MOST people have the odd class photo stored away in a box, but one man has collected thousands of pictures from his old school ahead of its 75th anniversary.

Graham Frankel, 63, was a pupil at Buckhurst Hill County High School in Roding Lane and is organising an exhibition of memorabilia.

“I have thousands of photos,” he said. “We had one professional photographer who was an old pupil, Peter Hodder, and we have a few from him.”

The former resident of Broadwalk, South Woodford, left the school in 1969 aged 18 and went on to the University of Hull to study psychology.

“My favourite subject was French,” he said. “I connected with the guy who taught us French in the first year, Dave Clapton, who was a new teacher then.

“We had some great teachers. Some of the teachers are still alive and we keep in touch with all of them.”

The school closed in 1989 and pupils transferred to Roding Valley High School, while the site was later sold to the Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College.

He runs the Old Buckwellians News magazine and is organising an exhibition of past memorabilia in its anniversary next year.

Anyone with old pictures or memorabilia to contribute to the exhibition should email grahamf49@gmail.com or call 07771 506950.