BRIGG BOARDING HOUSE MEMORIES FLOOD BACK AS ANNIVERSARIES DRAW CLOSER

Writing Brigg Blog's post about current plans to refurbish the former Grammar School boarding house at what is now the Sir John Nelthorpe comprehensive, reminded us that a couple of 100-year anniversaries are drawing closer.
We hope the Briggensians' Association - representing former pupils and staff of BGS, Brigg Girls' High and SJN - will feel that one, or both, deserve celebrating in some way when the time comes.
The Brigg Grammar School Old Boys' Association (forerunner of today's organisation) was founded at a meeting held in the town on July 25, 1923.
The aim was to keep ex-pupils in touch with each other and with the school - still the case today.
The association 99 years ago wished to foster "social intercourse" through cricket and football matches and an annual dinner, while also helping ex-pupils who were "down on their luck." The period following the First World War saw an economic recession set in for the UK.
The association's annual subscription was set at two shillings (10p) which included receiving a copy of the school magazine.
The first formal dinner was held on January 5, 1924 at the Woolpack, Brigg Market Place (from 5.30pm). Tickets cost five shillings (25p).
Founder officials included: President, R. N. Sutton-Nelthorpe, the Scawby landowner; chairman, B.E. Spink, who farmed near Scunthorpe; secretary, E. F. Brown, a chemist at Lysaght's steelworks, Scunthorpe, and a football referee; treasurer, J. G. Marris, bank manager.
Brigg Grammar's headmaster at the time was H. E. Bryant, and there were 204 pupils - 52 of whom were resident boarders in School House.
A report about the formation of the BGS Old Boys’ Association appeared in the Christmas 1923 edition of The Briggensian (magazine) which was printed by Ashton's, whose works were in Brigg town centre.
During our period as a BGS pupil in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the boarding house was considered to be out of bounds to 'day boys'.
However, it was used for 'medicals' carried out by a visiting doctor to assess the fitness of all new pupils.
Boarders wore a different coloured tie and had their own 'house' when it came to sports teams - competing against day boys representing Ancholme, Nelthorpe, Sheffield and Yarborough.
Many boarders were the sons of farmers, business owners or officers serving in the Forces who were liable to be posted to bases far away and often abroad.
One Saturday afternoon in March, perhaps 15 years ago, we joined a tour of the boarding house which was given to former pupils who had lived there as far back as the 1940s. They returned to attend that evening's annual dinner of the Briggensians' Association at Elsham Golf Club.
It was a nostalgic time for the former boarders as they toured School House - by then converted to classrooms and other uses including a ground floor tuck shop and the SJN site headquarters of Brigg Sixth Form College. There was another for the Vale of Ancholme on Redcombe Lane.
Some of the 'Old Boys' on that Saturday tour could recall seeing the glow over Hull during Second World War bombing raids by Germany's Luftwaffe.
Such scenes were observed from the top floor of the tall building.
The boarders slept in dormitories, on different floors, and relaxed in what were known as common rooms, under the watchful eye of resident house masters. They also had to do lots of evening 'prep' - known as homework by the day boys. There was a boarding house matron and cleaning and catering staff.
The meals served were often discussed!
Any leftovers not consumed were picked up by a truck which made periodic visits and took the residue away in containers to a farm - presumably to be fed to animals.
Brian Williams, the last headmaster of Brigg Grammar School and (from 1976) the first headteacher of the new Sir John Nelthorpe comprehensive, lived with his wife in a house on one side of the boarding house (at the end of the drive off Grammar School Road).
In 1977 we joined other representatives of Brigg Town Cricket Club to meet the head, in his residence, to discuss using the school's fine ground for home matches in the Lincolnshire League, instead of Brigg Rec.
Humberside County Council, which by then had replaced Lindsey as the local education authority, was keen to see community use of various school facilities.
The headmaster was a skilled negotiator and although he complied with the authority's wishes, Saturday club games were only to take place during the school's Whit half-term break and its summer holidays (late July to early September). This was because the square was still needed for school matches on Saturdays during term time.
The club secretary (guess who?) had to undertake tactful negotiations with other teams to re-arrange a number of games.
But visiting teams were impressed by the standard of the square tended by resident groundsman Stan Beedham (from Wrawby) who had his own purpose-built headquarters on the edge of the field, known to pupils as Stan's Shed.
The headmaster's house was eventually re-purposed and one of its ground floor rooms, near the entrance, became the office of Brigg Sixth Form College's SJN director. A spacious common room for sixth form students was created nearby, overlooking the school field.
Former boarding house outbuildings became a bijou base for arts & design students.
We recall attending a ceremony in the boarding house to mark its extensive refurbishment - a tape being cut by Roy O'Neill, chairman of governors.
A look through our archives has failed to produce the end date for boarding at Sir John Nelthorpe School (in the 1980s?).
Can anyone assist? We think Gerry Longden, a well-known local sportsman and chemistry & PE master for many years, was the last boarding house master.
Grammar Schools used to be criticised years ago for offering largely classroom-based learning.
But we recall our maths class circa 1970 being taken onto the school field to measure the height of the boarding house by applying trigonometry we were being taught.
Boys paced out the distance from the building to a point on the field, measured the angle to the top of the roof with a protractor and then applied the mathematical formula. Sadly, we can't recall the correct answer.

PICTURED: The former boarding house viewed through a set of ruby posts, the building from above about 15 years ago and forming a back-drop to a School v Briggensians cricket match in June 2013. View details here...