I noticed in the paper this morning that Nelson and Colne College has opened a 'University Centre' so that anyone pursuing further education with a view to entering university can do it at the college. My mind went back forty years to a day when I was minding my own business running Bancroft engine and the door opened and in walked my friend Daniel Meadows with a man I didn't know. Daniel was Artist in Residence for Pendle at the time and part of his job was to seek out the interesting and unusual places in the borough and that was how he found me, working steam engines were unusual enough then to grab his attention. Part of his job was to liaise with Nelson and Colne College and he introduced the man as David Moore, Principal of the college. Little did I know that this was a major turning point in my life.
I had made one big life change when I gave up driving for a living. I got to the stage where I had the biggest wagon in Barlick and was doing the most miles annually when one day Dan Smith asked me what I was going to do for an encore. I told him that I was ready for a change and there was only one job I fancied, running Bancroft engine. He said “Well you'd better get across there. They are looking for a firebeater and the engineer finishes in a few months.” A fortnight later I was an ex-wagon driver! I loved the job at Bancroft but we knew that the days of steam driven mills was over and we were always on the verge of closure so I started widening my interests. I was already writing and thanks to Daniel and his mates I was showing promise as a photographer. In addition I had developed an interest in history and started doing the Lancashire Textile Project. It turned out that this was why David had agreed to come to see the engine, in fact, after what Daniel had told him, he wanted to meet me, he had an agenda….
I took to David immediately, I knew a bit about him because Daniel had told me about his efforts to rebuild the higher education system in the Borough at a time when the old grammar schools were closing and the college had become what we knew then as a sixth form college. The first Tertiary College in the country I think. What I didn't know was that he had a new project in mind that he had put together with Sir Charles Carter the noted Quaker who was vice Chancellor of Lancaster University. Both Sir Charles and David were interested in giving mature students the chance to get the education they missed out on in early life. Little did I know that I was to become part of the new initiative which was named Open College.
David Moore in the engine house at Bancroft looking at some of my work.
