Man hunting for 'Holy Grail' linked to Yorkshire school discovers ancient matrix 'under his nose'

Among its alumni are a Nobel Prize-winning geneticist, a revered early novelist and the first black international footballer.

Now, with the recovery of an ancient matrix thought lost for centuries, the Halifax school is calling on past pupils to return to re-explore its rich heritage.

Chairman of Heath Old Boys Association, Jim Farrell, said: "There have been many famous alumni, from Nobel Prize-winners to those who made the world a better place in a less-lauded manner. How do you surmount 400 years of education? You don’t - you add to it.

"This event will be the first of many aimed at celebrating the school’s fine history and achievements - and the aspirational ones yet to come."

Under a merger of the Heath Grammar and Crossley and Porter Schools in 1985, the school has a joint history going back nearly 440 years to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Now a cherished archive of honours and artefacts dating back to the 16th Century is to be shared at a special event today from 3pm to 5pm.

Treasured exhibits include five newly-restored carved-oak honours boards, stored in the cellars for decades, listing generations of students with exhibitions or Oxbridge scholarships.

Former students can learn about the achievements of illustrious predecessors such as Oliver Smithies, who won a Nobel Prize or his pioneering work on gene editing.

There was novelist Laurence Sterne, whose 1759 comic tale Tristram Shandy pioneered new forms of storytelling, and Andrew Watson, a Scotland footballer who was the the first black player to appear in an international fixture.

Visitors will also be able to see the historic seal of Heath School - or rather the brass matrix used to imprint the sealing wax with its mark.

The matrix was thought to have been lost for centuries.

Mr Farrell had begun a search for the artefact after he found references in school records to it being misplaced in the 1800s. He could not locate it in the school's archive - nor find anyone who knew of its whereabouts.

His quest at one point took him to Cardiff where he thought he had found pictorial evidence of a similar artefact in storage. But when he examined the record in detail he found the image to be inverted - so not the true school matrix.

However, his decade-long search came to surprise fruition last year during a meeting to discuss the school archive. Mr Farrell recalls: "As we talked about various items the new librarian said 'Oh... and there's this...' and produced a brown envelope.

"To my amazement, inside was the brass matrix with a confirmation letter and a large label stating 'School Seal'.

"It transpired it had been in a safe in the library but had never been added to the inventory. The Holy Grail I had hunted for over a decade was indeed right in front of my nose."