IN the summer of 1969, residents in the Towneley area of Burnley were serenaded by the skirl of the bagpipes drifting down from the moors above their homes.

For 19-year-old male nurse Ken Wood liked nothing more than indulging his passion for playing during his off-duty hours.

Ken, who had never been north of the border, used to don his full pipe band uniform, the McIntyre hunting tartan and march across the heather as he played his favourite tunes, such as Scotland the Brave.

He had become interested in the bagpipes after watching the edinburgh military tattoo and joined the Lachanside Pipe Band, which formed in Colne in the early sixties.

When he wanted to practise he headed for the hills, although if the weather was too poor, he made a beeline for the solitude of his hut off Moseley Road.