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04/12/2006

Historic School is guarding our past

A unique 18th Century school is to be turned into an oral history centre for the North-East.

Work to restore the Donnison School on Church Walk, Sunderland, will begin on Monday after the building was bought by Living History North East.

The grade II listed school was founded in 1778 with money bequeathed by Elizabeth Donnison to provide free education for 36 poor girls.

The school has recently been vandalised and damaged by fire but will undergo a transformation with £552,000 from Sunderlands Townscape Heritage Initiative, Back on the Map, One North East and Tyne and Wear Partnership.

Living History North East plans to repair the former schoolroom and adjoining headmistress house, restoring and reinstating original features wherever possible.

The new regional oral history centre will feature a media suite, training and meeting room, and a restored school room, and should be open by March next year.

Living History North-East is a charity dedicated to promoting oral history by recording living memory and training others in the technical and interpersonal to continue this tradition.

Project coordinator Janette Hilton said "A regional oral history centre will help us preserve our past through the people who experienced it."

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