A.O.S.A. 2009 ANNUAL REPORT

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President Harry Snalam giving his
Presidential Address

Madam Chairman, Old Scholars and Friends,

I was working on a rather boring job one day at the beginning of last year, when my thoughts wandered back to Ayton. I was thinking about everything that Gill Jackson (née Hinds,) Arthur Grainge and Dick Dennis have done for the Old Scholars’ Association over the years and how much they deserved to be chosen as Presidents. I never thought I would qualify for such an honour. A few weeks later, I received an e-mail asking if I would consider being President in 2008-2009. I was absolutely astounded that my peers put my name forward for this important position. After giving the matter a little thought, I decided humbly to accept the invitation. My one worry was what the contents of my inauguration speech would be. I asked Dick, and he suggested I include some of the “adventures” from my years at Ayton.

I was at Ayton from 1947 to 1952. I have many memories from there, but my favourite times by far were the Saturday and Sunday and Wednesday afternoon walks. Needless to say, I did not excel academically, but I did form many lasting friendships and, as you are about to hear, I also developed the ability to make something out of absolutely nothing at all! I'm told I have not changed much in appearance since the day I left. Apparently others perceive me as a studious individual; a quiet and scientifically inclined respectable member of society. But my School friends remember me as having an insatiable appetite for adventure and danger, as well as being somewhat of a rebel.

Harry finally inaugurated as President
and sealed with a hug and a kiss

In my first year at Ayton I was friendly with Clive Olbery, (as he came from Blackpool and I lived in Lytham we travelled together part of the way from the Fylde to Ayton, accompanied by our mothers.) The two of us made a den out of one of the circular holes that we found up on Cook’s. In retrospect, these were probably ancient graves that had been robbed over time. We covered the den with branches and bracken for a roof to make it reasonably waterproof.

Clive and I decided to start making toffee and made a stove out of a shoe polish tin filled with cotton wool and paraffin. We would nip back into the dining room after everyone left, and empty some of the sugar bowls into a jam jar to take out to the stove. Sugar was the only ingredient for making our toffee and this was a well kept secret between the two of us. One time our paraffin stove flared up out of control, and set fire to the roof of the den. We only just escaped without getting burnt - you have no idea how fast dry bracken burns, and we spent at least half an hour extinguishing the fire on the side of Cook’s. After this near miss, we found an old platelayer’s hut along the railway lines towards Kildale, with a pot-bellied stove in it, so we resumed our toffee making exploits in a safer environment.

Pictured above: Past President 2007-08,
Tessa Snowdon, President 2008-09 Harry Snalam,
and President's lady, Susan Snalam
wearing her spouse's brooch.

Dick (Dennis) and I decided to try and make some iron (just for something to do.) We put filters in the ditches to catch the red rust that floated down. We needed to make charcoal to run a blast furnace to convert the iron ore into iron. At first we were going to misappropriate the charcoal from the art room, but their supply was very meagre, it wouldn't have gone very far. We had a den along the Beck near Easby where we used to make a fire and put a treacle tin full of wood chips in it. When it stopped smoking the wood chips had turned to charcoal. Oak chips, we found, produced the best results. After several weeks of charcoal making, we made a furnace out of clay with a tin in the middle of it and inlets for the air jets. When we figured we had enough iron ore, we filled the little furnace up with charcoal, some of it glowing of course, and poured the iron ore over the top of it. We had a hopper on top which held the rest of the charcoal. We had made a rudimentary blower to blow the furnace which was powered by the Beck. We left it going on Saturday and returned on Sunday. When all the charcoal had burnt out the end result was two little peas of iron that stuck on the end of a magnet, so we knew that we had been successful.

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