Alumni celebrate 60 years of Cumbria's university Lancaster campus

Recently, the first Lancaster alumni open day was held at the University of Cumbria campus on Bowerham road.

Guests were welcomed in the Harold Bridges Library with information displays and photos of the campus history on show, including an explanation of the former life as a military barracks and a display showing the campus masterplan with development plans for the future of the campus.

Alumni also enjoyed displayed memorabilia including old photographs and books containing passport photographs for each year group before enjoying campus tours with current Lancaster based students.

On 23 September 1964 the very first 89 students embarked on their studies at St Martin’s College, a Church of England teacher training college based at the former King’s Own Regiment Bowerham Barracks supported by 13 members of staff and led by Principal Dr Hugh Pollard. 

Informal alumni open days allow us to reach wider audiences than more formal class reunions.  Our campus sites mean a great deal to our alumni, they hold many fond memories and this is evident by the many alumni we meet each year for tours. Allan and Valerie Senior were overjoyed to visit the chapel situated on our Lancaster campus where they got married and re-created one of their wedding photographs, seen below.

Mayor of Lancaster, Abi Mills, attended the event as a PGCE alumnus. In her interview below, Abi reflects on some fond memories as her time as a student and her excitement about the future and significance of the Lancaster campus. You can watch Abi’s interview here.

In addition to the campus alumni, some former staff also visited the open day including Dr John Chippendale who was the campus doctor and one of the first members of staff to be appointed in 1964. John supported the university with the 50^th celebrations ten years ago and provided some archive materials. John’s interview can be seen here where he explains what his job was as campus doctor and how it felt to be back on campus.

Joanne Lusher, Alumni Relations Officer, said:

“This is the first event of this kind in Lancaster and we are thrilled with the numbers of alumni and former staff who are keen to come back to campus. The main aim of the Alumni Association is to keep people connected with the campus and each other. Hearing stories from student days and seeing people reconnecting is wonderful, giving them space to reminisce is what it is all about for me. Our Lancaster campus is a very special place to many generations of students who forged friendships and relationships here. We would love to build on these types of events and hold more in future”.

If you are a former student of the University of Cumbria or St. Martin’s College and you wish to get back in touch and hear about future events like this, email alumni@cumbria.ac.uk or visit https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/alumni/. You can also keep up to date with our alumni activity on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/uocalumni.