Past pupils welcome at Winckley Square School reunion
Past pupils and staff are being urged to attend a Preston school reunion with a difference this Saturday.
It will mark a special anniversary - 150 years since the founding of Winckley Square Convent School.
The school, which occupied huge premises on Winckley Square and Garden Street in Preston, finally closed its doors in 1981.
Jo Harwood (nee Bowman) is one of the organisers of the reunion, which takes place on Saturday, March 1, from 1pm - 4pm, at Our Lady and St Edward's church hall on Marlborough Drive, Fulwood.
She said: "Don't be put off if you think you're going to be the only one in your year because you will have lots in common with everyone there...The reunions have been going a long time. I think it's an identity, as you get older you start getting more involved in your history."
Jo attended the school from 1959 -1972 and went on to teach English. She was later school librarian at Longridge High and Broughton High Schools.
To mark the 150th anniversary Jo has ordered replicas of the school badge, featuring school motto Facta Non Verba, (deeds not words), which will be for sale for £3.00.
Reunion co-organiser nurse Diane Clough (nee Bolton), a pupil from 1977, was one of the last pupils to attend Winckley Square. She said: "We normally get about 50 people to the reunion but we're hoping for more this year. We're getting some cakes decorated in the school colours - bottle green and red. The school uniform changed a few times but those seemed the dominating colours. When we have the memory table people bring photos, school books, hats, scarves, skirts and blazers. They generate a lot of interest, stories and laughter."There will be displays of school memorabilia, ranging from school uniform to articles and copies of the school magazine Ubique Reminisci and old class photos, plus a rolling display on screen of photos of the school from yesteryear.* Both Jo and Diane paid tribute to the help given by long-standing reunion organiser Gwen Hibbert.
Winckley Square Convent School HCJ Time LineThe SHCJ order was founded by Mother Cornelia Connolly in 1846. In 1885 the Society of the Holy Child Jesus bought 23, Winckley Square for £2,000 and more property purchases followed. In its earlier days there were 50 pupils with 35-40 pupil teachers. By the 1960s there were 850 junior, senior and sixth form pupils. In 1981 reorganisation of Catholic education meant the Winckley Square Convent School site closed. The school's sixth form had already amalgamated with sixth forms at Preston's Catholic College and Lark Hill Convent School to create Cardinal Newman