Centenary Celebrations

During 2009 and 2010 we will be celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Whitcliffe Mount.

On its 50th anniversary, the following prefaced the book to mark the anniversary:
 
Preface

“Any anniversary is a pleasant occasion.  For a school the fiftieth is also an important occasion marking in a definite way – as no other anniversary can – the attainment of mature age.  Time alone has brought the School to a mature age.  But time alone has not brought the School to maturity.  Events have played their part in making Whitcliffe Mount what it is.  And so have people – and those associated with Whitcliffe Mount during its fifty years have every reason to be proud of the way it has developed.

Whitcliffe Mount had an unusual beginning.  The fiftieth year is likely to be equally unusual, and may prove to be as significant to the neighbourhood as the first.  The year will mark the end of one phase and with the expansion of facilities due to take place, will also see the start of a new.”

We are planning to celebrate our centenary in a number of ways through a variety of events.

Our first event is on 20th and 21st July when around fifty pupils from Whitcliffe Mount and the four feeder middle schools will be taking part in a summer school.  The activity is “Time Travellers Project” to celebrate our centenary.  These pupils will be investigating key educational events during the last one hundred years connected with Whitcliffe Mount and Cleckheaton.  The pupils will be using different mediums to illustrate their work.  The project will be demonstrated in school to all pupils in the autumn term.

Other events will take place throughout 2009 and 2010.  Details of the events will be sent out from school with current pupils and advertised in the local press.  If you are an ex-pupil or have any links with the school and wish to share any particular memories of the last fifty years please write to us at the school address, marking your envelope “Centenary Celebrations”.  We will be very happy to hear from you!

A very brief history!

“Whitcliffe Mount was a product of its time, district and people”.  Following the passing of the 1902 Education Act, a band of five men John G Mowat, George Whiteley, J Walter Wadsworth, Reginald M Grylls and Will H Clough, all members of the District Council, were strong and determined to fight for a school in Cleckheaton for the people of Cleckheaton.  Their tenacity paid off.  Cleckheaton Secondary School was opened in temporary premises (The Technical Institute, Brooke Street) at 9 a.m. on 22nd September 1908.  The headmaster was Mr Joshua Holden.  There were 28 students on roll.  The plans for the new site were approved by County Council on 12th January 1909 and the Board of Education on 6th March 1909.  Tenders were invited for Friday 19th March and the day after, the contract to build was let to Messrs Robinson and Crowther of Cleckheaton.  The first sod was cut on 31st March 1909 and for foundation stone was laid on 5th June 1909.  There was an official ceremony to mark the laying of the stone.  The weather was atrocious and conditions kept the speeches short.  A bottle containing copies of the invitation, programme, previous week’s “Guardian” and an account of the events leading up to the building scheme was placed in the cavity.

The school opened with 95 pupils on roll and its new site as “Cleckheaton Secondary and Technical School” on 15th September 1910.  Under the 1944 Education Act, the school become Whitcliffe Mount Secondary Grammar School and on going comprehensive in 1973, became Whitcliffe Mount School.