Former Stannite Christine Snaith recently found herself travelling to Lytham St Anne’s to meet friends from Hampshire and Australia. With a family wedding in the Trough of Bowland planned for the weekend, Christine wondered whether she might take the opportunity to see if the house where St Anne’s School was originally based was still standing.

“It struck me I might look to see if the house where St Anne’s School was originally based is still there.”

Christine wasn’t quite sure of the original address, although she remembers using a photograph of the property in a Speech Day presentation she gave in 2013, marking the school’s 150th anniversary.

A little online searching led her to an interesting piece of local history documenting the story of St Anne’s High School for Girls and its various homes in the Lytham St Anne’s area.

Christine admits she hadn’t realised quite how many times the school had moved as it grew - something that perhaps gives us an interesting glimpse into the development of St Anne’s and, ultimately, the journey towards the school we know today as Windermere.

She also recalls researching her 2013 Speech Day presentation with the help of the school’s then librarian and archivist. One particularly memorable detail emerged: the school needed more space, which eventually led to the purchase of Browhead, but there was another rather amusing reason for the move!

The neighbours had been complaining about the noise of the girls practising the piano! 🎹

It’s these little details that bring our history to life. Behind the dates, buildings and changes of address were generations of girls learning, growing, making friendships - and, apparently, enthusiastically practising their piano!

Christine is now on the hunt for her original 2013 Speech Day presentation, which may still be tucked away in her “School Drawer”. If she manages to find it, she has kindly offered to share photographs and memories with us.

We’d love to hear from other Stannites too.

Do you remember the early days of St Anne’s? Do you have photographs, school programmes, letters or stories tucked away at home? Perhaps your family has connections to one of the school’s original buildings?

Our history is made up of all these individual memories, and we’d love to continue collecting them and sharing them with our Stannite community.

Once a Stannite, always a Stannite. 💙

With thanks to Christine Snaith for sharing her memories and for sending us on this little journey into the history of St Anne’s.

Read more about the history of St Anne’s High School for Girls - https://amounderness.co.uk/st.annes_high_school_for_girls.html