GA News on Keith Joseph's speech

 From the first issue of GA News.

Tocuaro

Thanks to Angus Willson for this memory.

"The "Tocuaro: a Mexican Village" series has the old GA logo and was a joint publication with Worldaware which is why I ended up with a box of 36 mugs buried in the garage! I have unworn T-shirts, too. The GA - Worldaware connection involved a pre-President Wendy Morgan and Vincent Bunce working on the St Lucia resources. I joined Worldware after Vince had died. 

Quite randomly I came across a resources flyer being used as a bookmark in the Bailey and Fox handbook. 

Scan is here.

Any memories of this or other similar resources and their usage?

2000: Dr. Derek J Spooner

Update July 2024

Dr. Derek J Spooner was the Head of the Geography Department at the University of Hull for many years, which has a strong association with GA Presidents. When he became GA President he was a Senior Lecturer in Geography.

I have a personal connection with the University of Hull as I completed my PGCE there in 1986 under W Vincent Tidswell, so possibly met him back then in one of the sessions we had which involved departmental staff. One of Derek's colleagues was Professor Allan Patmore, who was the GA President in 1979, and other well known geographers have been linked with the University, including some featured on this blog. 

Derek's Presidential Address was entitled 'Odysseys in a Regional World'. This went along with the conference theme that year: "2001: a Spatial Odyssey"




In it, Derek discussed the changing nature of geography.

He was the editor of 'Geography' at a time when the journal changed, and included colour printing. This led to a slight change in the nature of contributions, and forms part of the regular updates that the journal has gone through as the subject's position as an academic discipline has evolved too. The journal has been an important part of the GA's 'credentials' as a professional association.

Derek contributed a chapter on Changing Geographies of Energy to another former GA President: Ashley Kent's book on 'Reflective Practice (which also featured contributions from many other GA Presidents) - I have a copy in my library which has grown substantially since the start of this project. Derek and Ashley were also involved in the celebrations of the life of Michael Bradford in 2019 at the University of Manchester. 

See the post on Michael for a link to the video of the celebration where you can see and here Derek in action.

Dr. Spooner is an Honorary Member of the GA. A distinction few have been awarded.



Derek is sat on the floor, third on the right in this image, next to the late Professor Michael Bradford. You should hopefully be able to identify the other Presidents by now. Margaret Roberts MBE is standing in the middle of the group. There are a few GA Trustees in there as well. Derek introduced Michael Bradford's Presidential lecture as well.



Derek in fact also wrote an obituary for the former GA President Michael Bradford in the Guardian, who sadly died in Summer 2019. Michael will have his own post on the blog in due course. He also sent me a significant update to the entry for Allan Patmore, his friend and colleagues for many years.

He told me that:

One thing you might like to note is that three closely-linked Presidents all went to St Catharine's College, Cambridge - Ashley Kent, Mike Bradford and me. This is something which I have developed a little more in some separate blog posts. There were links with other Presidents too, including J A Steers.

Derek kindly responded to my request for more information in a questionnaire that I sent through, and the following information was supplied by Derek.

I was born in Bournemouth in 1943. However I regard myself as coming from Southampton, which is where I grew up. I was born in Bournemouth because my family was evacuated from Southampton during the war, returning there in 1945. I regard myself as coming from Hampshire, though Bournemouth was made part of Dorset in 1974. Dorset is a lovely county (though second-class in cricketing terms) but my allegiance is to Hampshire.

I went to Taunton's School, Southampton, at that time a boys grammar school. It is now a mixed Sixth Form College. My love of Geography was fostered by a brilliant teacher, Ted Colenutt. I went up to St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1962 and after graduation stayed another three years for my PhD, which was a study of post-war industrial development in Devon and Cornwall.

I then embarked on an academic career spent almost entirely at the Department of Geography, University of Hull, where I stayed until I retired in 2003. I was Head of Department there for eight of those years. I also spent a sabbatical term at the University of Maryland in 1976 and another at the University of West Virginia in 1985.

I was GA President in 2000-2001, and taking my cue from the world of cinema chose the theme 'A Spatial Odyssey'. I have always been interested in Geography as the study of place and space, and my presidential address focused upon three places that had captured my interest - Hull, West Virginia and The Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy). My involvement in the GA was fostered by my colleague Allan Patmore, but my involvement in the work of the Association really took off when I became Editor of 'Geography' in 1989 (until 1995). I regard this as the most important element in my service to the GA. 

It was a particularly challenging time for the journal as it struggled to maintain a flow of articles from university staff who were being increasingly pressurised to concentrate on research publications and grants. 

My main memories are of the sheer professionalism and hard work (not to mention unflagging good humour) of those doing paid or voluntary work for the GA. On a personal level, my main memory is of the stress of preparing my Presidential address, despite having done numerous talks to geography teachers over the years. I vowed never to voluntarily put myself into such a stressful situation ever again!! I'll bear that in mind :)

Derek was also involved in the lead up to the appointment of David Lambert as Chief Executive.

The Annual Conference was held at the University of Sussex in Brighton, the most southerly location for the conference that I can remember, and was I like to think a very successful event. The Coastline 2000 project also ran that year and sought to involve schools in the survey of the coast."

After he retired in 2003, Derek moved to Cornwall and had some involvement with the Plymouth branch of the GA for a few years. 

He also had time to complete 'Discovering Cities: Kingston upon Hull', published in the GA series.

Image: Jeremy Krause and Derek Spooner - image copyright Bryan Ledgard / GA - Jeremy is next up on the blog.

Derek published several articles on coal during the 1980s, ahead of the Miner's strike, and also knew John Fernie, who was one of my lecturers at Huddersfield Polytechnic at that time, who also wrote about the geography of the energy industry.  

Derek told me:

"My interest in the geography of energy was triggered in the 1970s by the development of the Selby coalfield, not far to the west of Hull. I remember writing an article about it in the Geographical Magazine in 1976. That led into a wider interest in the coal industry's changing geography, especially in Yorkshire. I well remember the miners' strike - an awful time. Sabbaticals in the Eastern USA (Maryland 1976) and West Virginia (1985) enhanced my interest in the coalfields of Appalachia."

I also have a letter that Derek sent to Chris Kington who asked him about the spark that had triggered his love for Geography in the first place.

He describes his teacher Ted Colenutt, "a great geography teacher drew a sketch map of Argentina on the blackboard. This representation of a different exotic place caught my interest. I was eleven." He gets a mention in Derek's Presidential address. There are a few of my teachers and colleagues who will similarly get a mention. Their task was to copy the diagram (I had a colleague when I first started teaching who used the same methods 30 years later). After Argentina, they did Chile, then Brazil.

This report from an Old Tauntonian's Dinner in 2010 makes the same point:

"A favourite lesson among his charges was on Volcanoes, Glaciers and Monsoons. He himself had a passion for sketch maps, drawn on a blackboard with coloured chalks. Social behaviour in and out of school were different in past days. Unlike today's College, Ted said, we had to - and could - make more effort at form room discipline. He had heard of masters throwing chalk at disruptive pupils, while one actually threw six-inch long, inch-thick blackboard dusters at trouble makers in the back row!" 

I remember my teachers doing the same in the 1970s, particularly the DT teachers.

As mentioned earlier in the post, Derek was also a great friend of Ashley Kent, and together he and Ashley were involved in the celebrations of the life of Michael Bradford, about whom much has been added to the blog over the last few weeks and which can be seen on video (see Michael Bradford's entry on the blog for the Vimeo link)

Ashley told me about Derek in an email some weeks ago when he gave me his own biography:

Re Hull...as you probably know Derek was ...for years...head of the geography department at Hull and I remember staying with him and his wife to give GA talks there. Derek was at St Catharines, Cambridge University with Mike Bradford and I and I played quite a lot of college football with him. 

He and I plus Janet Pickering, former head of Withington Girls were the ‘front’ of the farewell to Mike at the University.

Derek was a fine cricketer as well as geographer. He was captain of Hull Cricket Club for many years in the famous Yorkshire League, and edited 'Geography' the journal forever."

It seems there may be a cricketing theme for many Presidents too then, with Sheila Jones and fellow Bristolians also being big cricket fans!

Derek also remembers those times editing 'Geography' fondly, telling me:

"In many ways the time I spent as editor of 'Geography' was the time I enjoyed most with the GA. I was particularly proud of the GA centenary issue I produced in April 1993 (No 339), with mainly invited contributions. The October issue (No 341)  was also a special one, with the text of lectures given at the centenary conference, including some by well-known politicians like David Blunkett. It also included a guest editorial by the GA President Andrew Goudie which focused on the 'Great Divide' between Schools and Universities, which was something that I strove to diminish both in my time as Editor, and during my period as President.  It is perhaps worth noting that I  was the last Editor of Geography from one of the older Universities, until the new arrangement introduced as the Editorial Collective. (I was followed by Hazel Barrett (another former GA President) and Kenny Lynch from Coventry and Cheltenham respectively).

In my time as Editor I was also conscious of the declining input to 'Geography' from physical geographers, and made a conscious effort to rectify that - with some success. Although my career was spent largely as an economic geographer I considered that physical geography was most important to the integrity of the subject."

Derek also told me about his experiences on GA Study Tours:

"After I retired at Hull my wife Christine (another geographer by training) and I went on an extraordinary study tour with the GA - to South Africa. We had never been anywhere in Africa before. And what a fantastic set of fellow travellers - including several other Presidents - Chris Kington, Margaret Roberts and Tony Binns (an Africa specialist). We travelled in a large minibus enabling Tony to give us non-stop commentary, driving from Durban to Cape Town. High spots for me included Robben Island, the Addo Elephant Park and travelling up into the Drakensberg to visit Lesotho. I also remember with pleasure listening to a lecture somewhere near Cape Town which was interrupted by a penguin (they bray rather like a donkey). 

We enjoyed this busman's holiday so much that the following year we went on another equally memorable study tour to Kenya. And finally in 2008 we went on a tour of Mexico, which was overrun with GA Presidents. Chris Kington described it as the Presidents and their WAGs! (For the record Chris, Ashley Kent, Mike Bradford and myself, with partners, plus Margaret Roberts!"

Chris Kington also told me about his memories of that trip:

"I think that South Africa trip secured the ascendancy of digital photography over the reluctant to die traditional SLR cameras and the ubitquitous Kodak film. Always keen on photography Derek - now an absolutely brilliant wildlife photographer - really got very excited by the possibilities of digital and re-doubled his determination to become a photographer rather than a snap shooter. This study tour seemed to mark the tipping point. Thereafter the prolific geographers had tens of thousands of shots by the end of a study tour."

Derek also told me a little more about his cricketing experiences:

"Cricket played a big part in my life - in my youth I played several matches for the MCC, including England (the MCC) v the Isle of Wight! For the MCC v Ampleforth College I came on to bowl after Fred Trueman and Brian Statham! Unfortunately I dropped a catch of Trueman. I played for Hull in the Yorkshire League for nearly 30 years (my last season was 1996) and played several times at Headingley."

References
SPOONER, DEREK. “Odysseys in a Regional World.” Geography, vol. 86, no. 4, 2001, pp. 287–303. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40573609

North, John, and Derek Spooner. “The Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Coalfield: The Focus of the Coal Board's Investment Strategy.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 148, no. 1, 1982, pp. 22–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/634240.

Spooner, D. (1981). The Geography of Coal's Second Coming. Geography, 66(1), 29-41. Retrieved September 14, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41414463
https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2000.tb00131.x - a piece on Larkin and Hull

If anyone has other memories of Derek Spooner's time as GA President please get in touch.

Updated March 2021

A memory of Derek from Jeremy Krause

1998 My good friends Wendy Garner and Elaine Jackson persuading me to stand for election as President, and the embarrassing situation, for all concerned, when it was announced at GA Council that there had been a tie in the voting for President between Derek Spooner and myself. It was resolved in the meeting by a ‘drawing of straws’ which Derek won. I then had to decide whether to continue. It was decided that I would be put forward uncontested for President the following year. 

After the meeting, Derek suggested that we should have gone down the ‘single stump in cricket’ route. I would have still have lost! 

Updated August 2022

Here's an image of Derek with Wendy Morgan.

Updated July 2024

Derek was also listed as an inspiration by Claire Birkenshaw, who has had a lecture theatre named after them.

John Pethick is also mentioned here, and he had a high profile back in the day, presenting schools geography videos.

2001 Conference - thanks to Joseph Kerski

Thanks to Joseph Kerski for the details of these conferences that he attended as a delegate.

University of Sussex, Brighton was the venue.

He was there in person and shared some links to the archive newsletters. 

2001 GA Conference from GeoBlogs

The move to Solly Street #3

I've been writing a few posts about the GA's move to Solly Street. Here's the third and final one.

The next person I consulted over the move to Solly Street was Ashley Kent, who was mentioned by Frances Soar as having been present in the car when the building was first spotted.

160 Solly Street has imposing steel doors, which were manufactured in the building itself as it was owned by a steel fabricator.

When you enter the building, there is also a stair case with steel bannisters.

I hadn't previously been aware of the reason why there so much steel around the place, although Sheffield is 'steel city' of course (and my dad was a steelworker for over 40 years).

Ashley gave me his memories of the move to Solly Street:

"My flawed - no doubt!? - memories were of driving round...with Frances I am sure at least, looking at premises in the Meadowhall area.

These were very much new retailing / warehousing / still industrial areas away from the city centre, and the GA staff were a little unhappy about that! 

Also we looked at rental premises at / next to the station but clearly inadequate re size / cost, but accessible for many! 

Solly Street felt like a rundown inner city area but with a big advantage of size and rent. Bizarrely it seems to have been a good decision!"

The premises next to the station were also mentioned by Peter Fox, who I also consulted about this move.

"The recollections are much as I remember them. The Fulwood Road site had its attractions - a nice old stone house with the ground floor used as the GA Library with oak shelves and members of staff housed in different 'bedrooms'. The search for a new home too is as I remember it. I was involved in the search - two properties we looked at were the old bus garage out towards Meadowhall and the refreshment rooms at Sheffield railway station. Very grand still with a huge long mahogany bar in a very good location but the storage space was very limited.
The fire of some of the book stock did mean we had a good clear-out of old stock but we were lucky to keep the Fluere Library books and a complete run of the journals which were not stored there. We got a very good deal on the building which the daughters of the previous owner wanted to get rid of at the time and we did not have too much work to do to get it into shape - it had been a specialist stainless steel factory. We had an official opening by Wendy Morgen - President at the time but most of the GA meetings were still held in London."

It turned out we had our beermeet in the premises that Peter and Ashley looked at the last time that the GA was held in Sheffield.

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

Beermeet picture taken by Matt Podbury

AGI

While going through some pictures of GA News articles, I came across reference to the creation of the Association for Geographical Information some decades ago - in 1989.

It is still going strong, and organising conferences and other events, one of which I attended some years ago.

Name the President

A puzzle for you. 

Which GA President is this, at Temple Meads Railway Station with a group of students in 1975?

In the days when British Rail offered very cheap group day return tickets for school groups.

Image supplied by the President in question...

The move to Solly Street #2

Carl Lee's request for information on the move to Solly Street led me next to Keith Grimwade.

Carl sent me this image showing planned accommodation in the Solly Street area for students. Circle proportional to number of bedrooms. The GA is being surrounded.

Keith Grimwade was President in 2006

Prior to that, he was involved in some of the decision making over the new home for the GA HQ after Fulwood Road was outgrown. 

He told me:

"I was Chair of the Education Standing Committee when it was being discussed at Governing Body. There were three main reasons for choosing the premises in Solly Street:
1. It was affordable
2. It was accessible
3. It had sufficient storage space for the growing range and stock of publications - this was a real bonus, Fulwood Road had become decidedly cramped.

The area was very run down and there were staff concerns about safety. The quiet corners of the building were home to the night time economy. Effort was put into lighting, signage and security and it wasn’t long before the building was left largely alone. There was a feeling that the area was on the cusp of being ‘on the up’ and it wasn’t just geographers joking when the talk turned to cycles of urban regeneration."

Explore the area on Street View here:

Charney 2021

I've mentioned the Charney Conference a number of times on the blog.

This is a Primary-focussed gathering, which was originally started some time ago as a more general gathering in 1970.

Rex Walford and some contemporaries were part of the organising committee, when it became more Primary focussed. There is plenty of interest for all key stages.

The 2021 version of the conference is happening online rather than face to face as was hoped. I hope to be back for Charney 25th Anniversary next year.

I'll be presenting a paper on the final day.

Details and booking form in this tweet.

If you are interested in #primarygeography we would love you to join us at the Charney Manor Primary Geography Conference to be held from 27th-28th February 2021 . The price is £30 for the weekend. Please complete a registration form: https://t.co/VTY2mw5EPJ

— Charney Manor Primary Geography Research (@ManorCharney) January 19, 2021

1999: Professor Michael Bradford

Last updated November 2025

Michael Bradford was a stalwart supporter of the GA for decades, in various capacities, and led on a great many initiatives to promote the subject at all levels throughout his career.

He was Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Manchester.

Some descriptions from Michael's University page:
After an undergraduate degree at St Catharine's College Cambridge, I did postgraduate work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and completed a PhD at Cambridge. 

My first post was as a Lecturer at the University of Manchester (1971) where eventually I became Professor of Geography. 

My research interests have been on the geographies of education, the geographies of children and urban policy evaluation. 

The underlying themes that tie the work together are inequalities, social exclusion and social polarisation. Similar themes featured in my teaching. I have also completed some pedagogic research and published papers on learning and teaching, and earlier in my career written texts for school geography.

Michael was very much involved in the GA Manchester Branch, which is one of the oldest of the GA Branches, and has previously won a GA Award. He kindly welcomed me when I gave the Herbertson Memorial Lecture in 2008, to over 200 people.

Michael particularly loved the city of Manchester, and led a tour of the city during the most recent GA Conference in the city.
He also attended the 125th anniversary dinner of the GA at Christchurch College, Oxford, which I have blogged about previously.

Sadly, during the compilation of this blog, Michael passed away in July 2019. It was announced on social media at the time and was a catalyst for me contacting other Presidents earlier than I otherwise would have done. I am sorry that I didn't get the chance to chat to Michael about his career in person.

A Celebration of Michael's life was held at the University of Manchester on the 19th of October 2019. It was attended by many people who had been inspired by his work, including a significant number of former GA Presidents.

The Celebration was led by Ashley Kent, Janet Pickering and Derek Spooner, along with Sheila.

Michael had also planned a party that was to take place at the Sports club, where he and Sheila had been members since the late 1970s. Several hundred people had already responded affirmatively to this event, but it was cancelled, as he was very unwell and in the hospital at the end of June. This party was meant to celebrate various things, including he and Sheila's Golden Wedding. 

Sheila told me:

"Michael had outlined what he wanted to be included in his Celebration of Life. He said he wanted it to be at the University, in a lecture theatre and also that there would be a video of him speaking at the beginning of it. I was able to implement almost all of what he wanted. Michael would have loved the reunion of people at the reception following his Celebration of Life."

His obituary, written by another former GA President Derek Spooner (who also introduced his GA Presidential Lecture in 2000) was published in The Guardian, and he explained that Michael may well have had a career on the stage.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/07/ichael-radford-obituary

In 2003, Chris Kington asked a number of former Presidents what had sparked their passion for geography. He lent me the letters that he received at the time, and here is the response that Michael sent to Chris at the time. It describes a trip to Arran in the company of future Ofsted chief Chris Woodhead.

This contains some memories of particular teachers, including Charles Larkinson. He talks about the importance of travel and holidays.

"A gradual immersion - inspiring teaching - a kind man who drove me to Arran among many kind acts - and a few key moments and walking holidays. Fun and Geography were connected, as were kindness and Geography."

Thanks so much to Chris Kington for the loan of the letters.

In January 2021, I had the chance to chat to Sheila Kaplan Bradford. She was keen to talk through the work that Michael had done through his long career, and also very kindly sent me a number of documents and videos. One of the most entertaining elements was a recording of the speech that Michael gave at the Presidents' Dinner, with plenty of jokes. 

Sheila told me: "I would say that the essence of Michael was his concern for all people. He felt passionately about trying to redress the inequalities and injustices suffered within societies. He was keen to make sure that his philosophy and way of life reflected that strong moral and ethical ideal." 

Michael was born on the 6th December 1944 at St Helier's Hospital, Carshalton in Surrey. He attended Winchcombe County Primary School, Carshalton and Wallington County Grammar School for Boys, followed by studies at St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge, BA Cantab (1964-67) and PhD: thesis (1968-71): Spatial Aspects of Urban Consumer Behaviour 

Between his undergraduate and graduate studies at Cambridge, Michael attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for one year as a post-graduate in the Department of Geography. This experience convinced him that he wanted to pursue a career in teaching and research at University level rather than becoming a secondary school teacher, which had been his original plan. His career took him to a number of institutions and involved some significant achievements:

1971: University of Manchester - Professor of Geography awarded 1997, and Professor Emeritus

1996-2000:  Head of the School of Geography 

2001-2004:  Pro-Vice-Chancellor responsible for Teaching and Learning 

2004-2005 Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning 

2006-8:   HE Academy: Senior Associate (one-day a week) Jointly led Change Academy sponsored by the HEA and the Leadership Foundation

In this role, Michael visited a range of institutions interacting with staff or giving workshops in relation to Change and Leadership. These included Dundee, Robert Gordon, Bangor, Aston, Sheffield, Lampeter, Plymouth, St Mary’s and Cambridge. In addition Michael led leadership workshops for a national audience for the HEA. These led to some mentoring of staff outside the University of Manchester where he completed many mentoring sessions as part of Manchester Gold, including supporting teachers such as Sue Bermingham.

Distinguished Achievement Medal: Teacher of the Year 2005 at the new University of Manchester. 

HEFCE-funded National Teaching Fellowship 2006 £10,000, a prestigious national award. 

GA Council member: 1992-2001 and 2006-2010 and President 1999-2000.

IBG: 1990-93 Member of the Council of the Institute of British Geographers Secretary of Council’s Education Committee. IBG Conference Officer 1992-95 Member of Council’s Education Committee. RGS/IBG: Invited as Chair of Higher Education Subcommittee with a seat on the Research and Higher Education Division (RGS/IBG) merged society. 

Education Division of RGS/IBG 1998-2002 Research Division. 1998-2004 Member of Council RGS/IBG (elected 2000-3, co-opted before and after)

2000-2003:  Chair of Joint Committee of RGS/IBG – GA

RGS/IBG Study Groups various committees eg HESG 1992-2000

1990-93:  Chair of the Urban Geography Study Group of the IBG - organised resurrection with six meetings and major improvement to finances Awarded by RGS with IBG: 

Taylor and Francis Award for excellence in teaching and learning in geography in higher education. 

Michael was also the HE rep on Dearing’s Slimming of the National curriculum. Vice Chair of Subject Benchmarking Group & QAA auditor. 

1993-6: Developed a new 'A' level and Chaired the Exam Board: NEAB(AQA)

He also had a great many interests outside of his work.Michael was chair of the Bramhall Community Council in the 1980s. This was a new thing and I think they understood what a good overview Michael had of the area and the politics. I think he was viewed as having balanced views of the issues which affected the community. He likely would have been a good councillor, but he became too involved in the University. Michael loved sports and played squash for many years at Grove Park Squash Club, and  very involved in the overall running of Manchester Football Club and Cheadle Hulme Cricket Club. He acted as overall Secretary of the Club for three years. 

Michael's Presidential theme was Pride of Place. 

Sheila told me "An engagement with place was always very significant to Michael. This was true of both of us, which is why I came up with the idea, that Michael loved, that we were like two pieces of Blackpool Rock with Geography [or Geographer] written through us. Michael loved that image. Michael became very involved in the Manchester Branch of the GA. He served as Local Branch President, at least once, if not more, and continued to serve on the committee in different roles including up to the time of his death. He was very supportive of all their activities and took part in all the functions held, such as the World Wise Quiz. He mentored a number of the teachers, who were involved in the GA, both officially and unofficially. He was held in very high regard by all of them. He contributed to the fairly recent publication of a book[let] about the history of the Manchester Branch. He presented the Herbertson Lecture to the Branch and combined meeting with the local Geological Society. He frequently travelled to other GA branches to give presentations to the society. Some of these were on geographical topics and others were about applying to University to study Geography.

One of my most vivid memories is when Michael was asked to dress up as Barnaby Bear for the GA conference and to wander around the exhibit as part of a promotion for Barnaby Bear and the books, and eventual television series. People were supposed to guess which Past President was in the bear costume."

See the previous post on Barnaby Bear for the image of Michael in the Barnaby Bear costume.

Thanks very much to Sheila for her many contributions to this post.

References

A small selection of many references and publications:

1977: "Human Geography: Theories and their Application". Oxford, Oxford University Press, 180pp. (with W.Ashley Kent) over 10 impressions. 

Hardback edition in Zimbabwe, 1991. 

Translated into: 1981 Geografi Manusia. Kuala Lumpur, Penerbit Eajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd, 237pp, Malaysian 1987 Geografia Humana. Lisbon, Gradiva, 2&4pp Portuguese 

This book has become a major text used around the world. 

1993 "Understanding Human Geography: People and their Changing Environments". Oxford, Oxford University Press 320 pp. (with W. Ashley Kent) 

[Geographical Association prize: a significant contribution to Geography]

1979-1994: Michael was a co-editor of a major series for Routledge on Geography and the Environment with Prof. A. Wilson (Leeds), N. Thrift (Bristol) and E.Soja (UCLA). This enabled the dissemination of geographical research. Over the years Michael personally acted as editor of 24 books.

And finally....

Here's Michael and colleagues performing YMCA on the rooftop of the University, which originally had 15 million views before being taken down temporarily...

Images copyright: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association

As Sheila said: 

"Michael had always been passionate about the subject and promoting it within schools. He was always interested in making sure there were strong links within the education sector - from Primary to Secondary to Higher Education. He felt strongly about how much the GA could contribute to the support for school teachers. Michael just passionately cared about people."

He also introduced a major change to the GA during his time as President, one which ran for over 30 years, and was only changed this year.

As President, Michael set up the Presidents Group ie the Junior Vice, Vice and current President along with the past President would meet several times a year to establish continuity of policy (the group was renamed to the Governance Working Group last year). 

The President's role, he said, is much more than a figurehead role. Michael reviewed and restructured the HQ staff. He helped establish the GA's weebsite. He improved links with the RGS/IBG, and  introduced a day for PGCE students and NQTs at conference. All these and other work set the base for more recent change within the organisation.

This is an important and powerful legacy, for which the GA is grateful to Michael Bradford.

Further memories of Michael and his work would be very welcome.

Update March 2021

Here's Michael and myself stood next to each other after picking up GA Awards back in 2015.

500 up

Since starting this blog in April 2019, I've chronicled the lives of every GA President from 1893 to 1998 (at the moment) and with just over '20 years' left of the project, I've passed the 500th post on the project. 

I think when access to the archives is possible once again, there will be plenty of additions to many of these posts. Each communication with former Presidents opens up new snippets which can be factored into the writing, and there are several threads that I haven't followed as much as I will.

There are probably another hundred posts to come at this stage.

The blog is scheduled to continue until September 2020, when there will be a slight change in emphasis, and perhaps a switch to the Living Geography blog instead.

Coming tomorrow: Professor Michael Bradford, President for 1999-2000.

Presidents XI

Well, ten at least. The gentleman at far top left is apparently Don Garman.

Regular readers of the blog will be able to identify the other Presidents I am sure.

Thanks to John Westaway for sending me the image, which was probably originally taken by Bryan Ledgard.

GA Trustee Election - February 2021

An important part of the GA is the opportunity for members to get involved in different ways. Key roles include the trustees who form the Governing Body. There are also elections when there is more than one candidate for the role of Vice President, who eventually becomes President and Past President (this has now become a 3-year rather than a 4-year cycle).

GA members have until the end of February to vote for a place on the Governing Body. There are two candidates: Charlotte Milner, and Hina Robinson.

Follow the link in the tweet here to read their statements, and cast your vote - another important element of GA membership: to have a voice in decisions like this.

We are currently holding a a ballot for the GA Trustee Election - make sure you cast your ballot! https://t.co/qUfnuAFEi5

— Geographical Assoc (@The_GA) February 4, 2021

GA Conference 1990

Thanks to former President Richard Daugherty for sending through a copy of the conference handbook for the conference in his Presidential year. It was held at LSE. There's plenty of lovely details in here from that year's conference, and will post some of them our on the blog as we go through the next week or so. All such ephemera and conference documents and images welcome.

Barnaby Bear

Image: Bryan Ledgard

Barnaby Bear® is an excellent ambassador for understanding the world for young people and is now well over twenty years old.

Thanks to Paula Richardson, a trustee of the GA, and someone who has been involved with GA Publishing for many years, for sending through some information on the origins of Barnaby, who was licensed to the BBC for a number of animated series and books, and is still around, having adventures.

She told me

I devised BB as a scheme of work back in 1995 when we had to rush out schemes of work for all the nC subjects. This was the most frequently downloaded SOW for quite a long period. I then had the copyright given to me from DfE and the BBC which I passed onto the GA.

Some further background on the origins of Barnaby Bear.

The Barnaby Bear project arising from the QCA Scheme of Work (‘Where in the World is Barnaby Bear’?) has done much to promote new ways of bringing geography alive for younger children. It is a useful tool in involving children in working with geographical concepts which otherwise might be too difficult for them. Using an animal is a way into arousing interest and curiosity in young children and provides a bridge from their own small world to a larger world outside. 

From 1998 – 2002 the BBC filmed 12 programmes for the ‘Watch’ series – 8 were geographically based and 4 were more generally based for showing on ‘Cbeebies’. All these programmes have enjoyed a run /re-run on television which has far out stripped the normal ‘five year ’limit for programmes of this type. 

The geography programmes were then sold to CBeebies and ran for several years on this channel. 

I have a 'hand puppet style' bear. BB also appeared at Michael Bradford's Conference after dinner speech.

Barnaby Bear is due to get a relaunch, so keep an eye out for the cuddly globetrotter...

Several GA Presidents and other staff have also been seen wearing the costume at the GA Conference over the years. Can you guess who this is inside the costume?

Clue - he's the next GA President up on the blog.