Here, from the archive collection of Robert Duerden, of Settle, North Yorkshire, is an evocative scene of the classmates circa 1949 at St John's School in Nelson.

Robert, growing up in the mill town during the 1940s, remembers his schooldays at St John's as being a most happy time and can, all these years later, remember many of his contemporaries from St John's.

Robert himself is on the back row third on from the right and others to be seen include the boys Neil Pomfret, Peter Lovell, Thurston Kay, Alan Fennell, Jack Heap and Peter Lord.

Among the girls are twins Cynthia and Christine Lawson, Helen Taylor, Joan Warren, Eileen Carter and Margaret Hogarth.
The teachers on each side are Mrs Holgate and Mr Eastwood, who are both fondly remembered.

My own schooldays from 1948 to 1958 were happy indeed and still hold indelible memories. For example, at Lord Street in 1952, the headmaster, David Doig, coming into our classroom and standing tall, proudly proclaiming, "The King is dead, long live the Queen".

Then at Primet in 1955, sitting on the air raid shelters with Granton Burrows and listening to his Philco Mark Two transistor radio and hearing for the first time Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock". We both went absolutely berserk!