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Autobiography.
BOB DUNCAN’s MEMOIRS PART 11: POLLINGTON
The year’s course at Southampton in social studies had placed the emphasis on one-to-one casework. Pollington, where I was posted, its therapeutic approach was on group work. So there appeared some illogicality in the posting. I subsequently learnt that Waddilove had left it so late; he got a minion to phone every Borstal and ask three questions; have you a vacancy for an AG2? Have you an empty quarter? Can it be redecorated in 3 weeks? The first to answer all three questions in the positive got me. So much for careful thought over postings and career development. As it happened a new Governor had been appointed, and he very soon decided that staff had not been sufficiently trained in group work, and there was little evidence that it was having any beneficial effect.
Pollington was an old airbase in the middle of nowhere but beautiful in the flat countryside near the tiny village of Snaith. The nearest Doctors were in Knottingley some 10 miles away. Many of the staff quarters were pre-fabs from the aerodrome era, but there was new build senior staff accommodation according to the set down specification. You may recall that my posting there was partly based on the quarter being fully decorated. Within 6 weeks of occupation, Jane somehow set a chip pan alight. It was quickly dealt with but had blackened some of the walls and ceiling. I was not the favourite of the Head of Works, as it all had to be decorated again.
There were only five new staff quarters, the rest were prefabs. The previous Governor was still living in the quarter which was next to our allocated quarter; he had been posted to the College in Wakefield but had not moved. He was a very odd man and never spoke whenever one saw him. He had been charged with making Pollington into a ‘Group Work Therapeutic establishment’. I had some knowledge of group working as I attended each week some of the Group Sessions at the youth psychiatric unit when at Southampton. But the emphasis of my training was in Casework. I sat in on a number of the sessions organized by the Principal Officer as no Housemaster was in post. It was immediately clear that these had no structure, the staff had no training and basically, they were just ‘chat shops’ and most of the time the lads just talked to each other. The Governor agreed and said we would revert to face to face discussion which should be written up in each lad’s file. To give impetus to this I was asked to write four papers, ‘What Pollington was all about including the grading system;’ ‘the role of work and education’; ‘interviewing and writing up reports’; and ‘the responsibilities of all the staff to act as role models to our trainees’. The Governor then arranged to pay overtime so that every member of staff was rostered to come in or remain in after their evening shift to have the short presentation paper presented to them and then respond to any questions they had. It was eye-opening how many staff thanked us and said nobody had tried to explain to them in simple terms what the establishment was all about and the role each of them played in it. For several weeks after that, there appeared to be a more positive atmosphere around the establishment and the role each of them played in it.
The former Governor’s wife, (a Doctor) was very nice and would invite Jane in for a chat, but not if her husband was home or expected home. She ran a voluntary medical clinic in Doncaster once a week and invited Jane to become a volunteer helper, which she did. That resulted in us getting to know another volunteer, Bobbie Roberts, and her husband, a hospital consultant.
On the other side of us was Bill Abbot, next to him another AG2 who was soon to move on, and finally, the Chief Officer, who did not like anybody, yet he would in due course babysit for us. As the Governor’s quarter was not immediately available, he regularly spent the evening in the Borstal. So I would go with him for a drink at the officer’s social club after work or Jane would have him in for supper before evening duty. So we got to know each other. In a small Borstal, there would be no ‘official’ deputy governor, but it was necessary to have a nominated person for when the governor was off duty, on leave or sick. I was the new boy and not the senior by the length of service, but the Governor made it clear that I fulfilled that role, but not always to the liking of my colleagues. When chairing the final Discharge Board on one occasion one colleague did not like it that I had not supported his recommendation. He was so incensed that he walked out of the Board and into the village and took no more part. Life went on and within days we were back on an even keel.
We needed a new dining room table; we knew Hull as we had visited and also used it to travel to Belgium on the overnight ferry. There was a big store there that had its own car park. It charged but if you made a purchase in the store it was free. We found a dining table we liked and went to the till to order it and arrange delivery. When it was time to settle the bill, I said, ‘do not forget the free parking.’ The assistant replied. ‘you do not get free parking with furniture purchases.’ ‘That is ridiculous,’ I replied. The big sign outside states ‘free parking with any purchase in the store, if I bought a bag of sweets, I assume I would get it, but not for an expensive table. You better cancel the order.’ ’I could get the manager to explain,’ she said, so he was summoned. His explanation was long and convoluted, but he could see he was not going to win, so ‘as an exception’ he arranged free parking!
The one disadvantage of being recognized as the de facto deputy Governor was that all phone calls from the Orderly Officer outside of attendance hours came to me. I had then to find time to collect details and then phone the Prison Department and the Press Office. There was no way out of that whatever the hour of day or night. When I realized I was getting calls at say 5 am to inform me that the police had recaptured an absconder, I realized after a bit and advised that ‘good news’ can wait until a civilized hour. That at least reduced the number of disturbed nights I faced .
Bill, our next-door neighbour, was a bit of a character. He was single but a very good cook. We both had fairly substantial rear gardens, and he challenged me to see who could grow the most vegetables. I had planned to grow as much as possible anyway, but then Bill slightly cheated as he had his retired father to stay and he prepared all Bill’s ground for planting.
Bill was a very keen walker and had undertaken on several occasions the famous Lyke Wake Walk, which was established in August 1955 by Bill Cowley, a former Indian Civil Servant, North Yorkshire farmer, local historian, journalist, and broadcaster. It replicates the route that coffins (Lyke) were carried over the Moors to ancient burial grounds and on to Ravenscar. It commences at the car park on Scathe Wood Moor, near Osmotherley, and finishes at the Raven Hall Hotel, Ravenscar. The distance is 40 miles (64 Kilometers) and at its highest point is 1489ft above sea level. Originally the walking would have been on the natural delicate ecology dominated by heather, this has been worn down over the years and now there are worn paths. Bill persuaded me to undertake the walk which I did, but found it quite exhausting by the end, and it is very tempting to pack in at that point. Being so near the end, one is normally persuaded to make that last effort. The route is crisscrossed by a few minor roads at some points, so a driver in a backup car can check on the condition of those taking part and carry extra provisions. This is not essential, but a useful safety back up, remember there were no mobile phones then. Invariably there would be other walkers, so there would always be some assistance available. As Bill’s preferred time of departure on the walk-in summer was midnight, that was not guaranteed.
Every week Bill was on duty at the weekend he would drive in the Borstal minibus a group of selected lads (12 -15) to walk on the moors. He was usually back at about 16.30 so the lads could get cleaned up before their evening meal. One weekend he has still not returned at gone Five pm. As the in-charge Governor, I was getting anxious and wondering what had happened, as if it was serious it would have to be reported up the line. There was no way of contacting him in those days. He eventually got back at about 18.30 and was looking very pleased with himself; I asked if he had a problem being so late. ‘Oh no’ he said, ‘it began to pour with rain, and we had started to make our way, and this friendly farmer called us over out of the rain, let us dry off and cooked bacon butties for all the lads, so we could not rush off!’
The Governor decided that all the staff offices needed refurbishing and said we could choose what colour paint we would like, we all chose reasonable colours, the one exception was Bill who asked for the ceiling in his office to be painted dark purple. The Head of Works went a bit ballistic, but Governor said, ‘oh just humour him he is a bit eccentric, and he has to live with it; it will not get done again for a good while.’
Once we were settled Jane decided she ought to learn to drive, especially as we were so remote. The driving tests were in a town called Goole. It had one main street, no roundabouts, only one set of traffic lights and was absolutely flat. She made good progress and decided she would take her test. By this time she was pregnant so did not have to do an emergency stop. So she passed the first time. To get to Doncaster, our nearest big town which had a very good market as well as many shops, you had to cross the Calder Canal which had a small humpback bridge which was single file. This was no problem as the countryside was flat and you had good vision on any oncoming vehicles. Jane, who was a good driver, did not notice a vehicle approaching until the last minute, and a panic reaction pulled over to one side at the side of the bridge and was on a gentle upward slope. The next thing I knew was Jane arriving home on foot. ‘Where’s the car? I said. ‘Down at the canal bridge, I had to stop sharply, and then every time I tried to get up the slope it stalled, I can’t do hill starts!’ So we had to find a quiet hilly area and practice hill starts.
The daughters of Jane’s friends in Belgium were very keen walkers, and eldest, Christian wanted to come to England that summer to undertake the Lyke Wake Walk. Bill said he would be happy to do the walk with her and I was to be the driver and back up support. Jane was expecting Nicola, and it was a long hot July which was getting to Jane, but Nicola appeared reluctant to enter the world. The hospital in Wakefield near the end of July decided Jane should be admitted, Jane though insisted that the walk should go ahead. So late evening on the 30th July we drove up to Osmotherley ready to set off at midnight. As the backup, I drove to each road that crossed the walks path and checked all was well and supplied any refreshment required. There was only one road intersection that had a telephone box, and it was late morning before we reached it. I phoned the hospital and was advised that Jane had delivered a baby girl, and all was well. I advised our valiant walkers that speed was of the essence as I needed to get to Wakefield. Bill gave me a wry smile and said a fast walk is the best we can offer.
Walk completed, the car run to Wakefield beat all other record times. I parked and entered the maternity wing by the first door I found and found Jane and my daughter; such joy! Then a matron appeared and demanded to know what I was doing there. ‘Visiting my newborn daughter,’ I said in all innocence. ‘This is not visiting time so how did you get in?’ ‘Through a door,’ I said! I received a scowl from Matron and a rebuke to use only the visitors’ door and only come at the stipulated visiting hours in future. I just glared, Not so long after all this; the Governor received a visit from the Regional Director (which was David my first Governor at Dover) during a discussion about development at the Borstal, the Director said he felt the education programme on offer needed strengthening; ‘I agree with you,’ said the Governor, ‘but we are rather remote and find it difficult to recruit good teachers.’ The Director said, ‘you have an excellent teacher living in one of your quarters.’ Jim looked puzzled - ‘Bob’s wife.’ So when Jane was ready, she resumed her teaching career, but only for evening classes, and the Chief Officer’s wife undertook the babysitting, a team effort.
As we neared Christmas the Governor felt it would be a morale booster to encourage the lads to decorate their dormitories as a competition and the one in each block which was judged best would all go to the local cinema in January. There were four dormitories of 20 lads in each of the two-House blocks, and each was given a basic box of decorations and advised they could make extra decorations in the art class. In the week prior to Christmas, it seemed unusually quiet in my house block, so I asked the staff to do an early roll check. The result, after a double-check, 16 lads were missing! We hesitated to contact Headquarters, partly because we were trying to think about how to explain such a large number. That saved us some embarrassment, as suddenly 2 lads appeared carrying armfuls of fir branches and holly, which they had cut from trees and bushes in the front gardens of houses in the village. In no time everyone was back with whatever they had purloined. We just hoped the villagers did not miss too much of it! So Bill and I had to take 40 lads to the cinema in Pontefract. It was the longest, most boring, and tedious John Wayne film I have ever seen and in a cinema that was cold. The lads enjoyed it though, I cannot remember what it cost Bill and me in popcorn!
Headquarters asked if Alan Rawson and I could be released to undertake an involvement in a research project in respect of remand prisoners. Our Governors agreed. Our role would be to collect data from the records mainly at Brixton Prison and Ashford Remand Centre for young offenders. We would be fully briefed as to what was required and the Governors of the establishments would give us free rein to access all the documents required and we would have keys allocated so we had free movement around the establishments. We decided we would stay with Jane’s parents in Littlewick, and go into London by train, but drive to Ashford in Surrey. We were well into the project, everyone had been helpful, and we were enjoying it. In those days, the Department produced seniority lists of all governor grades giving the date of birth, name establishment and seniority. The 1967 intake of new junior governors included a Fish and a Gill, which we all thought was amusing. We were well into the project when Gill suddenly turned up to say he was from Midland Regional Office and had been sent to sort out the project. Nobody had been notified of this, but we just accepted he was there to help. Actually, he was just useless, full of his own importance, did not wish to get involved in the spadework, but gave the impression he was in charge. When we reported back at the conclusion of the data collection process, I cannot recall him being there. We were thanked for our efforts and advised that it would now be analysed, and the results fed back to the Minister. I will return to Mr. Gill later.
All Promotion Boards were announced by a Notice to Staff stating the years of service required to be considered. In February 1971, a Board was announced, my reports had been favourable, so I applied and was called and successful. I had been very happy working with young offenders and was enjoying the life at Pollington. I felt it was time to gain experience of the adult side of the Service. The Posting I received was Liverpool.
(Part twelve of Bob’s memoirs will appear in the Autumn Newsletter)
