A ‘nostalgia’ afternoon brought back memories from members’ sharing recollections relating to keepsakes they had brought with them.

From a silver cup bought by neighbours to celebrate the first birth of a child, who lived in Sydney Avenue, Whalley, to baking items, especially the Prestige hand whisk ‘version 2’, which is still in use and has created many buns.

An RAF Logbook, with its first entry dated 19 May 1941 by a young pilot aged 18, with a special commendation entry in April 1945 from a Commander when due to bad weather in Burma his Dakota plane was ditched in a river, with all crew and passengers safely disembarked, the plane floated down river and sank. From the rubble of a bombed-out house in a French village, a pewter statue of Our Lady and Jesus was rescued by a member of the Red Berets at the end of WW2. A father’s screwdriver, cherished by a daughter, who thinks her father would have ‘liked a lad’.

Dr Chris Holmes bravely sang ‘The Knocker-Up’ from Poverty Knock by Roy Palmer, depicting industrial life in the nineteenth century. Jean Hardman has an outstanding knowledge of ‘donkey stones’, The Donkey Brand was originally the trademark of Edward Read & Son in Manchester, but which colour would you buy for your doorsteps? The stones varied from light brown to yellow (factory worker), pale cream or white (white-collar job) – all denoting the household’s status in society.

Food can also trigger fond memories – blancmange and jelly, vesta curries, jam and bread, Saturday baking. Members then sampled a Christmas sherry trifle from a recipe handed down through family generations – all was eaten very quickly! (Photo credit: Dawn Beaumont)