THE histories of three closed primary schools are set to be the focus of lottery funding bids by volunteers.

The team at Stoops and Hargher Clough Community Centre in Burnley has lodged a £50,000 bid to build a memorial garden based around the daily journals written by the headteacher of Coal Clough Primary School during the period 1917 to 1919.

The plan also includes a film project which will record the thoughts of descendants of those mentioned in the journals and also include dramatisations acted out by children in period costume of some of the stories included in the records.

Youngsters from the Burnley Youth Theatre, Hameldon Community College and Cherry Fold Primary will work on the project should the bid be successful.

A second bid will seek to fund a digital picture archive for Coal Clough, Myrtle Bank Infants and Hargher Clough Junior School which all closed and were replaced by Cherry Fold.

Chris Keene, from the community centre, said: “We expect to hear in eight to 10 weeks whether we have been successful.

“Daily journals were kept by the head at Coal Clough school from 1901 until it closed in 2005.

“They make for fascinating reading and form the basis for the project.

“For instance, the realities of war impinged on the school and there are entries where children are released from lessons to queue for rations because their fathers wer fighting at the Front and their mothers were working long hours in the factories.

“If we get the funding we will also commission an artist to design a centrepiece for the garden.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to share some good news in the near future.”

A second Lottery bid is also in the offing.

Mr Keene said: “We’re looking into setting up a digital archive of photographs and memorabilia from local schools that have closed.

“We already have a few hundred pictures and would like to set up an archive which would theme the images decade by decade so that the heritage of these three schools is not lost.

“This project is for less funds but it’s at an earlier stage than the other bid and we would be looking to submit it towards the end of the year.

“To get funding we need to show local support, so we would like to get a group together.”

Contact chris_291@msn.com for more information.