125 by 125

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Onto today’s interesting artefact and since there might possibly be some people from Ormskirk reading today, it seems only right that we focus on the town with this from the 1985 prospectus:

Never heard of Ormskirk before? Well, then, read on and see if you do not find it interesting.

Ormskirk is an attractive country town which has a beautiful old church with both a tower and a steeple, a statue of Benjamin Disraeli, a twice-weekly open market that has existed since medieval times, and Edge Hill College of Higher Education which is well known in educational circles throughout Britain. Throughout the English-speaking world too, as the number of overseas visitors to the College bears witness!

Ormskirk has produced a gardener who worked for Catherine the Great of Russia, a boy actor who could recite the complete plays of Shakespeare by heart and took 18th century London audiences by storm, a famous manager of London’s Drury Lane Theatre, as well as a host of scholars and teachers, trained and educated at Edge Hill, who hold leading positions throughout the country.

A word about Edge Hill itself. Students coming by rail to the College fr the first time have been puzzled as the train neared Liverpool to see a station with signboards labelled Edge Hill. That is the district in Liverpool where the College stood for the first fifty years of its existence. In the late twenties Lancashire County Council bought land on the outskirts of Ormskirk, gathered skilled craftsmen – bricklayers, carpenters, joiners and stone-carvers – from all over Northern England and built a college that was to be equal to anything in England. Of course, it has been extended and modernised in recent years. And such was the generosity that it still enjoys over 45 acres of tennis courts, playing fields and landscaped gardens.

Ask yourself how many Colleges of Higher Education enjoy such facilities. And, then, look at the map – eight miles to Southport where you enjoy miles of sand dunes and nature reserves and in Lord Street one of the most elegant shopping streets in Britain – and twelve miles to the great city of Liverpool. An there only thirty-five minutes away you have two Cathedrals and the Everyman and Penny Lane and Pierhead. And if you are in search of the exotic we can offer you at nine miles distance the celebrated Wigan Pier.

Back at Edge Hill you have plays and concerts, films and discos and excellent teaching and guidance. Why put up with second best for your higher education? Make Edge Hill your first choice!

And what photo should accompany this description? Why Hesketh Bank boatyard, of course!