We all remember stories from our schooldays.

Few, however, can have been quite as dramatic as this, related by former Mill Mount Grammar School for Girls pupil Kathleen Wilson about a chemistry lesson at the school in 1946.

"We were sitting behind long bench tables equipped with bunsen burners and sinks," Kathleen wrote.

"The teacher was up on a raised platform also equipped with a long solid bench. After she had given us some notes Miss Meakin (presumably the teacher) brought out several gas jars which had been carefully covered with greased glass discs.

"I remember quite clearly that she told us one of them was tasteless, colourless and odourless, yet was quite poisonous. She continued to speak but then in mid-sentence she gently slid behind the desk!

"There was a moment's stunned silence, the girls on the front bench started coughing, then there was a rush to the windows and door. Someone went for Miss Willoughy (the headmistress) and everyone was sent out through the garden door to recover.

"We were never sure whether the teacher inadvertently opened the wrong gas jar, or whether the top was dislodged. I am not sure who tended to her but, happily, she did recover after a day or so..."

That story appeared in The Last Windmill, a history of Mill Mount School from 1920 to 1985. The history was published in 1985, the year the school merged with Nunthorpe Grammar to form Millthorpe. By then Kathleen Parker (who had been born Kathleen Walker and had studied at Mill Mount from 1944 to 1949) had gone on to become deputy head of Upper Poppleton Junior School.

The Last Windmill was published to mark the end of Mill Mount's existence as a school in its own right. It is packed with stories by former pupils (like Kathleen), and also contains chapters written by two of the school's headmistresses.

There's a slightly sad note to the brief chapter contributed by the school's last headmistress, DM Cook.

"The book, through the history of one school, brings to life what grammar school education was like in the mid-twentieth century," she wrote. "There have been mistakes made at Mill Mount; we have experimented and later retraced our steps; not all lessons have been brilliantly exciting; not all girls have been happy here and some have shown this in anti-social ways.

"Miss Willoughby (headmistress from1946-1966) spoke of her years as headmistress as busy, happy and fruitful ones and, despite the failures, this is the overwhelming impression one gains from pupils of all eras."

That was in 1985. But it is relevant today because, if the school had continued, it would be celebrating its 100th birthday this year - presumably in September.

The school was founded (along with the Nunthorpe Grammar school for Boys) in 1920 to provide 'secondary' (ie post-14) education for children living on the south side of the River Ouse.

It was a small school to begin with, with only about 100 girls, and the curriculum was limited. Science was limited to botany; and the girls also learned music, needlework, drawing and painting, along with domestic subjects.

But the school quickly grew. A 'new' building was added in 1935, and by 1946, when Miss Willoughby took over as headmistress, there were 405 pupils. Chemistry, general science and, later, physics were all taught. There was a surge in new pupils after the war, the addition of a new wing in 1959, and the arrival of GCEs to replace the original School Certificate.

Since the school only merged with Nunthorpe Grammar in 1985, there will be plenty of old Mill Mount pupils still around in York.

We don't know whether any of them will be organising a reunion to mark the 100th anniversary of the school's founding this year. But if so, here are a couple more stories from The Last Windmill to bring back memories...

The facts of life (written by Sylvia Simpson, née Adamson, a pupil from 1949-1956)

"Who remembers hygiene lessons? These were taught by a dark-haired little Welsh domestic science teacher. She spent one period per week outlining the constituents of a balanced diet, the need for daily bathing, weekly hairwashing and.. the evils of cutting toe-nails in the bath.

"We listened agog, knowing that this was merely verbal foreplay before the climactic lesson in which the 'facts of life' would be revealed.

"How we enjoyed watching the poor lady squirm she she ploughed inexorably through the digestive and urinary systems, moving on to menstruation and finally human reproduction. (And) how flat and anti-climactic that last lesson was - nothing there to titillate the prurient. It was.. conducted in a masterly fashion. We were allowed to ask questions and a few brave souls did but we knew the answers already."

Trouble at t'Mill (written by Molly Hakin née Jackson, a pupil from 1951 to 1958, who later became a solicitor

"There were two mortal sins at Mill Mount; one was to be caught not wearing your evil beret with its school badge on; the other was 'babbly gam'. These sins collected black marks. One black mark could be redeemed after three weeks but three black marks together meant a detention. I once managed 13 unredeemed black marks...

"Not all my sins did find me out. But for one sin I was suspended. Someone in the fourth form had to go and ring the hand bell outside the headmistress' room.

"My friend went to ring the bell and I went with her. I happened to have my tennis racket and ball with me. I thought the head was out so I played tennis against her door. She was in..."

Stephen Lewis