PARENTS have written a book on the history of their children's school to help raise funds to landscape the school grounds.

Sarah Anderson and Leonie Magilton have written a 152-page book chronicling the 210 year history of Horwich Parish Primary School in Chorley Old Road.

The Parent Teacher Association at the school are hoping the book, priced £8.50, will raise £5,000 to pay for the school's sloping grounds to be made usable.

PTA treasurer Mrs Anderson, aged 31, of Ramsbottom Road, Horwich, said: "It has taken us a year to write. We went to interviewed past pupils, looked through old town records, school log books and anything that we thought would be of interest."

The research was made easier because the school has the country's oldest ex-pupils club in the country.

Split into eight chapters, the book includes many photographs - some dating back to the 1850s - in addition to class photographs of the school's present 400 pupils.

The book charts the school's humble beginnings in 1793, when it was founded by Horwich Parish Church and its first headteacher Ralph Farrington. It tells how the boys and girls were taught separately until the 1960s when the Chorley Old Road school was to provide mixed education.

The books are currently being printed and a grand book launch is planned for February 12.