ARCHIVES
WHO WAS DESMOND BOULT ?
Peter Hill ( 55-62 ) and his wife cleared out the loft at their home during the Covid lockdown earlier this year . Sorting through the mass of material and memorabilia which had lain untouched for years , they came across four tarnished cups awarded to him as the Desmond Boult Senior Swimming Champion in 1959 , 1960 , 1961 and 1962 .
Says Peter : “ It never occurred to me at school to ask who Desmond Boult was and how and why the cup bears his name . It would be nice to know if anyone has any information .”
According to the magazine archive , the cup was gifted to the school in 1943 by Mr A Boult in memory of Desmond Boult who was killed in action . It appears from the ‘ Valete ’ entry in the 1938 magazine that Desmond was a talented athlete , excelling at rugby , gym , shooting and swimming : Prefect . Form VIA . 1st XV ‘ 38 , Colours ‘ 38 . Junior Gym . Champion ‘ 35 , Gym . VIII ‘ 35- ’ 36- ’ 37- ’ 38 , Champion ‘ 36 , Capt . ‘ 37- ’ 38 . Shooting VIII ‘ 36- ’ 37- ’ 38 , Colours ‘ 36 , Feathers Cup ‘ 37 . Swimming VIII ‘ 36- ’ 37 ’ -38 , Colours ‘ 37 . Corporal in Corps . Co-opted Member of G . G . C .
If anyone has any other information about Desmond Boult , please let the OP office know : opoffice @ pocklingtonschool . com .
Fragments of A level paintings : A schoolboy pondering the way to the future - industry , the Church or academia .
EARLY ARTWORK
Dr John Gillah Berry ( 47-55 ) got in touch with Angie Edwards , the School Archivist , to ask for help with his lockdown research into his family history . In particular , he was looking for information about the Gillah boys who attended Pocklington in the 1920s . Digging around at home for old photographs and information to help with his research , he unearthed photos , letters home and artwork from his own time at Pocklington , samples of which are
Fragments of A level paintings : A corner of the newly built cricket pavilion .
shown here . Long since retired , John ’ s love of art continued through his successful career as a lecturer in the History of Art and Design at several Colleges
The worst winter 1947 : letter home .
of Art in Leeds , Kampala , Zaria ( Nigeria ), Belfast , Cornwall and Aberdeen .
RAILWAY REMINISCENCES
Last October , a television crew came to school to film footage of Pocklington Station ( now the school sports hall ) for an episode about the history of the York-Hull railway line for the Channel 5 series ‘ Walking Yorkshire ’ s Lost Railways ’. To help with the research for the programme , a call for childhood memories was made to those OPs who used the line to travel to school in the 1950s-60s before the Beeching cuts . The response was excellent , and this article shares some of the OP stories and anecdotes to convey a flavour of what travel to school on the Pocklington train was like and memories from when the train line was under threat and its subsequent closure .
Pocklington Railway Station opened on 4 October 1847 and was a station on the York to Beverley line that served the town of Pocklington as well as transporting freight such as coal , timber , cattle feeds , agricultural machinery and racing pigeons . It closed on 27 November 1965 , a victim of the Beeching cuts , which were part of a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain by stemming large losses being incurred during a period of increasing competition from road transport and reducing the rail subsidies necessary to keep the network running .
Architect George Townsend Andrews designed the station building , which is a Grade II listed building and now forms the sports hall of Pocklington School . Brian Madderson ( 53-63 ) recalls : “ The station building at Pocklington was rather grand for a small market town and featured an entrance with an arched arcade . There was a fine arched covered roof and platforms had generous space – probably helpful for noisy , bustling commuter children .”
In its heyday , Pocklington Station served a large rural area , giving direct access to York , Hull and beyond . It was used by dayboys travelling to school from surrounding East Yorkshire towns , as well as boarders coming to Pocklington School from further afield , who at the start and end of term changed at York Station to catch the connecting train to Pocklington . Terry Pemberton-Piggott ( 57-64 ) associates Pocklington Station with going home for half term or end of term and remembers seeing the yards and yards of toilet rolls , which were unfurled out of the carriage windows ! Jonathan Woolley ( 54-61 ) can remember many caps flying into the
River Ouse as the train crossed into York at the end of the Summer Term .
Brian Madderson observed that Saturdays were a busy day for the line saying : “ I recall being in the new classrooms which afforded a very good view of the rail line . Saturday morning in the summer was always exciting as the ‘ specials ’ from the big cities of West Yorkshire would race past at speed on their way to Bridlington and other seaside destinations .”
In the early days , the trains were big steam powered
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