'Swinging sixties' school reunion

10:26am Thursday 10th April 2008

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PUPILS who attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, in the 'swinging sixties' are getting together again at a school reunion.

The school will be welcoming former pupils and staff on Saturday, April 26, and everyone who studied there during the decade is invited.

Old school photographs will be on display, and visitors will also get the chance to take part in a special 1960s-style chemistry lesson.

As ever on these occasions, former pupils of the school have already said they will be travelling from far and wide to attend.

The award for the Old Blackburnian travelling furthest seems likely to go to Ian Webb, a pupil at the school from 1961 to 1968, who will be coming over from his home in Bangkok!

Looking back, QEGS staged a number of events during the sixties, particularly in 1967, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the school being granted its Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I.

There was a reunion buffet, held in Windsor Hall in Blackburn, for former pupils - 'old boys' then, as the ticket states, as the school was not then co-educational There was also an Elizabethan Fair at school, which included classical, folk and jazz music, performances of Shakespearean plays, displays of trampolining and fencing.

And to highlight the swinging sixties, there was a performance, too, by 'Knight and his group'.

The school thinks the 'Knight' in question was sixth former John Knight, but staff don't know the names of any of the other members of the band involved, or the names of the fencers.

Can Looking Back readers help?