It must have been a major disruption for all concerned to make the move from Edge Hill in Liverpool to the new Ormskirk Campus during the early 1930s. The move meant the College had more space to expand. However, in 1939 Edge Hill was to experience another major move. This time it was due to the outbreak of the Second World War.
Around that time national resources were assessed and in some cases changes made to their purpose and role. During the Second World War Edge Hill College was moved to share the site of Bingley College. The large new site and main building at Ormskirk was requisitioned for use as a military hospital.
Tragically, the original Durning Road premises of Edge Hill College when it was located in Liverpool were destroyed in a German bombing raid on 28 November 1940, killing 166 people – the worst single incident in the Liverpool Blitz in terms of loss of life.
The disruption of the move was recorded in the College Magazine of 1940 in an article from the Principal. She notes that the circumstances ‘call for all the courage and endurance of every one of us.’ She goes on to say that the College was a ‘community with ideals [and]… The kindness of individual members to one another is well known and in the hard days to come a sense of unity will be strengthened in this way.’
She gives further details of the practicalities:
How would you feel if your school, college or workplace was forced to move in this way? Or alternatively, if you were caught up in a bombing such as the one at Durning road. You could write a short story or poem on this and submit it to our Think Creative Archive competition.