We are thrilled to invite you to one of the standout events of the OH calendar — the West Country Lunch at the beautiful The Victoria Hotel, Sidmouth, on Saturday 17th May 2025 at 12:30 p.m.

Last year's lunch was a big hit, and we're excited to already have lots of OHs from the 1950s through the 1990s joining us again this year!

Tickets are £35 per person

To book your spot, email OH Victoria Berry: torberryconsultancy@gmail.com

You can see the menu here - https://app.box.com/s/wwl6qc1ubmmwrk21xmlhaqhabra62hz1 (please let Victoria know your menu choices when booking).

We look forward to another amazing afternoon of great food, good company, and fond memories!

On Monday 24th March, Derek Blooman's Birthday, family and friends gathered at the Ship Inn, Axmouth, to celebrate with Derek.

Nigel French writes:

Derek Bloomans 90th

When James Hilton wrote Goodbye Mr Chips in 1934, just before Derek was born, he could have been forgiven for not knowing that Derek would emulate Mr Chips, and more, in his long tenure and affiliation with Allhallows. It was always difficult to judge what Derek saw as his priorities: his Pupils, the School, Chudleigh House, the Faculty, The OH Club, History or Cricket. In truth, they all were, and his warmth, kindness and professionalism shone on them all equally.

When I started organising his 90^th Birthday party, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of OH’s who recited just how Derek had caused them to fall in love with History to the extent that they now have large libraries of Historical Books published on eras that Derek first exposed to them. One OH also revealed that he is writing his own book on an historical period, to which Derek opened his eyes!

The private dining room at The Ship Inn in Axmouth provided a perfect setting with excellent food and wines. The renditions of Happy Birthday and For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow had undertones of choral practices in the Chapel, in the dungeons of our old school.

Thanks are due to Tor Berry for organising and presenting to Derek a framed Cricket Shirt signed by a number of OH’s.

To David Woollatt for getting all the printed matter co-ordinated and the email addresses of many OH’s and his general help in organising the day.

To those who came, a huge thank you, to those who could not be there but donated towards our gift of a new state of the art 50” TV with Alexa to help Derek find his programmes within the subscriptions we gave him to Sky Sports, Netflix, Amazon Prime, The History Channel and Discovery plus……thank you for your generosity

But most of all thanks to Derek for being himself, doing all that he did for the school, its pupils, The OH club and so much more.

Nigel French. March 24^th 2025

Photographs by David Woollatt and Geroge Hayter.

We recently received these wonderful photographs from John Jerome (Headmaster's House in 1961, Chudleigh 1962 - 66).

John has spent a fantastic 55 years at his family business, Edgar Jerome Aldershot’s oldest traditional gentleman’s outfitter and quality school wear, which recently celebrated an impressive 102 years in the heart of Aldershot.

John shared with us: “Still working in my 55th year at my business. Sun shone on a very happy day.”

Thank you, John, for sharing these with us. We wish you many more successful years ahead.

The OH Club is often called upon to assist with research into the lives of former pupils, and we recently received an interesting inquiry from the Institute of Historical Research. They are researching Cyril Longhurst (11879 - 1948), an OH who played a significant role in organising Captain Scott's first expedition to Antarctica. Cyril was also a key figure in the OH Club, being the President of the Club in the 1920s. Cyril attended Allhallows in Honiton from 1889 to 1896, and the institute is particularly interested in his time at school, what life would have been like for him, and his achievements.

As a Club, we're fortunate to have excellent records that we can reference, helping us continue to uncover and share these valuable historical stories. It's always rewarding to contribute to preserving the history of our former students!

During this research into Cyril's time at Allhallows, we came across a captivating account that sheds light on what school life would have been like for pupils before the turn of the century. In the 1870s, the Headmaster was Rev. Thomas Izod.

This remarkable first-hand account, shared by pupil J.E. Case, offers insight into the challenges faced by students at the time. While the narrative is difficult, it is very much a reflection of its era. One particularly intriguing story involves pupils setting off an explosion in their school desks, which resonates with a similar tale from another public school, Weymouth College, in the 1930s, where students engaged in similar mischievous antics. It’s a fascinating glimpse into life at Allhallows in Honiton.

You can see the document by  J.E. Case here.

On Saturday 8th February we hosted the Salisbury OH Coffee and Catch-Up at Salisbury Cathedral, and what an incredible event it was!

With the Refectory temporarily closed for refurbishment, the South Transept of the Cathedral provided a magnificent setting for the temporary café. The grand space created the perfect atmosphere for OHs to reconnect and share stories.

The attendees spanned a wide range of eras, from the 1950s to the 1990s. It was especially wonderful to welcome one OH attending for the first time, along with several others who hadn’t seen each other since their school days. Dudley Hopkin's said 'It was a delight to see for the first time Willie Parke who I had not seen since leaving in 1964.'

Laughter, memories, and conversations filled the air as OHs exchanged stories and reminisced. Many brought along treasured photographs fascinating insights into the estate, including images taken shortly after the school’s closure. Dudley Hopkins (Headmaster’s House, Baker House) brought his original school documents from 1959, revealing that the termly fee at the time was just £98—approximately £2,800 in today’s money!

Attendees:

• Timothy Bourn
• Stephen Dixon
• Jenni Dixon
• Russell Frith
• Dudley Hopkins
• Clare Hopkins
• Brian Meeke
• Colin Meeke
• Nik Milner
• Edward Musto
• Caroline Plumptre
• Will Parke
• Nick Parish
• Lizzie Parish
• Quentin Sandell
• Peter Sloan
• Charles Stimpson
• David Woollatt

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended—it was truly a fabulous event. Special thanks also to the Cathedral Café staff, whose exceptional support made this gathering possible. 

We are excited to announce that the latest OH Newsletter is out.

Packed with interesting articles such as:

• The Eccentricity of OHs (In a Good Way) by Stephen Dixon (Venning 197070 - '75) and his wife Jenni tell the story of their incredible South American road trip.
• The Rousdon Mansion Marble
• Tragedy in the Skies above Allhallows
• London AGM
• The 2024 OH West Country Luncheon
• OH Golf Society 2024 Update
• John Bardolph Remembered

...and so much more...

With lots of photographs and details about all that's to come for the club in 2025

You can have a look and download your copy HERE.

We’re thrilled to invite you to our next OH Coffee and Catch-Up at the beautiful Salisbury Cathedral Refectory Café on Saturday, 8th February, at 10:30 AM.

We can’t wait to see you there for a cup of coffee and great conversation!

To help us plan, please let us know you’re coming by filling out this quick form: https://forms.gle/yE8cxRd5Vq2M2QFk9

We can’t wait to see you there for a cup of coffee and great conversation!

We are always updating the Allhallows School digital archive. 

We have recently added:

1998 - The Last Allhallows Full School Photograph

The club believes this to be the last ever full school photograph of Allhallows; captured during the Summer Term of 1998.

This image represents the end of an era and a piece of history.

We’ve carefully digitised this photograph in high resolution, ensuring its digital preservation.

You can now download your copy https://app.box.com/s/uogdgo7tenfbvke78thid6fishe97udo

If you have anything that you would like to add to our archive, please contact the club here.

Wishing all OHs and their families a very Merry Christmas! 

Here is a short update from Hon. Secretary David Woollat about the year and exciting news about the latest edition of the OH Magazine.

We’re thrilled about our upcoming 2025 events and look forward to seeing many of you there.

You can find out more here: https://https://www.oldhonitonians.com/events-2/

Wishing you all the very best for this Christmas and throughout the New Year. 

It was warm for the time of year, no sign of the cold winter to come. All thoughts centred on the competition to find the marksman from the group of hard-looking men that had arrived at The Tunnel Sports Centre that morning. This year the team had grown to seven eager and highly competitive OHs, each one with well over half a century of experience. This year’s line up included Nigel Clist (Ch 1967-72), Nigel Hankey (St 1967-70), Chris Bryan (V 1966-72), Howard Roberts (V 1967-72), Peter Philips (V&St 1958-62), Jeremy Best (C 1967-72) and of course Jim Rowe (M 1966-71).

This year there was an added incentive to win and be named the OH Marksman of the Year, there was the shiny and prestigious OH Shooting Challenge Shield to be won which had been kindly donated by Richard Clist, the owner of the Tunnel Target Sports Centre. Following a strong coffee and some wrist muscle exercises, we all entered the 100-metre range. We each pinned a couple of targets at the end of the range and walked back to the firing points. It was at this point we realised that with 14 targets in front of us, it looked more like a fairground shooting gallery, not what we had expected.

The competition started, the targets were only 11cm in diameter with a bull at the centre, a mere 1cm in diameter, that is less than a small fingernail from a distance of 100m! We used AR15 Assault Rifles, which are semi-automatic rifles that enable firing without the need for cumbersome bolt action loading that is normal with an SLR, or Self Loading Rifle. We had 20 sighting shots and then a further 10 scoring shots from which our scores were calculated. This time there was a win for Howard and Nigel Hankey with a score of 68, Nigel Clist came third with 65, Chris came fourth with 63 and a missing bullet, Peter and Jeremy came 5^th equal with 62 and Jim with 60.

At this stage, we moved onto the 25-metre range where the targets appeared so much closer to us. As time ticked away we realised there wasn’t sufficient time to score at this range so we resorted to our scores at the 100m range.

We stepped outside into the warm sunlight for a few team photographs, following which the event moved to the Hunters Lodge with many memories of the school and our times there. The conversations moved onto farming when we realised that half of us are indeed farmers, a very challenging career these days.

Next year, we’ll hold the event on Saturday, October 4^th at 10.00, all OH’s are welcome, same place – The Tunnel – Target Sports Centre, just off the A35 near Charmouth DT6 6BY and let’s make it 8 next year!