This post is dedicated to Northallerton and district school photographs.
If you would like to contribute your photos please send them to george@yorkshireramblings.com and I’ll add them to this page for all to enjoy.
Applegarth School 
Applegarth School 
Applegarth School 
Allertonshire School 
Allertonshire School 
Allertonshire School Brass Band 
Allertonshire School 
Hi George
Like you my two favourite teachers were Mr Nichol and Mr Watson. By my day Tom was teaching English and Mr Nicol still doing geography. I must confess though there was many a Monday afternoon we would skip Geography straight after lunch and would have a long lunch at my house playing cards for a few hours. I do blame the likes of Danny Grainger, Ray Webb and Pete Harland for forcing me into it. It gave me great delight to invite both to our 30th School Reunion in 2004 when they both turned up in matching yellow jumpers for some reason. My only other favourite was Mrs Higgs who took us for R.E. We would have Mrs Langmaid for the first double lesson and we would do all our work centred around the Bible. The second double lesson was with Mrs Higgs and it was spent discussing how to apply the lessons of the bible to modern day life. We never did any schoolwork as we knew it but would spend a double lesson having some some great debates.
I left in 1972. Mr Watson was teaching History and also English. Mrs Langmaid taught me History in Year 1 and 2. Mrs Higgs was an absolutely inspirational English teacher but I do remember her teaching RE as she was frustrated that we had not covered the syllabus properly (Mr Gunn).
When Mr Terry became the Head of both schools he literally changed the lives of the girls. We were not expected to take O levels or to study a language or sciences beyond Biology. Mr Wilson (?) succeeded in teaching a cohort of girls to ‘catch up’ and take General Science O level.
Mrs Elgie taught me Maths until Year 4. Her modern teaching methods left me with a lifelong fear of trigonometry as my 3D model collapsed and I hadn’t a clue what she was talking about. Mr Embleton taught 0 level Maths, it was a bit hit and miss – if you understood it was a hit but it all missed me, I wish I’d stayed with Mrs Elgie. Two of my absolute favourite teachers were Mr and Mrs Hogg. Mrs Hogg taught Biology and was my form teacher, a very astute and caring person. Mr Nichol’s band played at the Allertonshire Dinner Dances where the girls waited at table and boys supervised the parking (!) It greatly added to our social lives as we were allowed to join in when our work was done.
This is a wonderful response Michael. Will you be having a fiftieth reunion next year. That would be a fabulous milestone. I’m in the process of revising some of these posts to put in some of the memories of the respondents. I’ll ensure you get an email when they’re done.
Kind regards,
George
If you have copies of Michael Riordan’s ‘Northallerton in Picture Postcards’ vol 1,2,3 there are a few references to schools. The Mount on Yafforth Rd was Mount Pleasant, a prep school with 40-50 boarders, established in 1864, run by Rev E. Burttleston on the site where in 1138 the English Cavalry was lined up at the Battle of the Standard. There are three photos of Applegarth in the early C20, a photo of The Lodge (Miss Nelson’s) in 1907; photo in 1900 of Miss Annie Guthrie’s school in Durham House just north of the Fleece; a school in Brompton in 1890 and a couple of the Grammar School.
If you want any names of pupils on some of the photos you have posted of Mill Hill and East Road please let me know the best way to send that information.
Where was the little stone-built school please? Do you happen to know? It was obviously taken before our time!
Hi Phoebe, I’m not sure but I may have the original scan so I’ll take a look and see if it can be identified.
Kind regards,
George