"In the Inny"

An Informal History of the
Liverpool Institute High School for Boys
between 1935 and 1985
by
Dr. Iain C. Taylor.

 

As you may know this project has been underway now for a while and good progress is being made collecting information on teachers and staff (all 450 of them AND their nicknames!), as well as reminiscences of boys and masters about the school, its triumphs and tragedies; its hilarities, pains and successes.

Mr. Tiffen, a history teacher who retired just as Mr. J. R. Edwards arrived in 1935, published a history of the school through the auspices of the Old Boys Association. The school was then a hundred and ten years old but it was to last only another fifty - finally closed as we all know - in 1985. But as the celebrations at the annual LIOBIAN dinner and the rich daily traffic on the Internet shows that the story lives on!

As long as the old building reincarnated as LIPA's home continues to flourish; while an ex-LI school boy or his descendants remember their father or grandfather's stories about life at the Inny on Mount St., the old Inny school and its fabled existence will never die!

This new school history hopes to strengthen the legend of the old lady on Mount St. by capturing its life and times while we - its progeny - are still around to tell the wonderful stories and have them captured for posterity. It is hoped to be published before 2007 - Liverpool's 800th anniversary & 2008 - Liverpool's Year as the European Capital of Culture.

Want to help? Here's how:

  • Order one (or more) copy (ies) of the book (a honourary commitment, no need yet for cash.) We hope to hold the price to £25 or less - well, you want pictures, don't you?
  • Write up (or tape) your stories and reminiscences and send them to me.
  • Send me a 60 word description of your life after LI.
  • Any photographs of the school, your classes, school activities? Have them copied and sent to me with complete labels attached.
  • Any documents - Green Books (after 1969, or before 1939?), Speech Day programmes, Report Cards, Hobby Show or School plays or concerts, etc. - please let me know of them.
  • Volunteer to trawl through School Magazines, Speech Day progrmmes, etc. and compile an index. Specific documents will be allocated to individual volunteers to prevent duplication.

Chapter Outline

Chronological chapters:

Based on Tiffen, my own research, etc.
  • The Foundation & 19th Century
  • The Founders
  • The Corporation takes over (1908-39)
  • The Forties: Bangor and the War
  • The Fifties: Crew cuts and DAs
  • The Sixties: Swinging Liverpool
  • The Seventies: Austerity & anarchy

Thematic chapters

From contributions to Listbot & Tapioca
  • Junior schools
  • Assemblies
  • Masters
  • Boys
  • Pranks
  • Teams
  • Classes and exams
  • School buildings
  • Outside the gates
  • Field trips

The Eighties: Decline & Fall

  • Retrospective
  • Post script - LIPA

Photos

Appendices:

  • Chronology time line
  • Teachers Comings & Goings
  • Old Boys
  • Brief biogs of contributors
  • Obits.
  • Pupils lists (scanned) at 5 year intervals - from the Green Books.

The intention is to precis the early history to 1935 and then as far as possible tell the story of the school from the words of its pupils and teachers who attended, supplemented by analysis of any documentary evidence that has survived in archives and offices.

Iain Taylor 06.02