School uniform

2017

(Taken from the Boston Grammar School website, 28 May 2017)

Key Stage 3-4:

Black school Blazers
Black V neck jumper plain (optional)
Black full length trousers
Black plain socks
Black plain shoes (no trainer or plimsoll styles, please)
White long/short sleeved shirts (with school ties)
House colour ties (boys)
Plain Coat (no logos please)

Key Stage 5:

As above, but:
Optional Black Blazer
Black V neck jumper with embroidered school logo
Plain ties (represent sixth form pupils)
Student leadership team to be represented by badges – to be provided by school

Stockists

Some of the above items are available from the school. Alternatively, they can be bought from the following outlets in Boston:
Oldrid & Co Ltd, 11-17 Strait Bargate, Boston
Marks & Spencer, 5 Market Place, Boston
Nationwide School Uniforms - http://www.nationwideschooluniforms.co.uk

1976

Extract from "Notes for parents of new boys" dated 1st July 1976

Clothing: All items to be marked with owners' name (sic).

Uniform is worn at all times to and from school and in school: (shirt sleeve order in school is permitted in heat waves).

Boys wear a coloured shirt for games (according to House).

Fancy shoes, gorgeous waistcoats and coloured socks are not permitted.

1967

According to Andy Pick, by 1967 only first year students wore caps.

1964

'Dared' so Brad went home with Mohican haircut!

Contemporary newspaper report from the Boston Standard, supplied by Stewart Brown

A Boston Grammar School boy collected over £3 from his classmates last week - for having his hair cut 'Mohican Indian Style'.

Richard Bradley (15) described by a fellow Grammar School fifth former as "the sort who'd do anything for a laugh" has his 'Mohican' as the result of a classroom discussion which ended wuth another boy 'daring' him to have this Red Indian style haircut.

Bets piled up, mainly from the fifth-form boys, and it is said that Bradley "Brad" to his school pals stood to collect over £3 for the haircut. But he also collected time off from school. It is understood that the boy is being kept away from school until his hair grows by mutual agreement between his father, Mr G Bradley (produce merchant) of The Grange, Fishtoft, and Grammar School headmaster Mr W Ricketts.

Mr Ricketts declined to comment. "A matter of this nature is entirely between myself, the parents and the boy concerned." he said. "He is staying away from school until his hair grows a little."

A Grammar School fifth-former told the "Standard": "Brad starts GCE exams next week. They can't keep him away for those. He took everybody by surprise when he had it done.

I don't think any of us thought he would go through with it. I heard that his folks are pretty wild about it. I'm not surprised really."

But Boston boys are going to find it difficult to get 'fancy' haircuts in the future.

For the barber who did the 'Mohican' for 'Brad' later told the "Standard", "That was the first Mohican I've ever done and I hope it will be the last in view of the trouble there's been over this. I shall certainly never do another without written consent from the parents."

The barber, Mr G Clark, who manages Mr J Johnson's High Street shop had never even seen a 'Mohican' before.

But Richard didn't tell Mr Clark that another local barber had already refused to do the haircut.

Explanatory note: A 'Mohican' haircut is similar to the style worn by television wrestler Billy Two Rivers. It involves and almost complete shaving of the head with the exception of a ridge of hair down the centre of the scalp.

Throwing caps off the Town Bridge

This photograph was taken on July 24th 1964 and appeared in the Boston Standard - supplied by Stewart Brown

Following in true tradition, Boston Grammar School boys and High School girls fling their books and caps off the Town Bridge as a final farewell to their schooldays.

Those indicated on the photograph are G Robert Walter, Peter Sharman, J Trevor Scott, George Danby, "Nobby" Cartwright, Stewart Brown ("Me").

1963

Boys' dress was out of tune

c1963 the Daily Mirror published this report.

Three senior boys were sent home from a grammar school because they wore "irregular clothes" and made "a conspicuous entrance" at the school's annual concert, their parents were told yesterday.

Clothes worn by the three boys included a checked suit with a black collar, a green jacket with jeans, and a sports jacket with a polo-necked sweater.

Mr William Ricketts, headmaster of the school at Boston, Lincs, wrote to the parents of each boy: "I am taking this action to remind your boy that he comes to this school on our terms and not his."

The boys are sixth-formers Michael Dolby-Phillips, 16, and Jack Morton, 17, and fifth-former Roy Croft, 16.

One of them yesterday: "A school rule says uniforms must be worn at school functions, but a master said this did not apply to the concert."

1961

A letter from the headmaster.

The Grammar School, Boston, Lincs. December, 1961.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have had occasion this term to condemn the mode of dress of a few boys, with particular reference to shoes, trousers and hair styles, and I suspect that many other boys try to persuade their parents by saying that these eccentricities are the fashion and that other parents are allowing it. I am glad to say that very few parents are allowing it and I wish to state my views to strengthen the hand of parents and my own in dealing with excesses.

Shoes with pointed toes are thoroughly bad for growing feet and are entirely unsuitable footwear for boys. Trousers of exaggerated tightness are equally unacceptable: trousers should be grey and not black. Any hairstyle which requires the hair to be long is not only out of place in a school but is unhygienic when boys are playing games, and it is undesirable to use too much hair oil when boys are using agility mattresses in the gymnasium or taking showers. May I add that shoes should preferably be black and pullovers V-necked and grey, though a variation to pastel shades is permissible for boys in the Upper Sixth.

W.J. Ricketts, Headmaster

1959

It seems that braid on blazers was phased out from 1959. Ken Miles-Crust remembers "Alf Britchford being used as a fashion model being paraded around the school with the new design blazer and cap".

On the subject of braided blazers, Kenneth Hardy says: "I can claim to be the last boy at Boston Grammar School to wear a braided blazer! They were phased out gradually, so as your braided one wore out, you replaced it with a plain one. I had already owned and worn out a new plain one, and as September came around, my mother went shopping for a new one. Cash, as usual was scarce. At the shop, my mother bought a new old stock braided blazer, with the idea of removing the braid. I asked my mother to leave it on, I guess it was the rebel in me! By then, no one had gone to school in a braided blazer for about a year. I duly turned up at school in it, and it was never questioned. The downside was I had to be well behaved, as I was very easy to spot."

1958

This photograph shows Ray Millard on his first day at Boston Grammar School in 1958. He joined into form 1A with form tutor "Ted" Cox. Photograph supplied by Ray Millard.

See Also

• Big School