I started at Hymers in 1961 after passing my 11 plus from Southcoates Lane Junior School.  Some things struck me at once.  No girls.  Saturday morning school (stopped in 1962).  The most amazing school dinner puddings – huge suet sponges and deep crumbles, still remembered with affection.  Enthusiastic masters, including Willie Pickles, who sold foreign stamps to a stream of boys during his English lessons, and Wilf Watton, with his photographic darkroom with an enlarger made out of a sweet tin.  I ended up running the Philatelic and Photographic Societies – what my children call a “geek”.

In the Sixth Form, Gary Grayson made Chaucer and Shakespeare interesting; Doc Findlay gave me a life-long interest in history; and of course, there was the gloriously eccentric Joe Gillbanks.  The headmaster was the fearsome Harry Roach.  I had little contact with him and thought I was below his radar until 2 episodes in the Sixth.  The first was when he summoned my parents to explain that he had delayed making me a prefect because of my strange religious and political views.  At that time I was a member of that wild-eyed bunch of fanatics known as the Church of England.  I am not sure what he would have thought had he known I was to become a Baptist deacon and lay preacher for 40 years, and also help to plant an Elim Pentecostal church in my local town.

Politically, at that time I was the Chairman of Hull Young Liberals and at my second meeting with him, Harry tried hard to dissuade me from taking up an offered place to read Geography (Joe Gillbanks’ influence) at the London School of Economics - which at the time was a hotbed of student radicalism.  His efforts were unsuccessful, and I had a very enjoyable 3 years at the LSE.  During this time I was Chairman of London University Liberals and was responsible for starting Liberal Societies in several of the London colleges as well as being a student representative on the Liberal Party’s national council.

I started my Geography course intending to become a teacher, as a Joe Gillbanks Mark II, but soon became attracted to town and country planning (the second most common career for geographers).  I left the LSE for my first job, as a planning assistant with West Riding County Council in Wakefield.  I also studied for a postgraduate diploma in planning at Leeds Polytechnic and became a chartered town planner in 1975.  My work was varied, including census analysis, conservation area designation, reclamation of spoil heaps, and preparing local plans for urban growth points.

While at Wakefield I met Kathryn, a young physiotherapy student at college there.  We have now been married for 48 years and have 4 daughters (all proud Yorkshirewomen) and 3 grandchildren.  I was asked by Wakefield Liberals to stand for Parliament for the constituency in the 2 general elections in 1974 and was the country’s youngest parliamentary candidate.  I got just over 10,000 votes, which was the best the Liberals had ever done in the Yorkshire coalfield.

Local government re-organisation in 1974 abolished the West Riding.  I got a job with Kirklees Council based in Huddersfield.  I worked in development control in an extensive rural area in the Pennines which included part of the 'Last of the Summer Wine' country.  At that time, developers were pushing standard “anywhere in the country” house designs and regimented estate layouts, and in response, my council encouraged local vernacular designs and informal layouts.  It is still a tonic to watch the TV series and see Compo and friends walking through attractive stone-built estates which I designed.

One of the architects I regularly clashed with during my work was the chairman of the Huddersfield Magistrates Court.  I obviously made an impression on him, because he asked me if I would consider applying to go on to the bench, and after a rigorous interview procedure, I was appointed in 1979.  I later discovered that I was the country’s youngest magistrate at the time, at the age of 28.  I served in the adult and juvenile courts and regularly took the chair.

My political activities continued.  In the 1979 general election I was asked to stand in Hemsworth, then Labour’s safest seat, to start a Liberal organisation.  We had only 3 active members in the constituency, and together we leafletted the whole of it.  I lost my deposit, but we built up an association that produced several local councillors.  One of our daughters then became seriously ill and I did not stand in the 1983 election.  In 1987 I was runner-up as a candidate to succeed the Liberal MP for the Colne Valley, but shortly afterward my post at Kirklees became politically restricted, so I had to cease my activities.

In 1988 we moved from Huddersfield to the lovely Herefordshire market town of Ledbury, as I had a new job as Area Planning Officer with Malvern Hills District Council, where I managed two teams of planners as well as dealt with major applications.  I was transferred to a small court which sat in Malvern.  This court then closed and the South Worcestershire bench was formed.  This later amalgamated with others to form the Worcestershire bench as part of a nationwide money-saving erosion of local justice.  I discovered that one of my colleagues, Richard Weatherill, is also an Old Hymerian, who left Hymers in 1972.  I continued as a JP, sitting at Worcester and Kidderminster, until I had to retire on reaching 70 in 2020.  I was at that time the longest serving magistrate in the country.

I found work in development control planning to be rewarding and enjoyable, but in local government my only chance of further promotion would be to Chief Planning Officer, which would involve a managerial, rather than professional, role – which I would have disliked.  My work up until then had involved defending my council’s positions at planning appeals, including appearing at public inquiries, and I was very impressed with the professionalism of the Inspectors who determined the appeals.   After 25 years in local government planning, I was very privileged to join the Planning Inspectorate in 1996 and I was with them for 20 years until I retired.

The Inspectorate’s headquarters is in Bristol, but Inspectors work from home.  We cannot take any cases in the council area where we live but can be allocated work in any part of England (and occasionally Wales).  I had about a thousand cases in total, from Durham to Cornwall and Kent (although only one in the East Riding) but most were in the Birmingham – Bristol – London triangle.  The casework ranged from house extensions to very large housing estates and industrial schemes.  Some decisions are made by ministers themselves having regard to an Inspector’s report, but those on most appeals are delegated to Inspectors.  They take the form of a document (sometimes dozens of pages long) assessing the development against national and local policies and addressing all the arguments made, before arriving at a fully-explained decision.  

I covered a wide range of cases, some very contentious with packed public inquiries and lasting for weeks.  Towards the end of my career, I specialised in enforcement and gypsy/traveller appeals – which could involve being accompanied by armed police on site visits!  There was also a high proportion of “beds in sheds” in London, and most enforcement cases involved detailed consideration of conflicting evidence and legal arguments.  During my time with the Inspectorate, I also spent a year training new intakes of Inspectors.

My wife ran physiotherapy clinics in Ledbury and the nearby town of Bromyard but decided to retire last year.  After over 30 years (in 3 different houses) in Ledbury, we recently moved to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, which is geographically more central to the family.  But despite being even further from Yorkshire, I still have fond memories of Hull and Hymers – and I still refer to “tenfoots” and support Hull City!