Grindal’s Information Book Recently, in sorting through some of the archives we have stored at the school, a book with the above title emerged. It had been created by N.J. Bagguley (G 53-58) and J.D.S. (Tim) Brown (G 53-59) ‘To help with ‘General’ competitions’. A later note in another hand, and dated 1956, adds the following: ‘This book was placed on a table in Grindal to ‘educate’ the House in current affairs so that we could win the monthly(?) Current Affairs Cup.’ Readers of this issue of the Bulletin will see its relevance to George Robson’s article on that very cup. It comprises largely national newspaper cuttings describing major political events of the early to middle 1950s such as: Suez, petrol rationing, government changes, the invasion of Hungary, the Aden crisis etc.

Tim Brown was notified of the discovery and has commented: ‘Well, I never. It must be over 65 years old and I’m afraid I have no recollection of it. I think, however, I must have given it to the school when I was moving house, perhaps. Nicholas Bagguley and I were keen to see we regularly won the General Knowledge Cup, and Sam Parkinson gave us permission to put up a board in the corridor. The two of us would cut items from the newspapers and build a story round them, but I don’t remember the book. It was gratifying to see that even the prefects would consult the board. I have to say we did pretty well in the competition, but I think other houses felt we were cheating! The whole thing stimulated my long interest in politics; it was the time of Suez and the Hungarian Revolution and quite a bit of turmoil in the Cold War, with Russia launching the Sputnik; there was the Treaty of Rome, and the retirement of Stanley Matthews. And of course, October 1957 saw the infamous fire at Windscale (Sellafield).’ Further photos from the book may be seen here.

 

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