PONTEFRACT: GOOD TO KEEP IN TOUCH

ADDED 16 OCTOBER 2007

I would like to thank you all for the extremely informative Digest Magazine that you produce each month. As a 'Ponte Ex-Pat' of many years past, it is good to keep in touch with the happenings still in, and around Pontefract.

I came to Pontefract when I was six years old, my father having taken up a position at the Gas Works in The Butts, Back Northgate. Of particular interest to me was the article on Willow Park Girls School. I attended the school and left in 1957, therefore, the whole of the article brought back so many happy memories. I moved away in 1961 (I think) and moved around the country, to Bournemouth, London, Kent and finally to Cambridge where I still live with my family.

The other article in the September edition was the Micklegate Young People in the 1950's by Richard Moseley. This again started memories flooding back, as I began there in the Sunday School when it was under Mr. Elliston Snr. (Harold I think) then progressing to the choir, and eventually to the youth group. I think I was about the youngest in the group, and sometimes I'm sure a bit of a 'pest'; rather like the baby sister hanging on. However, growing there gave me a great set of values, and a genuine concern and care which is still with me today, so I'm eternally grateful to all of the youth group who helped me along in my early days.

I cannot end my letter without reference to David Gluck. David is also part of my teenage years. He was older than me by three years and a very mature and confident young man. I was the girlfriend of David Woodhead at the time, and a group of us would all meet regularly on a Friday night in the back room of the Fish and Chip shop next to the now old Police station. Again being very young and naive he looked upon me as a 'square' . I never met Sally, but can remember clearly him raging on about this wonderful girl that he had just met called Sally, and that she went to Slade. Of course that didn't mean a thing to me, and I can still remember the look of horror on David's face when I asked him what was Slade! Silly me I was supposed to know! I was very saddened to hear of his death.

Like David Gluck I return to Pontefract whenever possible and visit a neighbour also from The Butts, Ann (Johnson) and John Tipton; we have kept in touch over the years, and without their hospitality I would not have been able to keep up with the happenings in and around the area, so many thanks Ann and John.

Maureen Chapman (nee Hughes)

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