YOUTH clubs played a big part in the lives of youngsters in the years during and after the war - do any of you remember T.H.E. in Blackburn?

Ernest Johnson, now in his 80s, was a member of what he calls "this wonderful club" in the 1940s.

He believes that the initials stood for The Hom Ecaliobian and that it had some connection to St John the Evangelist Church, through Hilda Swift and others.

Among his friends and former members he remembers Bernard Brothers, Audrey Dagger, Maureen Moffet, Vin Cunningham, Jim and Brian Sumner, Jean Williamson, Vera Eastham, Alec Yates, Olwyn Slater, Irene Helliwell, Norman Bradley, Alan Hope and brothers Eddie and Ronnie Derbyshire.

Ernest has also lent us this photograph of youth club members taken around 1946 - maybe you recognise more faces and names.

T.H.E. could be found on the top floor of the Empire building, in Randal Street, and was reached by many stone steps.

Ernest recalls it had a good dance floor, where members played badminton, table tennis, snooker and darts.

He said: "We also had a canteen run by Mrs Bradley, with all the usual things to eat, plus tea, coffee and soft drinks.

"I believe the original Empire was a dance academy owned by Daniel Briggs, which then became a snooker hall and then turned into the youth club sometime in the forties."