A FORMER Manor CE School boy who is travelling thousands of miles to attend a reunion is looking for old classmates to get in touch.

The school is 200 years old this year and among a host of events organised to commemorate the anniversary is a service of celebration in York Minster on May 21.

One person attending that service will be 72-year-old Norman Rowley, who will be coming from his home in Brisbane, Australia.

Mr Rowley played football and cricket for Manor and after leaving school worked for Bellerby’s painters and decorators, before he and his wife, Thelma, moved to New Zealand and then Australia.

At the same time as helping to celebrate the school’s birthday, Mr Rowley and his old classmate Tony Huntington would like to meet old school friends from 1954, and they are helping to coordinate a reunion after the Minster service by possibly having a buffet meal together.

Mr Rowley said: “Tony and I were at Manor together in the 1950s and were in the same cricket and football teams and we have been good friends since that time. Tony left school at Easter in 1954 and I left in the summer of 1954.”

He said he still remembered the names of some friends from 1954 – Allen Haigh, Dave Garlick, Terry Jefferson, Jill Collins, Kate Pragnell, Dave Ryder, Alwyn and John York, to name but a few.

Mr Huntington said if anyone was a member of that year group and would like to meet up they can contact him by email at huntington.tony@gmail.com or by phone on 01262 676520.

As part of the school’s celebrations they have already held a founders’ dinner at the Merchant Taylor’s Hall in Aldwark.

The school is also compiling an A4, 104-page hardback commemorative book which is still under production and will feature a full history of the school – including memories from both Mr Rowley and Mr Huntington.

The Minster service is open to the public, admission is free, but tickets must be obtained from the school in advance.