YOUNGSTERS in Nelson will get a in-line skate park in the spring - thanks to a killer who died in Broadmoor more than 60 years ago.

Money left by former Barrowford solicitor James Hargreaves is being used to transform a cleared area of land in Southfield Street, Nelson, into Pendle's second skate park.

In 1914 in Blackpool, Hargreaves shot a young solicitor's clerk in the back after being convicted of assaulting his housekeeper.

The young man died a month later and Hargreaves, who was the last in a long line of landowners who lived at Laund House, Barrowford, was sent to Broadmoor where he died in 1936 aged 86.

Hargreaves left the council £50,000 in a trust that could not be touched until all his distant relatives were dead.

The last one died in 1991 and since then the money has been used to fund several play areas in Nelson.

Students from Walton High School, Nelson, and Mansfield High, Brierfield, took time out from the classroom yesterday for a closer look at the skate park area they will help transform.

Pendle Council's Nelson area committee has set aside £29,000 from the James Hargreaves Trust, which was set up specifically to pay for children's play facilities in the town, to fund the park.

Pupils from Walton High, Nelson, and Mansfield High, Brierfield, visited the area, which is known locally as the Cat Steps, yesterday to see how some of the cash has already been spent laying down a hard surface.

After visiting the site the pupils went back to the council's parks department offices to talk with officers and put forward suggestions on how the remainder of the money should be spent on equipment such as ramps and pipes. The students have already visited a similar skate park in Warrington to see how it has been developed.

"We though this would be a good way of involving the community in the design of this facility," said the council's parks outreach officer Joanne Smith. "We hope many of the pupils will eventually use it."

It is hoped the skate park will be open by the end of March,

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