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!
54 comments:
Morning everyone!
This is what a comment looks like!
I'll be just 'Mike Armitage' on this occasion, but probably just 'Mike A' later on - it saves typing...
Regards!
This is Bert Boltjes living in Mexico now. My brother Tom lives in Stockholm, I shall get him to join this too!
Well this has been a long time, thanks to Mike we are in touch.
I have so many happy memories of Hydneye: the pool, the amphitheater, running around the grounds, playing soccer, my father telling my brother, who was goalie, when to go out, how to position himself, my mother crying in the bushes when she left us, being Dutch she wasnt used to leaving children at a boarding school! My mother being invited by other mother to have a cup of tea "it will do you a world of good". Tuck boxes, swapping sweets, mid night parties!
I was there in 1959 and then went to Eastbourne College which is propering.
It is sucha pity that Hydneye House is abandoned.
Bert!
How the devil are you! I know we've been in touch a few times, and Tom has just left a message for me, so I hope to speak with him soon!
Thanks for getting onto the site, if you think anyone else would like the link, just forward the email I sent you and we'll be away!
Keep in touch!
Mike
Gentlemen, nice to see the familiar names popping up. We have had a loose email thread going for a while and a few of us have actually met each other face to face over the last few years. Most of you know that I am living in Canada, but I do get to the UK, and Mexico for that matter, from time to time. I will write more at some point now that I have found the blog spot. It is our space and will likely remain that way as I am not sure if our memories are of interest to thousands of other people. I do have some very nice photo's of Hydneye that I took in the late 70's/early 80's and I will find them at some point and make them available. I also have about 5 issues of the Hydneye magazine that I think I can lay my hands on. More to follow from the cold climate of central Canada.
One last point, like Bert, I also went on to Eastbourne and have a number of friends from that environment with whom I stay in touch.
Mike has a nice piece called "Return to Old Haunts" with some pictures also. He might want to post some of this material also.
Morning (here), Edwin!
Good to see you here!
We've had a few chats recently too, and of course, I will put the 'Haunts' post up when we've got a few more legs under the table!
I'm not sure how to reach the few names we have on Friends Reunited, but there should be a way.
I went on to Christ College Brecon, and was joined by Jeff Vetcher, Burton, and I think a Drummond...
Gets a bit hazy sometimes!
Well done Mike. I can't type very well at the moment as I've done my fingers in, but will come back to this site soon. All the best to you and the others.
Morning Simon - good to hear from you!
It's not the dreaded Dupuytrens Contracture is it?
I've had both mitts done in the last three years, and touch wood, everything works just fine, with no after effects at all!
What do you think about me putting up some more photos? There aren't that many as I only have eight or so of my own, but I've scanned some of the pics from the magazine as well if anyone wants to see them!
Keep in touch anyway!
Hi Mike. Not Maggie's contracture, fortunately, just split skin in a few fingertips from working in the snow without gloves during the recent cold spell. Not bad, but enough to make typing agony. My hands are fully recovered now and I can make contact with the outside world again.
This blog spot is nothing short of miraculous, not least because I don't understand how you build one of these things, but well done!
Best,
Simon
Hi Simon, good to hear from you (the reason I know is that the blog is programmed to send me an email when anyone comments)!
It is actually very simple to set up, and I've got another one where I can rant at the state of the nation, and also keep in touch with a few people whom I don't know at all! (I did meet one lady when she came round here for a cup of tea, and it was a riot)!
Glad it's not too serious on the hand thing though, very painful it must be! This weather is really beginning to get on our nerves here. Over Christmas, the industry just shut down, and then we lost a further three weeks in January because the weather was so bad!
It's taken us up to this last week to get another head of steam, and time's running low at the moment!
How are you getting on, are you still looking?
Kind regards,
Mike
Folks,
Anyone of us can use this feature, which makes it easy to see when someone has entered some new info on the blog. Glad to hear that Simon has the use of his fingers and thumbs back. Not sure what all the complaining about snow is for. We are unusually short of snow here in Canada. Lack of it has been a problem for the winter olympics.
I am planning to get a taste of English weather shortly, I will be in London for a couple of days next month, March, between the 19th. and the 21st. I will be staying at the Strand Palace Hotel for a couple of evenings and flying back to Ottawa on the morning of the 21st. Not sure if anyone will be in the area at that time, but I would be pleased to raise a glass with them if they are.
Edwin, how the devil are you!
I'll try and be in London then, but as we're almost GPs in the next week or so, the next month is going to be a bit busy...
Thanks also for your note on anyone posting here, all you have to do is click the button which says Name/URL, and type whoever you are.
Mike,
Send me your contact details at my regular email address. perhaps we can connect while I am over. It will happen again later in the year, likely with a bit more time on hand, so no panic.
I rather enjoyed the snow, and am looking forward to some more! How do you set this blog up to e-mail you when a new comment has been posted; can feeds do the same thing? What is Posts (Atom) or Hydneye House (RSS)? Additionally, where is the server that hosts all this, and who pays for it? Sorry, baffled of Hindhead!
Edwin - it would be great to see you again, but later in the year might be better.
Simon, it's because I'm down as administrator, so all I have to do is check the odd box in the Blog makeup.
You can however, get more people on the contributor pages, so I don't have to do everyone. Anyone, once they're accredited, can do it, and I think that's a useful option, as there are lots of personal pictures dotted about here and there...
The other technical stuff is just the protocols they use, and there's no charge as Blogger is free to all!
I'll try and answer your questions in more detail later, as I really don't know the whole shooting match yet!
Andy Young here-I have a rather large number of memories of Hydneye- I was Young 1V or Young Minimus -I think it was Mike who 'sleep- walked' out of the window where we awoke to him throwing stones up to get back in- Gerald was not amused! I have been a GP in St Leonards since 1977 - some memories are confidential!
Andy! Well of course I remember you! You were always Young iv when I knew you, because there was Young ii and presumably the other two had left when I joined!
You were pals with Simon Cutler I recall! By coincidence, his Dad was - I believe - an anaesthetist, and had a red car - a Riley 1.5. I remember it turning up at school!
When we got our first car in 1967, it turned out to be the very same one, and it had been tweaked and tuned, and went on for many years when we lived in Brede!
I can't believe we never crossed paths after that, because I played rugger at Hastings and Bexhill for many years afterwards, and we lived in Priory Road when we were first married!
I know Paddy Langdon's around somewhere, too!
Email if you have time, there's plenty more news, and anyway, I may have to tell the whole story of the sleep walking escapade out of Caxton's end window...
My best email is 2ndmktx@gmail.com, as I work from home.
That goes for anyone else for that matter, the one on the blog only seems to collect spam!
Simon Cutler and i both boarded which was weird considering we lived in Hastings and St leonards - we shared homesickness on the rather mournful sunday evening service in the Big School room - His dad was a GP in the Old Town at Roebuck and a fine squash player -sadly he his wife and sister Sarah were all killed when Michael lost his way over the channel in a light aircraft-my dad was a GP too and a Scottish Rugby International - I think the only international to have played for H+B- David Worrow needs to be on this blog- do you remember him running away over the latin tests and having to explain why to Gearald in front of the whole school ?- and his self designed gob stopper fruit machine !- another 'craze' which had a short life - Andy Young- Andrew Turner is around and of course chris and Paddy Langdon- Mark Ward -Smith lives at Windmill Hill
Andy, I was in sick bay (just after the sleep-walking fiasco, (separate post soon...), and Brien poked his head round the door, and told me that Worrow and Tim Bosher had run away!
I missed the Big School Room showdown, but I'm not sure they worried too much about it, they could hardly be gated could they!
I regularly saw Tim when he lived in Grosvenor Crescent, and we must have spent millions in 'The Two Sawyers', up to about 1972, when I got married...
I once saw Andrew Turner at the builders merchants by (now gone) Focus, but he didn't recognise me!
Bert Boltges has been in touch via email, and I actually chatted with Tommy last year! Robert Bourne has done very well for himself as well - the Eastbourne connections came round an odd way, and I found all this out later. Rumour has it that possibly David Mansell passed on from this mortal coil some time ago, but that was just some chat from the same source!
I regularly email Roger Emett, who lives in Ireland now, and there's a whole raft of us emailing at the moment about meeting up in London, which I will unfortuntely miss! The last time we did that, dear old Bill Mozley was alive so it was a while back!
Did Peter Kiddell's relations still live near you - Old Roar Road...?
I was at Hydneye from about 1952 until about 1956. There was a fearsome pipe smoking headmaster named Maltby (who used to teach Latin) and other masters were Phelps, Moorish, a younger Maltby, Robson, Jordan, Bassett, a surly Miss Jackson etc. Plus a carpentry tutor named Timpson who lived in one of the gate lodges. The cook was a Miss Yates and of course Gerald Brodribb and his wife. Never ending lawn mowing in the summer was carried out by a Mr Standen and maintainence was the preserve of a Mr Winter. GB's brother was the school doctor. Before I left Brodribb and Bassett had purchased the school from Mr and Mrs Maltby. Memorable names amongst the internees were
Simon Young
Andrew Young
Peter Trainin
Colin Thompson
Sandy Birkbeck and brother
Andrew Whylie
Anthopy Marcus
Jonathon Barnes
The MacGregor brothers
Simon Blatchley
Glenn Timpson
Jonathon Norton
Patrick Hare etc
By coincidence I met Sandy Birkbeck at the Muthaiga Club in Nairobi when I was living there in the 1970s. Many years ago I took my two sons there to see the school and was horrified to see that demolition had taken place. That magnificient staircase and all that oak panelling. That's progress!
As a time dating exercise the vicar at the Tin Shed was the Rev. Horsfield - notable for his enormous moustache. I recollect that the father of the Young brothers (mentioned above) was also a GP and an ex Scottish International Rugby player; he was a delightful man. Jonaton Norton and his brother have a jewellery business in Bond Street. I dropped in there two years ago and introduced myself!
In those days 'car boys'used to go home a day earlier than 'train boys' - that always seemed an interminable wait for holiday release!
If anyone mentioned above reads this please do get in touch.
Morning Rohan and welcome!
Andrew Young - has posted here last year. I remember his dad well too!
Peter Trainin - Went on to Stowe? I was there with him briefly and his brother was in the same year as me.
Colin Thompson, sadly, I seem to recall he was killed in the Hither Green train crash, but I've never been able to find out! I hope not of course!
Sandy Birkbeck and brother - Jeremy, who was a year older than me. Came from Yorkshire? Settle?
Simon Blatchley - has a brother, Philip, who lives somewhere in the south-east I believe.
Patrick Hare - has a brother Chris, who went on to Dover, and I believe is a Governor there now.
Do you remember Michael Ramsden? His brother, Neville, was my dad's Godson.
Hello Mike. My name is Rodney Weir. I was at Hydneye about the same time as you, 59 to 62, but I am afraid I do not remember you. My contemporaries were Robert Bourne, Peter Frankl, Satchell, a Boljes (there may have been a major and minor), Dunlop, Everton-Jones, Drummond, Ramsden and others. I have quite a lot of old black and white photos of the place and many of the boys which I could scan in if you would like. (I was very disappointed that I could not find the building on visits to the UK over the years)
Surely Gerald Brodribb is not still alive?
I went to Epsom College (just squeaked in on Common Entrance) but became an Economist instead of a Doctor, wrecking my father's plans.I have lived in Australia since 1976.
Welcome back Rodney!
I remember you, but putting detailed faces to names is a bit hit and miss I'm afraid! All the names you mention were a year below me I think, and yes, there were two Boltjes brothers, and they've both been back in touch!
GB dies several years ago. see here: -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Brodribb
Did you have any relations near Hurst Green, Sussex? There was/is a Weir family there.
I would be delighted to see the pics, would you like me to post them? Best probably to send them to my email address - 2ndmktx(at)gmail(dot)com. (Have to make it difficult for robots to use for spam...)
At Epsom, your Headmaster was at one time, 'Jock' McCallum, and the music master was later David DeVile, possibly while you were there. Jock was our old HM, and DeVile was our music master at CCB. He was a great organist!
Keep in touch any time you want. we're trying to get a collection of recalls while we still have some brains left...!
Have emailed several of. the pics to you, Mike
Yes, McCallum was HM at Epsom whilst I was there. He was a god like figure to most of us - I never spoke to him. I did not enjoy boarding school much - either Hydneye or Epsom. My parents lived in Malawi in Africa, and I only went home once a year. Rest of the time spent with friends and relatives. Robert Bourne would definitely remember me; we were quite good mates, and his family was very kind to me.
Will follow the blog!
Rod
Peter Hankey said.
I am saddened more than most, Hydneye House was built by my great great grandfather - Stephen in the mid nineteenth century on the site of a lovely gentleman's country house but deemed to be too small by him.Stephen was described as a patron of the arts and hydneye is where most of his collection ended up, he died in Turin in 1878 the house then passing on to his son Walter.
I have to say I have no recollection of when it became a school, both myself and brother were at Hydneye House and enjoyed the doubtfull privalige of being the land lords sons.the property having remained in the family from it's construction to the time when messrs Brodribb & Bassett took over from Maltby.
If ever their was a case of ill directed family planning this was it.Never had rent r4eview taken place further more the new boys "discovered" that they had the option to purchase at a pre determind price of £10,000.I just don't want know how much was made out of selling to the council.
The Tin Taberknackle was also owned by the family and for some time we maintained it
Good morning Peter! Many thanks for your comments!
I do recall your family name from way back, probably from some of the historical discussions we had back in the late fifties/early sixties! When were you there?
I believe that the eventual purchase of the old house and site was the subject of a CPO, and I don't think anyone knew what sort of money changed hands!
I remember the Tin Tabernacle very well too. We all had to take a penny given to us by a prefect before the service, for the collection...
I'd totally forgotten the West Lodge until recently!
Keep in touch anyway!
Hello Mike
Do you know I really can not remember when I was their, I was born July '41 so probably '49-52.
I can remember a couple of names such as Norton and the Crook brothers- they came from a farming family in Kent, I seem to remember as cubs we went to the farm on some occasion.
I can't remember who lived in the West lodge- was it matron ? I seem to remember Tanner lived in the East lodge with his sister who used to give Cello recitals to the assembled school.
I have to say that my undieing memory of Hydneye where the summer sporting activities CRICKET,CRICKET and more B----Y CRICKET !!! as the result I grew up to loath the game with a passion
All the best - Peter
Morning Peter!
Oh yes, the cricket...! GB was very interested in the game, and it's funny you mention not liking the game, as I played a bit of village cricket when I left school, but sadly could never really take it seriously! The same happened in golf too, but my big passion was rugby, and it still is!
I think rugger started a few years after you left (correct me if I'm wrong), but I got into the first team, (we only had one anyway), and it actually helped me to get a place at Christ College Brecon, because they were fanatical there!
I think someone here has mentioned that Mr Timpson lived in the West Lodge, but was Matron Miss Reynolds back in your day? She was quite a stickler for manners etc, but I actually quite liked her - most of the time...
Would you have recalled the Ramsden boys - Michael and David? Their younger brother, Neville, was there with me, and my dad was his Godfather.
Keep the memories going, because someone else may well be able to fill in some more gaps!
Kind regards,
Mike
Mike, I am writing a second book on Muthaiga Country Club and searching for a photograph of Sandy Birkbeck to place with his short biography. Check out my website: www.millspublishing.com - if you have one I would really appreciate seeing it. Rgds Steve Mills
Morning Stephen!
What an interesting subject! Did Sandy go there, or is he a member?
Unfortunately, I don't ever recall seeing a photo of Sandy Birkbeck, although I was at Hydneye with his brother, Jeremy and he went on to Oundle, so his brother may have done as well!
Sorry I can't help any further than this!
Best wishes,
Mike
Peter (Hankey), I've just discovered this link, have you seen it?
http://www.baldslow.com/beaulieu-house
Good map that, I've subscribed to the Baldslow Website, in case there is more we can use and share!
Hello,
I am probably the youngest Hydneye House boy, having joined the school in September 1968 aged 4. I was in the pre-prep and transferred to Glengorse, where I stayed until going to Eastbourne College. Miss Reynolds was then the pre-prep mistress, and also went to Glengorse. I kept in touch with her and used to visit her at her home in St. Leonards (Springfield Road) whenever I was back there. She died in 2009 aged 97. She had difficulty walking, but was mentally razor sharp and very erudite. She lived on her own there until shortly before her death in hospital. This was where she had lived with her parents as a young woman.
I don't know if my parents knew Hydneye was going to close, but they had had my name down for Hurst Court, which closed before I went there. I seem to have been a jinx for St. Leonards prep. schools! My mother liked Miss Reynolds so I was sent to Hydneye.
The only other Hydneye staff who went to Glengorse, were Mr. Brodribb and Mr. Smith (FRAS).
Hello Mike
I've only just picked up on your comments in November.I am a little confused - Stephen ,who was responsible for building the new house died in Turin while in tour in 1862 and I am aware that he lived in the house for a few years, so laying the foundation stone in 1883 does not make sense.
I sold the freehold to Hydneye in 1962 prior to that the goveners had paid a peppercorn rent that had not been reviewed from the time they moved in.
I'm sure I don't have to tell you what I did with my trustees 1
Rgds
Peter (Hankey)
Edward, welcome to the show!
I have a couple of the magazines from 1968 and 1969, so no doubt you may remember a few of the names! Much of the latter one was devoted to the move to Glengorse.
Do you remember the tractor 'Felix', getting stuck in the pond?
By all means keep in touch, and post any queries here, because If I can't answer them, I'm sure someone else can!
Best wishes,
Mike.
Peter, I've just seen an article from the 1969 mag, which mentions a Mr Manwaring Baines and a cutting from 1851. It says that the old house was pulled down in 1880, and rebuilt. The article mentioned also says that there were only two owners, The Hankey Family, and Hydneye House School Ltd, so of course, you're right!
Was the author here known to your family?
Best wishes,
Mike
Hello. I stumbled across this blog as I sat today an old school bench inscribed "HYDNEYE HOUSE SCHOOL. W. H. MOZLEY. 1958-64."
The said bench is sitting a yoga retreat in a fairly remote part of Seim Riep, Cambodia.
Perhaps this means something to you or there is an intriguing story to how it ended up here, so thought I'd share accordingly.
Hi Justin,
Thank you very much for your comment, which is indeed, very intriguing!
There is a post dedicated to Bill Mozley here, and I knew him personally, as he had one of his shops a few yards from our home!
Hydneye closed a few years after Bill left, and looking at one of the magazines, he went on to Bethany School in 1965, which is not far from here in Goudhurst, and is still thriving! Another magazine from 1966, mentions that he gave the school 'a wooden seat as a leaving present', probably a year earlier!
But goodness knows how it eventually reached Cambodia!
I was slightly older than Bill, but I am often in touch with some of his contemporaries, so I'll ask around.
When the old school closed, it joined another school in Battle, and when that closed, the bench may well have been auctioned!
If I can get any answers from the others, I'll post here!
Many thanks again!
Mike Armitage
How Fascinating!
I've emailed the owner of the yoga retreat - a French gentleman in his mid 60s, called Bruno. His resort is called Angkor Zen Gardens.
He said the bench was given to him by an Englishman, who had moved to Cambodia from South Africa....that joins a few more dots?!
By chance I grew up in South Africa myself, although living in Hong Kong now.
I took a photo of the bench with the plaque if you'd like it, just let me know how to get it over.
Best regards
JH
Hi Justin,
Thank you so much for this, the plot really does thicken!
I've asked around the others, but nobody really knows anything, but I'll keep trying!
I'd love to see a pic of Bill's Bench please! My email address is 2ndmktx(at)gmail(dot)com.
(Off topic, when you were in Johannesburg, did you know one of my oldest chums, Gavin and Judy Wilson? He's an IFA there)!
Best wishes from sunny Kent!
Mike
Hello - I'm the Development & Alumni Relations Officer at Battle Abbey School, and we have recently found a Glengorse Cricket Score book in our cellars! Glengorse frequently played matches against Hydneye so there are records of these dating between 1959 & 1966. I can send photographs of the relevant pages if you would like?
Kind regards
Jemma Joyce
Jemma, this is a marvellous find, thank you!
I've emailed you through the school website with some more detail!
You never know, I may even get a mention...
Hi I was at Hydneye from '61 to '66 and have some very fond memories of the place. I have looked through the site and have found no duplicates for a set of photos that I have of my time at Hydneye - would you like me to send them to you for publication on the site?
Richard Cail
Hi Richard,
Sorry to be so tardy here - as you can see, much time and effort (?) has gone into the latest post, and somehow I missed your message! My apologies!
I'd love to see your pics, so by all means email them to me at 2ndmktx@gmail.com, and I'll be pleased to put them on as soon as possible!
My Father studied at HH back in the 50’s I think. I’d love to find out if there are any photographs of him at the school while he was there. He passed on a few years ago and anything I can get to hold on to some memories wou be great.
Hi "Unknown", thank you for this!
If you email me as above, I may be able to help!
Best wishes!
Thank you Sir. My fathers name was Iqbal S Fancy and he attended HH with his cousins. I don’t have the exact year but will get that information very shortly. Any help would be most appreciated. I will email the details soon.
I can remember your Father, Iqbal Fancy. Always cheerful - a smiling person and whilst HH was a good place to be it wasn't all smiles!
I remember Stephen Fry (who introduced me to Beethoven aged ten!). His parents used to run the Master Builders House Hotel at Bucklers Hard in Hampshire. I went to see him there; Stephen was I think the originator/instigator of the Hydneye Magazine. I was at HH from 1952 to until 1957/8 and thence Dover College. Dover was a vicious change from HH.....!
Think Stephen may have been a relative of C B Fry the Cricketer. He had an item of cricket clothing (trousers I think, maybe shoes) that were said to have come from a famous Indian cricketer - a Mr R Singh!
Andrew Young's Father was a giant of a man! As a Scottish Rugby International he was instantly famous and so friendly to all of us. I read that Andrew became a local GP; following in his Father's footsteps. They lived nearby.
Has anyone heard of John Badenoch. He went to Marlborough. His Father was a Urologist who operated on Harold Macmillan!
Sandy (Alexander Birkbeck) was from Anley, Settle, Yorkshire but I met him by chance in Nairobi in about 1974 when I was thirty. He was living in Muthaiga at the time.
Anyone heard of Andrew Whylie? Patrick Hare?
There was also a Thai boy - Thamrong Tayanganon. He arrived with almost no English and was tutored by the fearsome Miss Jackson. Thamrong embraced cricket in a big way and became a formidable fast bowler. I was the scorer for the first 11. It was a consolation position for not making the first team! Must have been the handwriting.
Gerald B was such a change from Maltby. Maltby used to shuffle around and occasionally emit a grumpy comment; at least that is my memory. When testing the winter ice on the pond the ice collapsed and he fell in. This caused a lot of amusement. He used to teach Latin which in my case was probably most unrewarding.
Mr Moorish (Music) was brilliant. I think it was he who said that we could not listen to any Russian composer for more than 20 minutes - too emotional for our unformed minds!
Miss Yates was the celebrated cook who would produce birthday cakes etc. She was very talkative, full of smiles and every boys friend. A lovely person.
That's enough.
Very Best Wishes to those that manage to read this.
Rohan Robinson. July 2020
Rohan - Welcome!
I joined HHS just after you left, so we have never met!
Of the contemporaries from your day, I still meet Tim Masterman, and Paddy Langdon! In fact, if the Covid scare hadn't come along, we were planning another meet around now - usually in a pub in Sedlescombe, about four miles North of Baldslow!
I'm looking at the mags at the moment for further references on The Fancy Family, and will write it as a separate post, which you should find at the front of this site!
Looking through some of the HHS mags, I've found quite a lot of information about Messrs Fancy and the family members!
I'll try and write it all in chronological order, but forgive me if some events seem out of sync!
In the 1957 mag, Fancy i (or Slade) were in the first football team.in the 1958 mag, A.A.Fancy left to go on to Canford at the end of the Summer term, after winning the Handwriting Competition. He also scored a 91 in 'The Gen Book Test', and the 'History Test'. A.M.Fancy left HHS in the Winter term. A.A.Fancy was also in the 1st eleven cricket team and won his colours, he was also runner-up in the 'Tree Fielding Award'. N.M.Fancy was also in the team, as was A.B.Fancy! N.M.Fancy was also in the soccer 1st eleven, and won the 'Geography Test' jointly with Thomson, scoring 91 pts, and he was also a Prefect in Spring Term, 1958.In the 1959 mag, Fancy V was in the first eleven cricket team. I.S Fancy went on to Whittlebury School at the end of the Summer term.
In 1960, Mr A.H.Fancy made a contribution to the swimming bath fund! GB congratulated Asif Fancy on winning The Junior Chess competition at Canford! Fancy v is seen foreground in the photo, half-way down the blog post 'Prep School Life', Saturday 21st December, 2013. He'd just beaten the Chess Master, and I can still remember them both staring at the board, and a cheer going up! He is also in the picture '6th Form at work' a few pics further downI. A. Fancy left HHS at the end of the Winter Term, 1959. Asif Fancy went on to Canford in the same term.
I hope this all makes sense, I can only recall the elder and the youngest of the family, but you will probably be able to pick out who was who from this info!
If anything turns up from your end, I'd be delighted to post it as a separate item on the blog - we all like hearing news!
Best wishes!
Mike.
Rohan,
Do you have any photographs we can see?
I'd like to make a separate post of your info if that's OK by you!
Best wishes,
Mike.
(ps, I was down to go to Dover College in 1961. I failed my Common Entrance by just 1%, and as we were 'baby boomers', there was hot competition! I can easily remember GB calling me in to explain the position, and then telling me that we had an offer from Christ College Brecon, and that I was going to see the place very soon!
It was a bit absurd, but he also told me that Brecon was 'somewhere near Shropshire', which was not the sort of geography quandary I understood - perhaps he didn't get on with Welsh people; I did)!
Does anyone remember the skating races being pulled while standing on sheets of paper. Sounds too tribial to memtion but I learned, or my body learned, all about momentum, inertia, cornering, and posture. Later I bwcame a full life member of the Cresta Run, and a flash waterskier. In retrospect those buggy races taught me most of what became so useful later. Timpson, Simon Young, Keith Young,(not related), Jeremy Barnes, the Crook bros from Faversham, Fry from the Hard at Beaulieu, Leslie, the Badenoch bros, the Langdon bros, Tim Satchell, Tanganon the Thai, who was a demon bowler, Koops,et al, circa 1957.
I still remember the smells, the school train, the scout days cooking twist on a stick, the games of stump on the lawn under those magisterial cedar trees, the pond frozen in winter, the torturous football games in nothing but a shirt and soggy boots, in a mean east wind, stuck on the wing and never getting near the ball, the cricket nets and fives courts that I helped build with Mr Brodribb, as indeed I worked on the swimming pool with gusto. Just letting the memories flow.
Bestv wishes to all of you, Peter Trainin.
Great memories, Peter!
The names you mention are from a year or so before me, but the games on FFS (Far Field South) were never going to be as good as the games of NFN (Near Field North), where all the first football teams played!
I once was asked to referee the football on NFS (Near field South), and had to use Mr Evans' whistle, and he was a forty-a-day man... Bill Mozley was incredibly polite, and said he didn't mind me doing the job, but could I be more forthcoming with my work at keeping 22 hooligans in check!
When you say 'Stump', do you mean 'Hot Rice'? Now that was a fabulous game, and GB loved it because we only had a stick to whack the tennis ball, rather like Yard Cricket, where we used a cut-down cricket bat (just the sides), and everyone had a turn! One bounce One hand, full-toss two hands!
Keep those memories coming, you've started us off again!
Dear Mike - I apologize for having been out of touch since I first reached out some years ago. Covid and the. Life in general got in the way. Reference the Fancy’s is there any chance you’d have photographs that you could share . If not maybe a scanned copy of the magazine if possible.
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