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2002 - Class of 1952
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Evening Telegraph, October 2002
Rolling back the years
FORMER pupils of Alfred Street Junior School in Rushden reminisced about the good old days on Saturday at a reunion almost 50 years after they left the school.
People travelled from Norfolk, Lancashire and the Lake District to meet at The Carriage House Hotel in Higham Ferrers.
Patricia Bird, 61, of Meadow Walk, Higham Ferrers, organised the event with the help of friends. She said: "The idea sparked from a school photograph taken in 1952. We advertised it in the Evening Telegraph and managed to track down old friends. About 17 people turned up."
Ann Fenson, 61, of Bedfordshire and Ann Harris, 62, of Mannings Rise, Rushden, were reunited with friend Gill Stringer, 62, of Rugby.
Mrs Harris said: "It's taken us a while to figure out who everyone is but we've all got a lot to tell each other."
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2004 - Class of 1954
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Evening Telegraph, 2004
Class of '54 are together again
GEOFF Wiggins has completed his mission to reunite his old classmates after half a century apart.
Many former pupils from the class of 1954 at Alfred Street School, Rushden, had not seen each other since sitting the 11-plus exam and met for the first time in 50 years at Rushden Hall.
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Back: (l-r) Peter West, John Coker, David Clowse, David Craddick, David Sail, Geoff Wiggins. 2nd row: Janice Barnes, Ann Kirby, Anita Jones, Mary Tattersall, Pat Myerscough, Jean Parkinson, Jennifer Stenson, Valerie Hales, Anita Waller.
1st row: Mary Brown, Gwen Pinnock, Sheila Chettle, Ann Wilby, Sandra Wooding.
Front: Michael Line, Roger Brown, Michael Dickens, Gordon Desborough, Stuart Cutmore.
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The reunion was engineered by Mr Wiggins, who decided to get everyone together after finding a photograph of his old school friends taken in 1953.
Mr Wiggins, of Laywood Way, Irthlingborough, said: "Of 43 pupils, three have moved away, one is a professor of medicine in Canada, one lives in California, another has moved to Australia, even our old teacher, Mr Burnham, is 75 and living in New Zealand."
The reunion took months of hard work and an appeal in the ET to bring about.
Gordon Desborough, now living in Surrey, said: "I am amazed that he found me.
"It was really good to see everybody." |
Reunion of 2010
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60th Anniversary Reunion for the Class of 1951
Article by Roy Pettit
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On Saturday, 15th October 2011, nearly 30 ex-Alfred Street School pupils and guests met up to undertake a tour of the school, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of moving up to the "big school" and to relive some memories from those days.
The tour was organised by Mr John Kidney, the present Head Teacher who opened up the school for the visitors. This included a visit to all the classrooms and the memorial gardens, opened to commemorate the deaths of the pupils of the school in 1940.
It must be said that the decor and cleanliness of the premises were a credit to him and all his staff. How could they have ever considered closing it down?
The group continued the afternoon at St Mary's Church Hall, Rushden, where they enjoyed a splendid light tea provided by Norma Horn, accompanied by some lively chat and a short talk on "times gone by" by Mike Neville.
It was a really enjoyable experience for those present, some of whom had travelled from as far afield as Lancashire and London, and it helped to make it a really special event for the Class of 1951-2.
Most appreciative of our efforts was Greville Watson (History Society's Chairman) who was more than happy to let someone else do the organising for a change!!
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Back Row: Roy Pettit, Richard Bailey, John Clark, Terry Mitchell, Toby Graham, Mike Neville,
Greville Watson, Richard Barden
Front Row: Peter Dunkley, Pat Lyons (nee Hughes), Ann Barnett (nee Wills), Joy Maher (nee Hughes), Mike Hinde, Wendy Biggs (nee Childs), Keith Betts, Janice Farrington (nee Lawman),
Elizabeth Smith (nee Amos), Bramwell Prince, Pam Rice (nee Leech),
Pauline Thompson (nee Key), Roger Young (guest), Rosalie Keegan (nee Young).
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