Return to old pastures, Chapter 1...

Having a spare hour a few years ago, I took a quick peek at the ‘Old Place’ and by coincidence, had the trusty Boer War Amateur Colonial Journalists’ Bellows See-All Camera (with brass-bound yew tripod, magnesium flash and developing tent with accessories), with me!

This was the gate at the western end of the school, opposite St Mary’s, and by Sylvester.



We would all troup through this gate on our way to the Tin Tabernacle for the Sunday service, and after an hour of listening to various Vicars, Canons etc, we'd troup back for letter writing.

New score box; the plot thickens...

Simon has recognised a few faces in the picture from last Monday, and I've managed to scan the pages from the 1964 magazine!

By then, I was miles away, (and had actually given up cricket, as golf and tennis seemed a better option). I'm afraid someone will have to work out who is who from the names mentioned in GB's resume of the 1963 season!

(If you click on each of the pages, they'll embigger on your screen)!

Cricket...

It wasn't really a big pavilion, more like a shed where you kept your kit while toiling under the blue skies...

The other pavilion was a better building, and your boots kept nice and wet for when you needed to put them on again for the next game on Far Field South, or Near Field North (The First's pitch...)

I can easily recall the rugby pitch though, (in front of the picture) and Taylor and I were wing forwards in a team which played against schools like Westerleigh, Claremont and Hurst Court!

Plunge bath...

Another personal shot here, possibly taken the same day as the pic of the two girls!

With one particular photo editing programme, (now lost unfortunately), I managed to darken the over exposed section with the chap on the left, and thought I recognised him, but now I'm not too sure...

This one somehow reminds me of the smell of the water (chlorine), when we used to go for early morning swims!

Blimey, I've only just remembered those after all these years!

Mr Evans...

Another shot from the box camera of the 'war' years...

Patrick Evans was - to me, a superb bloke! He started at Hydneye the same term that I did (Christmas Term 1958), and he was incredibly kind to me when I was a lost soul, wandering around in a daze, and wanting to go home...

Tim Satchell immortally nicknamed him 'Phe Phe', because he taught French, and also they were his initials as well!

After he retired, he lived near Rye for a long time, and invented and developed a method of programming horses for big races! It was a deadly serious business, all built around working out how horses - like humans, have good days and bad days. He worked on this programme for years and always maintained it wasn't a 'system', and had many owners as clients to prove it!

I think out of all the masters at Hydneye, he was the best I can remember, and apart from him tearing me off a strip for trying to be funny, when he wanted us to remember the French word for 'to knit' (I said 'knitter', and was severely bollocked, I've always remembered the correct word - tricoter...), I thought he was a damn nice chap!

Bill Mozley...

Bill's family business was an Ironmongers, in Hastings. I knew his sister, and also met his Dad a few times, because I was a regular visitor to his shop near The Memorial.

He used to sell everything from a single brass screw to a lawnmower. I used to buy all my Meccano from there when I was much younger, because he had a board up on the wall, which displayed all the parts you could buy! And he stocked them too!

Bill also had a shop in our village, Hawkhurst. I saw him there occasionally, and it was run with the utmost efficiency by Peter and Sheila, who managed the business for Bill. I spent a fortune there over the years!

Bill sadly died of cancer a few years ago, but I can still see him belting his pipe into huge wreaths of smoke, and laughing all the time! We had a chance to meet up in a very expensive bar in London a few years ago (Sorry chaps, it was a bit pricey, and not what we really wanted, I know), and Bill was there, and he had been to see his Doctor.

The next half-hour was spent listening to how the various tests were made, with lots of long needles being inserted everywhere, and how it damn well hurt etc., but, to tell you the truth, I'd like to listen to all that again now, as he was really a great character.

Mr Morrish's domain...

This is almost certainly the Music Room, where we could sing to our hearts' content, and also do 'art' under his watchful, often appreciative eye...

O.K. then What happened on Fridays in one of the form years? (see first response in posts below...)!

He really was a great chap, and so his wife was - tending for the youngsters like a Mother Hen. They really loved teaching us sprogs. His son was an accomplished viola player, and also a charming, friendly man too.

Who can remember 'Hoot silence' then...!

Come on, there must be someone...?

Middle class room...

Here is Major Bowen and several intense subjects - probably nailed to their seats...

He was the master who introduced Christ College Brecon to Hydneye, (he was an Old Boy from there), and I became the Guinea Pig...

Early evening noises from the lawn...

This was taken - I think - in the early evening.

GB's Car is the Hillman outside the front door!

This picture evokes memories of going to bed when the seniors were allowed to play Hot Rice outside, and the shrieks of pain from a well-clouted tennis ball, either directly into the trousers, or up on one of the branches of those two iconic Cedar of Lebanon trees, will stay with me forever!

The windows in 'Alfred' and 'Sidney' are open, as I guess all of them are, so it really was summer in those days...

Plunge bath picture...

Here is a pic which I took with my Dad's old box camera.

Left to right, Peter Kiddell, M.P.J.Ormrod, Miss Norcock and Sister - Mary Kay.

I think everyone fell in love with both these lovely ladies! Miss Norcock lived in Hastings and possibly still does. Mary Kay came from Grays, Essex, and by coincidence a few years ago, while looking for a building site, I found myself standing outside the actual house in the road where she used to live!

Hydneye House...

If you search the internet for “Hydneye House”, you’d expect to see at least a few references to the old school, but these are pretty scarce. There are some images on Flickr, and a memorable picture of David Maltby sitting on the steps, and that’s about it!

I live about twelve miles north of Hastings, in Hawkhurst, and often go past the site where the old school was. For no other reason than wanting to keep some sort of record of the place, I’ve set up this blog so that if anyone else is interested, there’s a forum for like-minded Old Boys who can comment if they like, or just read any notes which appear. I don’t want to make this another Friends Reunited, although like a few others, I signed up years ago. This is really our own place!

If there’s a promising response, then it would be easy to extend the site and include much more, but like all things I suppose, a project like this has to start small!

Some years ago, my wife and I went for a drink with Gerald Brodribb at his home in Ewhurst, just down the road. It was an unusual chat, with some hilarity, and a bit of sadness too, but after a few drams and a long time reminiscing, he suddenly jumped up and unloaded a dozen or so of the old Hydneye magazines on me! Some of these are still around, so there’s at least some sort of record of what went on there...

If you’re new to blogging, it’s very easy to join in. All you have to do is click where it says ‘comment’, and type what you want in the box. You’ll obviously need to identify yourself too! And that’s about it!

I hope it works; the youngest Old Boy would have to be in his fifties, so there’s still some time left...!

Over to you – let’s see how far it’ll go!