A SCHOOL'S oldest and youngest pupils marked the start of a £12million new era at one of Lancashire's largest comprehensives.
Contractors have been operating by floodlight since Christmas on a replacement state-of-the-art school at St Wilfrid's CE High in Blackburn. But yesterday Leanne Crowther, 11, and sixth-former Adam Carter, 18, officially cut the first sod.
St Wilfrid's will be re-born on the busy site off King Street, less than a mile from the town centre.
The school, which already caters for nearly 1,500 pupils aged 11 to 18 from all over East Lancashire, recently won technology college status.
Several attempts to relocate failed, so the massive new building programme has started around the old Byrom Street school buildings, which will continue to be in use. The school is one of the largest in Lancashire with 85 feeder primary schools.
The first phase of the development is due to be completed by the end of next year, and the new school is expected to be fully open for the new academic year in 2004.
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