CALLING ALL WARTIME MEMORIES!

10th August 2004

CALLING ALL WARTIME MEMORIES!

Geographers at Edge Hill are looking for people in the Ormskirk area who have memories of the Ormskirk Campus during the Second World War. They are also keen to contact former war-time students who were sent from Ormskirk to study at Bingley College, when the campus was requisitioned.

Staff are researching the background of Edge Hill?s geography building, built during the war, and they are looking for help from people who can remember the campus at that time, when it was turned into a Royal Medical Corps Hospital. Did anyone work there, or know any of the nurses or sick soldiers who were billeted on the wards?

Under war-time arrangements staff and students were sent to Yorkshire. The Edge Hill timetable was tailored to fit Bingley College commitments, and both colleges shared classrooms and other facilities.

Sylvia Woodhead, Senior Lecturer in human geography is looking for people to contribute to her book, Anoraks, maps and mud: perspectives on geography at Edge Hill. She said: "There is a long established history of the study of geography at Edge Hill and we?re hoping that new students will use the book to help them understand how the department evolved and the significance of former geographer?s research. "We would really like to speak to people who studied at Bingley, so that we can compare their experiences with those who attended the Ormskirk Campus. We would also like to trace former students who studied both at Bingley and at Ormskirk and anyone who knew the campus during the war. I feel that it is important that this heritage is not lost."

If anyone can make a contribution to the planned book please contact Sylvia on 01695 584564 or e mail woodhs@edgehill.ac.uk or Ann Chapman on 01695 584737 or e mail: chapmana@edgehill.ac.uk ENDS EDITOR?S NOTES: For further press information please contact: Roisin Rowley-Smith PR Manager Tel: 01695 584509 Fax: 01695 584355 E mail: rowlesr@edgehill.ac.uk or pressoffice@edgehill.ac.uk