Thanks to Dr. Allan Miller for the following article which appeared at the time of the publication of his book on the history of UpHolland Grammar School.

THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES

Local author, Dr Allan Miller, has just had his fifth book, entitled ‘From Up Holland Grammar School to Winstanley College’, published by the European Library. The book is dedicated to the late Mr J J Bagley, who taught at the school and who published his own history of Up Holland Grammar School in 1944. It is also a response to a challenge. In 1953, when the school moved to new premises, Mr Matheson, Chairman of the Old Pupils’ Association, wrote: ‘What a pity Mr Bagley’s splendid history of the school was published 10 years before its stirring final chapter could be written! Who will tackle this supremely worthwhile job? Perhaps an Old Pupil who loves his old school will rise to the task of setting down for posterity the details of this most memorable and joyous milestone in its life – its first new suit in its 300 years of progress.’ Dr Miller has risen to the challenge with relish. ‘I was a pupil at Up Holland Grammar School in the 1950s and taught there in the 1960s. I spent some of the happiest days of my life at Up Holland Grammar School and it has been a labour of love to write the history of the school to which I owe so much’, Dr Miller explained. The book has been written to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the new school and it tells a fascinating story.

In the 1640s Adam Martindale was forced to close his school in Up Holland because of the ‘great inconveniences’ and ‘constant alarms’ in the village during the civil war period. When the wars ended, people from both sides of the divide determined to provide a grammar school in Up Holland for local children. Gentlemen and yeomen from the area provided land and money and Up Holland Grammar School opened its doors to pupils in 1661. The original stone building is still standing in School Lane and some of its first set of rules make quaint reading. For master and scholars, the school day started at ‘seven a lock in the morning from February the first, till the first of October and (de)part at five. And the residue of the year that they meets at eight and (de)part at four’. Another rule declared: ‘That offences against God immediately such as are cursing, swearing lying either within the school or without as also profaning of the Lords day by playing or otherwise and such like offences be duly and truly Corrected’.

The old Grammar School building

18th

During the first 150 years of its history, Up Holland Grammar School endured a roller coaster existence but generally it was a story of decline partly because the curriculum dominated by Latin was not suitable to local needs. Its fortunes were changed by Reverend John Braithwaite, who was headmaster from 1782 to 1812. He changed the name to ‘Up Holland Academy’ and offered a more ‘modern’ curriculum in an attempt to attract children from more middle class families. Many pupils boarded with the headmaster and his family at ‘The Priory’ or ‘The Abbey’ – a house next door to Up Holland Parish Church. A plaque on the south wall of the Church is dedicated to Reverend Braithwaite who ‘conducted in this village a seminary, which was held in high estimation, and resorted to by youth from various parts of the country’.

There then followed half a century of decline when a series of masters tried to re-establish a grammar school with a classical curriculum, even though at least one teacher had ‘little Latin and no Greek’ himself. This meant that on the upper floor of the old building was a master with virtually no pupils whilst the ground floor was packed with children being taught elementary reading, writing and arithmetic by another teacher. Matters came to a head when Reverend William Berridge was appointed headmaster in 1864 and immediately began to re-vitalise the upper school. He attracted more grammar school pupils but life in the congested little building was increasingly intolerable. The boys from both schools had to share the same playground and they ‘rail at and sometimes maltreat each one another’. The problem was partly solved when the junior pupils moved to a new building in Church Street in 1875, leaving both floors of the old grammar school to Mr Berridge and his pupils.

Under William Berridge, Up Holland Grammar School made remarkable progress because of his total dedication. However, the building was ‘utterly unfitted for the purpose’ until, under Mr Berridge’s leadership, the school moved in 1878 to new premises in Ox House Road – the site of the present Up Holland High School. The new building was ‘admirably adapted for scholastic purposes’ and Dr Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool, found it ‘beautifully situated in a charming and healthy neighbourhood’ with large gardens where ‘the students can play every variety of games. A Government Inspector commented that the school’s only ‘misfortune is the name of Wigan on the address’. She continued: ‘No one who had not seen it could imagine this green oasis within four miles of the blackest and dirtiest of Lancashire towns’. Mr Berridge was ‘indefatigable in his efforts to make the establishment one of the best in the country’ and when he left in 1890 he hoped that Up Holland Grammar School would continue to progress to ‘a much higher degree of efficiency and prosperity’.

However, the fortunes of Up Holland Grammar School were to wane again and by 1907 its ‘uncertain usefulness’ in Lancashire County’s education plans ‘militated against official recognition by the Board of Education’. In fact, governors of the school were advised to consider its closure. Instead they appointed Charles Cox, who turned out to be a remarkable headmaster during the years 1907 to 1931. In spite of endless difficulties and opposition from many quarters, Mr Cox succeeded in turning round the fortunes of the school. Official visitors highlighted the ‘excellent spirit’ and gained ‘a happy impression of work actively and pleasantly done’. He introduced many of the facilities, which were later to become common place in schools – library, debating society, games, museum, weather station, visits and field work. Inspectors acknowledged that the school had ‘made substantial progress under improved financial conditions’. Mr Cox himself was particularly proud of the growth of the sixth form where ‘the course of education is completed’. After a long struggle, Up Holland Grammar School was eventually taken over by Lancashire County Council and fully recognised by the Board of Education.

The school continued to attract increasing numbers of students, to the extent that the premises became totally inadequate for the efficient running of an educational establishment. As a solution, Lancashire County Council proposed the amalgamation of Up Holland Grammar School and Ashton Grammar School on a new site. But for the outbreak of the Second World War it is likely that this amalgamation would have gone ahead.

Just before the outbreak of war, Alfred Maggs was promoted to the headship of Up Holland Grammar School. His first task was to steer the school through the difficult war years. He also had to oversee an enormous growth in the number of pupils, following the Education Act in 1944 which decreed that all grammar school places should be free to those pupils selected by the ‘eleven plus’ examination. The Ox House site had reached the ‘absolute maximum’ of its capacity. One parent described the classrooms as ‘faintly reminiscent of the dungeons of the Tower of London’. The art room was like a barn ‘except the smell’. The laboratories ‘might just have been passable in the days of Faraday’. In fact, the school would have made ‘a great location for the film Oliver Twist’.

However, there was ‘a wonderful spirit in the school’ and relief was at hand. In July 1944 Squire Bankes of Winstanley Hall made ‘a most public spirited and munificent gift’ of 20 acres of land in Winstanley for a new school and ‘the shadow that has rested over the school for so long has passed away’. But it was only in September 1953 that Mr Maggs could move his staff and 461 pupils into the new school in Winstanley Road.

Under his successor, Brian Ellis, Up Holland Grammar School continued to prosper and develop. In 1965 Lancashire Education Committee unveiled proposals to introduce comprehensive education in the county. The governors feared that such a reorganisation of education would mean that Up Holland Grammar School ‘as we know it, will cease to exist’. In 1974, following local government reorganisation, the control of Up Holland Grammar School transferred from Lancashire County to Wigan Metropolitan Borough. On 30 August 1977 Mr Ellis became the first Principal of a new sixth form college opened in the grammar school buildings. It was called Winstanley College to avoid confusion with Up Holland College, the Roman Catholic seminary in College Road, now closed. Under Principals Lavelle and Watson, Winstanley College has continued to grow and develop and has been consistently ranked in the top five colleges in the whole country.

 Mr. H. B. Ellis (picture taken at reunion 1st October 2005)

The full story of the transformation of a tiny village school opened in 1661 for children from the Up Holland area into a major college attracting students from a wide hinterland across Lancashire is told by Dr Miller in his book. Published in hardback, with 38 photographs, the book costs £10 and Allan is donating profits to local churches and good causes like Cancer Research.

Dr Allan Miller

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Email received 24/02/2008  from David Jones

Just out of curiosity I typed in Upholland Grammar School in the Google search engine and up came a series of websites.  I have enjoyed reading through the literature there especially  the history of the old Grammar School in School Lane Upholland. I was born in Highfield and initially attended Highfield Primary School before my family moved to Kitt Green. I recall Squire Banks throwing open Winstanley Hall gardens in the 30's to celebrate the Jubilee of George the Vth. I attended UpHolland Grammar school when it was sited in the Old Ox hall building from Sept 1939 until August 1944. The headmaster was Alfred Maggs and I recall Mr. J Bagnall and many other teachers, Miss Penman and Mr. Wigglesworth the Science teachers.  Mr Smith the Geography teacher,Oswald La Hive the Gym teacher Percy W. DeCourcy Smaill the Music teacher, Miss Marsh the French teacher (with whom I had a constant battle), Miss Grimshaw the English teacher and my early form mistress, amongst others. There were  I think less than 300 pupils at that time and  one of them was Ulick Maggs the headmaster's son who later joined his brothers in the Merchant navy. My especial friends were Maurice Speakman from Kitt Green who died early in his fifties I think: Kenneth Benson from Upholland who went on to become a teacher and Edward Phythian who followed his elder brother George into the school. Edward went on to Manchester University and an eventual career at Farnborough the aircraft research establishment. I only found this information out much later in life when a fellow member of the Physics Dept. in Auckland University in New Zealand mentioned to me one day that he had flatted with an Edward Phythian whilst he was doing a Science degree also in Manchester. After completing my School Cert. in 1944 Mr. Maggs recommended me for an interview for a position as a cadet at the Home Office Depot in Billinge and I was successful in obtaining the post. I stayed there until I joined the Fleet Air Arm and after my return I found all wartime positions had been declared vacant and we had to apply to go through the Civil Service Boards and Examinations before becoming appointed to permanent positions. In this respect i was fortunate to be given a permanent position and I was posted to the Home Office Depot in Romsley in Worcestershire. It was an excellent posting for me because it enabled me to do a post service sandwich course at what was then the Birmingham School of Technology but is now the University of Aston.  I sat the Institute of Engineering exams and after I qualified I was seconded to the Colonial Office for service in Kenya to assist in establishing a new wireless linked communications system since the existing telephone wire links were constantly being sabotaged by the Mau Mau.  I spent 4 years there on secondment and on return to the Home Office I was posted to kent but within a year I had a further posting this time as an Asst. Superintendent  of Police in charge of Signals in Tanganyika.  After a tour there I transferred permanently to the Colonial Office and stayed in Tanganyika  until Independance. I was then about to be transferred to Hong Kong  when I was approached and asked to join the Diplomatic Service, an offer which I accepted.  I spent some years in Somalia, Aden and the Yeman before taking up a post in Auckland University. There I stayed until retirement and after some years moved over to Australia where I now live in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast.
Sadly in my wanderings around the world I have lost touch with my school fiends and it was with a touch of nostalgia that I read the items on the web site. Good luck to you in preserving this information.

Kind regards  David Jones.
 
July 2007

- Email received from Dave Atherton, ex UGS pupil, who teaches at Winstanley College.

I have been going through the archives of UGS still retained at Winstanley College - registers from 1895 to the mid 1930s, staff applications, Inspection Reports, old magazines, photographs, field trips in the 1920s ...... and I am arranging for the most important of them to be deposited in the Lancashire Record Office, Preston where they will be safeguarded and join other ancient documents from the 17th century.

21st April 2007 - David Robinson and Phil Rickman meet up after 40 years

On 21st April 2007 Phil Rickman was attending a Words Festival, organised by Wigan Metro, at the Turnpike Gallery in Leigh. Phil and I had been good mates at school but had not seen each other since our schooldays. Phil had emailed me about the event and I was able to meet up with Phil and his charming wife Carol and have a good chat reminiscing about our school days. Phil is a successful author of mystery crime novels with a paranormal theme usually set in Wales where he now lives. I was lucky enough to be able to get a signed copy of one of his novels,  as well as signing the copy he also included a cartoon representing my nickname at school ! All those who know Phil will remember that as well as possessing a healthy imagination he was also skilled at art.

Ist September 2006- copy of email received from Bill Kenyon.

E-mail : wmkenyon@hotmail.com

Comments : It was purely by chance I came across the site and have found it fascinating to look through.I was most surprised when going through the photos to see my face looking out at me on the photo of Prize Winners especially since I had no memory of it.I am second from the right back row and recognise on the back row second from left Allen, then David Atherton,who has taught at the school for many years and Eric Simm who became head boy 1962 to 1963. The girls to Mr. Ellis' left are Gillian Moorehouse and Susan Davenport.

I was at the school from 1956 to 1963 and have many happy memories of my time there.I wonder if anybody remembers inter school dances with other grammar schools in the area especially one when Please please me was played almost non stop! I am now retired from teaching first in Warwickshire and then Cleveleys and live in Lancaster.

20thAugust2006- copy of email received from Ian and Anne Gaskell.

E-mail : ian.gaskell@tesco.net

Comments : Hello,

Just revisited your website. Great stuff; hope you manage to keep it going. I feel able to contact you now it's been opened to the rest of the 60's intake. I started UGS in 1963 at the same time as my wife, Anne Houghton. By the time we finished in 1970 I was Nelson house captain and Anne was girls games captain. Between us we are able to remember a few missing names from your photographs. You also seem to have omitted my cousin, Geoff Pennington, from your own year's intake. We also have a few old school magazines and school photographs. I'll try and fire up the scanner and post you any pics you don't already have. After moving around the country, we have returned to Billinge and now live in UpHolland Road within sight of the old school. We have managed to contact a few of our own year's intake via Friends Reunited website. Probably enough for now by way of introduction. We'll follow up with all the names we can remember on photographs.