Hoots from the Archive

This small pocket book dates from 1889, and is entitled: "Grammar School Manchester. Inventory of Casts, Models, Books etc in the Drawing Hall 1889 (Jany)". The list of casts includes: Hercales Tor…

In 2018/19, we launched a project to interview and collect memories from Old Mancunians who had been at MGS during the Second World War. Before Covid hit, we were able to interview a number of OMs as…

This week sees the annual conference of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference, an association of Independent School headteachers that has been meeting since 1869. MGS has been in the associat…

    Following the recent BBC radio drama adaptation by OM Adam Usden (MGS: 2000-07) of Maisie Mosco's 1979 novel Almonds & Raisins - whose central character attends Manchester Grammar School in the e…

Appearing in the Spring 1958 edition of Ulula, the fascinating results of a survey of 36 boys on lifestyle and habits makes for very interesting reading. We are sure a similar survey undertaken in 20…

As the UK goes to the polls today, we thought it would be good to share some various links and objects from the archive that link MGS to political history. In 1906, MGS held a mock election, and a bo…

This blogpost is a follow-up to a post originally sent out on November 25th 2021, which presented an overview of the school archive's collection of items relating to the late, acclaimed OM, televisio…

When MGS was first founded in the early sixteenth century, it was the only school of its kind in the area. The nearest "rival" would have been Stockport Grammar School (founded 1487), although in a t…

The MGS Archives holds a good selection of photographs taken from the 1900s onwards, many of which are formal form photographs taken by professional photographic companies. However, we owe a debt of …

We have previously published an article in this format, written by MGS teacher William Duggan The following was published in The New Mancunian in December 2001: "In the first of a new feature, MGS' r…

It is ten years since School Doctor, and later School Archivist, Dr. Robert Mackay, died. Bob was coming into School to volunteer his services in the archive into his 90s. Along with creating the fir…

There have been forty-three High Masters during the Manchester Grammar School's five hundred year history, but by far the longest serving is Charles Lawson. He held the role from 1764 until 1807, an …