Recalling 40 years since three schools became wholly Trinity

By Sarah Newstead

Last updated 10:39, Friday, 26 September 2008

More than 70 past pupils took a trip down memory lane this week at a double celebration of Trinity School’s 40th anniversary and 125 years since Carlisle Grammar School was built.

Slideshow: pictures from Trinity School's double celebration

Familiar faces:There were plenty of old school line-ups to sift through

Trinity was formed in 1968 when the three establishments which stood side by side on Carlisle’s Strand Road – the city’s grammar school, and Creighton and Margaret Sewell schools – were amalgamated.

Now the Carliol Building and home to Trinity’s sixth-form centre, the former grammar school was built in 1883.

Trinity headteacher Alan Mottershead said: “We are grateful that we have a 40th to celebrate mindful of all the dramatic reorganisation that the city has been through.

“When the original amalgamation took place, the spirit of the age was not to make a fuss which does seem a pity.

“While we can’t change what’s gone, we do emphasise to our youngsters the importance of having the celebration and of having a past and making those connections between the school’s past and its present.”

To mark the occasions, old photographs and memorabilia went on display in the Carliol Building on Wednesday, followed by a thanksgiving service at Carlisle Cathedral.

During the afternoon, alumni of the three former schools were able to see their names in old school admission books and were shown around the new Trinity buildings by present pupils.

Margaret McInnes, 74, of Currock, remembered her days at Margaret Sewell fondly.

“It was a good education and a disciplined one,” she said. “You knew the teachers were always watching you outside of school too. We girls were all in the same boat – our fathers had just returned from war and there was still rationing, there was no one-upmanship among us.”

A pupil who started secondary school in 1945, Mrs McInnes has seen changes at the school over the years.

“Now there’s over 1,000 pupils and it’s mixed. Then, we were in our hundreds. We were kept separate from the boys at Creighton and we didn’t mix until after school, although when we got older we could go over to the boys’ school for some lessons such as joinery and they could come over to us for domestic science and to learn to cook and bake.”

Margaret, who left the school at 16 to work as a junior clerk at West Cumberland Farmers, also remembers being hauled up in front of the whole school one morning during assembly.

“I hated wearing the beret which was part of our uniform. So one day, I took it off.

“The next morning I had to stand up in assembly and explain why I wasn’t wearing it,” she said.

The cathedral service saw Bishop Graham Dow, the Bishop of Carlisle, address the congregation and Trinity house captains deliver readings.

Mr Mottershead added: “As a Church of England school it’s right that we give thanks and celebrate our links with the cathedral.

“We are facing the future with a great deal of optimism and part of that comes from the tradition of the school.”

Trinity has also commissioned three pieces of music to commemorate the school’s 40th anniversary, with one piece by Cumbrian composer Eric Wetherell. They will be performed at Carlisle Cathedral on November 20.