2024 Annual Reunion Dinner
The Association’s 77th Annual Reunion Dinner was held at Heath RUFC, West Vale, on Friday, .
This is a preliminary report which will be completed later.
During the dinner Jim Farrell reported on the report for Halifax Heritage provided by Heidi Bain in association with York University. It offers a pathway to follow.
Dean Jones, Head of Crossley Heath School also spoke. He said that, in coming to Crossley Heath, he had found a strong sense of a foundation for the future and intended to build on that by, among other things, reintroducing the swimming gala, carols at the Minster, fives and house competitions. Next year Viv Anderson will be coming to unveil a blue plaque to Andrew Watson, one time pupil at Heath and the first black player to represent a country (Scotland) internationally.
He noted that the Heritage event had been very successful and that pupils had been on a rugby tour to Canada, a tour to the Isle of Man and a tour to Abu Dhabi.
John Hoggard [Heath 1945–1952] was the key speaker for the evening. He began by recalling that he had started school in Northowram primary school in 1939 and, after the passing of the 1944 Education Act, children from Northowram could go to Heath without paying fees and six had gone in 1945, while others had gone to Crossley and Porter and Princess Mary. Of the six who had gone from Northowram to Heath he thought that, apart from himself, only Trevor Gamson [Heath 1945–1953] might still be alive.
Though they had not been directly affected by the fighting, from Northowram they could see, in the blackout, over Halifax to Oldham and Manchester and one of the sights at night was the flashing and banging of the bombing, the searchlights and all that going on. Anyway, at the end of it all, in 1945 they had done the 11-plus and some of them had got through.
One thing I do remember — I can’t exactly remember the words — I was walking through those gates on the first day and heard a voice say, ‘What ho! my fine fellow. How art thou this frosty morn?’ I knew he wasn’t talking to me but I thought I had walked onto a Shakespearean set of some sort. It was a guy called Sewards-Shaw [K.E. Sewards-Shaw: Heath 1940-47]. I remember him because he shouted out and I thought, ‘Blimey! Where’ve I come?’
Went in and was immediately put with others into a form called 4A1. This is our first year; how can we be in form 4 already? and you might guess the reason. There was a junior school at Heath in those days and had been for several years and, of course, there were forms 1, 2 and 3 and the first year in school proper was 4. Later on — we had been in 4A1 — we were in 2A1 — not a big push down, just sorting themselves out on what the forms should be called.
And we had a chap called Lee as form master — now there are one or two Lees in the past history of Heath teachers but this one only lasted about twelve months [G.R.B. Lee who taught History and English]; perhaps it was partly because of the class he inherited with me and one or two others in it?
I had a classmate called Douglas Gillett [Heath 1945–1953] — some might remember Douglas — who became a teacher, never married but a very hard and vicious rugby player. I’ve lost a lot of height but that time, at school, we were about the same height — I got to the dizzy heights of about 5ft 8" and I was a back row forward — a wing forward — so was Douglas but I was a sort of fancy boy — good with the hands and so forth — and Douglas was a killer of scrum halves! He made a great joke about my name, Hoggard. In recent years it’s been better since Matthew Hoggard did his stuff in cricket and I have a grandson called Matthew; so when anyone says, ‘Are you related to Matthew Hoggard?’ ‘Yes, my grandson.’ And I can remember saying, ‘What’s so wonderful about Gillett? Hoggard’s someone who kept pigs or maybe sheep. What did Gillett do?’ Anyway we went on from there and became good friends.
I remember getting lost once or twice finding classrooms. You know what it used to be like. I don’t know what it’s like now. You used to go in the main doors and then turn left and up some stairs and along corridors with rooms on the way. If you didn’t go upstairs, you went past the Headmaster’s office.
At the far end I always remember a teacher called Sidney Fox [Classics and English; Heath 1946–?]. Again I don’t know how long he lasted after my time but he was a nice guy, taught English, helped with the rugby as many of the teachers did. It didn’t have to be the PE man. It was guys like Frank Haigh [Classics, Geography, Music; Heath 1936–1973] and Sidney Fox who helped in running the teams and going with them to away matches and I do remember him quite well.
And just bits of memories come back over the years. I remember playing rugby early on — and I really did get hardened up by tackling Douglas Gillett at Manor Heath — you know, going at full speed. Playing in the under-14s away to Rochdale and getting up from a scrum and looking up and streaking away under the posts, many miles away, was Philip Horrocks-Taylor [Heath 1945–1953]. That was the early days of Philip and people like Jimmy Farrar [Heath 1943–1952]. Both of them played for Yorkshire and Philip, of course, on to England and the British Lions. That’s the early rugby memory. And, of course, rugby became an important part of life then and in later years.
What does come to mind, of course, — I had a long-running, uneasy relationship with Harry Birchall [Heath 1936–1973 except for war service]. It all seemed to come from an under-14s match in which I was heavily tackled and broke my collar bone. He dragged me off — no subs in those days, of course — ‘Oh, get back on, Hoggard.’ ‘Can you raise your arm?’ And I could (painfully). ‘Oh, it’s OK,’ he said. Anyway, it was very near the end of the game; so he didn’t push me into going back on.
The following day I went to the hospital in some considerable pain. ‘You’ve broke your collar bone, you daft lad. It’s a complete separation.’ So I went back on to the school after I had been to the hospital and told him. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like to be told that I had been diagnosed and that I had done it. And thereon there was always this difficulty between us even though he did a good job. It was probably known that he had been wounded in the war in Italy, wounded in the head.
I remember scoring a try in a house match — John Bunch was asking me about house names and when Kings house was set up; I don’t know — I gave a dummy and went under the posts and he said, ‘You should have passed that, Hoggard.’ House matches were important. You were playing for Heath or Kings or whatever and we had to beat ’em. It didn’t matter how you did it; you had to beat ’em. I remember dropping out of the cross country run in the last year because of some argument with him, having been fourth the year before, behind people like Peter Kiddle [Heath 1944–1952] who was a star runner and two or three others and with a good chance of coming first or second in the cross country with them gone, but I didn’t run out of sheer bloody-mindedness to defy Harry. But on the other hand, I know for the rugby team and the success of those days and the successes later we had a lot to be thankful to him for.
I’ve made a bit of a list of the teachers; it’s very long because I took it from the archives at Crossley Heath a few months ago. One or two stand out and it would be interesting to know how many are remembered by yourselves: a chap called Blackeby [D. H. Blackeby Maths and Geography; Heath 1947–?] who taught Maths and was very eccentric. We had a lad called Davies in the class and he would call him out. He wanted to demonstrate inverted fractions. He used to pick Davies up and tip him on his head and his bits of money and sweets and odds and ends would tipple out onto the floor. He’d be jailed today.
There was a guy called Charlton [John Charlton Science; Heath 1947–1956], a Geordie — Big Bill. He used to throw a slipper at you if you were doing anything wrong and he turned me round on maths marvellously. He didn’t fool around. He really taught me maths; so I remember him well, if anyone else does. I am going down a fairly long list; I’ve mentioned Sidney Fox. Frank Haigh’s been mentioned; Frank was great — a good geography teacher. He’d been in the intelligence corps during the war — many of them had served and were just drifting back — and he was another one, like Sidney Fox, who supported us in the rugby teams.
There were science teachers like ‘Polly’ Hallowes [Heath 1947-1978] and ‘Kettle’ Hewson [Chemistry; Heath 1943–1964]. I knew them but they never tried to teach me science. George Littlefair [French, German; Heath 1947–1973], father of David Littlefair [1958–1965], a stalwart of this rugby club here. George, of course, taught us French and Cecil Owen Mackley [English, History; Heath 1931–1961]. He died in the late fifties possibly [actually 19 September 1961] but he had started in 1931 as in 1930 had Eric ‘Biddy’ Taylor [English, History; Heath 1930–1968] who had a bit of a job keeping order in his classes. There were one or two boys who made silly noises; they even dragged a lad called Barry [Barry Seal Heath 1948–1954] who became a Euro MP, a cheeky little beggar, two of our lads, one called Atkinson [Rodney Victor Atkinson; Heath 1945–1950] and one called Turner got him one day, went on to Sidney Fox’s room and there was like a platform — a raised area — and believe me, – they shoved him under there, could have smothered him there — and, when Biddy came in to do the class, there was this mysterious tapping and Barry was eventually let out. Eric was a good teacher; he was good in the music and the plays we put on.
There were some people they couldn’t find in the archives like Larry Gain [Latin, Greek; Heath 1935–?], Norman Gain, whom I saw in his final days at a nursing home in Liverpool. Arthur Holt [French; Heath 1930–1966] taught French — ‘Tishy’ Holt — and I realised that some of them went on for some years after I left in ’52. They all leave a place in our memories.
On the sports side, before Harry Birchall came back, a chap called Charles ‘Chus’ Place [Gymnastics; Heath 1939–?]. He taught at Crossley’s as well as at Heath. He was divided between who should win because we were bound to beat Crossley’s. The biggest disappointment came in February ’52 when we had a very good team and we were going to give Crossley’s a real hammering and the King went and died! And on that very day we gathered. ‘Are we going to play on?’ ‘Oh, no. Mr Bolton at Crossley’s said, “We’re not playing because the King’s died,”’ which was right enough in retrospect but we were going to give them a right thrashing! But that was after the time of Mr Place who gave way to Harry Birchall.
So things rolled on; the rugby rolled on. We had a good season in my last year (’51–’52). I started off playing wing forward and half way through, because I was a little shorty, even then, and they needed more height in the lineout, the guy who was full back, John Esmond [Heath 1946–1953] — I don’t know if any of you know John; he’s still around. He can’t be more than six or eight months younger than me and he was six foot plus then. They brought him to the lineout and I went to full back; so I played a whole season, half of it in the back row and the other half as full back but at the end of the season, when you usually got colours for playing in the First Fifteen, or whatever Fifteen or Under-15s, no colours for Hoggard. I often wondered if it was HB who did the dirty but I could never make anything of it.
So it all rolled on; I got the School Certificate in 1950 and, if I was good at anything, I was good at English language and very quietly, one afternoon, up in the Sixth Form room, in a break or whatever, Arthur Owen [Classics; Heath 1935–1972 except for war service] sidled up and said, ‘John, as a matter of fact, you had the best results in the north of England in English language but don’t make a big thing about it. It won’t be announced in tomorrow’s assembly.’ But that was the sort of thing, you hadn’t to make too much of a thing, whether it was at rugby or whatever.
So academically I fell down on the Higher Certificate, having left school, gone back — persuaded my parents to let me go back so that I could play more rugby. There was no university for me. I was out of it. It was into the air force for a few years and then working in textiles for 44 years.
But it’s always there; there’s always good memories; they keep cropping up a lot with being involved with this wonderful rugby club that’s based here. It goes back to that first day; I don’t remember much of it but I remember those first words as I walked through the door and I thought, ‘Is this the sort of place when people talk like that?’ Fortunately, I did one or two plays, some Shakespeare, some other types, and enjoyed those as well. It’s thanks a lot of it so some of these teachers and the time they put in, plus music and drama. So that was me, from ’45 to ’52. OK?
Following the applause, Dean Jones and John Bunch [Heath 1972–1985] presented John with a colours tie.
Having started at Heath school in 1945, John should have been awarded his colour tie having played full-back in the 1951/52 Rugby Team. He missed out because his rugby master wasn’t happy that he wasn’t able to play the final few minutes of a fixture in the days of no substitutes. This was very understandable though, as John had broken his collar bone in the match! Never too late to celebrate a school legend.
After the speeches, the raffle raised £465.
Present: Jim Farrell, Jon Hamer, John Bunch, Dean Jones, Adam Smith, Paul Keenan, Phil Stollery, Nigel Holden, Dom Potter, Pete Ambler, John Robertshaw, Richard Brearley, Richard Crosland, John Charnock, John Hudson, Duncan Turner, Richard Taylor, John Hoggard, Rod Eastwood, John Greenwood, Michael Bingham, Tim Stringer, Dennis O’Callaghan, Chris Tindle, Mark Baxendale, Heath Reilly, Umberto Cuozzo, Oli Schofield, Jawid Zaman, Andy Hoyle, Zoran Kosanovic, Craig Mallinson, Paul Mottram, Glenn Holdsworth, Nigel Sladdin, Richard Craven, Winston Greenwood, Rob Sumner, Mark Kelly, Dave Owen, Craig Shannon, Stephen Horsfield, Dave ‘Edgar’ Broughton, Graham ‘Biscuit’ Parr, David ‘Bob’ Stoker
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