A HISTORY of Craven College has finally been completed after years of hard work and perseverance.

Work on The History of Craven College began in 1993 only for the researchers to discover that a massive spring clean in 1988 had either destroyed or given away all archive records.

Thus began a mission to re-discover the 100 year history of the college.

Researchers and writers Stephanie Carter and Alexandra Weatherhead set about contacting ex-pupils and staff in the hope they could all tell their stories of life at the college.

They spent months writing to various councils and doing detective work to trace some of the old managers' minute books from the basement of the public library, and advertising in the Craven Herald in the hope that people would want to help.

Alexandra said: "It has been a long haul because it has all been original research."

Still working full time for the college the ladies spent evenings and lunchtimes collecting first hand material from many people's homes which included old prospectus, photographs and anecdotes, so they could start to re-build history.

The Mechanics Institute, who founded community education in Skipton, including Craven College, helped enormously when they found a huge chest crammed with minute books and papers which traced the history back to the very beginning.

The two women said that putting the book together was a long hard slog and took years of late night writing. Alexandra, a business studies lecturer and section head of public services, added that it was definitely a labour of love.

By last September all the writing was done and the women changed hats and became proof readers.

The college funded the printing which was done by Lamberts of Settle and the book is now available at £4.99 from any Craven College centre, Alley Books in Skipton and Brent Gallery in Cowling.

College principal Alan Blackwell said the book was a valuable record of the history of Craven College and paid tribute to the authors for the hard work and research.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.