More moments from a great poet’s schooldays

My eyes nearly popped out when I read that Ian McMillan had acquired a 1946 copy of The Don and Dearne, the magazine of my old school, Mexborough Grammar (Yorkshire Post, February 15). I am the proud owner of the 1947 issue.

Edward J Hughes, or Ted Hughes as he became known, again features prominently, having reached the ripe old age of 16. He was a sub-editor and played a leading role in the school play reviewed in the magazine, Robert Ardrey’s Thunder Rock.

Believe it or not, the pupils had previously tackled King Lear and Murder in the Cathedral... no dumbing down in those days. Most memorable, though, was Edward’s When Warriors Meet, a hilarious account of the staff vs pupils hockey match seen as an epic battle.

Ted Hughes is naturally associated with his birthplace, Mytholmroyd, but by the age of seven he had moved to Mexborough with his parents, so the South Yorkshire mining town should take a lot of credit for his development.

Nor was he always the aloof figure sometimes portrayed in his adulthood.

He got involved in school sports and sometimes helped out in his parents’ corner shop, which my wife remembers visiting as a child.