Clifton Hall Girls' Grammar School
Clifton Hall Girls' Grammar School was a girls grammar school at Clifton Hall, in Clifton, Nottingham. History. There were two buildings: the old Clifton Hall and a new building further up in the grounds, this latter housed the school's Science dapartement, Art rooms and Assembly Hall. Clifton Hall had some great rooms, for example the well-known, "Red Room" (whose ceiling featured the Clifton family's many coats of arms) and was reputed to be haunted; a reputation, perhaps, deriving from the intense, almost claustrophobic depth of vermillion paint used in this room. The  head teacher at the school when it first opened was Miss Heron; she died of cancer around 1970. She was succeeded by Miss Squire. On 13 January 1970, sixth-former 17-year-old Sandra Simpkin married 22-year-old Alan Barnes, a window cleaner, at a register office. She was given a day off lessons to attend the ceremony. Marriages such as sixth-formers at school were and still are rare. Closure. When the school finally closed in July 1976, a large model of a Phoenix - (the school's emblem) - was burnt to signify the end of the school. The  uniform was all purple, skirt, blazer, purple/yellow tie and a white blouse. On closing, the buildings became part of Nottingham Trent University. In 2004 they were up for sale for £500,000. Nearby to the school is a cliff that overlooks the River Trent. It is said that a lady of the Clifton family jumped off the cliff and died when she was jilted by her lover.