School History Index

All those who attended the school on Hemsworth Hill over the years would probably have given scant thought to the early beginnings of that establishment. Only a dwindling few would nowadays have first-hand memories of the 1920's when the country was still reeling from the loss of a generation of young men in the Great War of 1914-18, and the school first opened its doors. The story of the tenacity and foresight of a few local people to provide a good education for every local child regardless of class or income should be told to honour them, and to show how from those early modest beginnings, the two Headmasters and their Staff created a thriving environment for the local children to achieve their potential. Luckily there is a source of contemporary information available in tiny fragmented pieces, to be found spread throughout the archives of the local newspapers, from which the historical accounts have been created.
Sheila Kelsall, HGS 1955-62

School History 1920s

School History 1930s

1920-21

1930

1922

1931

1923

1932 Part 1

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

Other Historical Material

School Magazine Publications 1930s

Some HGS historical detail

School Magazine Autumn Term 1933-34 No. 29

Grace Mills 1920s and 30s

School Magazine Autumn Term 1934-35 No. 32

From the Lectern - Bernard Clifton

School Magazine Spring Term 1934-35 No. 33

Major Jenkinson

School Magazine Summer Term 1934-35 No. 34

A. L. Rowse

School Magazine Autumn Term 1935-36 No. 35

School Magazine Spring Term 1935-36 No. 36

School Magazine Summer Term 1935-36 No. 37

School Magazine Autumn Term 1936-37 No. 38

School Magazine Spring Term 1936-37 No. 39

School Magazine Autumn Term 1937-38 No. 41

School Magazine Spring Term 1937-38 No. 42

School Magazine Summer Term 1937-38 No. 43

School Magazine Summer Term 1938-39 No. 46

Gabriel Price - Pit Boy to M.P.

Photo taken: March 10th 1934

Aged 51yrs, the son of a miner, born at Fairburn, he came to Hemsworth aged 9 months. He attended Old Crow Hill Church School until he was 12yrs old, then started work down Hemsworth colliery. His career was a triumph for perseverance and hard work.

In 1905 a bitter dispute took place at the colliery and lasted over four years during which period the miners' families, including Mr. Price and his mother, who was nearly seventy years old, were evicted from their homes. The miners appointed Mr. Price secretary of their relief fund. Army tents were erected for housing at Kinsley, and it was after the visits by Kier Hardie and other Socialists that Mr. Price joined the Labour Party, believing that they preached a movement which offered an opportunity for workers to improve their social and economic positions through political activity. At the end of the dispute Mr. Price gained work at Frickley Colliery in South Elmsall which, at the time, was the newest pit in the Yorkshire Coalfields.

Mr. Price became President of the Frickley Miners Association and was voted to be Checkweighman for the colliery in 1912 (a position requiring the trust of all the men) and held the post till his election to Parliament. Mr. Price worked with the Labour Boards, on the rural council and was a Member of the Board of Guardians till 1928. Since 1919 he had represented the South Kirby division at the West Riding Council meetings. He took a special interest in the Poor Law administration. He became a JP in 1921 at the Pontefract Bench. Mr. Price had connections to most local associations at some time in his career. He was a keen sportsman and played Rugby for Kinsley for 12 years and later turned professional with Dewsbury and York. He was also President of the South Elmsall Homing Society (racing pigeons).

On Leaving School
This is my "Goodbye" to School. In July I shall leave, as a pupil, for ever. The headaches and gladness it has given to me I shall never know again. To this, my sixth and last School I leave a special farewell, for it is, I suppose, the one I shall remember longest.

I shall remember those first winter term when it became dark about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and when our greatest delight was 'to have the light on', when every Wednesday we used to gather in the Hall - somehow it always seemed cosy then - to listen to 'Macbeth' when instead of 'a fanfare of trumpets' one boy gave the Scout Call on his bugle somewhere near the Physics Lab; or to 'Oliver Twist' when Mr. Runnels Moss took all the parts. How we used to look forward to Wednesday! I remember one winter term, I believe it was my first, when a thick fog lay about for a week and we had to walk home from School at night, and another time when the snow was about fourteen inches deep. It's queer to think how we used to love walking home in the fog and snow, but how we would wait half an hour for a 'bus on a fine day. The day of the Christmas holidays, we used to draw all manner of wierd designs round a magnificent 'Merry Xmas' done in every coloured chalk imaginable on the blackboard. And at the bottom always appeared something like this,
"No more Latin, no more French,
No more sitting on a cold, hard bench".

Then there were the film shows in the Art Room when we sat enthralled by Leni Reifenstahl in the pictures set in Switzerland and such exciting ones as 'The Key' and. 'Metropolis'. I have a glowing memory of these cheerful, eventful and exciting days.

Summer had its share of events too; Sports Day and its excitement; the Country Dance Festival and its gaiety and prettiness. The many people walking about the grounds, the gaily-coloured dresses under the brilliant sun which usually favoured us, the races, the tug-of-war, the exhibitions, the Tennis and cricket matches, all went to make everlastingly memorable occasions.  And then the night of the Country Dance Festival with hundreds of people dancing on the Cricket Pitch, the Maypole, the Sword-Dances, the popular "Goddesses", "Picking-up-Sticks" and finally the many circles of cheery, laughing people dancing "Sellenger's Round". One summer term we saw a play, in one scene of which the couch from the Girl Prefects' Room was used. The heroine sat on it and patted it as an invitation to the hero to sit beside her. Do you remember the howls as clouds of dust rose as a result of her gentle patting?

Then pictures of our lovely, envied grounds come into my mind. I see them transformed into a fairyland in winter. The branches and delicate twigs of the huge trees suddenly form lacy patterns with pure, soft snow. The plot between the two paths to School is ceaselessly beautiful. It makes a carpet for the frail, shy snowdrops, then come the triumphant golden daffodils, and the deep, glorious colour of masses of bluebells and the warm gold and mauve of overwhelming beauty, the honey suckle, roses, rhododendrons, the stately waving borders of lupins and deiphiniums, and the wild, beauty of the quarry from its tall shrubs and trees to the daisies which cover the lawn. Memories of all these flowers rush into my mind. I can see them in the brilliant sunshine, under cloudless skies and also standing brave and firm on warm, wet, dark days when the sombre, heavy green of the trees and lawns form an entirely different background.

And all these, that were once realities are now memories. Never again will these happy sights belong to me. If ever I come to School I shall be an onlooker not a partaker. Perhaps I shall wander round trying to live again the joyous hours that at once I took for granted; but everything will have changed and probably I shall be thought "just another Old Hilmian making herself a nuisance and acting as if she owned the place".

So, for all these memories, School, I thank you.
A.K. Jenkinson VIs., Price

Summer 1938