Ex Holgate / Grammar School Pupils

I left in the same year as you.

 

I'll be there with a few of my 1968 starting friends, we go every year (covid permitting).

 

You must have done A levels so would be 2 years older than me. The only pupil I can remember from the 6th form is Melvyn Lunn ( He lived at the end of our street).

 

Melvyn "Jacky" Lunn was in my form. He is a season ticket holder in East Upper. You may recall good footballers from my form, such as Dave Walshaw, who captained the school team and played for Barnsley Boys and Yorkshire Boys, Geoff Brackpool, Ronnie Kaye. Perhaps you will also remember Don Rhodes, who was in the B form. He was very good at both football and rugby. Another name you may know is Philip Aveyard, who opened the batting for Yorkshire Boys.

 

I went to Holgate in 1959. 'Chips' Mainwaring was my 1st year form teacher, 2nd year it was 'Rowdy' Yates. In the first year, the maths teacher was 'Chunder' Greenland. At the time he seemed ancient and that was his last year teaching. He was a great teacher and top bloke. He was a real football fan and used football to teach maths. He used the line markings of a football pitch to demonstrate trigonometry and player transfers with borrowed money and selling on to explain interest. Nearly everything he taught he found a way of relating to football. Later I had Webb Swift who was a keen sportsman but you couldn't tell from his maths lessons. He's best remembered for his acerbic comments like "go boil your head lad" or his excentric behaviour. I remember him sitting on a second floor window ledge and saying "I've had enough, I'm just wasting my time." On another occasion he put the empty waste paper basket on his head and repeatedly bashed it against the blackboard again saying "I'm just wasting my time". I'm not so sure why because we really weren't that thick at maths we nearly all passed our O levels

 

Interesting what you say about Swift. I may have mentioned this before, but he once said to my form when I was in 2A: "I'm not brainy. Most of you boys are far brainier than I am". We taught ourselves most of the time, using a very good textbook, while he sat reading the Barnsley Chronicle or the daily paper.

 

Derek Hinchcliffe taught geography and RE. He was a local preacher in the Methodist Church and to his eternal shame a massive Sheffield United fan.

 

I was at Holgate at the same time as Jimmy's cousin Derek Greenhoff.

 

In the third year we had maths on a Friday morning with Webb. He used to pick one of us to go to the Coop in Dodworth Road to buy a Chronicle and 20 A1. Ai were the Coops own brand of cigs. He would read the Chronicle whilst we did an exercise.

 

Names I remember from your year are Alan Duffin and John Westwood, who, like me, played chess for the school. They were both in the A form.

 

A deal of comments on here about 'Spot' Avery. He never taught me, but was Locke housemaster for one year. My lasting memory of him was his bike with a squeaky wheel. Back then the first four years the school uniform was black blazer and school cap, which no one liked wearing. It changed to a blue blazer and no cap for the fifth and sixth form. I used to walk to school via Shaw lane . If Spot saw you without your cap on he'd put you in detention. That's why we always put our caps on when we heard his squeaky wheel.

 

I started in 1959 too and seeing the names mentioned above decided to rummage through mi drawers searching out the long forgotten (I wonder why) School Reports to check who taught me. As an aside I do recall some names but have forgotten many of those who had the unfortunate task of trying to enhance my education. I also found the full set of Alumni, or should that be, editions of Alumnus , from Christmas 1959 through to Summer 1964. It's amazing how your past can suddenly come back to haunt you .....

Form masters included - V.H. Harris; D. Barraclough; H. Haigh; H. Murfin; A.J. Jubb; P. Eustace; J.P. Bramall .... I'm losing the will to live now .. 'Yogi' Bramall who once sent me off the field before the school soccer match had started. With hindsight and in all fairness, he was probably right .

 

I recall the.first three names you mention but the others I don't. Maybe because I was more interested in football than rugby and cricket. Was Rod Senior in your class? I worked with him when he was a sandwich student from Oxford University I think.

 

I was at Holgate from 1970-1973 in Locke Sadler house. Many of the staff names mentioned here are familiar today. I played for the school rugby team whilst in the sixth form who if my memory serves me correctly were allowed to wear a blue blazer instead of the black blazer required by the rest of the school.

 

Did you still receive "colours" I.e. a piece of rectangular black cloth that had "FOOTBALL FIRST XI" or "RUGBY FIRST XV" printed on it. This to be sewn on the blazer directly below the school badge..Some of the all rounders that did everything could have 4 of these emblazoned one below the other on their coat.

 

Got mine for Athletics (of all things!) in about 1972.

 

58 to 63 ( ish, can't be sure) for me. Same year as Jimmy. Same form for a couple of years. I say form, because I was never in the same class football wise. And I'll be there on 6th.

 

You were allowed to wear a blue blazer in the 5th form and no cap.

 

I played for the 1st xx rugby, but didn’t anything to sew on my blazer. The only similar thing I remember was the three ‘class’ badges for gymnastics which you sewed on your shorts. In my time there were only four of us that had a first class, Ian Martin, Terry Heath and a lad called Robson. I can’t remember his first name.

 

Got my U13 Football colours in 66.It was on my blazer the same day.