THERE have been a lot of memories in the newspaper recently about Nunthorpe and Mill Mount grammar schools. But what about other York secondary schools that are no more?

Reader Hilary Nightingale (nee Hall) brought in a photo of herself and her classmates at Beckfield County Secondary Modern School taken in 1949. The school, on Beckfield Lane, has long since been demolished. Back then, it was brand new, says Mrs Nightingale (nee Hall) - who was Hilary Hall in her school days.

Now 79 and living in Clifton Without, Mrs Nightingale went to school first at St Paul’s off Holgate Road. She was then supposed to go to Poppleton Road senior school. “But it was bombed,” she says. “We were transferred to Scarcroft Road instead: we were called ‘Poppleton Road at Scarcroft.’”

Beckfield County was a brand new secondary modern which opened in 1948 to replace the senior department of Poppleton Road School. “It was a lovely school!” Mrs Nightingale recalls. “It was all brand new, and the teachers were lovely. Happy days there!”

We’d love to hear from any other readers who have memories or old photos of Beckfield County - or, indeed, of any other former York schools that have now vanished...

A couple of readers, meanwhile, have been in touch regarding the photographs we carried a couple of weeks ago of the York military tattoo at Knavesmire.

One reader from Foxwood - we think his name is WM Jeffin, but it is hard to be sure from the signature - described sitting on a wooden bench as a four-year-old in 1949 watching a tattoo. “The Knavesmire was all lit up with large floodlights,” he wrote. “There was a pretend castle and walls for scenery, with a large opening at the front where all the military display units came out and in. It was something I shall always remember, so exciting. It’s a pity we don’t still have it. People came from the north and south, east and west for the tattoo. The crowds sat right round the edge of the Knavesmire.” Many thanks for the memories, Mr Jeffin - and sorry if we got your name wrong!.”

Ken Harper, of Stamford Bridge, meanwhile, remembers attending a tattoo in the early 1950s - he thinks it would have been in 1952, 1953 or 1954 - with his mother and his father, who was a member of the Home Guard.

“My father was involved, although he just stood to attention throughout the tattoo,” Mr Harper writes.

Our photos of the tattoo came from the collection of the late York historian Hugh Murray. We have a couple more for you today that you may not have been. We hope these, too, jog a few memories...