Catholic education has reached the end of an era in Bradford.

Yorkshire Martyrs Catholic College, in Westgate Hill Street, Tong, closes this summer and leaves behind a 49-year legacy.

Pupils are being divided between two other city Catholic secondary schools, St Joseph’s and St Bede’s, as part of a restructuring programme by the Diocese of Leeds.

The reshuffle has been brought on by falling rolls of Catholic schoolchildren in the district. Only Year 10 pupils will remain in the Yorkshire Martyrs buildings next year so their GCSE studies are uninterrupted by the changes.

The school came into being in the form of a boys school, Cardinal Hinsley Grammar, and a girls school, Margaret Clitherow Grammar, in 1961.

The girls’ school was initially run at a villa at St Joseph’s College and the boys’ school opened as an annexe to St Bede’s in an abandoned primary school in Thornton. Three years later the schools moved on to the existing site of Yorkshire Martyrs.

A joint sixth-form centre opened in 1974 before a merger seven years later.

Maria Mychalwkiw, the school’s humanities director, was a pupil when Margaret Clitherow Grammar opened. The closure brings to an end her 37-year career as a teacher there.

She said: “All I can remember is good things. I have met many fine colleagues and I’ve really loved working with the young people.”

Head teacher John Tat, who took the post in 2005, is leaving the district to become director of schools for the Middlesbrough Diocese.

The school is due to host a final mass and buffet for past students on Saturday.