Morecambe schools closed after 1917 fire

In his Morecambeology series, historian Peter Wade looks at all aspects of Morecambe’s history. This week he looks at schools.
Pupils at Sandylands School in Morecambe, 1938. Sent in by Douglas Taylor, who is pictured on the far right of the front row.Pupils at Sandylands School in Morecambe, 1938. Sent in by Douglas Taylor, who is pictured on the far right of the front row.
Pupils at Sandylands School in Morecambe, 1938. Sent in by Douglas Taylor, who is pictured on the far right of the front row.

With children settling into a new routine, a new term or a new school we look back to a time when there was a great hunger for learning in Morecambe’s West End at the start of the last century, with children having to be turned away from school doors.

West End School had opened its doors in 1894, quickly followed by Sandylands School in 1901.

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In fact, Sandylands opened twice - first in temporary premises on Sefton Road and then at its present site on Hampton Road in 1904. In each case, the number of pupils enrolled rose rapidly.

Collecting explosives for shells from the stores at White Lund. Picture courtesy of Lancaster City Museum.Collecting explosives for shells from the stores at White Lund. Picture courtesy of Lancaster City Museum.
Collecting explosives for shells from the stores at White Lund. Picture courtesy of Lancaster City Museum.

The school closed temporarily on October 2 1917 in the aftermath of the fire and explosions on White Lund. The school log records the event as follows: ‘The schools were closed all day. An explosion took place last night at

White Lund Munitions Works and continued all night. as the people in the district were warned to leave their homes and stay in the fields two or three miles way, owing to serious rumours of greater explosions to follow, no scholar appeared either morning or afternoon. Happily the danger was averted for the time.’

The school underwent several changes of name as larger changes went on around it such as the amalgamation of Morecambe and Heysham in

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1928 and the opening of the new Balmoral Road School in 1936. The latter drew away about a hundred 11-14 year olds as well as two teachers.

Collecting explosives for shells from the stores at White Lund.Collecting explosives for shells from the stores at White Lund.
Collecting explosives for shells from the stores at White Lund.

The outbreak of war in 1939 closed the school temporarily, pending the provision of air raid shelters. It re-opened on September 25 complete with permanent changes to the routine of the school day. The school timetable was altered to fit within the hours of daylight, gas masks were

issued and air raid evacuations practised, while the school roll soared to almost 400, swollen by evacuee children.

A bonus was the arrival of school milk, supplied in ¾ pint bottles at a charge of a halfpenny each. Later, I was to be part of a post-war

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generation who benefitted from free school milk supplied in a third of a pint bottles.

Sandylands School 1969.Sandylands School 1969.
Sandylands School 1969.

Headmasters, it seemed spanned the generations.

My own Mr Houghton was only Sandyland’s third headmaster, following Messrs MacGregor and Braithwaite.

Mr Levick followed in turn in 1964, spanning the next 15 years. The school physically expanded into off-site annexes and introduced practical subjects including needlework, cookery and gardening.

Outbreaks of childhood infections sometimes closed the school while scarlet fever in a family meant that none of the children (well or unwell) would be allowed into school.

If teachers were ill it was normal for classes to be ‘doubled-up’with over 60 pupils.

School holidays were less generous than today’s with only four weeks for the long summer break and no half-terms.

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