A Blackburn community centre has unveiled a new wall plaque to celebrate the lives of former pupils who attended the building when it was a school.

Ken Brooks and his wife Jeanne Hodkinson attended Bangor Street Secondary Modern School in the 1940s.

The building is now the largest community centre in Lancashire and hosts a number of classes, charities, events and community groups.

Ken, who had Blackburn Rovers legend Jack Walker as his classmate, left school at the age of 13 in 1943 to go to work for the war effort.

At the time, the female pupils were downstairs in the building and the boys upstairs and they had separate play areas. 

Later in life Ken and Jeanne married. The couple would later move to America where Ken worked as a machine designer for several companies before starting his own Special Machinery company in Charlotte, North Carolina.

He went on to secure six US patents and retired in 1993. 

Both Ken and Jeanne are now in their 90s and live near Wilmington, North Carolina. 

During the early years of World War Two, they told how the school had constructed concrete, earth-covered air raid shelters on the spare land in front of the school.

Visitors can read the remarkable story of former pupils at the Bangor Street school as they enter the building

They also revealed Bangor Street school had about 45 pupils per class, ‘justice was swift’ and how teachers had a cane hanging on the wall.

Their three years at Bangor Street came to an end in the summer of 1943.

The couple said: “We have lived in America and Canada for over 60 years, but we still have happy memories of our three years being educated in this building.

"It was wartime and times were very tough, but this building was a secure and happy place for us. 

“It is used for a different purpose now, but we hope that it will be a place as enjoyable and informative for you as it was for us.”

The wall design retells the experiences of Ken and Jeanne when they were children.

It reads: “Before school started again in August 1939, our parents were contacted by the school board.  

"They were informed that Cedar Street School was being taken over as an Air Raid Warden and Rescue Centre.

"All the children would be moved to an unused former Home Economics School on Whalley Range at the bottom of Troy Street.

Ken and Jeanne grew up in Blackburn moved to America. This picture was taken when the couple were in their 80s.

“Within a few days of our moving to Whalley Range war was declared. Whalley Range was a smaller school than Cedar Street and our classrooms were very crowded.

“There were no air raid shelters at that time, so it was decided to use the foundation areas of a disused church on Troy Street. That building is now Masjid-E-Anisul Islam.”

Ken added: “Unlike Cedar Street school or the Whalley Range school, Bangor Street was already involved in wartime activities.

"We were all encouraged to bring newspapers, scrap iron, brass or aluminium to school.

“When there was a sufficient amount of the materials, the teacher would get several boys to load up small hand carts and carry the paper or scrap to a local scrap yard.
  
“Upstairs, in the main hall, was a stage.  Above the stage was the school motto in large letters – ‘Quit Ye Like Men’.”