In February 1966, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph ran a double page spread on what it called ‘Blackburn’s most modern school’.

Billinge Grammar School had opened in January that year with the Telegraph reporting that both staff and pupils had settled in completely. The new school had cost £375,000 – equivalent to around £9 million today – and was due to be officially opened by the town’s MP Barbara Castle on March 25.

The Telegraph story at the time said that the school had ‘some of the finest buildings in the country with the most contemporary equipment’. With comprehensive education due to be introduced in Blackburn in 1967, Billinge was set ‘to take its place as Blackburn’s premier school’. The school would take 750 pupils and the new building was the end of a long-held dream.

The Telegraph reported that plans for a school on the site off Preston New Road were first put forward in the 1930s but that the outbreak of the Second World War had put a stop to things.

“After the war preparations went ahead and after much work in front of and behind the scenes planning permission was given in 1963 for a £300,000 on the Troy estate,” it said.

“The Troy estate had been the home of brewer Daniel Thwaites, but had been owned by the corporation for many years.

“The Blakey Moor Girls’ School used the original house and temporary buildings both during and after the war.”

Pupils from the former Technical and Grammar School at Blakey Moor had begun the new term at Billinge in 1966.

 

The Telegraph gave a detailed look at the new set-up at Billinge Grammar School

“You approach the new school along a curving drive from the Preston New Road,” it said. “The entrance hall leads into the administration block and displayed for all to see are the many trophies and cups the school has won.”

A key feature of the new building was the assembly hall which could seat every pupil for morning assembly.

There was a stage with the latest sound system and also a Tannoy system which the article said meant ‘the headmaster could address every pupil in every room from his office’.

A large dining room and kitchen was available to pupils – at the time around 90 per cent of pupils took their own lunches to school.

There were two gyms which would also be used for examinations.

Other features of the new school included a 120-seat lecture theatre which the Telegraph glowingly declared ‘would not disgrace any university’ and a language laboratory, complete with 32 individual tape recorders controlled by a master console ‘looking like something out of Dr Who’.

The main teaching block was three-storey and it also housed the school library which was stocked with 7,000 books.

A large staff room easily accommodated the 43 full-time staff ‘14 of whom are women’ the report noted. There was also a separate ‘marking’ room for teachers.

The school operated a sixth form for 120 students and they had their own common room and there was also a prefects’ room. Science labs, a music room ‘complete with a hi-fi record player and tape recorder that would grace the BBC’ and workshops ‘equipped with the finest equipment outside any factory’ were also available to students.

Subjects taught at the school ranged from Latin, Greek and modern languages to philosophy, history, the sciences and even needlework.

 

In its editorial, the Telegraph said: “It is a new venture for Blackburn and there will be many eyes watching for the success the school will obviously bring to the town.”

Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/billinge-blackburns-most-modern-school-040000305.html