John West (SH 61-64) writes:

“Rob Astin (SH 62-66) made contact with me through the OSB Society in January last year and we have exchanged emails fairly regularly since.

In his first email Rob said:
 ‘My abiding memory of yourself is you jigging about to Buddy Holly. Whenever I hear any track of his, it brings you to my mind so you’d better correct me if I have got that wrong!’

 As with Alex Riley, whose memories I enjoyed immensely, I appear to be associated inseparably with Buddy Holly. Also, I had no idea of Alex’s first name. I knew Rob’s, but never called him by it – usually just ‘Tin’. Rob says he remembers Mr Holroyd, when he was umpiring, encouraging him at the wicket, ‘Now Tin, get your head down and let’s have a good one from you today.’ So much for impartial umpiring.

Towards the end of last year, Rob and I made arrangements that he and his wife Deb would visit Julie and me in Barrow for the weekend, and we would all go up to St Bees to see the school on Saturday May 10th.

I alerted Pam that we were coming and asked if we needed to check in anywhere and whether there would be any sport taking place to watch. Pam advised that unfortunately there wouldn’t be anything going on, as the only fixture was an away tennis match. She volunteered to ask Dr Reeve if he would meet us, but we declined, not wanting to spoil his Saturday.

When we arrived it was overcast and the crease was flooded from heavy overnight rain, so it was lucky that there were no matches! We parked outside what we knew as ‘The New Block’ and wandered up the back lane to the side entrance of School House and into the yard. The steps which used to lead down to the changing rooms - where I had slipped and spilt the prefects’ sausage and eggs – were gated and locked. Also a new room had been built between the back door and the lavatory block, so we couldn’t get in that way. Big Dayroom appeared to have been converted in some way, but we couldn’t see in.

We walked further up the lane and two pupils passed us. They told us that the building above the back yard is a golf centre and there are putting greens above it. We looked down into the yard where we used to play football and cricket. It has been converted to a rubber-surfaced play area.

We entered the yard and the back door. In a little office on the right sat a master talking to a boy. Naturally he asked what we were doing, so we explained that we hadn’t seen School House for almost fifty years.

He introduced himself as Ian Pointon and very kindly offered to show us round, explaining that School House now incorporates the Prep School.

Rob also has engraved in his memory that moment when Clyne came into Big Dayroom on that November evening when we doing our prep to tell us about JFK.

Round the corner by the stairs, Baby Dayroom has been divided up into the office we had already passed and where we had met Ian, and a computer room.

My memories of Baby Dayroom are of fagging; being given Junior Steeplechases (a ‘JS’ – essentially round the triangle) for minor demeanours; the music of the time, ‘Let’s Twist Again’; ‘Come Outside’ sung by Mike Sarne and Wendy Richards; ‘Nutrocker,’ from Bee Bumble and the Stingers; ‘Three Steps to Heaven’ from Eddie Cochran. (I didn’t have a thing for dead singers, someone else had that LP, but I see from Google that his backing band were Sonny Curtis and Jerry Allison of ‘The Crickets.’) No Beatles yet!

We had a ‘dance’ one Saturday evening, including a Conga and that latest craze, The Twist. Other Dayroom and Study occupants came and watched, before shaking their heads and walking away. ‘Jacko’ used to stick the strip cartoons from the Daily Mail (our one allowed paper, Big Dayroom was allowed two, the Mail and the Telegraph) on the wall, so older boys came in to read ‘Flook’ by Trog.

Along the corridor to the senior studies, from whence the cry of ‘FAG’ would send one of us scurrying up the corridor to knock and look at the floor while being given whatever task was required. They are study bedrooms now.
Back to the windowsill where senior boys would sit at break and also when we went into lunch, usually sending me to wet and comb my unruly hair.

We went into what was the dining room, though now the doors are closed in the middle and it is two classrooms. Gone, from above where the fireplace was, is the ‘Benedictus Benedicat’ that we used to say as grace.

Across the corridor and through the side door into a room that was open bike-sheds in the sixties if I remember correctly. We didn’t go on to what used to be a row of lavatories without doors – why would you want privacy?

Then back out and down the corridor to what used to be the kitchens, now Ian’s personal domain, teaching first year students. Ian’s enthusiasm for the job and the school really shone through. He obviously loved showing us the way he teaches the children.

Julie, my wife, was until retirement, a primary school teacher in a state school and she was interested to discuss education outside the National Curriculum with Ian. She was fascinated with the tiny class sizes and said that Rob and I should have been geniuses after passing through such a system. Rob’s excuse was that he had been too busy playing rugby and cricket. My excuse? Moving on……….

Round the corner and down some stairs into a new wing where there are more study-bedrooms. Most have a washbasin, but showers and lavatories are shared. Ian showed us into a couple of the studies and they certainly are a huge advance on a ‘cube’ in Big Dayroom, or even the studies of our day. Most are single occupancy, with some larger ones being shared.

Back up the back stairs. Up two stories to a part of the House I don’t even remember, which is now study-bedrooms and a common room with a couch and TV for juniors. Ian said that he sends them up and closes the door at (I think) eight pm, with the warning that the Headmaster’s study is immediately below the common room. He says that on the whole they’re well behaved. The rooms were pretty tidy for eleven year olds, without a maid too!

Back down to the first floor. What used to be the Sick Room is now Matron’s room and what used to be Matron’s room is an entrance to the Head’s apartments. So handy for nipping upstairs if the noise from the junior common room is too much.

On into what was for me the biggest shock of the tour, ‘B’ dorm. No centre row of washbasins. No beds, with ‘coffins’ next to them for clothes. A massive common room, with a kitchen area and sofas – oh and a huge print of a pouting Marilyn Munroe on the wall. I wonder whether ‘Lem’ would have approved?

‘A’ Dorm is now a TV room, mostly used, Ian said, for watching big matches. ‘C’ and ‘D’ dorms have been converted into a shower room and more studies.
I think Ian said that the ‘pres’ bathroom at the top of the house is now another study. ‘Moeb’ Jones’s living room, from where he would dole out pocket money after lunch, is now a double study. I remember crowding in there with the rest of the 5th form in 1964 to watch ‘Julius Caesar’, acted out in full on TV. It was our set play for ‘O’level English Lit.

Ian then showed us the massive new sports hall, grafted on to what used to be a barn, but is now a gym, complete with sports and weightlifting equipment.

Into ‘Hostel’, no classrooms now, offices and dining facilities. We were disappointed that the school photos stretching back aeons have disappeared from the corridor. ‘Big School’ is now a cold meals dining facility and the whole school is fed from here and the old dining room, which looks much as it did in our day. Rob was delighted to find a picture of his seventeen year old self among the cricket photos.

Rob remembers that this was the team that, having enjoyed a beer in a local pub, then ‘watered’ the wicket the night before the cricket match at Durham School. The school magazine reported the incident as ‘This was a good toss for the school to win on a morning which had seen heavy rain’.

Ian and the dining room staff kindly gave us all lunch to add to the pleasure of the occasion.
After lunch, Ian offered to show us more, but we let him get back to his duties. We walked past the lecture theatre and physics lab then past the chapel. (Is it still every morning and twice on Sundays?).

I remember the choir singing the Hallelujah chorus before Christmas – I think it was a practice in the morning, not the actual concert – and Pelham soloing in silence one too many Hallelujahs. The whole school burst out laughing, including the masters.

Past the Mem Hall, where, when Mr Lees, in his first term as Head, assembled us to introduce himself and stressed  that to many, the taking part was the most important thing. He wanted us to be clear that to him the most important thing was winning and he expected us all to have that attitude. It was here also that Paul Haywood, who had rescued a small girl from drowning during the holidays, was singled out for praise. Then we went past the fives courts and gym, round the corner to what used to be Mr Broadhurst’s metalwork classroom and finally back to the car.

We drove up to view ‘Meadow’, now flats. This evoked memories of Mr and Mrs Lever. ‘PL’ called me Woolly – after ‘The Wild and Woolly West’. I can hear him now, top teeth smacking on bottom lip, sending us up to bed - ‘C’mon now Woolly, time for bed, up you go.’

Our music in my first term was played on a small ‘Dansette’ type record player, which had no hope of filling that huge dayroom.  I think it was owned by Jolyon Bulman. The next term, we asked (well, we cajoled ‘goody goody Slack’ into asking) Mr Lever if we could use a large radiogram which was just sitting in a corridor in his part of the house. This was manhandled down into the dayroom after prep one evening. Mr Lever’s eyes twinkled as he said ‘Well, I suppose we’d better see if it works’. Cliff Richard’s ‘The Young Ones’ was put on the turntable, and those first two drumbeats always bring back that moment – the volume was at full and the room was filled with sound. Magic! This was shortly followed by, ‘C’mon now Woolly, time for bed, up you go.’

J. Knowles had a tape recorder and really only liked classical music. PL said that we had to respect that and let him listen to his choice instead of ours. To be fair, he usually put headphones on and listened by himself. Zieminski once put a large magnet next to the tape behind his back, hoping to play a prank on him and scrub the tape.  He was disappointed to find it didn’t work!

We all had a great day out looking around the school and digging up long forgotten memories. Special thanks must go to Ian, who went far beyond any call of duty to make our trip so much more interesting and enjoyable.

The only other thing to mention is that I have also made contact with C.A. Green, ‘Fundu’, who has spent a lifetime in timber and forestry management. His parents and grandparents before him made the company ‘Arthur Green of Silsden’ well known in timber and in haulage. He and his older brother Richard have restored a couple of vintage trucks and I hope to get to meet them at vintage truck rallies later this summer.

I met Andy Green and David Hanson once at a transport café on the A65 and had a cup of tea with them. This would have been about 1972. For some reason, by mistake, my obituary had been printed in the Old Boys’ Magazine some weeks before. Andy said they had had a bit of a wake for me when they had read it – I have to say, he seemed slightly disappointed at wasting his money!”

Please click here to see photographs.

 

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