The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Memories from more than 50 years ago were fondly recalled at a class reunion in Long Sutton.
Many people from 1960’s Upper Five class at The Peele School (as it was then) had not seen each other in the intervening 56 years.
The reunion was the work of Dennis Woods, who managed to pull together 23 of the 30 former classmates, via Facebook but largely word of mouth.
He said: “There was an excellent turnout, including three of our teachers.
“People travelled from Liverpool, Essex and Yorkshire to be there and some had not seen each other since leaving in 1960.”
Dennis, who was 14 when he left school, decided now was an opportune time to stage the reunion with everyone turning 70 during this academic year.
Live from Australia – Gillian Fraillon joined the class reunion via Skype.
One of the highlights of the day was the ex-classmates’ form photograph recreated for a 2016 version.
However, one of the few missing from that modern-day photo was Gillian Fraillon (nee Hallam). She lives in Berwick, Australia, and was extremely disappointed to be unable to travel due to ill health.
But still Dennis did his best for Gillian to be part of the event, arranging a Skype transmission. She chatted away to old friends for three hours.
Gillian told The Voice: “Dennis deserves so many accolades for all he has done in getting this reunion together and I am quite sure all of my classmates would be thinking the same as me.
“How absolutely wonderful this man has been to give his time and energy into this project, as it would not have been an easy task to find us all as most of us would have left the county.”
The reunion included a tour of the school, which sparked many memories.
Dennis (69), of Highgrove, Long Sutton, said: “We were laughing and joking about the classrooms and teachers. There was a lot of reminiscing.”
He added: “We would all like to say a big thank you to The Friends of The Peele Community College, especially Betty and Ben, for their hospitality. It would not have been the same if it hadn’t been held at the school.”
The ex-classmates are now hoping to keep in touch.
Meanwhile, Dennis encouraged anybody thinking of arranging a similar reunion to go ahead, as they will find it “most rewarding and emotional at times”.
Reunion organiser Dennis Woods is pictured in the middle of the front row. Others in the photo with teacher George Myers are (not in order) Margaret Longman, Linda Watts, Roger Allen, Barry Patrick, Brenda Bunting, Molly Spelman, Colin Feary, Angela Wilderspin, John Boardman, Roger Stokes, Sally Fisher, Susan Harpham, David Wilson, Alan Piggins, John Moulis, Barry Shaw, Pauline Caley, Peter Boyden, Peter Roffe, Sally Watts, Ann Goodwin, David Laws, Gillian Sanderson, Ann Collishaw, Anthony Seymour, Christine Spinks, Colin Marshall, Janet Warner, Gillian Hallam, Juliet Friendship and Michael Reddin.
