CCHS class of 64
Gillian Drury writes,
I've been reading your excellent web site following your letter in the local press. Being very much a novice convert to IT, it has also galvanised me into contacting you using this new-fangled method!
I'm one of the "oldies" from the class of 64. I was Gillian Drury, (Head Girl in 65-66!), and am now Gillian Fisher, living in Chester again after teaching in Surrey, Yorkshire and Widnes. I'm now a "lady of leisure", enjoying watching my children and grandchildren progress through the various stages of their lives, very often comparing their school experiences to mine!
I think I recognise myself on the mass photo in my gym slip, and was probably cut off the "Chronicle" photo, sitting next to Marilyn Steel and Nanette Biggins, (Deputy Head Girls).
Poor Miss Dallimore! My memory of her was demonstrating an experiment with an enormous bandage on her fore finger,(the result of an earlier experiment that had gone awry). She leant across the bunsen burner and caught the dressing in the flame; within a second there were flames leaping from her hand, and the poor old girl didn't know whether to scream on her own account or quell our screams (of glee?!) And then there were all those times we spent flicking little balls of mercury up and down the benches...
Has no-one any stories of Daisy Riley, or does her ghost still terrorise us all?! I understand she spent her final years very involved at the Cathedral, and had a fitting send off from there. The majority of the staff we knew from the 1961 photo are probably now dead...ladies who probably lost the chance of having families of their own because of two world wars, and who believed fervently in giving the next generation of girls the best educational start possible.
I attend an adult class at QPHS on Wednesday mornings, and because of refurbishment, we had to use the main school one morning. I found myself walking down a corridor and back in a classroom little changed in 35 years! Of course, once you allow your memory to wander, it's amazing what you can dredge up. The Class of 64 started at CCHS the same year as Miss Preston, 1959, when the Handbridge building was still in the throes of refurbishment. During the spring and summer terms of our first year we were farmed out due to lack of space, firstly to St John's School, (now the Visitor Centre opposite the amphitheatre) and then the Bluecoat School in Upper Northgate Street. What bliss! Three classes of first years left very much to their own devices while harassed staff raced between sites! One wag chalked "Caesar sat here" over a decrepit loo!
I certainly hope to attend next year's grand reunion at QPHS. With best wishes Gillian Fisher (née Drury)
Susan Kelly ( formerly Susan Davis ) writes:
"I recognise many names on the site for the October [2000] reunion - I remember staying with Julia Slocombe in Edinburgh after she moved there and went from Barclays Bank in Chester to the British Linen Bank in Edinburgh. Susan Sadler, in Perth, had a pony called Sugar who I used to ride on her farm at Milton Green (or Handley). Andree Dorman, Ruth Bender - I'm slightly vague as to which year they were in relation to me (I was born September 1947). Some seem to have been in the same year, but I don't see my name (Susan Davis), Margaret King, Sally Lacey, Sue Baldry (who sadly died last year) Christine Wyld, Sheila Goulborne, Vicki Baran, Virginia Mayorcas, Madeleine Krivda - maybe we were a different V1 year.
What a huge pendulum swing, from remembering days of Latin with Miss Owen, to indulging in retirement with grand-child. What happened in the in-between years?
If a reunion is planned for my year I would be delighted - I think I still need to discover which my year is, though! I shall keep an eye on your excellent site and monitor for future events.
Regards, Sue Kelly (Davis as was!)"
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