Alumni: Chris Hood, OH 1954-1960

Boys from my boarding days

“I recently came across James Houston’s recollections of boarding at Hallfield in the 1950s, written a few years ago, and what he wrote brought back many vivid memories for me. I was in the same class as James Houston and several of the other names he mentioned. One of them was Peter Raynor, who was phenomenally clever. He was the son of a professor of metallurgy (I think) at the University of Birmingham and unsurprisingly became a highly respected professor himself. I’m still in touch with him. Apart from the names James Houston mentions from that time, I also remember Scott Wilson, Justin Pinkess, John Howard, Nick Whitehouse, Roger Bowen, Simon Green, Gabriel Fisher, Hugh Mason, Anthony Alabaster, and a boy called Faber who had the bed next to mine in the Maple Bank dormitory. I can’t recall his first name if I ever knew – we all called each other by surnames or nicknames in those days.”

 Teachers who shaped my early life

“I remember the teachers James mentions, including Miss Morton, whose music and singing lessons I loved. She was the only person I encountered in my whole life who thought I was able to sing, so I bless her for that! I also remember Mrs Fisher, the Latin master’s wife, who had lost a leg when run over by a tram in early life. I think she taught us art and I can remember her supervising bathtimes as well, which must have been a thankless task! It would have been a once-a-week event in those unenlightened days.

“To James’s list of teachers, I could also add Miss Flint, who taught maths and whose quiet encouragement helped me to grapple with that subject in my early years at Hallfield. I think she also ran the school branch of the Scripture Union, and I can remember reading Bible stories with her.

“I recall Mr Organ who taught geography with great rigour (it was as close as we got to social science in those days), and Mr Thorburn who was extremely proud of the highly polished Morris Minor that he drove. We had a rather fierce ex-military gym teacher who I think was called Mr Salt.”

A school trip to remember

“I went on the school trip to Scheveningen that James mentions – it was my first ever trip abroad and I was very excited about it. I remember how clean and up to date the Netherlands seemed back then, against Birmingham where all the buildings were blackened with coal smoke and there were still many gaps from buildings destroyed by World War II bombing.”

Space to explore

“The school was on a split site either side of the railway track in those days, and we walked in ‘crocodiles’ between the two sites. Hallfield was on one side and the other side was called Maple Bank, a large Victorian house with a ha-ha wall and a beautiful copper beech tree in the former garden which was divided into a car park and a large play area. Maple Bank was where the headmaster, Mr. Rigby, had his flat, and housed the recreation room, the junior classrooms and dormitories for the younger boys. There was at least one dormitory for seniors in Hallfield, and before I left, I remember scribbling my name in pencil behind one of the shutters. It might still be there for all I know!

“Beside Maple Bank was a place called Widdrington to which we were forbidden to go, on pain of caning or worse (but of course we did). It was a derelict and overgrown wilderness, and I think it was the site of what had once been a big house like Maple Bank which had been demolished or maybe bombed. We had our own names for various places in this site – ‘Pluto’ is the only one I remember, and it must have been at the centre of the estate, so it seemed very daring to go there.”

We love to hear from Old Hallfieldians, so if you’d like to share your story, get in touch!