Former St Martin’s College staff have taken a trip down memory lane

One of the university’s legacy institutions, St Martin’s opened in 1964 at the site which started life as barracks for the King's Own Royal Regiment. 

Around 20 attendees, including former employees of the college and their partners, returned to the campus this month for a get-together involving a tour and an afternoon tea. 

One of the attendees was 92-year-old John Chippendale, the college doctor. 

He said: “It’s been very, very interesting, fascinating, in fact, because I was here in 1964 for the first time. 

“I’ve met most of the people that I know from the past. 

“I retired from the campus in 1990 and retired from my practice in 1993. I’ve now been retired for 33 years.” 

Reflecting on his time at St Martin’s, John said: “The overriding memory is that it took me out of being just an ordinary GP into a GP looking after students, which was a whole new world for me.” 

In September 1964, the first intake of 89 students started their teacher training studies. They were supported by 13 members of staff and led by principal Hugh Pollard. The college later expanded into humanities subjects as well as healthcare and acquired campuses in Carlisle, Ambleside and London. 

St Martin's joined with Cumbria Institute of the Arts and UCLAN's Cumbrian sites to form the University of Cumbria in 2007.

Brian Gates, the former head of department of religion and ethics, worked at St Martin’s between 1975 and 2007. 

Brian, who is an emeritus professor at the University of Cumbria, was instrumental in organising the gathering. 

“I’m fortunate that I’ve seen many of these colleagues within the last year – there are several that I see frequently – but there are others I haven’t seen in decades,” he said.  

“St Martin’s was always on the move, it was always developing. It had to move swiftly to survive the regional and national competition and the continually changing funding arrangements. 

“We had to keep running to maintain that momentum as we moved from single-focused teacher education and diversified into subject-centred humanities degrees and professionally diversified ones in community and youth work, nursing, radiography, and business.” 

He added: “It’s good to see the high-quality maintenance and extension of buildings on the Lancaster campus as matching that also on our previous sites in Ambleside and Carlisle.” 

Another of the attendees was David Buckley, who was at St Martin’s from 1970-80 in the bursary department. 

“The college had only been open for a couple of years – the student numbers were going up and up and up, and they were always increasing the staff numbers,” he said. 

“They came up with the job of assistant bursar.” 

David, who lived on campus for the decade he was with the college, still lives in Lancaster and walks through the grounds at least once a week. 

His daughters trained at the University of Cumbria, with one also having a short wedding service in the campus chapel after getting married abroad. 

Trevor Curnow was another of the visitors to the campus this month. 

Describing the campus during his time with St Martin’s, the former moral philosophy teacher said: “There were five or six halls of residence, there was the student bar – they were vibrant places.” 

The full attendee list was:

Arton Medd – Senior Lecturer in Geography

Sylvia Crewdson – Primary School Head Teacher

John Crewdson – Vice Principal

John Chippendale – College Doctor

Angela Milner – Lecturer in Geography

Caroline Farmer – Primary School Teacher

Peter Milner - Solicitor

Linda Loughran – College Receptionist

Alan Farmer – Head of History Department

Alan Sandham – College Receptionist

John Shepherd - Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and Social Ethics

John Hammond - Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies i/c PGCE RE

Dave Buckley - Finance Officer

Ruth Chadwick - Lecturer in Social Ethics

Trevor Curnow -  Lecturer in Social Ethics

Brenda Gates – Secondary School Head of Modern Languages

Brian Gates – Head of Religion + Ethics Dept

Ray Halliday – Head of Modern Languages

Brenda Harding – Lecturer in Religious Studies

Christine Medd – Secondary School Music Teacher

Hugh Roberts -  Senior Lecturer in English

Elisabeth Roberts - Oral History Researcher

Do you have memories of any of our staff alumni? We would love to hear your stories, email us alumni@cumbria.ac.uk