AHGS Last Days at Lord Mayor's Walk

Established in 1546, Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School has a long and honourable tradition in serving, not only the City of York, but all three surrounding Ridings.

At the present time, more than half the number of boys attending the school come from outside the City boundaries and each Riding is represented by a County Councillor on the Board of Governors.

Of the 585 boys in School, forty-two are boarders and, ever since its establishment, the School has attracted to it the sons of Service personnel.

Just over a hundred years ago, Holgate's Free School, as it was then known, moved from Ogleforth to its present building and became united with the Yeomans School already functioning there.

Now, in September 1963, an entirely new building on a site in Hull Road, outside the present City Boundary, will be occupied. This will provide more adequate accommodation for Staff and Boys and there will be five laboratories instead of the three in the present building.

Additional class-rooms will also be made available, along with a new and more extensive library. The present Memorial Library was built in memory of the 79 Old Boys who gave their lives in the First World War and is at present also used for Sixth Form teaching. The cost of this Library was met by donations and funds raised by Old Boys concerts and plays and the opening ceremony was conducted by the then Archbishop of York, in October 1923.

Every nook and cranny of the buildings is made to play its part, for accommodation has not kept pace with the increased numbers of boys in School.

Mr. Frith, who joined the School as Headmaster some two years ago, from Richmond School, Yorkshire, told me, with great satisfaction, of the increase in the number of boys over 16 who are staying on in the Sixth Form. There are, today, 108 against a previous 74 and this trend, he feels, is likely to continue.

Although the school seems to have established a strong scientific bias (indeed many boys who left school in the early part of this century are now among our leading Scientists), Mr. Frith, a Classical Scholar himself, tries hard to keep a boy from specialising until he reaches the Sixth Form, so that he may then have a free choice between the Arts and the Sciences.

Mr. Forster, his Senior Master, has been at the School for 41 years, actually becoming a pupil in 1915. And, although in his earlier years on the Staff he taught many and varied subjects, he now specialises in Physics.

Form Masters are regarded as being highly important in the School and Mr. Frith endeavours to ensure that they are attached to the same group of boys for at least two years and so begin to know them really well. For, within the School, each boy is treated very much as a 'person,' being encouraged to acquire self-respect and sound judgment.

In 1948 the School, after very many years of Direct Grant, ceased to charge fees and, in a sense reverted to its original form. This means that the Local Authority now has a much closer control on the intake of pupils, but the School, nevertheless, maintains its independent spirit. The Archbishop of York is still Chairman of its Board of Governors and it still retains its own Endowment Fund which is independently administered. Also, the acceptance of a boy still rests with the Headmaster.

As I wandered through the School Hall, I came to a portrait of Mr. A. B. Hodgson, a previous headmaster, much revered, who, retiring prematurely because of ill health, died only very recently. This painting is one of many donations to the School by the London Archbishop Holgate Society, an active body of some 60 Old Boys who meet and dine together at least twice a year and, on the occasion of the Old Boys Dinner in York, are usually well represented. The Old Boys Association itself has a membership of over 600.

In 1946, to mark the fourth Centenary of the School, they produced an illustrated Record of the School and, more recently, a number came North for the opening of the School's new boathouse. This was built entirely from donations following an Appeal by the Old Boys Association and has been sited near Scarborough Bridge.

Sports activities abound and include Rugby, Cricket and of course Rowing. New and more extensive playing fields will be attached to the new building, which will come into operation at the same time as the new York University.

Music flourishes, with a one hundred strong choir and an orchestra consisting of 60 instrumentalists. On the last two occasions of the York Festivals, the School has been responsible for the production of the Wagon Play touring the City three times a week, and orchestral concerts have been given in the Tempest Anderson Hall.

I couldn't help wondering, as I chatted to Mr Frith in his study, what had become of the previous Captains of School whose photographs form a frieze around the walls. Many, I was told are now prominent York business men (I recognised quite a few when they were pointed out to me). Others had gone further afield to make their names in the Church, Commerce and Industry. Two whom Mr Frith brought to mind were the Provost of Wakefield and Dr W Cawood, Senior Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister.

The school holds a place of deep affection in the hearts of its Old Boys and as I left the mellowed brick buildings with their creeper covered walls and small paned windows I think I understood a little of what they feel. Necessary as it is, I suppose. many of them will feel rather sad when the transfer is made to the new School Building in 1963.