25th Taunton (Huish's Grammar School)

Below are Alan's photos to start with. He subsequently sent one of them to the Looking Back column in the County Gazette and on 2nd March '01 we received the following note (after the pictures) from Ted Ewens.... And now, John Reed sends two photos of his successful Otter Patrol with the County Flag and Gamage Shield, 1950 (below). Yet another contribution comes from Phil Bacon 12/02; and still another from John Nash and Peter Westcott Not to be left out, Roger Heal has contributed a similar group, also at the Ruishton Hut. LATEST! I've just replaced another copy of Gordon Baker's History of Huish's and here are the Queen's Scouts, posing against the oh so beautiful Dining Hut.

And now, a further contribution!

image (64kb)

image 1 (64kb)

image 2 (48kb)

image 3 (72kb)

image 4 (48kb)

image 6 (48kb)

image 7 (56kb)

image 8 (56kb)

image 9 (48kb)

NEW, Nov 2004 - Adrian Weaver writes: "I was in the Otter patrol, then the Eagle, before completing my Queen Scout. I remember the flooded campsite at Eggworthy, then Chagford, Snowdonia and Austria ...to name just a few. The days of Skip Branton and Tarka Harewood bring back lots of memories (and wasn't Bill Cobb also involved with the scouts?)
Have lost touch somewhat over the years, especially after having spent 32 years abroad, working in different countries. At the moment, I live in Germany (since 1982) and am about twice the size I was at Huish's!............attributed to the wholesome German food and of course liberal quantities of Pils.
I will have to see if I can find any old photos. I still have my scout shirt, with scarf and red toggle (wasn't that for 15 nights camping?) etc., Remember when we were involved in the May Fair at Bishop Fox's too.

NEW, Dec 2003 - Ian Stiff writes with some more 'Cawsand' memories . . . Alan's Photos:

Cawsands, Cornwall, 1959 or 60 (90.8kb)

Grub up! (86.0kb)

... and some pages from his album

Seniors, Avignon and Snowdon 1957, 195? (57.6kb)

Maker 1 (103.0kb)

Maker 2 (57.2kb)

... and one of mine

Unknown occasion, early 50s (124.0kb)

... and one I made earlier(!)

Jack Wickenden and boys, pre-war (Sylvia Wickenden, 34.0kb)

As noted above, Ted Ewens responded to Alan's Gazette article. Here is Ted's reply:

From Ted Ewens - tedewens@btinternet.com :
To: oldhuish@richuish.ac.uk
Cc: Peter J Ewens
Sent: 02/03/01 09:52
Subject: 25th Taunton (HGS)

"Great to see the photograph in the County Gazette recently and to see what Bob & Alan have started to build on the website.
"Ted Ewens HGS & 25th from 1957 to 1964 sending this message.
"Have recently taken voluntary redundancy after 33 years in Graphics Division of Kodak. Absolutely delighted to move back from Hertfordshire to Somerset (Creech St. Michael Tel 01823 444215).Pleased to meet anyone from those days for a drink/reminisce.
"No knowledge of whereabouts of camp logs. Was at following camps Chagford 1958; Wye Valley 1959; Cornwall 1960 & 1961; Lake District 1962 & Salzburg 1963.
"Those on Salzburg trip were Gordon Baldam, John Purchase, Ian Stiff, Alan Breese, Bill Brina, Tony Bagwell, Frank Cottam (Staff), Geoff Davey, Dick Bennet, Ron Weaver, Bob Munn, Tim Fisher, Alan Tarr, Chris Wright, Alan Castro, Sandy Newman, Malcolm Flintoff , Dave Gyther & Peter Melville-Smith.
"Alan is right about the 25th being the best... in my experience under the superb leadership of Bob Branton. I have fond memories of collecting the County Campcraft Flag at the Uphill Jamboree in 1961.
"Reminded of 25th every time I pass the old log cabin at Ruishton".

County Flag, 1950 (49.1kb)

Gamage Shield, 1950 (45.6kb)

And now, 'The Donkey' contributed by Phil Bacon:

Chagford, Summer 1958
Pulling the donkey is Bob Stone, brandishing a stick (jokingly) Ted Ewens, riding Bill Hardy and Phil Bacon in light sweater assisting the pull.(24.3kb)

Followed by: 'Seniors' from the album of John Nash, sent by Peter Westcott. We can name all but one and the group would be somewhere around 1952, at a guess.

Seniors, around 1952
Colin Richards, 'Bob' (Brian K) Snell, Bryan Lenthall, Brian Richards, Roger Heal;
Colin Taylor, Brian Wyatt, Michael Lines, David Hunt, John Dally;
Gerald Bye, Bob Pendleton, '?', and Eric Pulford.

'Seniors2' is from Roger Heal and shows much the same personnel from around the same period. Peter Williams is in the front, centre.

Seniors2, also around 1952-54
Roger suggests the following names which I think are all correct. His '???' may perhaps be Brian Cridland.
C Richards, R Heal, B Richards;
Mike Lines, John Dally, ???, Pete Binks, Bob Snell, Bunty Hunt;
Eric Pulford, Stan Granville, Pete Williams, B Pendleton, Min Bye. .

'Queens' is a new one here, taken from Gordon Baker's 'History of Huish's, Taunton', 1980. Specially for you, Roger!

Queen's Scouts, around 1952
Brian Richards, Brian Lenthall, Roger Heal;
David Hunt, Brian Wyatt, Mike Lines, Colin Taylor.

Ian Stiff writes, 13 Dec 03:

Hi Guys ...

Very interested to come across this site. I have some old photographs somewhere plus some log books of the "Mad Hike". I remember my days with the 25th so well. I think we all learned a lot about self reliance from Bob Branton. I also remember the camps at Chagford, Windermere, Kingsand/Cawsand and the diving course we went on to Torquay with the Navy. What about the Quantock Follies ??

I will try to look out any photos and send then on. Very best wishes to any of the old gang that might read this. I have lived in Yorkshire for 35 years but visit Taunton now and then with my cricketing sons.

Ian Stiff,
IanSwissHouse@aol.com