Nunthorpe Grammar School reunion will recall the end of an era

JULY 19, 1985, marked the end of an era for schools in York. It was the day the city's old grammar and secondary modern schools disappeared, to be replaced by modern comprehensives.

"City Schools Bow Out" said the headline in the Yorkshire Evening Press that day. "The school bell will toll for the last time today at eight of York's schools, marking the end of an era," read the story beneath.

"They will ring out the old selective system of education which has moulded generations of the city's children, ringing in the modern, comprehensive alternative."

Under the shake-up, four grammar and ten secondary modern schools were replaced by seven comprehensives: Archbishop Holgate's, Burnholme, Lowfield, Manor C of E, Millthorpe, Oaklands and Queen Anne.

The talk was all of a new era.

But at Nunthorpe Grammar School the atmosphere on that very last day of the very last term was rather flat, as English master Darrell Buttery noted in his journal.

Nunthorpe was closing: and in its place was to be a new school, Millthorpe Comprehensive, forged by the merger of Nunthorpe with Mill Mount Grammar School for Girls.

"The last day of Nunthorpe," Mr Buttery noted in his journal. "The weather matched our feelings, and Arthur Harrison summed them up when he said he felt 'flat'. The morning passed without anything memorable or nostalgic happening, although it was kept busy enough...

"Final assembly was moving. There were the farewells, and both the speech from Mike Park and the reading from Jim Roberts were absolutely right. The rendering of Jerusalem, loud and sad, brought assembly - and Nunthorpe - to a close."

It was a low-key ending to a school which had been opened as a grammar school for boys only 65 years earlier, and which numbered among its old boys none other than former Business Secretary Vince Cable himself.

Nunthorpe Court, which became the base for Nunthorpe Grammar, was a fine Victorian mansion built in 1856 by the Atkinson brothers. It later became the home of Colonel Sir Algar de Clifford Charles Meysey-Thompson.

After the First World War, with York's only secondary school for boys, Archbishop Holgate's, becoming seriously overcrowded, York council bought Nunthorpe Court for the grand sum of £10,750. The school opened in 1920 with 49 boys, 27 of them fee-paying.

Nunthorpe Court was a beautiful building set high up (for York) in attractive grounds, with stunning views across the city: a wonderful setting for a school.

In the early days, according to an article in a 1970 Old Boys magazine, the school was "crammed with sporting and military trophies of its owner, a retired colonel.

There was no electric lighting, only open fires for heating. The most vivid memory is of a large wooden hut erected to augment the teaching space, where those at the front roasted and at the back, in bad weather, the ink froze in the ink wells."

The school quickly established a reputation for educational excellence, however. By 1929, when a new wing, assembly hall, tennis lawn, science laboratory and quadrangle had been added, the school was described in the York City Year Book as offering a 'thoroughly sound education, such as will fit boys for either professional or commercial careers.'

In her book The Best Years of Our Lives, written five years ago to mark 25 years since school reorganisation in York, oral historian Van Wilson carried interviews with several Nunthorpe 'old boys'. Godfrey Fowkes, born in 1918, went to the school in 1929.

"I think we always felt that Archbishop Holgate's was a better school," he admitted.

"It had more of a tradition about it. On the other hand, the education at Nunthorpe was better."

John Dale, who went to the school in 1933, remembered the "utter charm and grace and beauty of Nunthorpe. They had lovely Italian gardens and a beautiful parquet floor. iIn the main building, the glass dome was above and central light played into that floor. They had bas relief figures on the walls, everything was painted."

Dr Ian Stead, who went on to become Deputy Keeper of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities at the British Museum, went to Nunthorpe in 1947.

"You got very bright people there," he recalls, in an interview in Van's book. "I enjoyed art. I got thrown out of music because I was doing a caricature of the music master and he swiped me over the head and said: 'If you're so good, you can spend every music lesson in the art room'. So every music lesson I trotted along to the art room and picked up my canvas and had a whale of a time."

Tim Kjeldsen went to the school in the 1960s. "The assistant headmaster was called Jewels," he recalled. "We called him Jimmy. He was the one with the cane, he would go around terrifying the life out for people. But I never remember anyone getting caned.

"The geography teacher was Mr Peckitt. We called him Flaff because he had a flaffy moustache. He'd write things on the board and leave gaps and you were supposed to look up in text books to see what the gaps were and fill them in."

Darrell Buttery, well-known in York as President of York Civic Trust, was an English master at Nunthorpe from 1974 to 1975.

Interviewed for Van's book, he remembered Nunthorpe as "a superb school to teach in, marvellously good fun, a fantastic staff, terrific academic record, and great sporting prowess."

One of Mr Buttery's favourite activities was to take sixth formers to visit the York studio of artist John Langton, himself a Nunthorpe old boy. The way he explained his paintings was itself an education in art, Mr Buttery told The Press. "One boy said he learned more from Mr Langton in one hour than in the whole of his time at Nunthorpe!"

With the 30th anniversary of York's school reorganisation rapidly approaching, Mr Buttery decided it would be a good time to organise a reunion of Nunthorpe old boys at Millthorpe, the school which took its place.

The reunion, for Nunthorpe ex-pupils and staff, will be from 6.30pm onwards on Friday July 24, at Millthorpe.

Tickets will cost £28, and will include a buffet supper.

"The evening will be kept as informal as possible," he said. "Arrival is any time from 6.30pm. At 7pm, in the hall, with as many former staff as we can muster, there will be a welcome. After this the evening is free for you to explore and reminisce."

We'll sure there will be reminiscing aplenty. And there might just be mention of a certain commemorative mug that was produced to mark the end of the school. A thousand mugs were ordered, and Mr Buttery was in the school secretary's office when they arrived. "She went white when she saw them," he recalls. There was a spelling mistake on the mugs - have a look at our photo to see for yourself.

Most were immediately sent back, but Mr Buttery managed to hold on to a few. They became quite a collector's item, he admits: so much so that he now only has one left...

•  To find out more about the Nunthorpe reunion, email darrellbuttery@hotmail.com, or write to Darrell Buttery, Knavesmire Lodge, 304 Tadcaster Road, York YO24 1HE

When the 11-plus exam was no more

The 1985 schools reorganisation in York marked the end of the 11-plus exam and of the selective system of education.

Schools which were phased out in the reorganisation included Mill Mount, Nunthorpe and The Bar grammar schools, Beckfield, Burton Stone, Danesmead and Derwent secondary modern schools, St George's secondary for boys and St Margaret Clitherow Roman Catholic School.

Following reorganisation, a total of four grammar and ten secondary modern schools had been replaced by just seven 'new-style' comprehensives: Archbishop Holgate's, Burnholme, Lowfield, Manor C of E, Millthorpe, Oaklands and Queen Anne.

If you went to one of the grammar or secondary modern schools that closed in 1985 and have memories or old photographs to share, or would like to organise your own reunion, we'd like to hear from you. Call Stephen Lewis on 01904 567263.