Film-maker’s appeal for Kirkley Hall class of 1959 reunion

Jul 4 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

AN award-winning film maker searching for students he studied alongside at Kirkley Hall half a century ago has tracked down his two Hungarian classmates – but is still appealing for four Northumbrians to contact him.

David Taylor, 69, is organising a reunion of the general agriculture class of 1957-58 at the Northumberland College campus later this month – and has already found 27 of his old classmates.

The former Journal writer and Emmy award-winning documentary maker, who introduced the nation to arm-whirling TV scientist Magnus Pike through his show Don’t Ask Me in the 1970s, uncovered Csaba Sulë and Csaba Balassa through appeals in the Hungarian media.

The pair, who arrived in Northumberland after fleeing the 1956 Communist uprising in their homeland, have both been in touch with Mr Taylor in the last couple of days.

He said: “Csaba Sulë is in Sopron near the Austrian border. He was very homesick and discovered it was pretty hard to make a living in the UK in farm work and went home in 1960, where he became a post office engineer.

“Csaba Balassa stayed here until 1970. He was a really good footballer and played for Carlisle United. He married a Swedish girl and is living in Sweden.”

But the last four – Jenny Dodds, Mike Crozier, David Broom and Edward Dunn – are proving more elusive.

“It’s the nature of Northumbrians, they’re not that forthcoming,” said Mr Taylor, who is originally from Whitley Bay but now runs York Films, based in Kent. “They have an innate modesty.”

He has traced Edward Dunn from a shoot near Rothbury in the 1960s to the Scottish Agricultural Advisory Service’s pension scheme. Although he has sent a letter via the scheme, he is not confident of getting in touch with Mr Dunn before the reunion at Kirkley Hall on July 12 and 13.

Jenny Dodds, who Mr Taylor described as “a very vivacious character”, was last heard of when she married in Hexham in 1960s, while the latest information on David Broom is that he was working as a butcher in Donnington Village about five years ago.

Mike Crozier, who farmed at South Brenkley near Seaton Burn in the 1960s, was last heard of working in County Durham.

Mr Taylor set out on his quest last autumn, a couple of years after he retired from active film making.

He said: “My wife said to me, why don’t you write a book about your year at Kirkley Hall? I said even if we don’t do a book, it would be good to have a reunion.

“I started in October and by today I’ve got 27 – one is dead. They do seem to be a vigorous year.

“It was a pretty hard regime – we slept in dormitories, we did milking every few weeks at 5.30 in the morning, we weren’t allowed off the campus. No student would put up with that now! In the 1950s, it was just like doing National Service, which had just finished.

“The really interesting thing is meeting people and talking to them and seeing how they got through the vicissitudes of agriculture.

“About 60% are still involved in farming but many of their children have abandoned the industry.”

Anyone able to put Mr Taylor in touch with his missing classmates can contact him on 07880702969 or by emailing david@yorkfilms.com.

For more stories from across Northumberland, see our local websites at www.journallive.co.uk/yourplace