Wigan Album

Fantastic picture. Can anyone confirm when the school actually closed? I suspect it was around 1988 - my mother purchased a house on the new McClean & Riversmede development that was built on the site from 1992-94. I heard rumours as a kid that the school was badly damaged in a arson attack and subsequently demolished. Can someone put me straight on this please?

The school closed in July 1990. As local kids who frequented the playing fields and Scouts Hill at the time we used the school playground as a skate park.
Then, one weekday evening in October 1990 the school was set ablaze. I still distinctly remember it. Big crowds all along Whitley Crescent, quite a few fire engines, tall flames. It must have been rather scary for the residents living opposite the school. After that the fields were built on and our play options were somewhat reduced.
I also remember the fields flooding on a couple of occasions in the 1980s and we floated an inflatable dinghy down in the bottom end near the stream.