As good as there...

Just to let you know I am booked into the Royal Lion Hotel for 15th October, so I am as good as there! I plan on leaving the family at my mother's in the New Forest and coming onto Lyme solo – I fear it would all be too much and bewildering for them. Looking forward to catching up with you. Good that Steve E will be there too, as I have met him on 2-3 occasions recently. William Pedley

Stand by for old potatoes

I am over the moon to be in touch with Sarah W again. We have exchanged several emails and photos now, so at least we will know what each other looks like at the reunion..perhaps we should have an 'honesty' page on the blog and all send in current photos. I remind myself of an old potato at times...a bit brown, a bit mottled and very wrinkled :-D Val Poore

Three little maids

From the archives

Hi Adrian,

I've just received John Broom's letter concerning reunions this year.

I was a member of the LRGS Madrigal Group at its inception and thought this photo would interest you. It's of the choir, part of which was the Madrigal Group of course - c. 1960? I had a photo of just the Madrigal Group, but have lost that sadly. It was a lovely gathering, as you can see and we had a huge amount of fun.

How time flies! Best regards,

John W.

After the madrigal group, nothing ever felt the same

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to hear about this reunion, and by hook or by crook, I will be there. I've had mails/messages from David Read, Debs Shilling and Sue Turner all telling me that you were trying to contact me, so I'm so very glad you have. It was wonderful to see you signing yourself The Drain. What memories that evoked.

I've been through the blog, and caught up with everyone's news. Almost howled with laughter and tears over the photos. I am also delighted Sarah Wyatt is in touch. I've been trying to find her for years, and wish I'd had the Internet for more than my last few years in South Africa as I might have been able to see her there too. Too late now, unfortunately. It's wonderful too to know Brian Manners is still around. I do so hope he will be able to come, and Ernest Wellings too? I always thought of him as fairly senior when we were at school, but I suppose we are all older now than he was then! I'd love to contribute to the blog, so feel free to put as much or as little of this mail on it as you like.

So what have I been up to? Not much singing, I'm afraid. After the madrigal group, nothing ever felt the same. I played the guitar and sang folk songs for some years, but nothing like our beautiful madrigals. The Silver Swan still rates as my favourite. Anyhow, to cut a long story short, I left the UK in 1981 and went to South Africa with my then husband and two very small children (aged 2 and 3 months respectively). Spent 20 years there and loved it. The first five years were in Natal and the rest in and around Jo'burg. I bluffed my way into various jobs (having only a suitably useless arts degree) and ended up as the corporate communications manager of a health insurance company, which I also loved as it allowed me to do what I've always liked doing most - write - and get paid for it. In 2001, I somehow found myself in the Netherlands (long story) and as needs had to (why doesn't 'must' have a past form?), I started to do what so many ex pats do in Europe - teach English. It's great because it's the one job they can't say there is a Dutch person better qualified for, and it's served me well for the last ten years. Most of my work is at the uni here in Rotterdam, but I also write in my spare time (not much of that, I'm afraid) and develop online courses too. My real spare time is taken up by maintaining the very old barge (113 this year, bless her) I have lived on since 2002. My daughters are both here too, and I share my daily life with a Dutch partner and a neurotic, but much loved dog (who hates boats). Generally speaking, life is pretty good, although sometimes I miss just being among my own kind. I also miss South Africa very much, but maybe I can go and visit Sarah in Botswana now I have found out where she is again!

I have a website: www.rivergirl.nu (although this needs a quick update) and a blog: http://vereeniging.blogspot.com if you are interested. The dog also has her own blog :)

Debs and Sue contacted me through Facebook, but I'm afraid I'm a rather intermittent visitor there. Dave Read found me through Friends Reunited, which is better because they tell me when someone has left a message for me, but in the end, email is definitely my preferred communication medium.

As for the reunion, do keep us posted on the times, places etc. You said it will be at the school, so that will be easy. Any recommendations for overnight accommodation would be much appreciated, though.

Thanks so very much for the invite, Adrian!

Looking forward to seeing you on October 15th, and keep in touch.

Val Poore

Michael Groves's latest

Great to catch up after so long.

I've ended up with four grandchildren but not any kids of my own. My wife Jackie has two daughters, the eldest Rebecca who lives twelve miles from us with her husband and Victoria who is six thousand two hundred miles from us in Thailand. Rebecca has three boys, Max 9, Connor 7 this Weds and Theo now 3 ½. Victoria has one boy, Talagon who will be 2 in July. So life is fairly busy for us.

Have worked in Distribution Management initially and then Business Systems and Processes for what was Bass since 1988 but is now Molson Coors.

Interesting that we all seem to do a private rendition of one of the madrigals – I seem to recall Foggy Foggy dew, and also I think Bedlam (I love my love because I know he loves me) which I think might have been a Cornish folk song but have mislaid the music many moons ago and never seem to come across it anywhere else.
My music interests have evolved over the years – into jazz trad to mainstream and some modern but main interest is Folk and have been going to Sidmouth FF since 86 or 87 plus other concerts etc. Don’t really dislike much – probably poorly written modern music and country & western.
I still have somewhere the poster for the Rektor’s Palace. If I do come across it I can try to .pdf as long as it’s not more than A3. I also have a copy of a cassette that was made there by Ernest Wellings I think – would be great to get that onto CD or MP4 if anyone has the knowhow. Mike Groves, Derbyshire

John Wall sends greetings

Interesting to see some (very) old familiar names and some not so familiar ones (probably several years younger than me). I do wish everyone on your list and others yet to be found all the very best.
Best regards
John Wall

Hi from Mike Parnham

Hi Adrian
Good to hear from you and congratulations on setting up the nostagic group!

I have some old photos from our trip to Berlin, which I digitalized a few years ago. I've enclosed these to awaken a few more memories.
First: Amsterdam - our hotel

Amsterdam - the canal trip

Muenster: British army barracks

Muenster: city centre

Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin:Kurfurstendamm

Berlin: our concert venue

Berlin: our hotel

Berlin: over the wall

Berlin: Philharmonie, our leaders and German guide

Berlin: the eastern side

Berlin: the Russian War Memorial

Brussels: bus at our hotel

Belgrade: British Embassy

Interestingly, we've lived in several of the countries the Madrigal Group visited on its international tours. Working as a biomedical researcher in universities and drug companies, I lived in Holland for 4 years, Germany for 18 years and Croatia for the last 13 years. With 3 of our 4 children (and a grandchild) living in the UK, there's now a distinct tug back to Britain.
kind regards
Mike Parnham

Sue calling

The reunion sounds brilliant! However unfortunately I am due to be in Cyprus until 22 October but will look into returning a bit earlier as I would really love to come to this, catch up with all my old Madrigal Group pals, sing a few of our old songs (The Silver Swan I remember in particular as my tearjerker!).
What has happened to Brian Manners - I read on your blog that he has not been well?
I found my old programme for the Yugoslavia trip which I have scanned (complete with fag burns!) and thought you might like this for your blog!




When I left Woodroffe (reluctantly in 1971 - as we moved from The Talbot Arms to Seaton - and I wasn't allowed to cross the 'border' from Devon to Dorset to go to school), I went to Colyton Grammar School for my last 2 years. I hated every minute of those 2 years and desperately missed all my friends and the Madrigal Group at Lyme. I didn't work as hard as I should have done and therefore didn't get the grades to go to Uni so ended up doing an intensive PA course in Torquay. After leaving there I went to work at Peco Model Railways for a while as a PA, then got a job as a Purser with P&O Cruises and travelled the world for 4 years on their cruise liners. After getting married and having children I decided to requalify as a lecturer and do an MA in Education, and also in marketing and management and IT and went on to teach for a number of years, initially in FE then at Portsmouth University where I ended up as Head of eLearning. I took early retirement/voluntary redundancy last year and am now doing a bit of consultancy work and also a Reiki Master and Practitioner. I remarried 3 1/2 years ago and am living in Locks Heath, near Southampton. (I'm not sure that anyone will be interested in any of the above but just in case anyone asks!!!).
I'd love to hear what everyone else has been doing! I often hear snippets about and from John Denham on the radio or TV so I'm really glad he has done so well. Val Poore I had heard had long gone missing but I tracked her down and she is now living on a barge in the Netherlands!
If you have any other news from anyone I would love to hear about/from them. In the meantime let me know who is coming to the reunion on 15th October and I will do my best to rearrange my trip away.
All the best
Sue Turner

Remember Lyme Juice?

Mr Draper produced a school mag of this name in 1969 and Sarah Homyer and I contributed these articles. Not sure if you'll be able to read them.

More Berlin nostalgia

Alison and Andi's images prompted me to go down Memory Lane. Hope you enjoy. So who's the young man in white sweater!?

News from Alison Emmett

Alison Emmett wrote, "Found in Classical Magazine a photo of the Berlin Philharmonie - is that where we sang? I thought it was. I remember Mr Wellings there a lot. We sang 'As torrents' and he had tears in his eyes. That's one I still sing in the bath when no-one is around."
I looked it up and found we attended the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra concert there - I have copied (bottom) in an image of the interior. The Madrigal Group concert was at the Konzertsaal Bundesallee - the image of the outside (top picture) of it here is the only one I could find.
I also have included a shot of us all leaving on the coach for Berlin. Alison and Claire are behind Trudi and Carol and yours truly is in front. AP

Latest news about 15th October

1)Many of you will not know Julian Shaw but you did know his father, who taught us all French.
Julian is now on the committee of Woodroffe Association, is in charge of membership and is helping organise the Association reunion to be held on the evening of 15th October (the Madrigal Group reunion being in the afternoon). Julian says of the evening event: Members can join on the night and can bring partners, etc. Please feel free to pass them my email address Julian.Shaw@dnv.com if they need more information. Kind Regards Julian

2)I met David Manners, Brian's son, the other day. Brian is still far from fit but back home after a second spell in hospital. David knows of the reunion and of our hope Brian will be able to be there so let's hope his convalescence progresses well during the summer.

3)I have written to Ernest Wellings who now lives in Ivybridge, with his invitation. Fingers crossed for his attendance too. Watch this space.

Singing to the President

I am hoping to make a plan and be there for the reunion. I hope that you will give us all labels or name plates as we must all look completely different to the time we sang to President Tito!

Love Sarah Wyatt XXX

The Magical Group

When you hear that Alan and I live in the south of Spain, if this conjures up images of ex-pats lounging around a pool with a G&T, erase them. We were part of that wave of students who came abroad in the 70s to study the language and soon realized that we needed to teach English in order to survive. Like many others, we found that we enjoyed living Spain and so settled here, still teaching, and raised a family. We first lived in Seville in the 70s, then moved to Antequera - a smallish town north of Málaga- in 1980 to start up our own language school in partnership with another British couple as a way of sharing childcare and work. Some fifteen years and three children later, we moved down to the coast to Rincón de la Victoria, about 15km. east of Málaga and opened another school. Since then, I’ve been back to University to retrain in the Spanish system and have been working as a teacher in State secondary schools for the last seven years – it’s great, you get paid holidays, sick leave & don’t usually have to work in the evening, unlike my years of being self-employed.

Our eldest, Sam, has just finished a Ph. D. in Physics at Granada University ( all our kids have come through the Spanish education system) and is doing post-doctoral research at Oxford for at least year. Thanks to our elder daughter, Abby, we now have two small ( 3 & 5 years old) Spanish grandchildren, while our youngest, Jazz ( from Jasmin, but she prefers music to flowers and plays the flugel horn ) is nearing the end of a degree in Psychology from Málaga University.

I used to sing with a local choir for a few years, until work commitments made it too difficult to get to rehearsals, but I’m afraid my first soprano days are long gone. Instead, I’ve discovered the delights of singing harmony with the contraltos.

The chances of my getting over in October are pretty slim – although I will be in Sussex in July. Anybody live around there? I’d love to hear how everybody’s getting on. The only one I’ve been in touch with now and again is Andi Broom (now Collis) as we were together in Seville years ago. The only thing I really missed about school was the music, and I still sometimes catch myself humming snatches of “The Silver Swan” or “Your Shining Eyes”. When I mentioned the madrigal group to Jazz, she did a double take and looked rather surprised. She had misheard it as the “magical” group. Nice, don’t you think? Brian Manners as magician!

Jenni Jones
P.S. Please pass on my regards to Mr Coates. Both he and Mr. Deasy were very good English teachers and I remember his classes with affection.

From Phil Roe

Good to hear from you. When is the reunion? I am a very busy person,but would make every effort to make it! chow for now. Philippa Roe