O.H.G.S. Boys' School Magazines

The boys' school produced its first magazine in 1896. The Oldham Hulmeian, dated December 1896, a quarto-sized booklet of 4 sides of text, contained notes concerning events in school, reports of football matches, and some articles. It was priced at 3d and printed by W E Clegg of Oldham.

The second and third issues, which extended to 8 sides, were very similar in content. Issue 4 included exam results for each class. The price was doubled to 6d for the 5th issue in December 1897 which also included reports on Speech Day and the debating society. The 16th and final issue of this series was published in December 1901.

The next issue in December 1902 was of a smaller format, covering 24 sides and was printed by the Chronicle printing works on Union Street (known as Hirst and Rennie Ltd, Chronicle printing works from 1905). The section of school notes was longer and included successes at public examinations and details of boys who had gained university entrance, along with a greater number of articles and sports reports. By 1911 regular sections included reports from the debating society, the natural history society, the photographic society, the library, the old-boys, a meteorological section, Speech Day and letters from old-boys at university, while many pages were devoted to sports including football, cricket, gymnasium, athletics and swimming. The 23rd and final issue of this series was published in July 1914.

Publication continued as normal during the early years of the war and inevitably the magazines included details of old-boys who had lost their lives along with a list of every known old-boy who was serving in the forces. There was no issue after September 1917 until pre-war conditions had returned in July 1920.

Publication continued in the same format throughout the inter-war years, sometimes extending to 40 sides, often but not always published just once a year. From July 1934 publication was regular in both July and December of each year, continuing until 1944 when it reverted to once a year until war-time conditions allowed a return to bi-annual publication.

The Oldham Hulmeian continued to be published until 2003. The archive holds copies of these original magazines along with bound volumes for the years 1896 - 1961. We have now completed the scanning of all issues and, during 2017 we will be preparing these, in batches, for publication on this website.

Other boys' school magazines held by the archive include Forum, the 6th form magazine (1951 - 1969), The Boys' School Journal (1966 - 1983), Newsletters of the Old-Boys' Association (1982 - 2009), The Boys' School Year Book (1983 - 2006), and the Hulme Newsletter (1997 - 2006).

The Oldham Hulmeian