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Around Town Meets...
David Hinchliffe
 Meeting the former Wakefield MP at the National Mining Museum for England, at the Caphouse Colliery site, near Overton, was in many ways an ideal location and ideal occasion.
Like many West Riding people, we both have mining ancestry and are proud of our mining heritage. David’s connection with the NCM is a long one, going back to the days when it functioned as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and until recently he served as a trustee.
He continues to be a great supporter of what we both feel to be one of the most important museums in England and one that has a major educational role for people of all ages.
 It was marvellous meeting David and having a long chat with him for the first time. But this needs a little qualification. We had met, albeit briefly, on a number of occasions in the recent past, at events at the NCM and at Family History Fairs. It was at the latter events that I became aware of David’s passionate interest family and local history, subjects that he is now taking to another level.
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 The last twelve months or so has been very much a sorting out period for David who retired as MP for Wakefield in May 2005 after eighteen years in the job. Organising and clearing a mountain of paperwork in his office has been a major task and he told me that there were still items in storage that needed attention. Life has been far from quiet after a notable parliamentary career.
Requests to speak on a range of subjects and consultation on a variety of matters, especially health issues have occupied a good deal of his time. He also told me that he feels more relaxed and is enjoying life more than ever, looking forward to being able to study and write. By now he is probably a part-time Masters degree student at Leeds University, starting a course on local and regional history. For David learning really is a passionate and lifelong activity.
David Hinchliffe has no regrets about leaving Parliament. Certainly not sad to leave London. It would be safe to assume that he would have been re-elected and gone on to serve a term similar to that of his predecessor, Walter Harrison. We have already noted that his own educational interests were a major factor in calling it a day but there were other influences too. Politically, it is well known that David was not happy about the direction in which Tony Blair and New Labour were taking the party. Working as an MP has been ‘a hard slog’, especially in the early days when his family were young. This was a time when all-night sittings in the House were not unusual as was returning home from London feeling absolutely exhausted. Reform certainly made parliamentary life better but I don't think David will miss the seven days a week job of a modern member of parliament. There will be more time to pursue other interests. Yet this does not mean to say that he did not enjoy a tough role.
He became Labour’s shadow spokesman on Personal Social Services under John Smith’s leadership. Chairing the influential Commons Health Select Committee for two parliaments was one David’s major achievements. He enjoyed being able to look in detail at party issues and travel all over Britain and abroad as part of this process.
Typically, David described this as a continuous learning experience. Locally, he has been involved in many issues, one of the most proudest relating to the building of a new hospital for Wakefield.
The great debate over the Nottinghamshire/Yorkshire origins of Robin Hood reached Parliament in February 2004 when David raised the subject of Hood’s Yorkshire background. David had been interest in Robin Hood since he was a schoolboy. His headmaster, Harold Speak, compiled a booklet suggesting that Robin was in fact Robert Hode from Wakefield.
David brought the subject to parliament in view of the lack of attention given to the possible Yorkshire aspect of the legend. David strongly questioned the ‘Robin Hood’s country’ signs on crossing the Nottinghamshire border and had sponsored a function at the Commons where historian David Greenwood gave a detailed presentation of the Yorkshire connections. Researching his own family name has resulted in a possible Robin Hood connection in relation to a Prioress of Kirklees, believed to be Mary de Inchliffe. Robert Hode’s wife, Matilda, may have been related to the Prioress of Kirklees in the fourteenth century. David believes that, subject to research findings, more signposts should remind us of the Hood connection in the Wakefield area and not just Barnsdale and certainly not just Sherwood. The great Robin Hood debate even resulted in David making a personal appearance on the Richard and Judy Show along with a man in green tights.
As we have already seen, David Hinchliffe is proud of his mining ancestry which stretches back over six generations on his paternal line. This includes eight year old John Hinchliffe, killed in an almost forgotten winding accident at Norcroft Colliery, near Cawthorne in 1821. Talking to David, there is no doubt that his father, Robert, was a great influence. An unskilled labourer, who worked in a variety of jobs but especially on the railways, Robert was a Christian Socialist with a strong moral view on life. Serious health problems meant that young David became a frequent hospital visitor, gaining an early experience of health matters. David’s paternal grandfather, Oliver worked at Walton pit and had his back broken in about 1919, becoming a surface worker. A socialist, involved in the Normanton Labour Party, maybe David takes after him too. David’s maternal grandfather came from Retford so he has to quietly admit to Nottinghamshire forebears, though, as we have seen, Robin Hood may have been a Yorkshireman.
The most significant event in David’s early schooling was failing the Eleven Plus. He vividly recalls standing in the hall of Lawefield Lane school listening to the names read out, accompanied by applause, of those who had passed to go to grammar school. Labelled as a secondary modern reject, David lost some of his friends and the stigma had a major impact on his life. An angry young man.
I really do know how he felt and does feel about inequalities. Apart from playing in the Cathedral School rugby league team, David described his secondary experience as ‘a waste of time’. This was a time when it was expected that girls would leave to find work in the mills and boys work down the pit or in factories.
However, Wakefield Technical College came to David’s rescue. Leaving school before his fifteenth birthday, he spent two years there, obtaining five ‘O’ levels, two of them through attendance at night school.
David Hinchliffe’s first job was as a farm labourer. He was sixteen. Two years’ work as a clerical officer with the YEB followed; but then his ‘O’ levels got him into social work, as a trainee in what was then Leeds Welfare Department.
A secondment at Leeds Polytechnic resulted in professional qualifications and it was social work, as a team leader that was David’s job prior to entering Parliament.
David’s political interests began at a remarkably early age, when he was eleven, in his final year at Lawefield Lane.
His class teacher, Ronnie Walshaw introduced a regular weekly debate on a topical issue and David loved to take part, sometimes, for the sake of argument taking an unfashionable perspective.
By sixteen he was a member of the local Labour Party. His contribution must have been noticed since, following the death of a Tory, he was asked to stand for election, and confounded the odds by winning. A 22-year-old councillor serving for Wakefield City was quite unusual.
By 1974 David was asked to stand for the District Council but this occurred at a time when he wanted to further his studies.
He completed a part-time MA in Social and Community Work at Bradford University, returning to council duties in 1979.
Following Walter Harrison’s retirement, David won the nomination contest at the first round, entering parliament in 1987. On a memorable first day, David told me that the Leeds Central MP, Derek Thatchet ‘showed us the ropes’, referring to other newcomers and friends, Alice Mahon (Halifax) and John Battle (Leeds West). They then ‘got into serious trouble’ for going into one of the Commons bars in order to open their respective piles of mail since there was nowhere else to sit. An untimely bout of chickenpox, obtained on the campaign trail, put paid to an immediate maiden speech but when it did take place it was a typically passionate one, against the privatisation of water supplies, particularly the use of water-metering on health grounds. The speech resulted in an usual amount of media coverage for the young backbencher.
I asked David who he considered to be the best speakers during his time in Parliament. He told me that he was always impressed by the speeches of the labour left-wingers, Eric Heffer and Dennis Skinner but also found Edward Heath’s contributions witty and noteworthy. One of the best recent orators in recent years, despite David disagreeing with him on issues, was George Galloway.
Sport, particularly Rugby League, is a well-known passion. Because of the long-time Union/League divide, David introduced a bill relating to discrimination in sport in 1995. At the time if you played Rugby League you could not play Rugby Union, even on an amateur basis. A personal ban bore testimony to this. Breaking down the barrier meant a great deal in areas such as the West Riding, Wales and Scotland. Although the bill did not complete its course it was significant factor in driving Rugby League to go open. David and many others thought the ban was an infringement of human rights and related to the kind of class politics that David always related to. ‘The more I travelled the world’, David told me, ‘the more I found the British class system an obscenity.’
It certainly angered him deeply and was at the heart of the Rugby debate at the time. Echoes here of public school verses the secondary modern lad.
David Hinchliffe has been a lifelong supporter of Wakefield Trinity. He loves the game. His direct participation was as an amateur rather than a professional player. Some of the players that he idolised in the late 1950s and 1960s are now good friends and he has authored several books on rugby league.
Presently, David’s voluntary work includes serving on the Benevolent Committee that raises funds in support of injured rugby players and he chairs the MS Society’s Advisory Board on Social Care.
David Hinchliffe now has a lot more time to spend on his family, leisure and educational interests, from researching and writing local and family history, sailing the inland waterways, supporting rugby league or just walking in his beloved West and South Yorkshire with his dog.
Published Autumn 2006. All information correct at time of print
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