Monday 10 December 2012

St Paul's School - St Paul's Street

A nice old photo of St Paul's School (for Alan H), with New Park St running up the left hand side and Alma St to the right. I'm unsure of the year, but looking at the cars, I'm guessing it was the mid 1960's?
One of the few schools with it's own clock tower I would have thought. I can't think of any others in Blackburn with a clock tower.
If anyone knows when it was eventually demolished, I would be interested to know.
For anyone unsure of where this school was located, below is a 1907 postcard of 'The Tech' (Victoria Centre as it now is) and if you look to the right of the card, you can clearly see the clock tower.
The photo below the postcard, is prior to the construction of The Technical School / Victoria Centre and as you can see, the school and clock were there back then too.


PHOTO COURTESY OF COTTONTOWN / BLACKBURN LIBRARIES REFERENCE DEPT.
POSTCARD COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION
1887 IMAGE COURTESY OF THE BLACKBURN TIMES & COTTONTOWN

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the photo of the old school. It looks rather grand I think. Another name that came into my head was Mr Hill the caretaker. I once saw him open the trapdoor in a classroom and I was told it was used as an air raid shelter during the war. I wanted to go down but they wouldn`t let me. Spoilsports.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The trap door was in Miss Miller's classroom. I went down the steps into it during a safety drill 1943c
      Eileen Fawcett

      Delete
  2. You're welcome Alan.

    I can believe the caretaker's story about the cellar / basement being used as an air raid shelter. I'll bet many were.

    Regards

    Colin

    ReplyDelete
  3. According to the Cottontown website the school was demolished in 1967. I remember there was a small storeroom at the back of the clock where footballs and similar gear was kept, proper leather casings and bladders in those days. You could see the clock workings on the other side but they never let us go near. They never let us do any of the fun things!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the info Alan.

    regards

    Colin

    ReplyDelete
  5. I went to this school, I left there in 1970.

    Frank Gregory.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great pics of the school and church, how can I obtain copies of photos ? I went to St Pauls circa 1950 to 1958...( started at 3 yrs old ) remember Miss Miller, Miss Hammel ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember Miss Miller and Miss Hammel. Two opposites as I recall. Miss Miller was the old fashioned tyrant of the classroom who treated children strictly whereas Miss Hammel was very kind and gentle with us and realised we were only young children who made mistakes and didn't deliberately get our tables wrong or spell words incorrectly. I think Miss Miller probably put many a child off learning for life! Or do you have different memories?

      Delete
  7. Hi K

    The school photo belongs to Cottontown (Blackburn Library). You would need to contact them via their site to ask about copies.

    Regards.

    Colin

    ReplyDelete