Poultry students reunite more than 60 years on

The group, now aged in their 70s and 80s, were with us back in 1953/54 at the College’s former site at Hutton, studying poultry.

It was arranged by former student, Bob Mason, who also organised a tour of Myersough’s current main campus at Bilsborrow a few years ago. The group met up at the Bodelwyddan Castle Hotel, in North Wales.

Bob said: ‘’Back in the 1950s there were around 78 of us at Hutton on poultry and dairy diploma courses. We’d have lectures in the morning and work on the farm in the afternoon. Our tutors were David Protheroe, Vic Gillgan and June Reed.

‘’Since then there has been massive change. Times were different back then. You had to get yourself 18 months experience on a farm before even applying to come on the course. A lot of us went on to have long careers in agriculture as a result of coming to College. It was some of the best years of our lives!’’

The photograph shows poultry students from ‘the Class of 1953’ - (L-R): Tom Heydon, Myra Heydon (nee Barnett), Maureen Moon (nee Cottam), Kath Yasue (nee Hodgkinson), Bob Mason, Clive Pooley and John Harrison.

Many thanks to Bob for taking the trouble to write to us and we’re touched that they still meet up as a group after all these years, which shows just what it meant to them to study with us.