Back to school for Blackpool writer Barry

The existing Sacred Heart School could no longer cope with the increasing numbers of Catholic children, thus a new school and parish were required.

In 1897, tenders went out for the building of a new school and integrated chapel on Newton Drive, to be dedicated to St Kentigern. It took several years to realise but, on November 6, 1904, Archbishop of Liverpool Thomas Whiteside opened the new mission.

Father Blundell was the first rector of the church, while the school was to be administered by nuns from the Society of the Holy Child Jesus.

In 1931, a separate church building was completed and activities of worship moved there. The original chapel became the main hall for the school, completing a layout that more or less remains to this day. The successive head teachers continued to be nuns, though with a largely secular staff.

The infants were taught in their own building and separate playground, before graduating to the juniors whose play area was separated into boys and girls by a large wall. There was also a senior section for girls up to age 15, while boys had a similar arrangement at St John Vianney.

With only two playgrounds on the site, the school had to outsource sporting facilities for its pupils.

Revoe Gym was used for many years, while Queens Park became the site for both boy’s football and the annual sports day, until the latter was moved to Stanley Park. Swimming lessons were conducted at Cocker Street Baths and Thames Road School’s own learner pool, before later moving to Derby Baths.

In 1966, young go-ahead teacher Mike Carter arrived on the staff and decided to expand the pupils’ outdoor activity with monthly camping trips in the Lake District for the upper juniors. For this he managed to procure tents and six canoes from Blackpool Education Authority, and enthusiastic pupils built more canoes of their own.

Deputy head Terry Hogben and teacher Miss Hilda Bewley also joined in the trips to Derwentwater, where Mr Carter reputedly did all the cooking.

Similarly the school’s resident French teacher, Madame Phillips, organised a bi-annual holiday to Belgium for the 10 and 11-year-olds, staying at a boarding campus in Brussels. For many it was their first time away from parents and abroad, and a change from the school’s annual day excursions for Anchorsholme Park or the Royal Umpire Museum.

Also by the 1960s, the baby boomer generation was catching up and requiring more space.

Two catholic secondary moderns, St Catherine’s for girls and St Thomas of Canterbury for boys, opened on Garstang Road – to accommodate the secondary age group and the “all through schools” were abolished. Class sizes at St Kentigern’s increased with the upper juniors housed in a Medway hut where the raised car park now stands.

However, the arrival of the 1970s saw the biggest changes in the school’s history. The administration by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus came to an end with the departure of Mother Mary Mellissa who was replaced by a secular head, John Moores.

The school buildings were remodelled with modern efficiently-heated classrooms and the installation of indoor toilets, replacing the misery of Edwardian outdoor loos that did not even have a roof!

The Medway hut was dismantled with Junior Three and Four being brought into the main building, while the infamous wall that separated the boys’ and girls’ playgrounds was also brought down.

Unfortunately, no sooner was modernisation eventually completed when a fire broke out early one morning on November 21, 1975. It turned into an inferno, gutting the library, cloakroom and storerooms, and junior classrooms were rendered unusable until they could be cleared up. Two junior classes relocated to the infant’s building, while the others took space at St Joseph’s College, though the pupils were kept completely segregated from the big boys!

The juniors’ building quickly got back onto its feet, though one further casualty came in 1977 – when the Local Education Authority dropped French from the curriculum which regrettably bid au revoir to Madame Phillips. Happily, around the same time, the school was able to take pride in a family of former pupils who were making a name for themselves in the music world, the Nolan Sisters.

St Kentigern’s School has since continued to be a popular and successful centre of learning, currently under the Headship of Mrs Wygladala. Having already celebrated its centenary back in 2004, it can look forward to another century of academic achievement.

l Barry McCann was a pupil of St Kentigern’s 1967-1974. He is an award-wining writer, speaker and broadcaster. He is also Folkflore Correspondent with BBC Radio Cumbria