Malcolm Paskins recalls members of staff





The Secretary writes....

Malcolm's picture of a very young John Chaffey (second left) reminded me of the awe in which he was held in my day. He was known as "God" partly because his classroom was at the top of the old School House and later of the new teaching block built in the late 1960s

Malcolm replied....

Mind you, John Chaffey never came across as God to us, he was always regarded as "one of the boys" in my day. I think that's because we were the first bunch he had at Price's, the notorious 6th form of 60-61 which even got a mention in the "Lion" with the activities of it's unruly "Hard" Club! I think we were the first of the Rock 'n' Roll teenager generation and JC soon learnt that if he offered an inch we would take a mile! The very first field trip he organized was a weekend at Durdle Dore and we managed to spend the evenings in the pub at Lulworth. Malham Tarn is best remembered for the girls of Skipton High School, I've still got a photo of the one I got off with and No, you're not having that for the website!! The wife wouldn't like it and any of this going on site had better be heavily censored!!!

Seriously, one question my OP friends all ask is how many of the staff are still with us, we mainly see photos of Hlton, Poyner and Cole on the site but there's no clue to the whereabouts of the rest. Presumably some of the older ones from my day have gone to that great academy in the sky but who else is still around! And what happened to them after Price's?

The Secretary replied:
Eric Poyner, Tom Hilton, John Chaffey, Roy Daysh, John Cole, Bob Gilbert,  "Raver" Hedley, Tony Johnson are a few who come to mind immediately.. can you think of others?

Charlie Tuck is still alive & well - I'm surprised you forgot him - Best wishes from Geoff Molloy

Kev O'Carroll wrote:

Hello Mike,

three 'definites' in answer to the query are: Bruce "Twitch" Vail was seen very much alive a couple of years ago; and Charlie Tuck, who is only a very few years older than us, had a few pints with several of us in the summer of '99 after the OP's luncheon. Also Brian "Holy Joe" Hibberd ( who is related to me through marriage) is still fit and well.

Don't know of any others, although it must be borne in mind that during our era (ie: yours also) a good number of the masters were very young, eg Jay, Parfitt, Street, Brown, Perrin, and....Hey!, Don Percival. They would all probably be in their mid 50's to mid 60's now.

I think I saw Tony Hiles in Fareham about a year ago, but can't be certain it was him.

That's all for now.....all the best.

Kev.

A welcome update from Max Perrin........



Quite by chance a very good friend of mine ( himself an old Pricean of very short tenure) mentioned the the SOP web-site. Scrolling through it I found myself referred to as one of the 'one-time' young members of staff of whereabouts unknown. As it happens I have never been far away (as is true of many ex-Prices staff!)

I taught chemistry between 1964 and 1969, and must have missed the 1969 photograph by a few months. I moved to (then) Havant Grammar School and stayed as it too converted to a Sixth Form College. The College and I have gradually aged and mellowed together. I still teach a little chemistry although much of my time is now devoted to administration and such mundane matters as quality assurance.

Incidentally, my Programme Area Manager for Biological Sciences is one Hugh Smith who I taught! I have seen Andy Jay (German and goal-keeping) on and off throughout this time. He ended up as a Senior Lecturer at South Downs College and has only recently taken early retirement and intends moving to France.Oddly enough, I met Mike Parfitt (Biology - known I believe as 'Rastus')  two or three years ago having had no contact  with him since he left Prices.

His daughter was a prospective student. He was Head of Midhurst Grammar at the time. Some correspondent referred to a chemist, 'Dome' .That would have been Dr. Phil Smith who left to go to Tauntons in Southampton, to be replaced by Dave Stephens. I guess  you know  Dave,(perhaps still playing dominos with Tom Hilton?) but I don't know about Phil, who retired quite a few years ago.