THIS week we are look at a, perhaps, little known school in Bolton that went on to become one of the most famous.

The Church Institute School was, for 100 years, sited at the bottom of Silverwell Street in the town centre but was renamed in June 1946 — following recognition as a direct grant school under the 1944 Education Act — when it became Canon Slade Grammar School which (today) is in Bradshaw.

It was the Reverend Canon James Slade, who was Vicar of Bolton who founded the Church Institute School, in 1855 close to the Parish Church.

Reader Mavis Walsh, who lives in Over Hulton, was a pupil at Canon Slade School and she wanted to enlighten us, and her fellow Looking Back enthusiasts after spotting a recent Then and Now feature in Looking Back showing Silverwell Street in the town centre.

"I am a alumna of Canon Slade School and it would have interested many people I think if you had mentioned that the large building on the left of the picture and at the bottom of Silverwell Street was, for 100 years, the Church Institute School.

"So, about 360 children walked down Silverwell Street to school every day until in January 1956 the school moved into the new buildings in Bradshaw where it grew into the very large comprehensive school which most Bolton people know today," she says.

Where the Church Institute School once stood now stands another prominent Bolton landmark — that of the Bolton Quaker Meeting House — Mavis is keen to point out to us.

Here is a little more information we have managed to find about the school around the time of World War Two.

The school maintained a strong family feel to it and following World War Two efforts were made to keen in touch with servicemen and women printing their letters in the school magazine and asking for addresses so that Christmas parcels could be sent to them from the school and from the Old Sladians organisation which was, and still is, made up of former pupils.

A school magazine from spring 1941 listed 77 old boys and two old girls serving in the forces at that times.

Apparently Mr Brooke, who taught geography and games wrote letters regularly to as many serving former pupils as he could and at the end of the war, thanks to his extensive knowledge, a list was drawn up of 22 former pupils known to have lost their lives on active service and more were added following that initial number.

The Old Sladians collected subscriptions for a war memorial in 1961 and this took the form of an altar and reredos (altar piece) for use in the hall at Holy Communion services as well as a commemorative plaque and an altar book inscribed with the names.

While the name of the Church Institute School has long since been consigned to the history books the school is, of course, still going strong in the form of Canon Slade School and still retains the ethos it began with more than 150 years ago and still remains a major part of Bolton life.