teacher 1948-68) and Clive Mason
Dear Dave,
I never attended Hemsworth G.S. but my relative Kath Ward was a teacher there for many years. I would like to say thank you because Kath and I have spent a pleasurable afternoon visiting the web site of the school. As a result of this I am sure you will be receiving some additional photographs from Kath in the near future. Thank you again for putting in so much work on the HGS site. I hope you have a very happy New Year.
Clive Mason
(December 2002)
Dear Clive,
Thank you for your email. Lovely to hear from you and Kath. Season’s Greetings to you both. You are to be complimented on your detective work with regard to the finding of the HGS site and I hope Kath is happy with what she has seen. The HGS site is getting lots of hits at the moment and comments so far have been very favourable.
Best wishes,
Dave
Hello again Dave,
Unfortunately Kath did not have time to put anything together for the HGS site because she travelled home today, however she has read your message and will be in touch soon. In the mean time she wanted me to send her reply, which is included below, to your note.
Clive
Dear Dave,
Thanks to the good detective work of Clive, I was able to see most of the information on the HGS site. I shall sort something out for the HGS site when I get home and send you some comments for the site but I will have to think about that first. Glad to hear you remember Romans! (How could I ever forget History in 2A 1956/57 with Miss. Ward?!!! Dave McK.)
Best wishes,
Kath.
5. Mr. R.J. (Dick) Whittaker 1943-51 and HGS teacher 1961-62
Dear Dave,
I was a pupil at the school from 1943 to 1951 and taught there 1961 to 1962. As a pupil I was in Talbot House and Captain of the House in 1949-50 and 1950-51. My wife was a member of staff (Dorothy Elliot- French) from 1954 to 1962. I have form photographs for the seven years I was at the school and many team photographs, including the first rugby 7-aside team that was a finalist at the first Ilkley Sevens. I also have photographs of the staff and of staff plays. I also have a photograph of the First XV for 1943-44. If any of this information is of use to you, please let me know and I will either download it to you or arrange to bring it over. The cohort that started at the School in 1943 meets each year (or a fair selection of it does), organised by Mick Cleaver. We are meeting in 2003 on the 26th March. I will be happy to help in any way I can in the provision of information.
R.J. (Dick) Whittaker
(December 2002)
Dear Dick,
Thank you very much for contacting the web site. I do hope you have enjoyed your visits. The 40 years since we last met at HGS do seem to have flown by very quickly. Your offer of material for the site is very welcome. All the items you mention will give a substantial boost to the content of the site. Perhaps the simplest method of transferring the material would be for you to scan it and send it to the site. Lots of other people have used this method to transfer material and it has worked well. Once again, thank you very much for getting in touch and for the offer of material.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
6. Ron Dyson 1961-68
Just dropped on this site by accident and found it really nostalgic. I was in Danes then 2A etc up to UVIA. Anybody around from 1961-68? I am still living locally and would like to establish contact. I still meet Terry Mills, Carol Bonser, Janet Perry and Maureen Penn and am married to Lynne Milner. Anyone else want to contact? This site is excellent and will take many hours of navigating!
Ron
(January 2003)
Dear Ron,
Thank you for contacting the site and for the details you have supplied. I hope you have enjoyed your visits so far. The site is growing steadily and, as you have acknowledged, there is a lot of material on it already. If you could add anything please do. Photos and text memories are always welcome and are well received by our growing audience. Please spread the word of the site’s existence.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
I have still not explored this entire site yet. One question, can anyone let me know what happened to Miss Smith, after 1968 when I left. She was my inspiration, and have many happy memories of her lessons, albeit with a healthy amount of fear! I continue to be fascinated by the site and I am being contacted via the site and FRU by old school friends near and far.
Keep up the good work.
Ron
7. Caroline Colley 1955-58
Dear Dave,
Having been informed from the other side of the world by my younger brother that this site existed, I am using my somewhat scant IT knowledge to attempt to find out if any of my ex form-mates are still in the land of the living! It would be great to hear from anyone who remembers me - what about Kath Priestly, Gaynor Vaughn-Birch, Joan Heyward, Jenny Kelly, all out of the same year as I was, plus others from different years, such as Ellen Toulson, Pat Beevers, Ruth Green, Pat Griffiths, etc. and then in the Upper VI at the time, such lords of creation (to quote R.W. Hamilton) as Sid Kenningham, Bob Moore, Roy Homer, Tony Gough, Dave Toulson, and, as they say, many many more!!
I lived for many years in Manchester but I am now back in S. Yorkshire, and would be really interested to find out more! I left HGS in1958, after a year in L6R, and have lost touch with virtually everyone apart from Sue Butcher, who, like me, moved on to pastures new. We meet every couple of years or so. My younger brother is John (otherwise known as Jez or Jes). John and I joined the school later than most, having had our education changed rather a lot, due to our parents’ moving around - HGS was my third grammar school. We arrived at the end of the 1955 school year. John went into 1C and I was put into 4C. The following year I was in 5T, and I remember our form room was the Chemistry Lab and our form master was Mr. Owen. We had some really good times. Anyone remember the bus strike, and Sue Butcher coming to school on her horse, from Crofton, and having her picture in the paper? I am trying to locate old form photographs, but due to several changes of address over the years, I may have to go and plunder the family archives in my mother’s loft!! Names I remember: John Mansfield, T. Edwards, T. Lockett, Peter Lockett, Bob Bacon, Winnie Taylor, Kath Ratcliffe, Mavis Bradbury and June Croft. They are not all from my year but I am sure at least some of these names must be remembered. Older than we were Helen Guest, Howard Peel, John Riggot, Gloria and Sam Farnsworth, Alec Wall, Tony Gough, Tony Pickering, and many, many more.
Incidentally, before closing down, I must add that John and I were both in Price - and I would like to know when these Danes, Celts etc. arrived on the scene!!
Caroline
(January 2003)
Dear Caroline,
Thank you for contacting the site. Lovely to hear from you and I hope you have enjoyed your visit. The site is still in its infancy but growing steadily. John was in my form in 1C, 3A, 4S, 5S, L6S and U6S. We played rugby for the school in the same teams. There are photos on the site which he will probably have seen. You mention names that are very familiar. They contributed a great deal to the life of the school. If you could obtain those photos and/or describe some of your experiences at the school, I am sure that many of our audience would be very interested. Hopefully some ex form-mates will get in touch.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
8. Patricia Cockburn 1955-62
Dear Dave,
To say that I was surprised to receive your e-mail is certainly an understatement! I had not realised that you had set up the school web site. It was with some excitement (and trepidation) that I scrolled the pages and memories flooded back. How embarrassing to see oneself 40 years ago with pig-tails! It was brilliant to see people I was so close to and know the link is now there. Peter Kaye always the budding actor, Sheila Kelsall my rival on the athletics track, Janet Marston our goalie for hockey matches, yourself for your prowess on the sports field and Margaret Birkin (who I would love to get in touch with again). I have old school Speech Day programmes, photos galore, athletics, hockey, orchestra, Form groups and of course good old Green Report Book. I have many fond memories of H.G.S , a beautiful building with those gorgeous magnolias as you walked up the driveway, the shuttered windows and that impressive staircase. The Green Gate was the entry to a special world. During the Summer I sat with a fellow Old Hilmian (two years my senior Barrie Longden) in Durban, South Africa reminiscing about pupils that we both knew and members of staff. It was amazing just how much we had both remembered - one name sparked off another. I often wondered what happened to Gordon Knox - the Science teacher. If you organise another re-union then please let me know. Sorry if this seems to be rambling ... it could be the shock factor!
Best Wishes to all,
Pat Cockburn
(January 2003)
Dear Pat,
Thank you for your email. The thing that still amazes me is that we went our separate ways in July 1962 and here we are 40 years later and I do not feel that gap. It’s the same for the others who have contacted the site. So many memories, so many lessons, so many things in common. The site is yours to use as you wish. In particular, those memories as text would be of great interest to many people. Sheila has done a great job so far. Please add material as you wish.
Lovely to hear from you again.
As ever,
Dave McKenzie
9. Sue Butcher 1952-59
Dear All,
All I can do is reiterate many of the wonderful things that have been said about having had the privilege of going to H.G.S. I didn’t
have time to work at school and failed ‘O’ levels with honours twice but eventually managed to get a Masters Degree in Education
Management. Yes, I became a teacher and gained a reputation for understanding the miscreants, unhappy or just plain disturbed children. Who else better than someone who had been there themselves. But, back to the Alladin’s cave of HGS. I took part in all sporting activities, sang in the choirs, played in the school orchestra (although my bow was frequently noted for going in the opposite direction to the others), took part in the school play, was President of the Lit. and Deb. one year, but not noteworthy for it.
I have now retired. After meandering through teaching for many years, I finally realised that I could have a career. I followed the beautiful setting of HGS with a year at the Cambridge Insitute of Education where I became a full-blown member of the Students Union. Not quite the oldest one to turn up to meetings and of the course the Union Debates. To add to my interesting places of study I finished my academic ambitions at the Danbury Park Management Centre where we piloted a Masters Degree in Education Management. This was the Bishop of Rochesters Summer Palace in about 1500. I forgot Chichester and Bishop Otter College which was the second leg of the learning curve. So throughout my life I have been blessed with beautiful surroundings.
I ended up as deputy head of a large inner city, multicultural school in Ilford, the London Borough of Redbridge. I retired last July and am just getting used to living a normal life with some quality to it. The only person I have kept in touch with is Caroline Colley. There are so many people I would be pleased to hear of again. I was particularly pleased to read Dick Whittaker’s missive as his wife, Miss. Elliot, started at H.G.S. the same day as me. She wasn’t a pupil!! If anyone is a golfing junkie please get in touch. I started playing 5 years ago ready for my retirement and can’t get enough of it.
I’m actually overwhelmed by the site and just want to hug everyone. Best wishes to every one for the New Year and especially to all the folk who have put in the time and effort to bring joy to an OAP who still feels about 30. Some of you may remember my brother Chris. He is living in Leeds and working in the archives at the University. He sends me photo copies of stuff that he thinks I will find interesting. We have both been drawn back to our roots in Crofton, he to write a learned piece about Richmall Magnol and myself a whimsie of memory about the places where we used to play that are no longer used or exist
Sue Butcher
(January 2003)
Dear Sue,
Happy New Year and I hope you are enjoying your retirement from our much altered profession. I retire next year. Thank you very much for your positive comments about this young site. You feature in several parts of the site. It would be great if you could let us have your thoughts about anything you have seen on the site or perhaps relate memories you would like to share with our growing audience. If you still have photos or memorabilia, any input with regard to those would be very well received.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
I am riveted. The first name I picked up was Elaine Picken. I had just written in another part how my bow (violin/orchestra) was always going a different way from everyone elses. Elaine’s was always right - which leads me on to Buck Wright. I have a photo of the school orchestra about 1953/4. The other name was Ralph Winstanley who was in my class. What about Kath Ratcliffe, Joan Hayward, Marlene Bateman etc., etc.? Thank you for putting the request for the cricket photo out for general viewing. I had a response a couple of days ago. Terry McCroakam ‘e’ mailed the photo. After playing with various bits I managed to get it printed off. I did not even have to resort to bashing the top of the computer. So I learn a little more. I forgot to congratulate you on a very full year. You have started something here, Dave. I suspect that sometimes you might get inundated with information, requests etc. Well keep at it. It really has brought a great deal of pleasure to me and I am sure many others.
Thanks again,
Sue
(April 2003)
10. Christine Kelly 1956-64
Dear Dave,
Thanks for all the time and effort that you and others have spent on this excellent web site. I can browse on this site for hours and enjoy looking back at those heady days at HGS. I’ll look through the photographs and see how many people I can recognise.
Eva on the photograph sent in by Peter Kaye’s mum was my Aunt.
Keep up the good work.
Best Wishes,
Christine Kelly
(January 2003)
Dear Christine,
Thank you very much for your lovely email. I am very glad that you enjoy your visits to the site. Hopefully it will continue to progress. There does seem to be a significant body of sentiment for the old school. Rightly so. An era now gone? Probably, but it was lovely to be involved. There were very few negative aspects.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
11. Michael Dixon 1955-63
What a compulsive site! I was alerted to its existence a few days ago (early Jan. 2003) by my sister Joyce who attended HGS between 1943 and 1950. I attended between 1955 and 1963. We were both members of Talbot House, as was the tradition, and had happy times at the School. By strange coincidence Sheila (who was in the same year that I was, but different Form) had been given Joyce’s address (unaware of any family connection) and was writing to ask if the School Song music was available. I see Joyce has written it out and it is now posted on the site. She tells me that she has photographs, and possibly newspaper cuttings, coming your way, after about the middle of Feb, 2003. So... watch this space! I must confess I have given my School days scant thought since I left, but this event has changed things and I find the site is now compulsive ‘viewing’. I, too, have to be dragged away kicking and screaming after long log-ons!! Keep up the good work. I would certainly be interested in coming to any reunion for the 1955 intake.
By today’s post I received a copy of the 1949 Speech Day programme from my cousin Dennis Anderson who attended HGS from 1940 to 1947. I haven’t checked to see whether you already have this, but interestingly I see that there are 10 teacher names which do not currently appear in the site’s listing. Rather than list them here I intend to provide this document for scanning along with the promised stuff from Joyce, my sister, whom I shall be seeing this weekend in London. I understand that she has looked out photographs for me to bring back ‘up north’. I shall then arrange to get them to you for inclusion into the website. I have printed off the school song music and played it a few times - it doesn’t seem like 40+ years since I last heard it!!
Best wishes to all ‘old’ pupils.
Mike Dixon.
(January 2003)
Dear Mike,
Time certainly has flown since we were in the same forms together! I hope you have enjoyed your visits to the site. Hopefully as time passes it will grow into a more comprehensive record of our old school. All material is very welcome. Memories really are precious. Thanks to your sister, before too long we may have the music of the School Song in place on the site. If I can help with the processing of material please let me know.
As ever,
Dave McKenzie
12. Ian Donaldson 1964-71
Dear Dave,
I have enclosed a Form Photo. I am pretty sure this was our class photo in 1966. The only small doubt is that I thought Mr. A.V. Davies was our form master, a fact backed up by my report book, however, as you can see, it is Mr Greensmith on duty that day. I remember all my days at HGS with great affection. My younger brother (Brian) and sister (Elaine) also attended. They still live in the surrounding area and I regularly come up to visit them from my home in Swansea. To make it a proper family affair my mother used to work in the school kitchens as well! I am still regularly in touch with Jack Wotherspoon who was in 2S in 1965/66. Keep up the good work.
Best Wishes,
Ian Donaldson
(January 2003)
Dear Ian,
Thank you for the photograph and the names. I will put the photo on the site this evening. HGS does indeed figure prominently in many memories - even now in a different century. My years there were demanding but personally very rewarding. You were at HGS when the Comprehensive era was brought in. The change has brought quite a bit of reaction on the site. HGS was just one of many grammar schools that went at around the same time. The site aims to coordinate our fragmented memories of a time gone by. I hope you will be able to let the site have your particular thoughts about HGS.
Best wishes,
Dave McKenzie
Thanks for the swift reply, Dave. I will post some thoughts in the near future, but suffice to say at the moment that I agree totally with Terry McCroakam’s views of those times. In particular the impromptu singing of the schoolsong. My sister who was only in the 2nd form then, still remembers it vividly. The thing that hurt me and my friends the most was the collapse of the sports teams. I think I played for and captained one of the last men’s hockey teams in 1971. I don’t think they continued long after we left. After Dickie Owens left in 69/70, George Pacy took over. He was absolutely brilliant, and along with Maurice Shelton they were my favourite teachers. I owe a great debt to both.
Ian Donaldson
