Hoots from the Archive

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 …

The corridors at MGS with their distinctive green tiles often stay in the memory long after a pupil has left. They are a part of the School that has not changed much since 1931, and are instantly rec…

  This week, an exhibition has been staged in the archive room to give the school community a chance to see some treasures from the MGS archive alongside a selection of "everyday" documents that form…

Above the front door of the diminutive Seventh Day Adventist church in Blackpool hangs a modest plaque (pictured above) which memorialises the tragically short lives of three young brothers, all of …

MGS was founded by a Bishop in 1515, and in its early years had a strong relationship with the Collegiate Church (later Manchester Cathedral). This Christian foundation expressed itself in the daily …

In the Edwardian period the School at Long Millgate saw two polar explorers visit in successive years; Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott, who were fierce rivals. Shackleton visited first, in …