Nick Park - Childhood

Childhood

Park was born on Brookfield Park in Preston in Lancashire, England and grew up on Greenlands Estate, Preston and later moved to Walmer Bridge, where his mother still resides. He is the middle child, of five siblings. He was born to Mary Cecilia Ashton (b. 1930), a seamstress, and Roger Wulstan Park (b. 1925 d.2004), an architectural photographer. His sister Janet lives in the South Ribble area still, in Longton. He attended Cuthbert Mayne High School (now Our Lady's Catholic High School). He grew up with a keen interest in drawing cartoons, and as a 13-year old made films with the help of his mother – who was a dressmaker – and her home movie camera and cotton bobbins. He also took after his father, an amateur inventor, and would send items – such as a bottle that squeezed out different coloured wools – to Blue Peter. He studied Communication Arts at Sheffield Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) and then went to the National Film and Television School, where he started making the first Wallace and Gromit film, A Grand Day Out.