LAST week we reported on a great picture from our archives of the flooding at the former St John’s School in Latchford.

Well one of the men in the picture was teacher Frank Hawley.

He got in touch to share his memories of the dramatic flooding from February 1990.

Warrington Guardian:

He was pictured with colleague Harry Hampton and workmen employed by the contractors at the school.

He says the events happened during teacher training days in the half term holiday.

Frank added: “I was the member of staff who first noticed the water come over the banks as staff were eating lunch in the dining room.

“As stated, the Mersey had actually broken its banks on two consecutive days at high tide. There was little damage done on the first day and luckily it gave staff the time to secure valuable work.

“I was head of the art and design department, head of year 11 and a teacher-governor at the time and had had a storage room (essentially for art & design examination work to be stored) constructed in a workshop which was on the same level as the road that surrounded the school thus enabling water to seep under the workshop sliding doors.

“I was able to lift any work from the floor and place it onto shelves before the water could do any lasting damage as did other staff in their respective departments.

“On the second day the tide was higher and the grounds and school became flooded which eventually led to our rescue in the dingy from one of the science room doors.”

“Obviously the school could not open to pupils and contingency plans had to be made rather quickly.

“We were fortunate that the parish priest of St Oswald’s church in Padgate, Fr Jim Murray, was one of our governors at the time too and he kindly offered the large room at the parish centre where staff taught the year 11 pupils on a reduced timetable so that there was as little disruption to their GCSE examination preparations as possible.

“Staff prepared work for other year groups for them to come into school on designated days and take the work home. The cleaning up process was hard work and lengthy.

“The sports hall, like much of the school, was carpeted and large industrial heaters had to be brought into school to dry it out once it had been treated.

“The school eventually managed to return to normal after several weeks. With the new flood defences now completed, this should never happen again.”