The Mechanics School was taken over by Bacup Board School in 1893 with Mr Bell of Burnley submitting plans to build the new Central Board School at Thorn in 1894. The plans were made up of two schools; the infant school could hold up to 500 pupils and the junior school 325 pupils. The infants building was opened a year before on the 2 Sept 1895 and the junior school on Saturday 19th September 1896. The opening ceremony was carried out by Mr J. H. Maden Esq. who informed the waiting crowd the total cost of the land was £1,100 and £12,000 for the building work. Fifty-eight years later in 1954, an under 5’s nursery was built. The decision was made in May 1982, by the County Education Committee that Blackthorn Secondary School, which had been built on land purchased from Bacup Cricket Club and opened in 1939, would be closed with secondary education being transferred to Fearns County Secondary School.
Five years later in 1987, it was decided that repairs to Thorn would be too costly and so the school was demolished, with pupils being moved to the old Blackthorn site. The site of Central/Thorn is now home to houses and bungalows known as Central Court.
In Stacksteads the new Western Board School was formally opened on 19th April 1903 by Mr James Ashworth vice chairman of the Bacup School Board, with the infants’ department being taken over by Easter. The mixed departments had been using the school for six months previous to its opening.
A year after Western was opened, in 1904 building began on the new Mount Board School, which was taken over by the Bacup Borough Education Authority on the 1st of April 1902. Mount was known at this time as the Mount Wesleyan School teaching boys, girls and infants all in one building until such time that the number of scholars made it necessary to seek other accommodations to relieve the congestion.
Rooms at the old Mount Olivet Chapel, which stood on the site of the Ambulance Hall were used, known as the “Tin Tabernacle”, with over 200 children being taught there in one room. The junior departments of Mount Wesleyan Church School moved into its new premises in July 1905. At the time of its closure in December 1982 Mounts’s pupil number was 32 infant children.
St Saviours School, founded in 1858 was a two-storey building. The church school classes were held in the lower rooms whilst chapel services were held upstairs. This was the practice until 1865 when the church of St Saviours was built. In 1904 the school became a County Primary school under the control of the local education authority. The school was used as a Sunday school and for local area meetings. Following a building check in February 1982 which uncovered several faults, the building was deemed unsafe and, as a result, the 112 pupil’s four teachers and headmaster, Mr Heys were moved into four adjacent classrooms at Western County Primary School.
Worried that the school would disappear “into oblivion” the school Governors began applying pressure to Rossendale and Lancashire County Council in April, to erect temporary school buildings in Stubbylee Park. Eventually, porta cabins were erected on what was known as the Church Meadow with a £1.3m replacement school being built on the old Ross Mill site, opening there in 1998-9, the former school site now houses bungalows known as St Saviours Court.
