Double history

MEMORIES . . . staff Gillian Fletcher (left) and June Callaghan look through old Chronicle cuttings of the school

Kaskenmoor School closes for good next Wednesday — but memories will linger on.

The Hollinwood building on Roman Road was Oldham’s first comprehensive school when it opened in 1966, one of the most up-to-date in the country.

Named after an old Norse word for an area of Oldham, Kaskenmoor boasted its own sixth form, a sports centre and state-of-the-art craft block, where cookery was taught alongside metalwork and woodwork and taken by both boys and girls.

In September, Kaskenmoor is due to merge with South Chadderton to form the new Oasis Academy, which will be built on the site of Brook Mill in Hollinwood.

But latest Government spending cuts have put a question mark over the three academies planned for Oldham.

But back in 1966, Kaskenmoor combined the old Hollinwood Secondary and Oldham’s Greenhill Grammar schools.

Always at the forefront of trends, it was the first to allow girls to wear trousers in the 1970s.