Bob Pendleton's Old Huish Home Page

We have a request for school photos from the years 1963-1968. If anyone can help with the loan of Class or whole school photos for this era, will they please get in touch?

Brian Barton, Bob Willans and Peter Niccol are organising a 25 years on reunion and have sent the following announcement.

As next summer will mark the 25th anniversary of us leaving school we thought it would be a great idea to organise an informal reunion dinner.

So we have booked The Garden Suite at The Bull Hotel in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire for the night of 23rd June 2001. Gerrards Cross is a small and pretty town twenty miles west of London close to the junction of the M40 with the M25. It takes 20 minutes on a train from Marylebone Station in London.The cost will be £50 per head and will include a wonderful meal, (well, that was what they said anyway!) with wine and drinks. I am sure there are some good after dinner speakers amongst us, so there may even be some entertainment too! If you would like to come please contact Bob or Brian (details below) and forward your cheque (made payable to R H Willans) to Bob Willans, 16 Lucas Road, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP13 6QG. Accommodation can be arranged at the hotel if you need it. Please ask us for more details.

We would like as many Huish Old Boys who took A levels in 1976 and teachers of that vintage to come along. We obviously don't have the contact addresses for all of our year so please forward this email to any contact you have.

We look forward to seeing you all.

Bob Willans Brian Barton
Email:
brian.barton@bridgetheworld.com
rwillans@sdlintl.com

ANOTHER REUNION?

Steve Coles is interested in the possibility of a reunion. His years were 1963-70 and he would like to hear from anyone interested. From personal experience may I say that it is particularly helpful if respondents mention any others from their year, with their address or last known employer or anything that might help to track them down. Ideas about dates, venue etc would no doubt be most welcome.

I met Steve at the Dinner and he had had but one reply, and that from another year. However, this page remains open for anyone who wishes to explore the possibility of a Reunion for 'their' year.

OLD HUISH ANNUAL DINNER 2000

Yet another successful and enjoyable Dinner which reflects great credit on the Committee, to whom many thanks from all members. This surely shows how well-placed was the determination of our Chairman David Gill and his Committee a few years ago when declining attendance seemed to threaten the very existence of the Association. This year some 30 of last year's attendance were unable to be present but others made up the difference - in its way, this too, is an encouraging sign.
The Guest of Honour, Tony Floyd, Mayor of Taunton, gave an amusing speech recalling his school career by reference to a report, subject by subject. He was introduced by David Ware who outlined Tony's wide and varied 'careers' and interests. The Principal reported on developments at the College, in particular the progress of the new building, promising members an opportunity to contribute to 'the icing on the cake' when it came to the provision of high-tech equipment when the new classrooms were finished.
Next year's Dinner will be on 2 November 2001 - book it now!

Fri., 5th November 1999

Last year's Dinner was one of the most successful in recent years with 120 tickets sold boosted by a large party of 49-ers together with form master Rev. Rupert Harewood. Steve Harrison, as proposer, took the blame for the Guest of Honour, Guy Adams, choosing Law as a career, as he had somehow failed to interest the boy in chemistry. Later, the Principal mentioned the invaluable contribution the Guest had already made as a Governor of the College and also spoke on the proposed new accommodation being planned for 2001/2 and stated that he would be exploring ways in which the Association could be involved in supporting this development.

Fri., 6th November 1998

The 1998 Dinner was another highly enjoyable occasion. Numbers were slightly down on last year and under the genial but firm chairmanship of David Gill the formalities were soon dealt with and we got on with the important business of welcoming the Guest of Honour, David Gabbitass, introduced by Tony Osmond with many recollections of primary school in war-torn Langport and the ride to Huish's, courtesy of Hutchings and Cornelius. Bill Perry, College I.T. Services Manager (representing the Principal who was recovering from 'a week of inspection of the College's own self-inspection, and inspection of the Inspectors by the Auditors' (!!) and who with the rest of the Senior Management was receiving the first feedback on the Inspectors' findings). Bill thanked the Association warmly for their gift of a flatbed scanner and other items and extended an invitation to Members to visit the College and see the facilities.

It was a great pleasure to see many of my own year, survivors of the great '50 Years On Reunion' last year, together with Clive Rawlins with whom we finally established contact the day before the 1997 Dinner. For the second year running I was unable to get round to speaking to Don Holcombe (if you should see this Don, then 'Greetings!') but otherwise we all managed to get around and renew old acquaintance very well. Last year the Principal remarked on the 'palpable atmosphere' of respect for the old school and its traditions. There are those, I know, who did not regard their years at the school as the happiest years of their lives. Some disliked it so much that they will not have anything to do with it to this day. That said, my efforts to define what it is that inspires the continued feelings of so many was helped by the speakers' references to Huish's opening opportunities they would not otherwise have had. Few of us came with any great material advantages and some were so poor that they suppressed notes about outings and excursions to avoid straining their families' resources. Far from 'divisive' it seems to me that the old grammar schools improved the prospects of many who might otherwise have remained 'divided' for ever.

The 2001 AGM on 4th April 2001 was again held at the College with David Gill in the chair, together with the President, Principal, Committee and Members in attendance. The various reports and accounts were approved and members received a report from the Trustees of the War Memorial Fund that it had been decided to wind up the Trust and to donate all the assets to the College in this its Appeal Year. The Principal expressed the gratitude of the College and said that this generous gift would make an appreciable impact on the funding of state of the art equipment for the new buildings shortly to be opened. He assured the Association that the College fully accepted the responsibility to maintain the standard of equipment through future internal budgets.
The officers and committee re-elected and the news that 30 new life members had joined or re-joined the Association was warmly welcomed. The 2000 Dinner in November was considered to be one of the best socially although numbers were very slightly down on the previous year. It was announced that the Guest of Honour at the 2001 Dinner in November will be John King, well known for his years of reporting major West Country court cases and now retired to the Bristol Area. The evening concluded with a wine and finger buffet.

All Old Huishers, students and staff, are eligible for membership and the life membership subscription remains for the time being at only £10. Prospective new members are invited to contact the Secretary, Ken Marshall, 01823 284949, for details.

After O-levels at Huish's, I worked in local government before returning to Huish's as a part time IT support technician following redundancy and early retirement and nearly 3 years in a similar support role at a secondary school. My special computing interest is desktop publishing and this has led to an exploration of some areas of computer graphics, Postscript code and now Web design(!)

London Branch, 1951

Through the kindness of Rob Johnson of the History Department a card with the signatures of those attending the 1951 Annual Dinner of the London Branch of the Huish Old Boys' Association, has been returned to the College. It contains the signatures of Arthur C. Clarke, his brother Fred (I think), Jack Wickenden and E.R. Goodliffe among many others. This will take its place with other items of memorabilia in the Library, where there is a collection of school magazines, form lists and other items from the grammar school days, along with year books and principal's reports from more recent years. Old Huishers wishing to see these items will I am sure be welcome to do so by arrangement with Janie Norman, the Librarian, on any day in term time.

As recorded below, Peter recently wrote from Canada requesting news or contacts from his years at Huish's. Among the names he mentioned was that of Mike Parsons, remembered as being with the Gazette. I'm pleased to have been able to put them in touch and we have even made the pages of that illustrious journal! Peter's email address is peterc9@rogers.wave.ca

More contacts needed!

We have few entries yet, but as this section grows I'll try to keep a sensible index running! In January we had visitors from several British universities - Cardiff, Swansea, Hensa, Wolverhampton, York, Southampton, Bangor, Bristol and Sheffield, plus two or three American ones and a host of individuals. Maybe they took a quick look and went away. Some at least had a good look round - I know which HTMLs they looked at - but none of them sent me any feedback. If you're looking for old friends and don't find them, remember they won't find you unless you write! Please use one of the opportunities to mail me in these pages or use my e-mail address oldhuish@richuish.ac.uk

Here is another opportunity! Please send your news!

I had a chat with John Nash qv the Old Huishers' Treasurer last summer, and he suggested we might publicise this Home Page by putting a note in the County Gazette which reaches many old Tauntonians. He also brought along some photos of our Scouting days in the early 1950's and it occurs to me that this page could easily incorporate pictures, in black and white or colour. In fact it could be a replacement for the old style school magazine - and no printer's costs to worry about either! Please get in touch first though. I like the idea but too many graphics do slow things down. Generally, I've avoided the more spectacular gimmicks of Web page design and hope that you will find things reasonably quick whatever browser you are using. Please mail me with any problems and I'll try to put them right.

Contacts page An alphabetical list with index