A BOOK charting the history of educational establishments on the site of the current Workington Community Hospital has been published by a local history group.
Workington Tech - The History Of The College, Park Lane, 1912-2001 shows the site's developmental history from a County Technical and Secondary School through various incarnations including: Cumberland Technical College; Workington Grammar School; West Cumberland College of Science and Technology and finally West Cumbria College of Further Education until the college site was transferred to Lillyhall in 2001.
The book has only just become available to the public to buy this year, and was the idea of a local history group, ran by Mike Gregson.
When the building was closing, the lakes college history group created an exhibition of West Cumbria College called "Farewell to Park Lane", with memorabilia for the exhibition coming from all around the world, from photos to uniforms.
The majority of the material for the book was collated by Margaret Bremner, Pat Coyle, JMercia Haughan, May Graves, Mike Gregson, Berlinda Kent, Betty Kent, Sheila Richardson and Geoff Wilson, with source material also provided by the late Robert Martin and Trevor (Taff) Eveleigh - who did research on Dr Woollatt, the first principle at the school. Eric Apperley, ex-principal of the College, created a time line.
"The book has been worked on over a considerable amount of time, there are many pictures of staff and school teams and how it altered from a school to college, physical developments, staff sports teams and departments. It charts significant changes in its history and covers the development of education from 1912 to 2001", said JMercia Haughan.
The book has now been published and is available to the public.
"It is a historic document. It is most informative with multiple memories. The book has a wealth of photographs and personal anecdotes", JMercia added.
Copies of the "Tech book" have been placed in the Whitehaven Records Office, Whitehaven and Workington libraries and the Workington Resource Centre at the Helena Thompson Museum.
The book is available for sale at £12.50, plus postage, from Workington Heritage Group, Helena Thompson Museum, Park End Road, Workington, CA14 4DE, 01900 64040, or by emailing them on trishap@workingtonheritagegroup.org.uk
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