Ten schoolboys- who are now pensioners- left Hardye’s School fifty years ago in 1965 and were reunited at the Class of ’58 reunion at the Colliton Club in Dorchester.
Reunions have been held before Christmas for several years, but this year’s was particularly poignant as it was a half century since they all left school in 1965, having joined Hardye’s Junior School together at Wollaston house in 1958.
“It’s always a pleasure to meet up with other Old Hardyeans, but particularly with those in my year at school, the Class of ‘58,” says Michel Hooper-Immins. “To have kept these friendships active over fifty years might be thought remarkable, but this is what the Old Hardyeans old school association is about.”
For many years, three of the Class of ‘58- Simon Frampton, John Sibley and Colin Smith met to celebrate their birthdays, which all fall in the first week of December. “In recent years, we widened the invitation to include other contemporaries,” explains organiser Colin Smith from Weymouth. “We meet at the Colliton Club, where steward Neil Gatehouse, and his jovial staff do us proud, keeping the party well fed and watered with a full menu and a choice of six excellent real ales. Thank you Neil.”
Old Hardyeans President Peter Foster said it was notable that three of the club’s senior officers are from the class of ‘58. “For many years I sat next to Michel Hooper-Immins, who is now Secretary of the Old Hardyeans,” Peter Foster recalled, “and our contemporary Godfrey Lancashire is now Chairman.”
Founded 110 years in 1905 as the Old Grammarians, the Old Hardyeans- also known as the Hardyeans Club- is one of the most successful old school associations in the county, bringing together the old boys of Dorchester Grammar School and Hardye’s School, plus ex-students of the modern Thomas Hardye School. In the times of Queen Elizabeth I, it was Thomas Hardye [with a final “e”] described as a Yeoman of Frampton, who endowed Dorchester Grammar School in 1569. Hardye’s [shopping] Arcade today stands on the site.
The Grammar School moved to Culliford Road in 1928- renamed Hardye’s School from 1954. The new Thomas Hardye School in Queens Avenue opened in 1992, encompassing the best traditions of the two previous schools- but admitting girls for the first time since 1569!
Writer Thomas Hardy OM, who lived at nearby Max Gate, laid the foundation stone of Hardye’s School in 1927. He was no relation to Thomas Hardye, founder of the school, nor of Admiral Thomas Masterman Hardy!
