An article was published in a recent edition of the local newspaper, the Sittingbourne News Extra, showing the new boys of 70 years ago!  This is reproduced below (with acknowledgement to SNE):

Continuing the series of articles produced by Norman Wigg (see Recollections of the Battle of Britain below), here he recalls his days at the school.

For the next five years, I caught the No26 bus from Teynham, to Sittingbourne, getting off at the post office, then walking up through the alleyway past the Bull Inn, to arrive at the Grammar School. In the evening, I caught the bus outside Burton's to return to Teynham. As my father was a bus driver, I got a cheap season ticket, but that was about all the financial help my parents did get. I cost them a lot of money, in the next few years, but they never complained.

Old Bordenian Norman Wigg (BGS 1943 - 1948) has sent me a number of articles recalling stages of his life, including his experiences of the Battle of Britain whilst living in Teynham and his days at Borden Grammar School.  I will add these over the coming weeks, but will start with his recollections of the Battle of Britain.  Whilst Norman was too young to be at BGS at the time, I think this will be of interest to many visitors to this site.

Norman writes:

Old Bordenian Cliff Cork (BGS 1965-1972) has discovered several photos from the archives of Sittingbourne Heritage Museum. A few sporting members of the committee have added some details, but if you can provide any missing names or dates, please send them to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 Sports day - senior mile

Date: unknown.

Runners: Stevens (right); Lewis (left)

Spectators: John Weekes - right, Ken Booth -left (Latin), Mr Bishton - to the right of Ken Booth

Continuing the publishing of old GCE papers, this link will take you to the 1973 Additional Mathematics 'O' level paper - https://flic.kr/s/aHskyth5wy. As usual, click on the individual pages to expand.

Continuing the publishing of old GCE papers, this link will take you to the 1973 English Literature 'O' level paper - https://flic.kr/s/aHskBNB75V. As usual, click on the individual pages to expand.

Continuing the publishing of old GCE papers, this link will take you to the 1969 French 'A' level paper - https://flic.kr/s/aHskCzU2st. As usual, click on the individual pages to expand.

Continuing the publishing of old GCE papers, this link will take you to the 1959 Maths 'O' level paper - https://flic.kr/s/aHskyug7Er. As usual, click on the individual pages to expand.

As we approach the end of the traditional GCE examination season, I thought it would be appropriate to reproduce a number of examination papers from earlier years.  These were published on the original website a few years ago, but were lost when we moved to the new site in 2013.  I have added the papers to the OBA Flickr site as it is easier to expand the papers to a legible size.

This link will take you to the 1962 History 'O' Level paper (now GCSE) - https://flic.kr/s/aHskytcSE5. Click on the individual pages to expand.

Richard Evans recounts his memories of the 1962 production of "The Pirates of Penzance", along with associated documents of the occasion: