I had the pleasure of speaking with Monica, a longstanding resident of the area, at the Open Day at Sandy Lane. Monica has been very involved within the community through church, instrumental in establishing the 'Church at the Centre' and also through her various posts as a teacher in the area. Monica has a unique perspective of what was happening within schools in Skelmersdale during the rapid population growth when it gained its new town status.
When we came, Hillside Primary School had just opened with a very able and experienced Head Teacher, two newly qualified young staff and myself. We would begin a week with perhaps ten pupils in our class, and the next week we had twenty because they would all be coming in, some from from Liverpool and Kirkby and some from Wigan. The next week we had thirty. When we had more than thirty they’d get another teacher in. As long as you could get on with the children, that’s all that mattered really, and my family and I began to make lots of friends. Back then, change was happening all the time. We lived in the first bit of Tanhouse to be built,and people were coming into Tanhouse all the time, and most of them were young families: 'Woolly Backs, and 'Scousers' who had to learn to get on with one another. Then of course there were plenty of jobs, but later that was no longer the case. I kept my job for a while and then passed on to something for which I was better qualified, but it’s been quite hard for some people.
Monica, local resident.
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