Huddersfield school celebrates its centenary

Jan 26 2009 by Katie Campling, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Huddersfield school celebrates its centenary; story and picture

GREENHEAD College in Huddersfield has marked its 100th anniversary.

Celebrations to mark the centenary were organised by the Old Greenheadians’ Association, with 333 ex-pupils attending a luncheon at the Cedar Court Hotel, Ainley Top.

They travelled from as far as the USA and France.

The women, who attended the school between 1926 and 1977, also had the chance to look around Greenhead College to see how it has changed over the years.

Early records and old photos were on display and the visitors traced mothers, aunts, sisters and grandmothers, helped by Alison Beach and Pat Dignan.

During the celebration a centenary cake featuring the Greenhead badge was cut by the oldest former pupil there, 93-year-old Norah England.

Elizabeth Rhodes introduced her contemporary old girl, Jill Armitage, who entertained and led everyone in singing the school song We Shall Look Back.

The words were written in 1919 by then sixth-form pupil Eva Madden, who went to be a missionary in north-west India in 1938.

The event was organised by Old Greenheadians Association chairman Shirley Bostock, secretary Dorothy Stead and treasurer Margaret Jackson.

There has been a school or college on the site ever since it first opened its doors to 236 pupils as The Huddersfield Municipal High School For Girls on January 18, 1909.

It then became Greenhead High School and finally changed to a sixth-form college in the early 1970s.