The following was the first of three articles extracted from the Eccles & Patricroft Journal 29th August 1973
Eccles Grammar School will lose its identity next month after 62 proud years as the town's principal secondary school.
Instead of being an independent unit, it will combine with Ellesmere Park Secondary School to become Ellesmere Park High School.
It is believed to stand on the site of Monton Grange, which was inhabited by monks when the religious life of Eccles was conducted from Whalley Abbey, near Blackburn.
It was the first secondary school built by Lancashire County Council after the 1902 Education Act; the foundation stone was laid by county education committee chairman, County Ald. Sir Henry Fleming Herbert, in 1910, and the first intake of about 95 pupils, most of whom were over 12, arrived on Sept. 18, 1911.
Two of the earliest pupils were Mr. R. H. Lowe and Mr. Arthur Rainford, the heads of Lewis Street and Ambrose Barlow Schools respectively.
The first head was Mr. T. I. Cowlishaw, known as "Tic", from Salford Secondary School and he was supported by seven members of staff. A graduate was paid £200 per annum in gold and pupils by tram from Worsley and Patricroft.
Very few pupils stayed until the fifth form and far fewer for the sixth form. Mr Cowlishaw was head from 1911 until 1937.
By 1920, there were 420 pupils, boys and girls, and in 1921 the cost of running the school was £21 per pupil. By 1960 this figure had risen to £85.
In 1921, a corrugated iron hut was built as a gym, and in 1929 a pavilion was put up at the playing fields. In 1931, the sum allowed for library books was £10 per year. In 1933 a series of camping trips on the Continent began, with Mr Percy Holt, and in 1936 an extension with four new classrooms, a gym and a library was opened by Lord Derby. Mrs Maud Lumb was one of the best-known governors at this time.
Mr. Cowlishaw retired in 1937 as plans were being discussed for a girls' grammar school to be built on land where Swinton Town Hall now stands. Eccles Secondary School was to be
for boys only. But this plan was stopped by the war and by the rapid growth of Swinton and Worsley, which showed the need for a new school - Wardley Grammar.
The new head was Mr. H. H. Fairweather, aged 34. When he arrived six of the school's 396 pupils were in the sixth form, but by 1960 this figure was 80 and by 1970 160.
When the war started, Mr. Fairweather was called up and Mr John Gunter, the chemistry master, stayed on over retirement age as acting head. More than 500 pupils served, and 38 were killed in action. Five gained DFCs, and one MC, GM, OBE and MBE were won. Two boys joined as privates and became lieutenant-colonels.
Each Christmas, those serving were sent a parcel from the school.
One of the war's side-effects was, perhaps, the beginnings of Eccles Musical Society, which grew from the use of Frank Pollitt’s gramophone during firewatching at the school.
In 1944, the school changed its name from Eccles Secondary School (the initials of which had given old boys the title of Old Essians) to Eccles Grammar School, and fees were abolished.
A £1,000 war memorial fund was started in1945 to help scholars start careers, and it ran out in 1971, 25 years later.
By 1947, there were 500 pupils, and in 1958 Wardley Grammar School opened with 680 places and relieved the pressure on space considerably.
But by 1961, the governors at Eccles were urging the authorities to build another school; they said the classrooms were small, the labs totally inadequate, practical rooms in short supply, gym too small, changing rooms cramped, playing fields overplayed, hall inconvenient as regards position, size and shape and toilets in the playground unsatisfactory.
Mr Fairweather retired in 1964, and Mr. Keith McEwan took over. He left in December 1971, to prepare the way for Eccles College, of which he had been appointed principal, and in September last year the college took all the sixth-form pupils from both Eccles and Wardley Grammar Schools.
Meanwhile, Mr Harry Miller was acting head of Eccles Grammar School for the first two terms of 1972, and in September, Mr J. R. Munks became acting head. He will stay at the building when the new term starts in September, but the overall head of Ellesmere Park High School will be Mr. V. D. Boothman, himself an old boy of Eccles Secondary School.
Other figures of note who served on the staff were Miss Petford (1915-46, history), Mr. Arthur Hollis (1914-48, craftsman), Miss Sadie Ingham (1917-42, senior mistress), Miss Baker (1934-65, senior mistress), Mr. Alec Pearson, Mr. Foster Smith and Mr. John Ball.
No old boys appear to have achieved national fame; but three have become town clerks: Oswald Jones, who was Town Clerk of Eccles; Gerald Chappell, still at Bebington, and Ken Benhem, in Rhodesia.
Clergy include the Rev. A. C. Sharples of Hope Church, the Rev. J. H. Manson, of Didsbury, and the Rev. F. R. Cooke of Flixton.
Doctors include J. Price of Eccles, W. Kerns of Walkden and E. V. Hulse of the "blue babies team". Norman Hoy is a dentist.
University men include Prof. J. Hargreaves and George Smith, and the architects are represented by Sir Hubert Bennett and Emile Scherrer. Mr J. Cox was the last editor of the Boys' Own Paper.
Mr. Fairweather is now in retirement in Stratford on Avon. Aged 70, he is treasurer of a local parochial church council, does a lot of gardening, and plays up to 18 holes of golf a day.
He told the journal the Mr. Cowlishaw established a great tradition for "maths and work, work and maths", at the school. " He was a quiet man who was devoted to maths and the school - perhaps too mathematical."
When he arrived at the school the tradition was for staff to stay, but by the time he left the general thing was movement among the staff. "Everyone was trying to get a jump up," he said. "This was because of the salary structure."
In 1910 it had been the fashion to build school halls in the centres of schools, but by the end of the war ideas had changed. "It was very convenient and very inconvenient," he said.
His nickname was Harry among the pupils.
He paid tribute to Mr. A. Stodart Reid, who was chairman of the governors for about 32 years. "He would never go on holiday without going to the school first to see if everything was all right - but he never interfered."
County Ald. Mrs. Mary Kemball, the sister of Mr Stodart Reid, has been associated with the school for many years.
"Mr. Cowlishaw was steeped in maths," she said. "He was a man people did not know extremely well, a man apart in a way. Perhaps that's why his organisation was so good."