The Maltonian Web


ARCHIVE PAGE: this website is gradually being updated from May 2022

Progress log 2016

  • 1 December 2016 A first attempt at adding the contents of The Maltonian magazines, starting with April 1921, issue 13. No particular reason - just the first one that came to hand when I called in school to pick a few copies up. I have decided to transcribe these rather than put simple scans on the site. Three reasons - these will be searchable, the scans are a little difficult to read as the print is fine and on old, thin paper, and a transcription is a much smaller file size. Have a read about school life in 1921 - not particularly thrilling, a little esoteric and quite a significantly different style of writing to that of today. Also some dubious language which would be considered wholly inappropriate nowadays. A general index and description of The Maltonians is available.
  • 28 November 2016 With the second of two Celebration Evenings coming up in December this year, I thought I would have a look back 10 years to Celebration Evening 2006. There are 15 photos, as well as a slide show from the evening and a programme.
  • 27 November 2016 I noticed the new appointments for Head Boy, Head Girl and deputies in the newsletter, so have updated the list of Head Boys and Girls on the site. I am still looking for information about these appointments in the 1970s and 1980s, if there were any. I only have a few at present. Can anyone help?
  • 27 November 2016 I have added the latest copies of The Maltonian to the newsletters page. These are now produced, in full colour and with photographs, once per term. The additions are for the summer term 2016 and the autumn term 2016. The site has a comprehensive archive of newletters from 1996 onwards, and i am about to start scanning the old Maltonians from 1917 onwards to add to this archive.
  • 1 November 2016 Ian Wiggle has just contacted me to tell me that his father, Frank Wiggle, died suddenly two days ago. Frank was Chair of Governors for a number of years, and remained as an endowment governor until very recently. He also continued to support the school and attend events long after he ceased to be a governor. I understand there will be a family funeral and cremation, and there will be a remembrance service at St Michael's church in Malton, on Wednesday 9 November, at 3.30 pm. Full details will be in the Yorkshire Post on 2nd November.
    I will try and put a few more details about Frank on the website in the near future.
  • 16 October 2016 18 photos donated by Alan Martindale back in 2005 have bee added to the site. They are of Malton Grammar School in the 1950s and early 1960s.
  • 8 October 2016 I spotted a message from Eleanor Blakeman on Facebook (sorry if has been there a long time Eleanor, I don't do much with Facebook messaging). As a result there is a 2008 Spam song video and a few photos of Year 11 last day 2008 now on the site
  • 6 October 2016 Some updates to links in the 1960s photos, plus six photos sent in by Hazel Chapman (nee McCavish) back in 2002, from the very early days of Malton County Modern School (1959 - 1961). A similar exercise on the 1950s gallery will follow soon, including some new photos to be added from Norris Ford and Alan Martindale
  • 5 October 2016 I have been updating some links in the 1970s photos galleries, which should allow access now to things like the 1971 MGS photo album, and snaps by Helen Paylor, Julie Mason and Philip Taylor
  • 13 September 2016 It is 10 years since David Roberts retired as headteacher back in 2006. Alan Robinson also retired in that year. A farewell dinner was held at the end of term - some photos of the evening are now on the site.
  • 11 September 2016 Headteacher John Gresswell retired in 1989. He lent me a photo album with some pictures of his retirement party - now all on the site.
  • 28 August 2016 Well done to everyone on GCSE results day this week. Here are some pictures and a press release from the 2011 GCSE results day.
  • 14 August 2016 With A level results day approaching this week, I thought I would look back five years to the 2011 results day.
  • 29 July 2016 I found 12 press photos from the 1990s and have added them as a page on the site. Also two photos from a "Way to Work" trip to London in 1997. have been added to the 1990s gallery.
  • 27 July 2016 Some Sports Day updates. The list of Sports Day records has been updated, with 4 new boys records and 6 new girls records this year, including a new Year 8 girls' 800 metres record, beating Jemima Hetherton's 1993 time which has stood for 23 years. Some longstanding (1970s and 1980s) relay race times have also been equalled though not surpassed. Also a handful of pictures from Sports Day 2002 - just 8 that I have found on file.
  • 8 July 2016 Some updating of the list of drama productions and musical concerts to bring it a little more up to date. A script and soe programmes are available for 2010 - 2016.
  • 7 July 2016 The spring 2016 edition of The Maltonian - the current newsletter for the school - is now available in the Newsletters section
  • 28 June 2016 Following Chloe Skinner's email, and recognising the current year 11 prom happening at this time of year, I have been working through the photos from the 2005 prom, 11 years ago. 169 photos from the evening of 25 May 2005 are now available on the website.
  • 9 June 2016 Some photos of the West Wing, including its building as Malton County Modern in 1958.
  • 4 June 2016 A handful of photos of the library in its different phases from 1938 to 1999
  • 22 May 2016 I have started to sort through photos and information about the school buildings over the years. Inevitably there have been many changes, though some features remain recognisably the same. The first offering is two pages of photos of then and now (well, recent) in East Wing classrooms. No doubt there are further changes to record since the last pictures I took. I know for certain that Room 38 was split into 2 labs around 2008? - not sure if photos exist. I will look.
  • 3 May 2016 The last of the photos for the 1970s collection have been added. These are all slides taken by Headmaster Philip Taylor in 1971. Also added are slides taken by him in the 1960s, of school events, and some photos of places in and around Malton. To go with a 1962 photo of a school play group, I have added a cast list for The Birds.
  • 3 April 2016 More gaps filled in the 1970s collection. This time photos (snaps) from Julie Mason (Dobson), Helen Paylor (Challis) and Christine Oxtoby
  • 19 March 2016 Continuing to finish the links in the 1970s photo gallery, I have added 16 photos from a 1977 geography field trip to Malham. These were found in the geography store cupboard in 2010. John Dunstan added a few details. Can anyone add more?
  • 9 March 2016 With Sport Relief coming up next week, I thought I would look back through the archives to see what we did in previous years. The first photos I found were in 2006, which I think was probably our first engagement with the event. All are of staff and students doing the Sport relief mile on a very sunny Friday lunchtime, not quite 10 yearsa ago, as it was held in July back in those days.
  • 8 March 2016 Science teacher Keith Williams gave me a dozen photos of camping trips and field trips in the 1970s and 1980s. I don't have much detail on the earlier ones - if anyone can confirm places that would be much appreciated.
  • 8 March 2016 Continuing to add photos to links in the 1960s pages, I have posted three photos of Malton County Modern football teams from 1964 - 66, lent to me by Trevor Wilford back in 2003. Also a programme for Toad of Toad Hall (1962).
  • 3 March 2016 Working my way through some of the missing links in the 1970s galleries, I have added 9 snaps from 1977-9, sent in by Gillian Guildford back in 2003
  • 28 February 2016 A handful of snaps from Gill Harrison (Wentworth), mainly of school trips in the late 1970s, have been added to the photo gallery.
  • 12 February 2016 I have uploaded the remainder of the photos from Robin Coulthard (1960s and 1970s), covering expeditions in the Dales and the Moors, and photos of the Rural Studies Department. Most have a few notes from Robin attached.
  • 31 January 2016 Biology and Rural Studies teacher Robin Coulthard took a number of photos during his time at Malton County Modern School, and kindly donated them to the school some years ago. I have begun to put them on the site, starting with some from the final days of Malton County Modern in 1971. More to follow, especially those of the expeditions in the Dales and the Moors.
  • 23 January 2016 I have put some photographs and a programme from the 2011 Centenary Celebration Evening on the site. Present and former students and staff gathered to mark 100 years since the opening of the Grammar School on Middlecave Road, and 40 years since the opening of Malton County Modern.
  • 16 January 2016 I have been sorting out some of the documents in the archive. The first three to be ready are biographies of three headmasters - Ernest Loraine Watt (MGS 1911-1937), Philip Taylor (MGS 1951-1971) and George Hanson (Malton County Modern 1959- 1971). Thomas Arthur Williams was already on the site. There have only been 7 headteachers since the school was rebuilt on Middlecave Road - John Gresswell, David Roberts and Robert Williams being the more recent incumbents.
  • 1 January 2016 Happy New Year. I came across a handful of Year 11 yeargroup photos from 1994 to 2006. Some have names attributed, others are anonymous. Varying quality of size and resolution just at the moment, but they are on the site.

Contacts 2016

Margaret Sheikh (nee Carr) sent a Friends form 28 December 2016
Margaret emailed to tell me she was Head Girl at Malton County Modern, 1959-60 with Peter Lightfoot as Head Boy. I have added the names to the Head Boy and Girl list, She tells me "When I left I went to Scarborough College, along with several other pupils from the school, to do an O level course. I went to Leeds General Infirmary to train as a nurse and later did midwifery training in Worcester and Birmingham". She is currently living in Chesterfield.

Richard Thornton

Richard Thornton emailed on 12 November 2016
Richard emailed to tell me had recently attended the funeral of an old school friend, John Clark, who was at school 1943 - 49. He spotted an aerial photo of the School in John's photo collection, and wondered if we had it in our archive. We do, it matches the one we have marked as 1951 in the aerial photos collection.

Christopher Holder wrote a letter in November 2016
Christopher wrote to enquire about the History of Malton School book. As far as I know there are still copies available, from the school. Christopher tells me he was the first Head Boy at Malton County Modern, 1958. He tells me that Jennifer Ramsden was Head Girl. Are there any other head boys or girls out there - this list is a little thin for the County Modern?

Rob Williams sent an email on 7 November 2016 Rob Williams
Headteacher at Malton School, Rob Williams, contacted me to ask if I had any information about the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) hospital on York Road during World War 1. The Malton War Memorial Project ate working on an exhibition about Malton at War. If anyone has any information please do get in touch, either with me or the school.

Rob also asked if it would be possible to put copies of The Maltonian magazine on the website. It is possible, so I will be starting scanning them in the near future. With 127 copies spanning 54 years, it could take a while, but it will be done.

Howard Fox sent an email on 4 November 2016 Howard Fox
Howard contacted me with information on the Ships photo recently posted, from an Alan Martindale collection. Apparently it was a stage setting for the play The Critic, produced b Mr Rolls.

He also passed on the news that Peter Lomas had passed away (at school 1953 – 1960). He played in many of the MGS sports teams and played parts in school plays in his last two years at the school.

Eleanor Blakeman sent a Facebook message, probably in October 2016 Malton School 2008
Eleanor remembers a Year 11 Spam song which was videod at the end of their year, with guest appearances from a number of staff. She asked if it could be made available. Videos are not easy, as many have copyright music as a backing track, which You Tube can block. However this one seems to be permitted, so you can find it in the video section.

The message also prompted me to look out a few photos from Eleanor's last day, in particular one of a great maths class I taught that year.

Chloe Skinner sent an email on 15 June 2016 Malton School 2005
Chloe is living down in Wales now, and emailed just to say she enjoyed browsing through the Maltonians site, and spotting herself, her friends, her aunts and her dad. She mentions sharing the site with "her partner in crime" in my maths class, Claire Szuman, (now Claire Norris).

The email from Chloe prompted me to look back at her leaving prom in 2005, and i have started working on preparing the pictures from that evening for the website - coming soon!

Howard Campion sent an email on 20 March 2016 Malton Grammar School Form 3 1955
Howard emailed with an invitation to the annual Malton Grammar School reunion, which will be at The Old Lodge in Malton on Tuesday 26 April. If anyone would like to attend but is not on Howard's mailing list, please get in touch and I will forward your details to Howard, who would be delighted to send you more information, and to welcome you to the reunion.

Susan Weinhardt (Avison) emailed on 9 March 2016
Susan spotted an extra name in the 1995 Year 11 group photo - Andrew Avison, 5th from left on back row.

Facebook activity in March 2016
Quite a lot of comments on the 1970s photos posted recently. Some conflicts in memories of who's who, but I suppose that is inevitable after 40 years. Stuart Stead and Andy Leadill provided names for the 1969 U13 football team which appears in the Robin Coulthard photo collection.

Jenny Towse (Hopper) and others emailed on 3 March 2016
Following publication of the 1962 staff photo in the Gazette, various emails arrived offering identification for two missing names. Jenny Towse managed to find the photo that she had, and it had names on the back of it, confirming the missing girls' PE teacher's name as Miss Judith Aiston. She also had a few other memories of the staff in the photo: "Brenda Holmes was lab assistant and Mrs Fletcher was Mr Taylor's secretary. Mollie Clarke was Domestic Science teacher and ran a spotless DS room, down one side of the quad. I recall that Royston Bower played the bassoon. " John Smith replied to say that he was the bassoonist, and Roy Bower was actually a trombonist - they shared the same music stand! Angela Walters emailed to say "The Mrs Fletcher mentioned is my cousin Jean Fletcher, who was school secretary at the time. Her husband Kenneth was the careers officer to shools. They lived in Thornton Dale before moving to Kettering where he took up a Careers position. Sadly she died in February this year aged 84."

Thanks also to Steve Arundale, Ruth Macdonald (Wilson), Anna Lupton and Margaret Pattinson (Triffit) who emailed about the photographs as well. Combining suggestions, I think the missing name on the 1965 staff photo is Miss Alicia Uruski, girls PE teacher for 1 year before Sheila fricker arrived.

Facebook activity in February 2016
The 1968-71 Malton County Modern pictures from Robin Coulthard generated quite a lot of activity on Facebook, involving amongst others, Andy Leadill, Julie Stroughair, Joe Houghton, Joanne Holmes, Gavin Read, Anthea Reeves, Lisa Francis, Denise Stockdale, Joan Johnson,Jayne Farmer. Messages provide some names, which I have put with the photos, although with Facebook comments it is never 100% clear which photo they refer to, or whether names mentioned are of people in the photo, or are just named to alert other friends. Also with women I am never sure if people use married names or school names. And of course sometimes peoples' memories conflict!

Tony Kirby 1962Tony Kirby emailed on 6 February 2016
Prompted by John Smith's email (below), Tony added the last name to the 1958 staff photo. The missing name is Sheila Whitworth (Whitford?), who taught French and RI, and Tony thinks she replaced Miss Sedgewick who left to become a missionary in Madagascar. She was Tony's Form 3 form mistress, in Room 5. Tony also provides most of the names for the 1962 staff photo, with just three ladies unidentified. Can anyone fill in the missing details?

John SMithJohn Smith emailed on 23 January 2016
John (MGS 1960-65) provided a missing names for a 1958 staff photo, - Mrs Fletcher, the school secretary. She is also on the 1962 photo, where I notice I do not have many staff names. Surely someone out there can fill them in for me? Perhaps you can, John?

Malcolm Smith sent an email on 15 January 2016

Malton Grammar School Reunion 2002

Malcolm emailed having spotted his uncle Kenneth Smith, un-named, on the 1950 MGS staff photograph. Kenneth was a student at the grammar school 1935 - 1942, then went to Sheffield University before teaching at Richmond, Malton and THirsk, where he finished as Head of Maths. He died in 1994. Malcolm is pictured on the September 2002 reunion photo, taken in front of the school entrance.