A.O.S.A. 2006 ANNUAL REPORT

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Tony Browne

I left Ayton in July 1953 (to relief, no doubt, of the staff) with no clear ideas for a career. I worked for three years as a library assistant for West Riding County Library before taking up a boat-building apprenticeship. I went to the Bahamas in 1959 and met my wife Beryl there-we were married in 1962. Most of my time out there was spent working for an oil company bunkering ships, though latterly self employed boat-building and repairing. Our son, David, was born out there in 1967.

We returned to the U.K. in 1970 due to work permit difficulties. I took a job with a company near Stafford in the canal boat hiring business and have remained in that line of business ever since. A problem of redundancy, followed by a period of unemployment in 1981, has led me to working on a self-employed basis again.

We still live in the Stafford area and about ten years ago bought this lovely old cottage which we are still doing up. It has large garden which keeps us both very busy. I was best man to David and Shirley Fish at their wedding in 1958. I still see Mike Sweet and his family occasionally.

Sylvia Buckle (Taylor)

Long past are the long hot summers and halcyon days of school since leaving in 1954. The memories, never lost, were revived by our reunion in 1985. It is difficult to turn back the ever-advancing clock and foreshorten the intervening years mainly given to raising a family of four. They are all grown up now and hence I am, as a late starter, pursuing a career.

After finally abdicating from motherhood and successfully testing the teaching capabilities of the Durham School of Chiropody, I worked for the Northallerton Area Health Authority for six years before branching out into private practice. I am now happily devoted to the ministrations of foot care without all the bureaucratic paperwork.

Jillian Clegg (Naylor)

I left Ayton in 1955 and did a two year teacher training course in Leeds, where I met my husband David. We were married in 1959. We came to live in Caistor in 1961 when David was appointed Head of Classics at Caistor Grammar School; we enjoy living in this quiet Roman town at the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds. I have been teaching full time at Caistor Primary School since 1969 and have a class of lower juniors. We both find that life at the "chalk face" is becoming more difficult, even in a small country town. David is the organist and choirmaster at Caistor Parish Church; I am one of the Church Wardens.

Every summer, for many years, we have taken a month's holiday in France enjoying the country, the food, the wine and the sun. We have two sons, Mark 25 who is an English graduate from Hull University, and is now the Deputy Editor of a local newspaper in Louth. Andrew is 23, he read Earth Science at Oxford Polytechnic and joined an exploration company but fell victim to the oil crisis and was made redundant. He is now at Leeds University doing an M. Sc. and hoping for better things when he has finished.

My brother Roger always lived and worked in Bolton, where he set up a small garage. He married Janet when he was forty, but he always had poor health and they only had five years together before his death four years ago. We all miss him very much.

I often see Geoffrey Baxter. He is married to Pauline, one of David's former pupils, and teaches in a Grimsby School while living in a small village - Swallow. I taught both his children, Ben and Laura.

Bill Coates

I left Ayton in 1951, to take up my first job with a firm of electrical contractors in Middlesbrough. From 1953-55 I did my National Service; I was a Signals Operator in various parts of England and was ultimately posted to Singapore and Malaysia where I was part of the unit which has since become known as the "Virgin Soldiers". I was demobbed at Catterick.

In 1962 I married my wife Pam; we have two sons, John 21 and Nigel 19. We made our home in Shap and I began working for the Shap granite quarry. About fourteen years ago we moved again, this time to Appleby and I transferred to the gypsum mine where I still work. I am active in the Trade Union Movement and am a Shop Steward.

Some twelve years ago I bought an old coin-operated Juke Box which I adapted and set up the disco side line business which is still going strong. I travel around the area with my disco, to parties, weddings etc. and have now been joined in this by one of my sons. The original equipment played "45s", but I now use the latest CD equipment. I was best man to Harry and Susan Snalam at their wedding in 1966.

Jennifer Crabtree

I left Ayton in 1953 and in September of that year and started work with Martins Bank. In 1953, I joined the family engineering firm at Morley, near Leeds, in the costing department, and in 1960 moved to the industrial packaging part of the company, in sales administration, until being made a director in 1978.

My outside interests are working in the Girl Guide Movement since 1955 within West Yorkshire North County and Bradford North Division, and my hobbies are knitting, craft, and gardening.

Pat Scaife (Frosini) is a close friend and we meet up on a very regular basis, either in Rome or when Pat is over in Yorkshire. The weekend of the '85 reunion coincided with a holiday in Switzerland when I called on Joan and Jim Haworth in Geneva.

Dick Dennis

In 1952, having spent half my life at Ayton, I left to get on with learning about the family industry - printing, but first spent the Summer of 1952 at the Outward Bound Sea School, Aberdovey, indulging my interest in anything that floats. It was at Aberdovey that the news of passing sufficient "O" levels to get a place at the Manchester College of Printing was received, (Clifford Morgan never did believe the examiners).

The following two years were very interesting; I enjoyed every minute and, to the best of my recollection, did not miss a single day (as I constantly reminded my son Edward - who attended the same course 27 years later!). The course was designed to pass on management and craft skills and technical knowledge, which were to be very useful later on.

National service kept me occupied from 1955-57; after basic training I had asked to be posted to just about every exotic place on the globe but finished up in Preston, 20 miles away from Southport where I lived.

I married Freda, a girl from Formby near Southport, in 1959; we met at the local church youth club, doing amateur dramatics. We have two children, Edward (previously mentioned) now 27 working with a printer - learning his trade, and Belinda, 23 who lives and works in London, currently "temping" until she decides who should be honoured with her permanent presence.

On leaving the Army my first job was with a large printer in Liverpool - learning the business - before going to join the family in Scarbro'. I never got there, being side tracked into the supply business - machinery and materials; this was much more interesting, involving a lot of travel.

To cut a long story I started my own business in 1969, supplying printers. Business has taken me to most countries in the Far East, to Australia and New Zealand, USA and Canada, to Africa (Nigeria is "something else"!), and of course to most of the continent of Europe. I learnt to speak "gebrochen" German - of necessity.

We now live in the Isle of Man, having had enough of "living out of a suitcase.” This really is a beautiful place, where quality of life is not just a cliché. We bought an old stone built house in Castletown, in a sorry state, which took five years work to renovate - much of the work, and all of the woodwork being done "in house;" Stanley (Happy) Jones would have been proud of me, (I think - but you never know!). Hobbies and pastimes are; making things, radio control aircraft, computers, and being taken for regular walks by Harry, our Setter. I am closely associated with our local Hospice.

I keep in touch with Neil Burrows, albeit only by Christmas card, but since getting involved with the production of this Booklet have regular letters from Gill Jackson and Arthur Grainge. I am looking forward to the Reunion in June, and intend to do the whole nostalgia bit! See you there.

Dorothy Easton (Dawson)

I left Ayton in 1953 and after teacher training returned to Sunderland to teach music in a large comprehensive school, living at home for a while.

In 1960 I returned to Ayton and taught music until 1977 when I left to marry widower Edward Dawson, Commercial Manager with N.E.E.B. in Northallerton - a bonus was stepdaughter Jane - then in the third year at Ayton. I have continued to visit the school weekly to teach piano.. I am North Riding based for most of my interests, including membership of the Society of Friends at Ayton and other Quaker activities as well as frequent visits to Bainbridge in Wensleydale where we have had a cottage for years.

Ted retired in 1986 and is a keen fruit and vegetable gardener. Brother Geoffrey teaches woodwork and technical subjects at Bootham School in York.

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