FORMER principals and students from the first cohort in 1955 returned to Pershore College to mark the 50th anniversary of the official opening.

They were there to plant trees at a ceremony last Friday, 50 years to the day of the opening of the then Pershore Institute of Horticulture. On that day the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Derek Heathcote-Amory, planted a tree, though the college had opened its doors the previous year.

Former principals Bill Simpson, 1980-1991, and Dr David Hall, 1991-2001, and current principal Dr Heather Barrett planted trees outside the new learning resource centre. Other trees were plants by Ian Pickford, chairman of governors, and governors Martin Ellis and Laurie Green, and two students from the first cohort in 1954, John Smith and David McBride.