SO many local people remember Derek Billington, the historian, artist and teacher that it was fascinating to hear from his son, now living in Idaho in the USA.

His memories of Brownlow Fold will, undoubtedly, bring back memories for other readers who attended the school during the same period — 1966 to 1971.

Andy Billington, who is now aged 62, joined Brownlow Fold School at the age of 11 after leaving Devonshire Road Primary School.

“The Beatles were all the rage in the early sixties and I recall seeing them on our TV one night while my mum bathed me in a bowl of hot water in front of the blazing coal fire one cold night.”

In those days, explains Andy, it was Brownlow Fold County Secondary School which was later renamed Brownlow Fold High School for Boys.

“I vaguely remember that although we didn’t have a uniform, per se, we did have a school blazer which had a BFCSS crest on the breast pocket.

“The school building was two stories, the lower part occupied by the junior school and the upstairs for the secondary school.

“A two storey annex had been built on the North side. This was the gym with changing rooms and showers on the ground floor and the upper floor accommodating the woodwork and metal work classes.”

Andy recalls, at the north end of the yard, there was “The Hut” where Dennis Oakes the PE and Maths teacher taught.

There was a bank of steps, he says, rising from the concrete school yard leading to the building’s entrance, where a decent sized landing offered a spot to “hail the boys and blow their whistles to herd us into our respective lines ready for sequential marching into the building”.

The first sight he recalls, greeting them at the top of the stairs, was a huge glass panelled wall that formed the back of the stage in the main hall and a corridor running along it.

“To the right was the staff room, the head’s office and a passage onto the woodwork and metalwork classrooms at that time occupied by Alan Rigby and Ron Bleakly respectively,” he says.

Alan Rigby is probably well known to our readers as he has contributed his own memories of Brownlow Fold in previous articles in Looking Back.

“To the left was room one where John Brown taught me geography and at the end of the corridor was room two where Bill Ashworth taught technical drawing.

“Taking a right through the doorway opposite John Brown’s room brought us into the assembly hall where, in the good old days, we would have an assembly and sing a hymn or two with announcements for the day before breaking off into our respective form rooms to start lessons,” he says.

At the east end of the assembly hall was the stage where plays were performed.
Andy recalls two particular plays — one was Treasure Island with Charlie Keen playing “a very good Long John Silver”, and the other a mystery play set in a train station with a waiting room.

He remembers Robin Brunskill who taught science and in later years he was joined by Mike Rimmer, although sadly Mike died at a young age.

“The second door off the hall was room four where the renowned Derek Billington, my dad, taught art and craft and taught us, in his inimitable style, to create art,” he says. Other teachers included Brian Smith who taught maths and history and Alan Allsop who taught English, as well as Eunice Smith, the wife of Brian who was a French teacher.

There was also maths’ teacher Tony Wilson and “beloved music teacher” Sally Kennedy.

The school had four “houses”. 

These were Crompton, Chadwick, Barlow and Leverhulme. 

Look out in next week’s Looking Back for more of Andy’s recollections of Brownlow Fold School that are sure to bring back memories for anyone who was a pupil there.