I have just found this incredibly nostalgic site. I was a Doncaster school pupil during the fifties and sixties and had the privilege of knowing 'Pip' Appleby personally. He was a great friend of my secondary school Headmistress, Miss Woollett and together they ran a Thursday lunchtime 'Listeners Club' where we heard recordings of the great classics and followed the music on miniature scores. Thanks to 'Pip' I was invited to join the Danensian Singers group and went to Leeds to record Singing Together programmes. He also used us to record hymns for the BBC Daily service for which we were paid the princely sum of £9.... a small fortune to a 16 year old in those days. Pip also encouraged me to play the 'cello'and arranged for me to have free lessons and the loan of an instrument for the remainder of my school days.
I noticed an earlier post from Ralph Bacon MBE - He and his family lived next door to us in Finch Road, so the poor man had to endure the sound of my practising - it must have been excruciating.
I still have my singing together pamplets from the 1950s - I was given them at primary school to use for tunes to play on my recorder.I owe my enduring love of classical music to William Appleby and his involvement with the Doncaster schools music service.