Knottingley
High School’s first magazine committee set out to produce a magazine
with a difference - and succeeded!
Called
‘The Communicator’, the magazine has been highly praised by the Deputy
Chief Education Officer for the West Riding, Mr. P.A. Newsom. Its content
is bright and varied and the presentation pleasant. There is a generous
sprinkling of humour, though many serious notes are struck, writes Alan
Tunningley. It is not a magazine concerned solely with internal school
activities. This probably makes it something special - something of which
the townspeople may like to take note.
A
story by fifth former Mary McKinnon, for example, declares that "Knottingley
is not a dirty town." Mary writes that at first she considered the
town to be "... one of the dirtiest places I had ever seen."
An
interview with the Public Health inspector, Mr. L. Barber, made her face
facts about the industries of Knottingley and she was forced to change her
opinion. She has a meaningful message: "The one fact we who live in
Knottingley must realise, is that if the town seems to us to be ‘a dump’
it is because we have made it that way."
Susan
Eccles, a fourth former, writes about pupils who have spent many hours
during the past year helping elderly people and keeping them company.
She
declares: "It is surprising to us how many older people appreciate
the company of the young. It may also be surprising to some adults to find
that many of the younger generation do help the elderly. We are so often
talked of as a thoughtless, selfish generation that perhaps it would be a
good thing if more people read in the newspapers of the good done by
teenagers instead of the wrong-doings of hooligans and vandals who are in
the minority."
Tony
Harrison and Vincent Bradley take a long look at K.U.D. Council’s
proposed sports centre at Hilltop and other suggested sports facilities.
They conclude that when these plans became reality "... Knottingley
should be a better and certainly more interesting place in which to
live."
One
of the most interesting subjects covered is wrestling. The questions
asked: "What is it A dirty game or a superb sport?" Mr. George
Bell, a well-known amateur wrestler until his retirement in 1952, was
interviewed. Mr. Bell who lives at Ferrybridge has a son who attends the
school.
Asked
why he thought wrestlers were a better class of person than the average
sportsman. Mr. Bell replied: "Well they are friendly, pleasant, very
fit with lots of confidence. A wrestling friend is a friend for life. Such
a friend to me is Georges Hackensmidt, the famous 'Russian Lion'. He was
born in Darpot in Russia in 1878 and served with the Russian Life-Guards.
He became a professional wrestler in 1900 and later became champion of the
world, having learned the finer points of wrestling in the North of India.
He befriended me in 1950 and was planning my career to follow the same
course as his own. Then in 1952 I met my wife and took up ‘husbandry’
instead."
