I agree entirely. Keighley is a dull old spot and the green and whites livened the place up. It also looked good to see the cricket teams in their flannels sporting a striped blazer. I see the government is putting forward ideas of bringing back school houses, school uniforms and same sex schools. What folly it is to leave education in the hands of politicians.

Quite right Malcolm. When I was at Sheffield University a small group of students who were a year or two younger than me wore the blazer as a fashion accessory - and none of them were from kbgs.

I agree entirely with all the above. I wore my green and white blazer with pride. What happened to the school was nothing short of tragic. KBGS had reputation throughout West Yorkshire for excellence both academically and on the sports field. Joe's speedy departure to Leicestershire merely exacerbated its decline.

At the risk of being shot down in flames, I thought they were awful!
To me, they seemed an attempt to substitute flamboyance for genuine achievement - like, say, Eton College. My Mum's still got mine, if any of you would like it!

Brian, ask your mum to drop the 'green and white' into the local Keighley Oxfam charity shop and I will pop in there and snap it up. By the way if you have been to Eton/Windsor in recent times you would have seen those well-heeled young aristocrats and scholarship boys walking around in morning suits with those irritatingly flashy waistcoats and finished off with a ruddy dickie bow. Our green and white was a mere affectation compared with those southern toffs. So don't be so disdainful about a minor fashion accessory such as a blazer. Nearer to hand, a lot of Bingley College students preferred it to their dull college blazer, if my memory serves me well. Now that Bingley College was a place for crumpet all right. Sad it closed in 1977.

I quite liked the striped blazers initially but was rather put off them when a lad I knew couldn't afford to get one and tried chalking stripes on his old green one. In retrospect, I suspect it was simply a scam to get more custom for the stockists. Was there a financial arrangement between them and the school? Does anyone have any knowledge, rather than the usual folk myth, about such an arrangement

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) sjspye@hotmail.com

I have to disagree that it was a financial scam. Surely the striped blazer was just a means of differentiating the KBGS lads from the run-of-the-mill types in the town. Otherwise what was the point of the 11-plus. Mind you that is a question relevant today. Added to which this Labour government can't make its mind up about it as well.

That new photo of the green and white striped school blazer proves my point exactly. Keighley was a better place for them, at least from a sartorial perspective.

As an old boy who was at the school in the war years and left the area soon after, can anyone tell me when these marvellous garments first appeared and when they were scrapped.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) mikemarynichols@hotmail.com

Official stockists for the uniform including the much maligned striped blazer were John Manners on North Street. I've posted a photo of an advert at the time taken from one of my old Keighlian magazines.
I think Keighley and Skipton District Co-Op at 57, Low Street also had a franchise and possibly Willis Walkers 'though I may be mistaken on the last shop.

I'd agree that the Coop in Low St also supplied the Blazers, although I managed to tear mine and then wore a tweed sports coat,which were obviously permitted, and I must admit I prefered.Willis Walker supplied the green/white reversable rugby shirts which we used for Form games.

Watching England play in those paper thin rugby shirts in the Rugby World Cup was quite amusing. After about ten minutes the players were walking about with big holes in them. And had to keep replacing them. Now compare them with those KBGS green and white reversibles, well they were good for at least two seasons if not three! Not pretty but highly serviceable.

I seem to recall many people wearing the same jersey through their entire school career. In the first form they resembled a runaway marquee, and over the years grew into, then out of it! I think the green side also shrank a little, leading to a rether fetching white stripe at the bottom.

They also made you sweat like a pig on all but the coldest days.

Yes, they were a bit itchy too. Must have been colder in those days compared to our globally warmed winters now, because some chaps used to wear T-shirts underneath to keep the chill out on the long trek to the rugby ground at Greenhead.

It took some courage to wear the distinctive striped blazer for those who lived in certain parts of town where it was seen as an attempt to put oneself above one's fellows. I put off wearing it until I was big enough to shrug off the taunts - like "stick'o'rock"(or my parents' purse was big enough to stand the cost). But KBGS was such a school - it afforded the opportunity to aspire. Is that what David Cameron and George Osborne mean?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

It was plain green in my time-- '47 and a white football jersey(much too big to grow into). Both were bought at Willis Walker's.Also a cap which we tried to wear slanted to one side, but were made to straighten up by any master who saw us. Cheers

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland,NZ

Is there anyone selling there Blazer Because my dad always wanted a striped one but cudnt afford one so he had a black one instead

Just to refresh the old Grammar School v Comprehensive debate. I once argued with other teachers that where it was important to tend to children with special needs that bright children, too, could be described as having special needs. In our time Grammar Schools did just that. It selected children who were brighter and cleverer than others and helped them to reach their full potential.
It seems to me that society, any society that does not cater for and foster its brighter and more talented children is depriving itself of that talent which would serve it later.
As to blazers or more generally uniforms, school year has just begun here and all the young children and even University students wear their beautiful uniforms with a sense of pride and belonging