AFTER driving through one of the toughest pieces of legislation this government has produced, on university tuition fees, education secretary Charles Clarke earned himself a reputation as a political bruiser.

But Labour's hard nut showed his softer side last week when he traced his North-East roots back to two village schools with close family ties.

Mr Clarke spent an emotional afternoon at Frosterley Community School, where his grandfather William Skinner was headmaster for 33 years, from 1919 to 1952.

Earlier the minister had toured the old Wolsingham Grammar School building where his mother, William's daughter Brenda, became head girl, excelling academically and on the sports field.

From former Frosterley pupils he learned of disciplinarian William's firm but fair regime and of the lessons he gave them in every imaginable subject from growing tomatoes to appreciating Shakespeare.

Retired Jaguar test driver Bryan Collinson, now 67, told him of the canings he received but never resented.

He said: "It was the cane across the hand for girls as well as boys. You only did something once.

"I told Mr Clarke a lot of good things about his grandfather. I learnt a lot from him that stood me in good stead in later life."

Mr Collinson remembers Brenda, later Lady Brenda Clarke, visiting her father at Frosterley. He said: "She was a lovely girl. All the boys had a crush on her. She was prettier than Marilyn Monroe, she could have been a film star.

"She had a perfect bone structure, a perfect smile and the perfect figure. When she came to visit her dad everyone would just stop and stare."

Brenda's name is recorded on the grammar school honours board in 1935 and 1937.

She was a classmate of Ernest Armstrong, the former MP whose daughter Hilary is Government Chief Whip, moving on to study philosophy at Bedford College, London, one of the first Weardale girls to go to university.

She later joined the Civil Service, switching careers after the birth of her three children to become a respected clinical psychologist. She was 82 when she died in September 2001.

Mr Clarke said: "I have felt it an emotional day, seeing the records of my mother's time at school and what she achieved.

"I have learnt that my grandfather was a respected figure and great teacher. He was a disciplinarian who got the best out of children."