A TV SPORTS commentator and broadcaster dropped in to see pupils at an East Yorkshire school.

BBC personality Clare Balding visited Pocklington School and spoke to pupils about celebrated former pupil William Wilberforce this week as part of her BBC Radio 4 Ramblings series.

Ms Balding asked head girl Hebe Quinney and head boy Mikey Smith about Wilberforce, a prominent leader of the movement to abolish slavery. They showed her the Wilberforce Statue in the school grounds, along with a mosaic and slave sculpture marking his achievements.

The broadcaster visited with Dr Rev Inderjit Bhogal OBE, a leading theologian and Methodist Minister who created the Wilberforce Way, a 60-mile walk between Hull and York commemorating the bicentenary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1807.

Dr Bhogal is the founder and president of the City of Sanctuary movement which works with community groups across the UK to build a culture of welcome and hospitality, particularly towards asylum seekers and refugees. Dr Bhogal’s work with interfaith relations was recognised by an OBE in 2005.

Ms Balding and Dr Bhogal also met students from the school’s equestrian team and staff from its rambling group, The Worthwhile Wanderers. They recorded students talking about William Wilberforce and Ms Balding signed autographs and obligingly posed for selfies with the group.

The visitors then left to walk along part of the Wilberforce Way for an episode of the Ramblings series which is due to be broadcast next month.

Deputy head, Clare Bracken said: “We are extremely proud of all that Old Pocklingtonian William Wilberforce achieved and our pupils were thrilled to welcome Clare and Inderjit to the school to talk about him.

“Wilberforce is a leading example of the school values of Courage, Truth and Trust which drive all that we do at Pocklington and mean that our students leave with a strong sense of personal and social responsibility, along with the ability to shape their own future.”

The Ramblings episode will be on Radio 4 on February 27 at 3pm and repeated on February 29 at 6.07am.

This is the second time in recent weeks that the school has been used as a location, as previously reported, the school was used for filming by a production company over the Christmas holidays, following an enquiry from a former student.

Ex-Pocklington School pupil George Jibson is now the production manager for a new docu-drama that Five Fifty Five Productions Ltd is working on, named Hellfighters.

The team of actors, crew and production staff used the school’s dining hall for a day as the base for wardrobe, make up, production planning and stunt rehearsals, in preparation for filming scenes both in and outside the music school.