YOU wanted confirmation of the cartoonist responsible for the drawing of John Henry Brookes on the cover of Bryan Brown’s book The Man who Inspired a University (Memory Lane, June 1).

Yes, it is in the style of Alan Course and I would bet on it. An ex-policeman and licensee, he was well known for his collection of customers’ tie cuttings while at the Bear at the corner of Alfred Street and Blue Boar Street in Oxford.

I was amused by the remark you quoted in your article on John Henry Brookes’s School of Technology, Art and Commerce.

I suppose it did look like a junk yard, with about 150 bikes lining the walls, but when I first attended in 1948, we had just come out of a war and we were well used to making do with what was available.

In any case, it is the people in a place that matter more than anything else – good teachers and willing pupils. That’s how I remember it. Yes, it was spread over the city. We had two classrooms in Brewer Street above a garage and two behind Powell’s in The High, one of which doubled as a dining room.

Our gym was in Alfred Street and our sports field was in Manor Road, off Longwall Street.

Engineering and building trades had workshops in Cowley Road and we swam at Long Bridges, along the towpath on the Isis.

I was surprised when I have attended Oxford Brookes University as an alumnus that I was the only member of the “Tech” using the facilities available to us. I would like to ask any old members to register with Brookes as alumni.

Call 01865 484929 or go to alumni@brookes.ac.uk I hope to arrange a reunion at the main site in Headington in the near future and would love those interested to contact me on 01865 451318.

LEN WEEKES
Abbots Wood
Headington