I think Foxwood, and the comprehensive system in general was one big experiment which I ‘like it or not’ was part of. I didn’t feel comfortable in this experiment because by failing the 11+ I always felt I’d failed my family and I didn’t ever feel they really approved of my school and that they should do was very important to me. So it’s difficult to know how good my secondary education really was. If one sees education purely in terms of academia then it really probably wasn’t that good. If one sees it a preparation for life- well I never made it to ‘brain surgeon, -but I got by. My partner, an only child, attended a well known, public, all boys boarding school and never met a girl until he left at eighteen. He might have had the better education than me by far but I’m sure mine was more in tune with the realities of life.

Jane

Let me take you back to those heady and adventurous 'Golden Lion days' of the early to mid-1970's and a group of young teenagers all togged up in hiking boots, gators and the Golden Lion regulation bright yellow cagoules. We pose for a picture outside the Golden Lion before setting out for a day's hiking with Ingleborough our first objective. The time of year is late Winter and the weather is positively miserable, damp, dreary and lots of low cloud and mist.

We set off and after less than an hour we are all extremely miserable, just like the typical Horton weather. We have entered the wilderness that is the undulating area between Horton and Ingleborough when we suddenly look over the brow of a hill to find one small row of very traditional cottages all burning 'real' fires of obviously wood and perhaps a little peat. We continue after having our spirits warmed by the little heat but plenty of comfort of this sign of civilisation and, in varying numbers our group reached the peaks of Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent that day before returning with heavy legs for dinner at the Lion.

In itself a good day's hike, but nothing overly special compared to so many other very special 'Lion' memories.

Now fast forward just over 30 years and you'll find me sitting with a group of some 20 people in a bar in Munich tutoring a whisky tasting or what we call a Masterclass. Over the course of a couple or three hours I introduce various whiskies to my guests and ask for their individual thoughts on them.

Suddenly one guest, whilst nosing a particularly good Caol Ila (pronounced Cull Eela and one of the peaty & smoky examples from the isle of Islay, in case you don't know it) asked me what my own opinion was. I took up my own glass and proceeded to nose the whisky which had an exceptionally good balance between the smokiness of burning wood and peat. I studied it for some minutes before a strange look must have come over me and I said "The Golden Lion, just over 30 years ago!"

In fact I had to excuse myself as a single tear came to my eye; One nosing of a whisky suddenly transported me back more than 30 years to a day long-lost in the annals of my deep memory. It was a rather dreary day and a group of bedraggled teenagers had just stopped for a minutes on the brow of a hill to garner a little warmth and comfort from the smoking chimneys of a single and quite remote row of old cottages.

Keith Wood

We finished for the summer holidays in summer of 1958 at what then became Parklands Girls. That must have been in early to mid July. We restarted after the holidays at the new building in early September 1958. At that time and for a considerable period after (and this is where the fine detail eludes me) there were builders' cabins and machinery and equipment in the area at the front of the school on what later became a bicycle and car park, located at the back of some estate houses and between the two assembly halls.

For about a year, so this ties in with the information you have, we used the smaller assembly hall exclusively because the larger hall was not complete nor was the organ, Mr Monger's pride and joy, installed. I recall that the gym in that building was also not ready and that temporary kitchens were used for a time. There was also limited access to the area between what used to be the science wing and the technical drawing and woodwork/metalwork wing. Considering the logistics involved in moving the kitchens to their eventual location I can only think that this must have also taken place over the summer holidays, probably in 1959. Once again this ties in with the dates you already have for completion of and eventual grand opening of Foxwood. I hope this is of some use.
Now the quid pro quo. I left school during my first year of sixth form and shortly after came to Australia and much to my regret lost contact with a couple of my best friends from that time. It occurs to me that that you might, in your capacity as biographer of our alma mater, come into contact with other old boys of my era. If that happens, would you be kind enough to pass on their email addresses to me? Unfortunately, I see that Christopher Turberville has recently died but I would like to contact Rod Mathieson and Mick Crawshaw if they ever get in touch with you.

Ron Emerson
 

It all really started when I read the book “Risinghill: Death of a Comprehensive School”. I was in my final year at Winchester Art School completing an Art & Design Diploma in Fine Art.  I’d never even considered teaching as a possible career up until then but suddenly the idea really appealed.  So I decided to return to my hometown of Leeds to undergo a one year teaching qualification course.  Soon it was time to start applying for jobs.  An advertisement appeared for a teacher with a specialisation in textiles to work in the Art Department at Foxwood.  Our tutors on the course urged us to avoid this school at all costs as it was generally considered by them at that time to be ‘rough’.  This of course only served to make me more curious.  I, and another female on the same course as me, applied, and we both got interviews.  Of course at that time I really wasn’t suitable or trained for a job which involved getting the new intake of girls to use sewing machines as part of their art and design work.  The other applicant was and she got offered, and accepted, the job.  But all was not  lost.  The Head, Bob Spooner, said he wanted to offer me a post at the school but Art would only unfortunately be a small part of it to begin with.  He was really looking for form teachers for the new cohort which for the first time was to include girls.  I was to become a class teacher for 30 eleven year olds spending a total number of around twenty periods a week with them based in our own classroom (Room 7 at the far end of the ground floor corridor in Lower School) teaching them ‘Linked Studies’ (which comprised  English, History, Geography and R.E.).  The rest of my timetable had a few Art lessons also with Lower School classes up in the Art Room suite on the top floor of Main School.  This was then the domain of Stewart Jennings (Head of Art) and two other teachers already at the school, Gary Ferris and Chris Smith.  I cannot recall the name of the newly appointed textiles specialist teacher (iirc she only lasted a year before moving on) but besides her and myself there was another recently appointed Art teacher, Geoff  Davey.

So I started on a very fast learning curve, managing to keep a lesson or two ahead in the multitude of subjects that I found myself to be teaching!  I worked two years full time and then, for health reasons, reduced to 3 days a week for a further two years.  I then decided to leave the profession for a while to have a child.  I worked in the ‘rag trade ‘ in an accounts department for about a year before having our son.  I then stayed at home looking after him until he was settled into primary school, at which point I decided to look for part-time employment again.  I didn’t imagine I would be able to find teaching work with hours and a location to suit me but when I wrote to Bob Spooner asking if he would give me a reference for office job applications he asked why I wasn’t returning to teaching and straight away offered me the hours I needed.  So I returned to Foxwood as a teacher of a funny mix of things which if I remember correctly also included along with art/textiles some remedial reading and pool and table tennis !  At that time pupils could choose a combination of ‘leisure’ pursuits as part of their timetable.  This was to encourage the lesser able and/or disaffected ones to actually attend school and hopefully help raise their self esteem.  On the whole I think it worked admirably.  The Head had a small girls toilet block (which wasn’t really needed) on the first floor converted and carpeted which became my teaching base for art/textiles work.  I think the most we ever crammed in their was about a dozen girls.  We also managed to brew up tea and coffee as a treat during the fairly relaxed lessons.  I think it was then that I started developing NPRA units so that the pupils could gain some accreditation for their work.  This continued when we had to move from the Lower School building and then my teaching base became what had previously been Lab 4.  This was a much bigger room and allowed far more scope.  We acquired sewing machines and eventually a spinning wheel.  I taught ‘embroidery’ to many classes including a considerable number of disaffected lads some of whom became quite adept.  With the younger years I often worked on group projects so that everyone’s work was equally important and needed for incorporation into the finished result.  Throughout the years I photographed most of the textile work produced, often with the pupils who had made the items. 

 During  my time at Foxwood I organized and took pupils on several  trips.  The first pictures I have are of my tutor group c.1971 on a trip we made to the long-closed  Knaresborough Zoo.  Another memorable outing  was in 1993 with three tutor groups to Leeds City Art Gallery to experience the major exhibition,  'Herbert Read: A British Vision of World Art'.

I also took pupils twice to see the Manchester University Textile Degree Shows.  I was never able to manage to go to Foxwood Farm or the Golden Lion, although nearly all the pupils and staff did at some point. 

 Other memorable events, in no particular order, that made Foxwood such a special place included the existence of the crèche which the pupils helped run, the birth and growth of the Foxwood steel band, the animal collection in Mrs Cliff’s Lab, the greenhouse in the quad, the go-karting building and racing, the filming on the premises of the “Beiderbecke Affair”,

Tricia Senior

Paul Williams (Foxwood School 1957 to 1963)

Thank you for creating this website; I have just had a brief scan through it and it brought back some happy 50 year old memories.

I was one of those who started up at Parklands in 1956, moving down to the new school 2 years later. Matthew Rowlands was a charismatic, inspirational headmaster and led a very tight ship in those early days. I can see him now striding down the main corridor like an avenging angel, with his black gown floating behind him. Discipline was imposed very strictly, even to which items of uniform must be worn travelling to and from school; it was a punishable offence (remember the Conduct Card) not to wear the regulation school cap when in public !!

My totally bald maths master, (I think his real name was Mr Radford) was given the nickname ERNIE, after the Premium Bond computer - his brain was better. A major Eureka moment in my life was his explanation of algebra. Paddy Hamilton and Bernard Parry took us off to Europe every year; one particular year even Mrs Hamilton and their 3 year old daughter were dragged along to St. Malo. The following year we cycled, after a sleepless night on the ferry, from Ostende through Belgium, Germany and Luxemburg, staying at youth hostels along the way. Let me tell you, cycling through mile after mile of open vineyard country in 32 degrees, with 30 odd adolescent boys in tow, would not have been funny. The dedication of these teachers continues to amaze me to this day.

For some reason, during the early years of Foxwood, our double games session was taken down on the fields at the bottom of Foundry Lane; known to us as Monkey Bridge. I hated games and tried to get out of it whenever I could. My main tactic involved hiding down by "The Beck", whose steep banks obscured me from view of Mr Hartley or Mr Lockwood, whoever was supervising the session that week. My problem was that, whilst everyone else wore the regulation blue and gold strip, I had a second hand bright red top. On one particular occasion, Mr Lockwood realised there had not been a red strip on the field and, after a summary trial I was slippered there and then. Wind the tape forward to about 1972 and I am on duty at Chapeltown Police Station when in comes a motorist to produce his driving documents after a minor accident. I recognised him only too well, after that humiliating slippering years before, but of course he had no idea who I was. If ever there was a "schadenfreude moment", this was it; his MOT certificate was about eight months out of date. It was in my power to get my own back. But, of course, I let him off with a formal warning, and a reminder of what he'd
imposed on me after that games period!!

Len Cooper taught us Chemistry, Mr White (who STILL cycles everywhere in his 80s and who's grandsons were in my Cub Scouts) taught us Physics. Mr Bacon was the Woodwork master,

Mr Monger taught Music, and "Big John" West was the English master we would have followed into the jaws of Hell. Even though discipline was fairly rigorous, I recall a teacher  (I won't mention his surname, but unfortunately it was a girl's first name) who had a speech problem of such proportions that the entire front row of his class brought in and deployed umbrellas, to protect themselves from his flying spray and spittle.

Those were happy days and, as ever is the case, I wish now I had taken greater advantage of the almost unlimited learning opportunities that were available to us in the "Class of 1956"

Best wishes,

Peter Marles
 

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