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Old Bordenian Tie Challenge

The Challenge

To be photographed wearing an Old Boys tie:-

a)   In an alcoholic establishment

b)  In an unusual or bizarre situation (we will exercise censorship controls!)

Have Old Boys drunk in all corners of the world?  Let’s see the evidence.

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Missing cricketers: 1949 – 1950s

A member of the OBA committee has passed me a copy of a recent Daily Mail article featuring an Old Boy of the school from the early 1950s.  Dennis Fowle is trying to contact team mates from his former cricket team.  Are you one of those featured?  Do you know any of their whereabouts?  The article is reproduced below.

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Where are you now? [1962-69]

Old Boys move far and wide after leaving Borden.  Many keep in touch, others seem to disappear – did someone forget to let them out of detention?  Now is the chance to give your colleagues from the past a bit of an update.  How often have we asked ourselves “ I wonder what happened to old….”

To get the ball rolling Mike Pack and Peter Lusted have put together a brief summary of most of their colleagues obtained following two reunions since leaving Borden – one at 25 years and the other at 40 years.  Some details are more current than others.  A picture of the 25 year reunion is just above the details of the 1 East boys, with two pictures of the 40 year reunion at the end of the article.

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Borden Grammar School – the early years

 While the history of the school is fairly well documented from the 1920’s onwards, there is very little published information about the early years from its foundation to the end of the 1914-18 war. Bryan Short has spent a great deal of time delving into the archives, and is now in the process of writing about this little known period. It is our intention to post each instalment as it becomes available on the website – and here is the first one. The story which unfolds is full of fascinating and surprising details.

Part I : Founding a School in the 1870s

The founding of Barrow’s Boys School (as it was first called) began, continued and ended in controversy, culminating in the resignation of the entire Governing Body in 1880.

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Bryan Short retires from OBA Committee

Volunteer ‘reporters’ required

Recent weeks has seen much activity on the Website with even the inclusion of old film footage.  As news of the Website reaches Old Boys we hope that you not only sign in on a regular basis but also feel keen to contribute articles, news, photos, updates or whatever you feel is of interest to Old Boys.  It is your website!

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Borden Grammar on Film

This is a guest post from Andrew “Bill” Bailey and is an OBA first – the use of video on the site!

I was at Borden between 1957 and 1964. I found some forgotten reels of 8mm cine film in the roof and was able to transcribe them into digital format. And hence, after only forty years, was able to edit them and produce three or four little films of fairly low quality but of possible interest to those who were at Borden in the early sixties.

The footage was produced on a clockwork Canon camera that an uncle had lent me. 8mm stock actually came as a 50ft reel of 16mm film which was run through the camera twice, exposing first one vertical stripe 8mm wide, 2 minutes running time. Then the film was turned over and given a second run through. Assuming that exposure settings were correct and no light had fallen on the part exposed film during the turnover or removal, one would cheerfully post the reel off for processing, accompanied by a postal order for about three weeks pocket money. These assumptions were usually unjustified and most films came back after a week or so with disappointing results. So then an editing process was required, duff chunks exised with a small guillotine, the remains spliced together with a transparent tape. Or, after one or two showings (using borrowed projector and screen), packed in a box and consigned to the roof.

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