Last updated at 16:29, Wednesday, 18 July 2012

IRELETH has seen its fair share of changes since this set of pictures was taken by the Evening Mail in March 1987.

Title
Author
Copyright

Description

A pub and a post office have gone from the top of Ireleth Hill but thankfully the village school of St Peter’s is still going strong.

The village shop and petrol station was run by Jacquie Warren in 1987 and no doubt people grumbled about the fuel prices – even though the cheapest was just 37.6p per litre.

Mrs Warren shared duties at the shop with Maureen Eva.

One of the best known characters in the village was Johnny Clapham, 81, of Saves Lane.

He had lived in Ireleth all his life and was from the fifth generation of his family to live there.

Mr Clapham was a platelayer who worked on the railways for 47 years. His father was from Paradise and his mother from Kirkby.

His father worked in Askam’s once booming iron ore industry and later served on the Holker Estates.

Vicar’s wife, Margaret Sanderson, was one of the official quota of 3.4 staff members deemed to be needed to run St Peter’s CE School, Ireleth in 1987.

In 1612 Ireleth-born London tailor Giles Brownrigg built and endowed the village school.

It was only a few yards from the site of the present school.

The early headteachers who served at Ireleth received a yearly payment of just £10 – or 19p a week.

Mrs Sanderson told the Mail in 1987: “When I started there were 54 children and we are now expecting to have over 90 on September.”

The headteacher was Michael McPherson with the other staff members being Anne Woods and Diane Brocklebank.

First published at 16:11, Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk