Western School was formerly opened on 19th Aril 1903 by Mr James Ashworth vice chairman of the Bacup school board with the infants department being taken over in the Easter. The mixed departments had been using the school for six months previous to it's opening. Western took the place of two former schools these being Waterbarn Baptist school and Stacksteads Wesleyan school. The headmaster of the Wesleyan school  Mr J.E.Horrocks, was appointed headmaster of Western school whilst his counterpart at Waterbarn Mr  R.H.Ormerod, became  handicraft master for the whole of the ,Bacup areas. In his opening speech Mr Ashworth pointed out that in 1892 the Bacup school board was responsible for one school, two teachers and 70 scholars. When Western came  into use in 1903, they had seven schools, 76 teachers and an average attendance of over 2,000 scholars.