Mirfield Grammar School Photographs

Grammar School Photographs

May 1954

Sept 1957

For those who were not there, or as a reminder to those who were, I will go over how these photographs was taken. Although the pupils appear to be in a straight line they are actually arranged in an arc. The camera was positioned in the centre of the arc. When everything was ready we were told that the camera would traverse the arc and we were warned not to move when it was pointing at us. Edith Gomersal (last girl in the middle of the back row on the 1954 photo) ignored this instruction. When the camera was triggered it started at the left side and slowly scanned around the arc until it reached the other end. As the camera scanned the arc, the film inside the camera also moved so that each part of the picture was exposed onto a fresh part of the film. When developed, a long negative was produced from which the resulting print was made.

M.G.S. Reunions

Early in 2006 a group of old MGS pupils who attended the school together in the early 1950s came together by email and other means and resolved to celebrate a visit by Barry Riding from France, where he has settled after globetrotting for most of his life. As most of us still lived in or around Mirfield, the Hare and Hounds was chosen as the venue with David Walker crossing the Pennines to join us. This was such an enjoyable experience that Barry has crossed the channel on a few other occasions and another reunion was arranged in July of the same year. We had managed to contact a few others from our school-year so although we lost one of our number who was away on holiday we grew from 6 to 8.

From this humble beginning the group has grown steadily until we are now in contact with many more 'old boys' and 'old girls', 16 of whom were able to gather on February 15, 2007 for a send-off celebration for David Clegg who was emigrating from our mother country to Australia. We all wished him well and promised to keep in touch. David is now settled and is quite happy with his move.

October 2007 was the first reunion in what is expected to be its regular anual slot and was our most successful to date with 21 male ex-pupils, 4 female ex-pupils, 3 teachers and 2 wives giving a grand total of 30.

Click any of these reunion pictures for a larger image with names.

March 2, 2006


February 15, 2007

July 12, 2006


October 4, 2007

October 19, 2006

The next reunion for the 1951 intake of Mirfield Grammar School will provisionally be held on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 12:00 noon. We were pleased to have more ladies at the October 2007 reunion but there is still plenty of room for other 'old girls' at future events so please don't be afraid to join us. We were also delighted that once again 3 of our teachers were present, Mr. Saywell, Mr. Jones and Mr. Charnock. Mrs Jones sent her appologies as she had hoped to attend but had to pull out at the last minute and Miss Smith was also missing as she has had a recent illness and wasn't up to full strength. If anyone is tempted to join in at future events it would be helpful if prospective attendees could  email me  sometime nearer the date so that the management of the venue can be given an approximation of the numbers to expect in our party. We would like to thank those who expressed an interest in this event but had to send their apologies due to conflicting commitments and we hope to see them at future events.

Other photos from the October 2007 reunion. Click any picture for a larger image.

MGS Under 16s Football Team

1954/55

MGS Speech Day 1952