From: "Jean-Terry" <tjmspence@bigpond.com> > Hi It was Royds Hall Grammar School, located just above Paddock and > below Quarmby, it was built on farm land once owned by the Quarmby > family. I went there in 1952 and later by the time my brother went it > was no longer a Grammar School but rather a general high school as > the system had changed by then. > > A Prime minister of Britain Harold Wilson once went there. We had a > school song called "40 years on" and one had to be virtually 51 before > this became even relevant. I always wondered where I would be etc 40 > years on.< You must have been just a year behind me because I went to Elland Grammar School aged 11 in 1951. We were living at Golcar and I passed my 11-plus exam (as you must have done) at Golcar Church School. I could have gone to Royds Hall, as some of my chums did, but my parents opted for Elland GS instead. Don't know why. As I mentioned earlier, I played chess in the school team for Elland against Royds Hall and they usually beat us! What a shame such wonderful schools as Elland Grammar School and Royds Hall succumbed in the 1960s to the obsession with comprehensive education and the "dumbing down" and levelling down of children to the lowest common denominator. Schools such as Royds Hall and Elland had a fantastic reputation and produced many leaders of society (Royds Hall produced Harold Wilson, as you rightly point out). We are still suffering from the consequences of such policies. -- Roy Stockdill Guild of One-Name Studies: www.one-name.org Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

Hi Roy, We lived at Linthwaite when I took the 11+ (as we called it), My parents operated a Fish and Chip Shop but after a couple of weeks of commuting by bus my parents completed the purchase of a house in Quarmby about 1 bus stop from the school. We were offered a choice of 3 schools based on ones grades and also what curriculum they offered. One of the problems I experienced was that moving into the district I knew no one locally and the local kids regarded the grammar school kids with suspicion and no one in the area actually went to the school. I marvel as I do genealogy at how relatively recent the education system we took so much for granted was. Every child went to school until age 15. In the late 1800s being able to go to school was such a privilege for the majority. I've been learning such a lot about the earlier history of the clothing industry in Golcar. Our ancestors seem to have been there for several generations (I'm back to 1717 at the moment) and acquired land and operated their clothing business as a family affair. Even the families they married into reflect this. The top level of the houses with their tiny windows were a kind of clothing factory with family members living lower down in units which don't seem to have been divided into individual houses until the 1851 census. Prior to this families seem to have occupied various rooms and shared some rooms in common. Jean in S. Australia. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy Stockdill" <roy.stockdill@btinternet.com> To: <west-riding@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 8:50 AM Subject: Re: [WRY] Royds School > You must have been just a year behind me because I went to Elland > Grammar School aged 11 in 1951. We were living at Golcar and I passed > my 11-plus exam (as you must have done) at Golcar Church School. I > could have gone to Royds Hall, as some of my chums did, but my > parents opted for Elland GS instead. Don't know why. As I mentioned > earlier, I played chess in the school team for Elland against Royds Hall > and they usually beat us! > > What a shame such wonderful schools as Elland Grammar School and > Royds Hall succumbed in the 1960s to the obsession with > comprehensive education and the "dumbing down" and levelling down of > children to the lowest common denominator. Schools such as Royds Hall > and Elland had a fantastic reputation and produced many leaders of > society (Royds Hall produced Harold Wilson, as you rightly point out). We > are still suffering from the consequences of such policies. > > -- > Roy Stockdill > Guild of One-Name Studies: www.one-name.org > Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: > www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html > > "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, > and that is not being talked about." > OSCAR WILDE > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > WEST-RIDING-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >