Keele 1964/65

In the short time between returning from North Africa and going back to Keele, my parents moved, from the rented cottage in Appledore to Gawthorpe, a large red-brick, semi-detached house on the outskirts of the village of Guestling, near Hastings.

I returned to Keele in the October of 1964 to read joint honours in Geology and Political Institutions, the Geology because I had so enjoyed the first year subsidiary course, the politics because, after gaining a distinction in my History subsidiary, the History Department refused to accept me on the grounds that I didn't even have 'O' level in the subject.

I went back to playing soccer, where I was the club's secretary and, while usually playing for the second eleven, did appear in the firsts, and rugby, but I saw less of the dismal Saturday night hops and the Union bar as I now had the Land Rover. I drank in the Newcastle pubs - and cheerfully drove back to Keele. I spent time in local night spots like the Hempstalls, which had good groups playing, I went to a couple of dire dance halls. I propped up the Union bar most weekday evenings and I did go to some of the hops. It was at them that I began to take a rather more serious interest in Gill Rogers - see earlier post here.

By the spring term 1965 I was visiting her home, at Cranham in the Cotswolds. When we went to Gloucestershire we drove in her very smart Morris 1000 but to visit Gawthorpe we hitched as far as the outskirts of London, and caught the train down to Hastings.

I still wasn't working very hard despite the fact that I was enjoying the subjects and the combination of geology and politics worked well. I spent much of the day on the geology and did the reading for the politics in the evening. My trouble was that I was still frustrated by being cooped up on such a small campus where everyone knew everyone else's business.

By the summer term I was spending time in the Staffordshire Peak District carrying out a geological survey in the Roaches area to the north of Leek. While staying at a boarding house in Leek....

....I met a travelling salesman for the Mars group called Brian Jones along with his girlfriend Val, and the four of us became very good friends. Brian had a smart car, a Cortina estate, and a memorable Saturday in June was spent driving up the M6 to Blackpool to sample the local beer, with the Byrds' version of 'Mr Tambourine Man' and The Mamas & The Papas 'Monday, Monday' playing loudly on the radio.

At the beginning of June Gill and I became engaged. Gill's parents, Don and Bea, were very good about our getting engaged at such a young age - I was nineteen, Gill twenty - but my parents weren't as understanding and it was some years before Gill was fully reconciled with them.

As already recounted, I failed my geology exams in the summer term, but re-took them in the summer vac and passed. During that vac we had a short camping holiday at Solva in Pembrokeshire and another in Italy. At the time I was still using the Kowa camera I had bought in Aden even though it persistently failed to wind the film on, so took two exposures on each piece of film, with some interesting results.