Journey back to pupils’ first holiday abroad

11:28am Thursday 27th March 2008

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FORTY years ago the Easter break meant an exodus to Europe in organised school parties.

In 1966, for example, a host of students from several Blackburn schools went abroad - and for many it was their first visit to the continent.

Spain, Greece and the Alps were popular destinations, with students staying in guest houses, plush hotels, or under canvas.

A dozen sixth formers from St Mary's RC College spent a camping holiday in France, to study the sites and historical places connected with the French Revolution.

The boys were led by history teacher Mr Cowman, and they travelled overland by van.

Forty pupils from Blackburn High School for Girls visited Greece, by coach, boat and rail, under the watchful eye of teacher Margaret Adams, and they saw Mount Olympus, Mycenae, Salonica and the Acropolis.

Spain was the destination for students of Witton Park Secondary School, who stayed under canvas alongside headmaster Mr Grimshaw, while lads and lasses from Spring Bank County Secondary School, in Darwen, went on a ten-day skiing holiday to Switzerland.

Four dozen pupils of Shadsworth also went to Switzerland, staying 4,000ft up in the Alps, from where they visited the underground lake at Sion and Mont Blanc.

A group of girls from Marymount RC Girls' School, Blackburn, travelled with Mr Dickenson, head of English, to Austria, while pupils from QEGS and Blakey Moor went to Holland.

l Have you any stories, or photographs, from your school trips back in the sixties to share with Looking Back readers?