By Rhonda Bartle

Peter and Taffy Bayly in the garden on Monmouth Road, Stratford, with the Armstrong Cup and Calf Day Shield.

Around the kitchen table

In a tidy cottage 5kms from Stratford, some of the Bayly family (no Is or Es) gather to chew the fat about school days long ago. While Taffy and wife Hilda reminisce with son Peter, Peter's son Stuart drives the tractor outside. Peter's daughter Kelsi is at Pembroke School and his brother Roger and his family live just up the road.

The Baylys are part of the Pembroke district which includes Monmouth Road - where they live - Barclay Road, Pembroke Road and part of Cardiff Road. The first settlers arrived in the district around 1880 after the land had been surveyed by W.H.Skinner.

In 1887, 124.5 hectares alongside the Pātea River were set aside for the settlement of Stratford. The first Pembroke Road school was built on donated land and opened in 1883 with a roll of 26. And it's Pembroke School that has shaped the lives of the Baylys and the Pembroke community.

Men of sharp memories

"The first teacher I had was a hard case," says 78 year-old Taffy (real name Evan).

"A chap by the name of Landy who used to bike up from Stratford. He'd often say he'd fell off his bike. Then we had a part-time teacher, Mrs Lawrence. Her husband was First Assistant in the Dairy Factory.

"And then we got two permanent teachers, a Miss Spring who taught new entrants and Clarice Bayly, who was a relation somewhere down the line, and then I left school," he says.

Peter, (45) can also name most of the teachers who taught him. "My first teacher was Miss Redman. She was quite strict but I liked her for some reason. Then there was Miss Baylis who I didn't get on with too well.

"I remember getting the ruler on my hand a few times. Then there was Miss Jenkins, Miss Peacock…I'm not sure what order they were in…then Bill Monro came after Ron Smith moved on."

Bill Monro, by all accounts, was an 'awesome' teacher and probably one of the best. "We still say to this day that he was a fantastic teacher. He was highly respected and regarded."

Old class photo: Bill Monro and his pupils (with a couple of Bayly's amongst them) sometime in the mid-1960s.

Four Generations

It's not really surprising the men can remember so well, as the family has been involved with the school since 1908, when Taffy's mother Molly (Mary) Jones enrolled in 1908.

Peter opens a centennial booklet that holds an early roll call. "The three Jones kids enrolled on the same day in August - Mary, Lucy and John. Dad's mother was born in 1900, which I always remember because her birthdays went with the years."

Taffy says his grandfather bought the farm that Peter now owns, but decided there was better land at Toko and moved onto land out there. Eventually, the Joneses came back to Monmouth Road.

Taffy began school around 1935. Like Peter, he later became chairman of the school committee.

"It's funny how things go in the district," he says. "I worked in the dairy factory when I left high school and then bought this farm and finished up chairman of the school for quite a number of years. The education board guaranteed us a new school and the year after I retired there was a new school."

A change of name

Though the school was called Pembroke Road School in the earliest times, to neatly pin it to its location the way most schools and dairy factories were, it has been known as Pembroke School since current Principal Caroline Beissel took over 17 years ago.

The change of name reflects the fact that the school no longer caters for just the immediate district, but takes students from town and further away.

The first school stood further up the road from the existing one, on the Jane's property, until it accidentally burned down. The site can still be picked up by a line of macrocarpas stumps.

The Stratford Pioneer Village displays a room that is often mistaken for the original school.

As Taffy says.

"A lot of people say, 'Oh, that's the old Pembroke School' but it wasn't. It was just an old prefab, a portable room. I think that old room came and went a few times when the role fluctuated. The actual school was lifted up and taken down to the marae, next to the Stratford High School, until it, too, burnt down."

Vegetable soup and milk

Taffy smiles when he remembers the perks of school in the old days. "We used to grow a vegetable plot and in winter we had a big wood burner and we'd put a big pot on it and every day we had soup.

"Miss Bayly used to get bacon bones from the Farmer's Co-op and we'd have all those vegetables cooked. Everyone would have their own mug. I don't think there was anyone who didn't like their mug of soup. And we had milk at school, too."

"I remember the milk," Peter says. "I used to hate the milk on its own, but on the cold days we had cocoa."

Living in the shadow of Taranaki meant there were many chilly days. During Peter's time, one of the best jobs for a senior boy was getting the kindling in and lighting the fire.

Once, when kids used to cut across paddocks to school, they often had an unscheduled day off when the river flooded. Sometimes they were sent them home early if the weather was too wet, but only once did they get sent home because it was too hot!

Three good calves: Stuart, Kelsi and Rebecca Bayly with some of their first prize-winners.

Calf Day forever

Like the Bayly memories, the school goes back a long way, as does Calf Day, that iconic Taranaki event that has always dominated the rural school calendar.

"I think it's a New Zealand-wide thing, really," Peter says. "It's a real kiwi day." His mother Hilda brings out the photo albums while the original Calf Day shield, first contested in 1936, lies proudly on the table.

Taffy drops a couple of old badges on the tablecloth, one awarded in 1941 for 1st place in the South Taranaki Boys and Girls Club's Calf Rearing, the other for 2nd place with a crop of potatoes in 1942.

"I would have won the championship with those potatoes," he says good-naturedly.

"They used to dig the middle row and weigh them, but they decided they were such a good crop, they'd dig another row as well and they dug the row closest to the hedge.

"Well, the crop was not the same there and they said at the time it was a shame they did that because it brought the average weight down."

Around a long time

Pembroke School Calf Day goes back further than even Taffy's memories.

"Cliff Mander, who now lives in the Mary Anne Rest Home in town, was involved in the earliest days and could be a good man to talk to," Peter suggests.

"He's older than Dad but younger than Dad's mother. He remembers the excitement of the whole school walking down the road to the new school. They all had to carry something, whether it was a book or stool.

"We used to always make a point of getting him up here to present the cups. It was a day he would never miss and obviously it was etched in his mind as he always remembered the calves he had."

On the table next to the shield sits the Armstrong Cup. It's hard to keep track of the Bayly winners as the album pages are flipped.

"Look, there's Stuart and Kelsi. That's Rebecca."

Rebecca is Roger's child. The photo shows three proud little kids, holding calves draped with ribbons. This year Kelsi's calf won overall champion so a new shot will soon be added.

"Stuart won the McCullough Cup at the Stratford Show, which I won in 1968," his father says quietly. "I was quite chuffed he did that."

"You won this one in 1968," Taffy says, tapping an even older shot. "Must have been a good calf, that one."

"Roger did well in 1972 and won the cup," Hilda says.

"Stuart won that cup twice. And look, there's my favourite calf! Pat, my first one. Dad, where's that photo of you holding the shield?"

"I had two calves that year, I was that keen," Taffy smiles. "I look a hundred years old in that big coat!"

A Shield with many names

There are not many nameplates on the shield in the oldest photos. Today, they jostle for space. To take the shield now is a big deal, but to win it in in the earliest times was an even bigger event.

Hotly contested every year between the now closed Cardiff School and Pembroke School, the awarding of the shield drew large crowds to see who would carry it home.

At first, it was given for single best calf from either school, but later became the prize for the top three calves.

"It was always a hot topic in the district," Peter says. "It was never just a school shield but a reflection on local farming abilities. It was always looked upon as a much wider concept."

Calf Day Still Rules

Though boys get less keen to show calves as they get older, Peter says girls are different.

"Last year Kelsi was more into her pony, but this year she was really keen. Probably because it was her last year, she was really into it and really wanted to do well and put the time and effort in. She spent lots of time with the calf - you have to bond - and she won the championship. She's really pleased, which we all are. It probably means more to us than other people," he admits.

Going through the family albums is a trip back through the years. But Peter is quick to point out that it was never just a Bayly day, but something that showed off the wonderful community spirit in the district.

"It's important to say more about the day and the history. When I was first on the board as a member, it was one of those jobs that teachers were looking to shorten and pull up earlier in the school year. I became in charge of running the day and I could see that if I didn't get this day to appeal to a wider cross section, then it would fall into decline.

"So I went to town and got sponsorship prizes and entertainment for the day, so the whole event became more appealing to everyone. I think that's been the saviour of the day."

Meeting change head on

Calf Day survival is 'typical Pembroke', and Peter believes the school's ability to meet change is pivotal. "Yes, we're small but we've stood the test of time. We've met change head on and adapted."

He applauds Caroline Beissel for making the school work. "Caroline is a fantastic principal. A school like ours would not survive with a poor principal. People would vote with their feet, as has happened in other areas. You need to have some charisma, but first and foremost, you need to be a damn fine teacher.

"Caroline is strict and has the respect and people know they can put their kids in her care and she'll turn out good students. The school here lives and dies on the strength of its principal."

Beissel, for her part, says the school lives and dies on the strength of its rural community. And it now looks safe from government reviews that ordered the closing of many small rural schools.

"I don't think, with the new government, they'll be in any hurry to do anything like that again," Peter says while Taffy nods his head.

"The recent upheavals were so unpopular that it would be a brave government to implement anything like that again."

The Bayly clan once again go back to the photographs that mark out their long school history.

If they are lucky, Pembroke School might still be around for generations to come, offering more than just education to the kids.