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St.Helens Road site of the old
Prescot Grammar School and
latterly Prescot School was the
subject of a pre-meditated arson
attack in early 1978. The attack
took place in the early hours of
the morning and the perpetrator,
an ex-pupil Derek Melia was
subsequently imprisoned for his
deed. There were in fact two
fires to see off most of the
'temporary' buildings erected in
1924. The first
fire destroyed all the classrooms
from between the library and
approximately Room 12, including
science and language labs. The
block containing the sixth form
centre and the old outside
toilets survived, as did the
1960's development around the
Spencer Briggs Hall. It seems
that in the second fire in July
1978 destroyed the gymnasium
area, the central quad and the
Staff Room. In the first fire all
the fantastic school pictures
outside the library were lost
forever. [See Glyn
Phillips' photos of the site in
the early nineties].
Temporary
'portakabins' were erected prior
to the full move to the Knowsley
Park Lane site soon after.
Apparently, even the staff had to
make do with life in one of these
'huts'. Even when the two sites
were amalgamated on Knowsley Park
lane's site, there was very
little new building except for
the VIth Form Centre built on the
field at Park Wing and the
inevitable portakabins on the
tennis courts.
There
is a belief that the arson attack
was a stroke of good fortune for
the Local Education Authority as
it was a time of falling roles
and conservative government
encouragement to sell off school
fields to property developers for
housing needs!
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