NEWS
(Older news stories can be found in our online newsletters)

Fire damage report archived

1 February 2012
We are sorry to learn of two recent deaths, both of them former pupils of the school.

Jacqueline Bairstow, who left Birkdale in 1966, passed away on Wednesday 25 January following heart surgery in Torpoint, Cornwall. She lived an active life and was very much involved with the charity Heartswell South West. Jacqui was also an active user of Facebook under her married name as Jacqui Dore. Our condolences go to her daughter Becky and the rest of Jacqui's family.

28-year-old Billie-Jane Coulton was hit by a train at Mexborough station [in South Yorkshire] just after midnight on Thursday 26 January. Mystery surrounds this tragic incident, but police are not treating it as suspicious following earlier reports of two men being arrested. The Star has a report on this story.

9 November 2011
Dorothy Griffiths has let us know that Robert Taylor recently passed away after suffering from cancer. Robert left the school in 1957.

13 June 2011
A reminder that the Beach BBQ at Ainsdale is taking place this Saturday, 18 June from 3pm.

People need to enter the beach by Pontin's entrance and turn left, follow the beach down until you see old friends who will be parked up to the right as they go down the beach. Remember family and pets are welcome to come as well. People must provide their own food, drink and BBQ tray. Most people take chairs or blankets to sit on.

10 April 2011
Plans by Centremodel Ltd to turn our school into apartments were turned down by Sefton Council at a Planning Committee meeting on Wednesday, 9 March. (See Southport Visiter article from 4 March where it's suggested the plans might be refused.)

The application was refused by Sefton Council at that meeting. Details of that decision are available in a .pdf document on their Planning Applications page.

27 March 2011
Details of a Mary Hare/Birkdale Reunion have been announced. Please see this page for more info.

11 March 2011
Advance notice: this website will be offline during the evening of Thursday, 17 March.

This planned downtime will be between 8pm & 9am. During the downtime, this website (& others on the same server) will be moved to new hardware that has higher specifications than the current one. Other changes are taking place behind the scenes, which explains the long downtime.

18 February 2011
Many of you may now be aware that Mr John Furness, Principal from 1956-76, passed away sometime during the weekend of 22/23 January. He had been admitted to hospital, and died peacefully under their care. Mr Furness had been unwell for some time and was staying in a nursing home before being admitted to hospital.

Mr Furness' funeral took place at St James' Church on Lulworth Road in Birkdale on 2 February. The service was lovely, and the school was well represented by both ex-pupils and staff. Miss Clark, who was Mr Furness' Deputy for 18 of the 20 years he was Principal, made a speech reflecting on the years she worked with him.

Several former members of staff were present; these include teachers Miss Dray, Miss Daintith, Mrs Goodall, Mrs Morris, Mrs Rothwell, Mr Henderson, Mr Birkby & Mr Fyles. Classroom Assistant Mrs Hunt was also there as was former Principal Mr Loxham with his wife. Mrs Pattison from the school office also attended the service.

The family went on to the Crematorium after the service at St James, and refreshments were laid on at the Cambridge Hotel afterwards.

Donations were given to the Alzheimer's Society.

23 January 2011
The date for the next Reunion at the Scarisbrick Hotel has been set for 13 October 2012. Please make a note of this in your diaries now. Further details to be announced in due course.

19 January 2011
Another BBQ on Ainsdale beach, organised by Jane Ashworth, is being planned for 18 June. As last time, it'll be from 3pm onwards. Please encourage family, friends & pets (no goldfish though!) to come along! If you have any ball games, bring them too.

16 January 2011
Mr Henderson has sent a message via his daughter, Christine Watkinson, on Facebook. He sends best wishes to everyone for the New Year. He is very grateful for all your Christmas cards and continued support, but is sorry to those he has not managed to send cards to. He is overcome by the numbers he continues to receive.

9 January 2011 [updated 13 January]
We are sad to report the death of George Millington who passed away in Southport at 6.45pm on 8 January. George was married to former pupil Maureen Hegarty.

We send our condolences to Maureen, her family and friends.

George's funeral will be taking place at Christ Church at 10am on 20 January.

31 December 2010
The Reunion Committee are meeting on Sunday, 2 January. If you have any issues that you would like them to discuss, please email Ronnie Gilbody on feedback@bshira.co.uk.

8 December 2010 [updated 10 December]
In June we reported that Centremodel Ltd presented their proposals for the restoration of the school at a meeting held at Southport & Birkdale Cricket Club. On 2 December their plans were submitted to Sefton Council.

The earliest date for a decision is 24 December; the application expiry date is 3 March 2011. The Southport Visiter covers this latest development here.

If you feel strongly about saving Birkdale School, below are a number of places to go to keep up with developments and/or to share your opinions:

18 October 2010
Maryam Kamel has been in touch to say she is enjoying a healthy lifestyle in Saudi at the moment. She goes to the gym, plays basketball and swims. Maryam says she also enjoys eating healthy food every day at the Day Centre in Saudi.

17 October 2010
Former pupil Mike Fahey has finally completed his MA course and his last exhibition at the University of Central Lancashire was held from 11-16 September in the Hanover Building.

The preview evening took place on 15 September and a few ex-pupils supported the event. Martin Cookson, Stephen Smith and Tony Wright all turned up to view Mike's paintings. Mike wishes to say thanks for the support he received.

The following morning Mike got his results and he is delighted to report that he got Master of Arts with Distinction. As he said, someone, somewhere thinks he can paint! Well done Mike!

19 August 2010
Former pupil Sue Tinsley, who is a qualified counsellor, has launched an online counselling service. The site - soundofsilencecounselling.co.uk - was launched yesterday ahead of schedule. We wish Sue every success with her new venture.

4 August 2010
A beach BBQ is taking place at Ainsdale on Saturday, 14 August from 3pm onwards. Entrance will be via Shore Road where there is car parking at £3.50.

If you are going and have any ball games or other type of games, please bring them along.

6 July 2010
A new Facebook Group has been set up led by former pupil David Jones, his wife Suzie and Todd Garner. They are in discussions with Centremodel Ltd., the developers behind the proposed restoration of the school into apartments, to retain the school building for the use of the deaf. A presentation is being prepared for the developers and associated interested parties, including Sefton Council.

To follow the developments of this, please click here.

24 June 2010
This week's edition of the Southport Champion reports that following a meeting on 10 June Sefton Council will serve an Urgent Works Notice on the owners of the Grade II listed school building.

According to the newspaper, the council will use the powers available to them under the Planning (Listed Buildings & Conservation Areas) Act 1990* to get the owners to carry out much needed repairs necessary for the preservation of the unoccupied listed building. The notice must last a minimum of 7 days, and if, after that time, the owners fail to complete the works, Sefton Council can step in, carry them out themselves and seek to recover the costs involved.

*The Southport Champion newspaper had this written as 1980, but the year of that Act is 1990.

22 June 2010
Centremodel Ltd presented their proposals for the restoration of our school today at Southport & Birkdale Cricket Club.

There were drawings and architect plans on display of what the proposed site could look like. Their aim is to restore the main building to roughly the way it was; it is a Grade II listed building so needs to be retained as much as possible. The main building will be divided into "affordable" apartments. There was a suggestion the clock tower could be turned into an exhibition area to house historical data about the building.

The Junior/Senior School and Gym would be knocked down to make way for new houses. More houses would be put up around the rim. The grounds are to include a bowling green and an open space for the public to walk through and sit in. It was mentioned some facilities may be by membership only.

Centremodel Ltd are preparing to submit a planning application to Sefton Council with these proposals, and their aim today was to seek views from the public on these plans.

UPDATE: The Southport Visiter has a report on the re-development plans.

20 June 2010
The Southport Visiter announced on Friday that a public consultation about the restoration & development of our school will take place at Southport & Birkdale Cricket Club on Tuesday 22 June, 1-7pm. The Sports Club is on Trafalgar Road (postcode: PR8 2HF).

Please support this event if you wish to safeguard the future of what remains of the building we know and love so much. Quite a few ex-pupils are already attending this meeting to show how strongly we feel about recent events and to push for better plans for the school site for the future.

19 May 2010
A major fire broke out at our school in the early hours of Monday, 17 May.

Follow the news updates of this tragic event in our specially set up fire damage report page.

21 April 2010
We are sorry to report the death of Mrs Joan Downs, who worked at the school many years ago. Her funeral is on Friday, 23 April at Southport Crematorium at 11am.

18 February 2010
Details of this year's Reunion have been posted on Read Hear, the BBC's digital text magazine for deaf viewers. It can be found under the Diary section.

If you know someone who doesn't have internet access or know where to find Read Hear, please point them in the right direction. Read Hear can found in either of the following two ways:

The info about the Reunion will be on Read Hear over the next few weeks.

Obviously anyone who hasn't got internet access will have to get someone else to email in on their behalf as there are no other contact details available in the advert.

7 February 2010
Former pupil Mike Fahey recently had one of his paintings on display in the PR1 Gallery at the University of Central Lancashire.

One of the visitors on Preview Night was another ex-pupil, Philip Fletcher, seen here with Mike and his "little" painting in the background.

Another of Mike's paintings is on show at the Atkinson Gallery in Somerset from 21 February until late March.

23 January 2010
With news of the next Reunion taking place at the Scarisbrick Hotel in October recently announced, many of you will be trying to make contact with friends to tell them about it.

There are currently three ways to keep up to date with what's happening: by using this site you're reading now, the message board set up by Charlotte Smith and the Facebook Group looked after by Mike Fahey. The first two have been around a while, but more people are getting interested with the Facebook Group.

For those that don't know, Facebook is a social networking site which allows you to contact friends. You can share as much or as little info as you like. Users can tell everyone their news (known as Status Updates), send private messages, add photos and take part in discussions.

Users have their own individual pages and there are Groups where everyone joins in together. The school Facebook site is one such group. If you're not already on Facebook, now might be the time to join. You need to sign up with an email address and a password (don't use the same password as your email password though!) - it's free to sign up & use Facebook. Hopefully, we'll see more of you on Facebook soon!

19 January 2010
There have been calls for urgent repairs to be carried out on our school buildings. Sefton Council has written to the present owners reminding them of their responsibilities while owning a listed building. An Urgent Works Notice could be served on the owners, but if they don't comply with this, the work will be carried out anyway. Full news story here. (Thanks to Sue Tinsley for highlighting this in the Guestbook.)

The next Birkdale Reunion, set for 2 October 2010, will now take place at the Scarisbrick Hotel on Lord Street, Southport. This is a change of venue from the Talbot Hotel that was previously advertised. Ticket prices & other details to be announced when finalised.

15 December 2009
Jemma Findlow gave birth to Amy Louise & Sam Charles on Tuesday, 6 October. Amy weighed 6lb 1oz and Sam weighed 6lb. Jemma says both babies are beautiful.

Congratulations to Jemma & Bertie.

8 November 2009
The Reunion Committee had a meeting today. It was decided the next Reunion will be held on Saturday, 2 October 2010 at the Talbot Hotel in Southport. More details will be published when available.

11 October 2009
At the Reunion yesterday (10 October), Mr Henderson was given the honour of becoming President of the Reunion Association. He accepted this and promised to do the best he could to support future events.

This year's Reunion was a sell-out with about 120 people attending. Former staff Mr & Mrs Wood and Mrs Goodall came along as well as Mr Henderson. Mrs Furness had sent a message to say she was sorry Mr Furness couldn't be there for health reasons, but they were both thinking of everyone.

A fuller report will be published soon, and photos from the event may be available to view as well.

7 October 2009
Former pupil Maryam Kamel is going to college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to study Graphic Design on a one year course. She is enrolling for the course this month, and is looking forward to it.

18 September 2009
We are sorry to report the death of Rev. Colin Pope of Emmanuel Church, Southport. Rev. Pope will be remembered by some of you as he took a keen interest in the school, and on a number of occasions the school held a Carol Service at Emmanuel Church.

Rev. Colin Pope died suddenly on 16 September. He leaves behind a loving wife and two children. We send our condolences to his family at this sad time.

11 September 2009
Former pupil Louise Isles has reached the finals of the Miss Glamour 2009 competition. She is one of four to be judged in London this month.

Louise is no stranger to modelling contests as she was voted one of the top '100 Honeys' for FHM, the lads' magazine, in 2006.

Louise: good luck in becoming Miss Glamour 2009!

Read more here.

22 May 2009
As reported by Ronnie Gilbody on our Guestbook, southport.gb.com have said vandals continue to target our old school buildings. The photos on that website show the buildings falling into disrepair with broken windows an all too common scene.

The grounds being empty and unused is a magnet for such destruction. Plans for refurbishment mentioned last year appear to be on hold. Quite why is anybody's guess.

25 April 2009
We are sorry to hear of the death of Graham Formstone's wife who died on 20 April after a short illness. Some of you will remember her attending past reunions with Graham.

Our condolences go to Graham and his family at this sad time.

15 April 2009
In the April edition of Chattering, the monthly newsletter for DELTA supporters, it's reported that former Principal Miss Clark celebrated her 80th birthday in March.

On 28 March about 40 people gathered at Leadenhall School in Salisbury to celebrate Miss Clark's special birthday and to hear her talk about the programmes she has helped set up in various countries. Miss Clark is a founder member of what was then known as NAG, now DELTA.

The celebrations included a buffet lunch and a champagne toast with Miss Clark cutting a beautifully decorated cake. Mrs Rothwell, who was a teacher at Birkdale, spoke of her energy, enthusiasm and insight which has influenced so many. Dr Tucker, the Chief Executive of Mary Hare, spoke of her many achievements in the world of deaf education.

Our congratulations go to Miss Clark on reaching this milestone and we wish her well as she continues to help deaf children the world over to learn to listen and talk.

You can read the full story here - you'll need a .pdf reader (such as Adobe Acrobat or Foxit Reader) to view the document. Thanks to DELTA for allowing us to use the story and image.

10 April 2009
Jemma Findlow has got engaged to Bertie Holgate. He asked her to marry him on Boxing Day last year. She is expecting a baby due on 19 October.

Congratulations to Jemma & Bertie.