1885 - 2010 Celebrating 125 years Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School Alumnae Summer Newsletter 2010

Celebrating 125 years of girls education! Pictured at the Alumnae Birthday Luncheon and Summer Fair, on the front steps of the Senior School, are ‘Old Girls’ spanning several decades.

Guests ranged from members of the class of 1949, the Class of 1954 and 1956, the Class of 1963 and representatives of the 70’s too, right up until this academic year’s Vl Form leavers. Visitors enjoyed the 125th Birthday Balloon release, followed by a champagne reception, cold summer buffet and a tour of the old School. There was also a chance to see this year’s A’ Level and GCSE Art Exhibitions and be photographed for the local newspapers. Articles appeared in The Journal and the Evening Chronicle.

(r to l): Joy Gatenby,(Headmistress), Elizabeth A Wise, (previous Junior

School Headmistress) and former pupil, Fiona Anne Crosier (neé Ridley) from the Class of ’83. Fiona, who now lives in Ontario, Canada, happened to be over visiting relatives when she heard about the reunion. Below: Past pupils Margaret Brown, Joyce Rae (neé McDougle), Eva

Thompson (neé Forsyth) and Marian Guthrie (neé Mackenzie) from the Classes of ’49 and ’50.

From the Class of 1963: Gillian Beck (neé Fidell), Judith Jenkins (neé Grayson), Margaret Ferguson (neé Scorer), Ros Croucher (neé Okell) and Gill Cooper-Smith (neé Burke) and Gill Brown (neé Smith) from the Class of 1963.

125 blue and green balloons were launched and prizes awarded to the finders of those that travelled the furthest distance – Stoke -on-Trent,

Wolverhampton and Darlington. Not quite such exotic destinations as the last release achieved, but nonetheless, great fun!

Summer Fair 2010 – and another rather cold event but the BBQ did well as did the plant stall and the funfair!

NCHS Annual Fund

As one of the commemorative events to mark its 125th Birthday in January

2010, we are delighted to announce the launch of our Annual Fund.

Having successfully fulfilled our promise of ‘Giving Every girl a Voice’ for

125 years, and having produced thousands of women who are well

prepared to make a success of every dimension of life, the Annual Fund is

born out of a simple principle and we very much hope that you will decide

to participate. This great school has many strengths and our aim is to

build on these to ensure that we give each girl the very best of

opportunities. We have improved our facilities dramatically over the past

10 years but in this increasingly competitive market and difficult economic

climate we need the help of all our stakeholders to ensure we can deliver

the best.

Thank you to the many members of the Alumnae who have already

donated and helped us to take our facilities to a new level –there are so

many projects that would really make a difference.

If you would like further information or a Donation Form, please contact

me, Sarah Timney,

on 0191 2814306 ext. 218

or email sarah.timney@churchhigh.com

Thank you!

Our ‘Alumnae Archive’ photograph in this newsletter is circa 1935 and shows the hockey team enjoying their half-time oranges! More information about this delightful picture came to us via Brenda Calderwood who now lives in Bamburgh, Northumberland right opposite the magnificent castle. She is in the photo along with friends, Delphine and Vera Gough whom we featured not long back. Joyce Bryant is second from the left and in the centre is Eileen Bard – the same Dr Eileen Miller whose recent death we were so very sad to hear about. Joan Bevan and Beryl Moffat stand next to her. My grateful thanks to Brenda for all this information. I am sure many of you will remember her from her time at school and when she was Principle Youth Employment Officer with Newcastle County Council for which she received an OBE in 1964. Brenda celebrated her 90

th

birthday in October 2009. We have a considerable library of photographs in School now, thanks to the generosity of past pupils and their families, dating as far back as the 1880s. If you remember any special occasion or would like to have a particular photo memento please do get in touch and we will do our very best to supply something suitable.

We always manage to add new pictures to the collection at the Alumnae reunions and this year was no exception. Many thanks for the selection below and also to John Wilson. John sent some photographs to us in May left by his late sister, Margaret Anne Swinburne (nee Wilson b.01.05.42) who was a former pupil. Junior School pictures from 1949 and 1951 and Senior School shots from 1955 and 1957 were new additions to the collection.

Below: Hansel and Gretel, (circa 1950) with Gillian Evans, Judith Grayson, Elizabeth Bird and Margaret Scorer.

Above: Nimes, Easter 1960. Gillian Leeming, Judith Grayson and Elizabeth Bird.

Considerable thanks go to Gillian Bardgett and her friend Peta

Hoult of Gosforth. Gillian arrived at a recent Committee Meeting

with a pile of old magazines and assorted memorabilia belonging to

Peta’s deceased mother-in-law, Betty Wilson. They were

enormously interesting and since then Peta has kindly agreed to

allow the booklets to be on permanent loan to our archives

department. Freddy Hoult’s mother, sister Sheila and niece, Louisa,

all attended NCHS and we are delighted to now have possession of

a 1924 Calendar of famous sayings and School magazines from

Summer 1916, Autumn 1916 and 1917, Spring 1918 and 1919 and

the summer editions of 1920 through to 1925 complete! We

promise, as always, to take extremely good care of these valuable

artefacts – our archive storage is clean and secure – and it is truly,

wonderful to have such detailed evidence of the School’s history at

first hand.

Congratulations to Emma Tang on her successful application for

post-graduate studies at Oxford. She will be at Wycliffe hall reading

Theological Studies.

Well done to Katherine Harman for gaining a first in MFL at

Newcastle and to Lizzy Chorley on her first in Music from Durham.

Congratulations go to Rachel Shell and Rachel Timney on their

2:1’s in Music from Edinburgh.

Albert Thompson paid a visit to us back in May in pursuit of

information about his aunt and famous Old Girl, Dame Irene Ward.

Born on February 23rd

, 1895 in St John’s, Westminster, London,

Irene was the daughter of an architect – Alfred John Bewick Ward

and Elvina Mary Ellis. There is evidence that she lived in the city for

only a short time before census records show her in Sheffield living

with an aunt. When and why she arrived in Newcastle and the exact

years spent at NCHS still remain a mystery.

Irene became involved in politics in the early 1920s attempting to

become the Conservative MP for Morpeth in 1924 and 1929. She

eventually succeeded in gaining the Wallsend seat in 1931 which

she held until 1945. She switched to the next door seat of

Tynemouth in 1951 and held it until her retirement in 1974. As

Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, she remained in the House of

Lords until her death in 1980. Dame Irene came from an innocent

age – an age when Tory ladies wore hats - but she was a formidable

female and as part of a parliamentary delegation to Germany in 1936

she let forth during a diplomatic tea at Ribbentrop’s villa telling Adolf

Hitler, “What absolute bosh you are talking!”

My own personal favourite story features in Christine Hamilton’s

book, ‘The Book of British Battleaxes’ and goes like this…..

‘In the darkest days of the Second World War there was

a serious shortage of blue serge, the material used for making

naval uniforms. A choice had to be made. Should the limited

supplies be earmarked for the men at sea on battle stations or

for the WRNS serving ashore? The Admiralty decided the

fighting men should take priority.

Questions were asked in the House. Dame Irene Ward,

the redoubtable Conservative MP for Tynemouth, rose in her

place. This, in itself was an awesome sight – Dame Irene was

more a Battleship than a Battleaxe.

She fired off a salvo at the hapless First Lord of the

Admiralty: ‘Is the Minister telling me that the skirts of the Wrens

must be must be held up until the needs of the Navy have been

satisfied?’

Enough said, I think.

For more about the

forceful women

in our history,

from Boadicea to

Queen Victoria,

try dipping

into this book.

ISBN 1 86105 610 9

Elizabeth Scott’s diaries were very well received and as

promised, here are a few more examples of a bygone era

where little girls innocently wrote loving messages and

painted beautiful scenes in their friend’s

autograph books.

(Elizabeth Walton 1939 - 41)

http://www.facebook.com

We are delighted to announce a new feature for the Newsletter

- a Facebook page!

Having recently set up two contact pages -

NNewcastle upon Tyne Church High School

Alumnae (NCHS)

and

Sarah Timney (NCHS)

-we have really boosted our contacts. 259 past pupils joined

up within two days and a further 126 signed in by the end of

the first week. So, go on then. Get onto the internet and join

us. It is so easy and makes the job of contacting you so

simple! Literally a push of a button messages you all…..

We want to include photos and news about what you are up to

and so far have some super sky-diving photos from Australia,

a couple of graduation celebrations and a wonderful wedding!

Please do send me your contribution.

facebook Alumnae

�

Liz Ascroft (Class of 2009) enjoying a gap-year experience down under!

Congratulations to Kate Younger (née

Owens) who married Daniel at Easter. Kate

is now back at NCHS teaching in the Junior

School

One Night in Turin www.onenightinturin.co.uk One Night in Turin is constructed from unseen archive footage and specially shot imagery. It tells the tale of a football team and a nation’s journey from despair to hope.

Laura Richards (Class of 2006) has been working in the world of film and TV production since finishing her degree. OOne Night in Turin, shot predominantly in Newcastle, was released on May 11th – just in time for the build up to the World Cup! Laura worked as Costume assistant.

Famous NCHS faces spotted in the news.

No doubt everyone is familiar with the name of Cheryl Cole who recently reverted back to her maiden name, Cheryl Tweedy. Cheryl was not a Church High pupil, but she has many friends who were! She is pictured here in the back row of her Dance School standing beside Brook Brown-Adams, with Caroline Summers and Andrea Riseborough in the centre and front left.

Kate Rawlinson, 26, from Jesmond, caused a

saucy storm on the streets of Paris recently

when the dancer poured blue paint all over her

body before imprinting herself on a white and red

satin flag to complete the French tricolore.

Under her stage name, Agent Lynch, Kate

completed the world’s first ‘guerilla’ burlesque

routine in the Parisian district of Monmatre as

part of Honda’s ‘Live Every Litre’ film project

directed by Claudio von Planta.

Anna Gilthorpe starred in the recent BBC3 comedy/drama series of ‘The Gemma Factor’. The story followed a young Yorkshire girl, Gemma, and her quest for fame. The six part series hit the screens back in March.

The Alumnae 120th Birthday roses

continue to flourish in the School d

Special guest at this year’s Sports Award evening was Olympic gymnast, Chris Means.

Year 7 pupils meet children’s author,

Berlie Doherty as part of their creative writing programme.

The Senior Choir visited Prague for their annual tour and sang in some of

Benita Brown (née Dandicar) recently toured some of our local libraries promoting novels for which she received

a nomination for Romantic Novel of the Year. Most are set in the Jesmond/Newcastle area in the

Victorian and Edwardian eras, but her latest is on the North East coast – ‘Starlight Dreams’ and ‘Safe Harbour’ is

set in Cullercoats. Pictured with her at Whitley Bay library are fellow class mates Shirley Baldrey,

(née Lamb) Arline Andrews (née Phillipson) and Margaret Siddle (née Sutton)

NCHS LVl Young Enterprise

Company of the Year (North East

Region) with their ‘Bright Life Books’

Key Stage 3 proudly present ‘Bugsy Malone’

A level and GCSE Art Exhibition 2010

Welcome to………..

• Helen Walsh (née Mearns) in Canada whose family

photograph featured on the cover of the last newsletter and

to her sister, Joan Ainslee.

• Mrs Elizabeth Anne Scott of West Mosely, Class of 1957

• Gillian Margaret Hedworth (née Sutton), 1959 -1966 and to

her sister, Barbara Diane Johnson

• Jenny Glendinning

• Trudy Parker from Mount Lawley, Western Australia and her

sister, Margaret Setchell in Nedlands, Western Australia

• Liz Scott – congratulations on your recent marriage in March

2010

• Claudia Rattliff

• Fiona Anne Crosier (née Ridley) Class of 1983 and now in

Canada

• Joyce Reay (née mcDougale)

• Janet Graber (née Stevens) Class of 1958 and now in

Burnsville, USA who gets sent Newsletters via her friend,

Jane Jobson (née Larkins)

• Benita Brown (née Dandicar) and her daughter, Amanda

Barness, now out in Israel.

We have lost touch with……..

• Mrs J Walton formerly of Harpenden, Herts

• Mrs J Wilson of Claredon Park, Leicestershire

• Jennifer Green last known of in Newton Abbot

• C Pickering of Brunton Park and

• Jessica Berg from Gosforth.

We are sad to report the deaths of three Old Girls - Margaret Lines (née

Smith), Class of 1964. Margaret Usher and Dorothy Lambert (née Morton)

who died in February a few weeks short of her 88th

birthday. We send our

condolences to all their families and the many friends who will miss them

greatly.

Dates for your diary: • Thursday September 16th – Prize Giving 2010 at The Sage, Gateshead, 6.00pm

• Friday 24th September – Macmillan Coffee Morning 8.30am – 11.30 am Senior Dining Room

• Saturday October 9th – Open Day 2010 10.45am-12.45pm Senior School

• 13th, 14th and 15th October - School Production ‘Disco Inferno’ Newcastle College., 7.00pm (Tickets from the

School Office)

• Saturday 27th November - PTS Christmas Fair 10.30am Senior School

• Wednesday 8th December – Carols by Candlelight at St George’s Church in aid of MENCAP (ttbc)

• Monday 13th December - Senior Carol Service 2010, St George’s Church, Jesmond 5.00pm

• Thursday 16th December - Junior Carol Service 2010, URC (next door to Senior School) 5.00pm

• Saturday 5th February 2011 – NCHS Ball at The Marriott Hotel, Gosforth park 7.30pm – 2.00am

• Thursday 14th April - Easter Service 2011, St George’s Church, Jesmond, 3.00pm

• Thursday 30th June - Alumnae Dinner 2011 (Venue to be confirmed)

• Friday 17th June - Summer Fair 2011 3.30pm – 6.30pm School grounds

• Friday 8th July - End of Year Service 2011, St George’s Church, Jesmond, 2.00pm

Our newsletter is enjoyed by Old Girls worldwide, as it keeps them in

touch with Church High. We are interested in all types of news,

whatever the content. News does not have to be about a great

academic success or an Honour in the New Year’s List! Often, just

plain, old, homely news makes the most interesting reading and

touches the hearts of old friends. Please return to the Alumnae

Office or email us with news/changes of circumstance and we will do

our very best to update our data base and readership.

SURNAME:…………………………………………………………………. MAIDEN NAME……………………………………………………………. FORENAMES……………………………………………………………….. YEARS SPENT AT CHURCH HIGH………………………………………. ADDRESS…………………………………………………............................ ……………………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………….. POSTCODE………………. TELEPHONE……………………………… EMAIL………………………………………………………………………. PERSONAL NEWS FOR INCLUSION IN THE NEXT NEWSLETTER ……………………......................................................................................... ……………………………………………………………………………….

Dates for your Diary:

If you would like to find out more about what is going on in School, please email me at:

sarah.timney@churchhigh.com

The Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School Tankerville Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 3BA

Tel: 0191 2814306 Ext: 218