TWIN sisters are hoping to bring the glory years of the 1950s back to Darwen.

Former Blackburn cafe owners Jackie Barnes and Christine Pickup are to open a new cafe, CJ's Milk Bar, on Market Street, on Monday.

And the cafe is on the exact site of a popular 1950s cafe, the Express Milk Bar, which was a hang-out for mods and rockers. Now the sisters, who used to run Hartley's cafe, in Northgate, Blackburn, are appealing to local residents for pictures of the original milk bar, to be hung on the walls of their latest venture.

Jackie, 54, of Whitehall, said: "From the mid-50s to the 60s it used to be called the Express Milk Bar, and everybody was seen there. We are opening it in the original location, and we are going to keep the name Milk Bar. It was the in-place to be.

"There were different places in different towns and in the 60s that was the place to be in Darwen." The original Milk Bar sat in between Burton's and Woolworths. Today, it is next door to Global Video.

Both the sisters remember the hang-out from their childhood, when the music on the jukebox featured Billy Fury, Bill Haley and the Comets, and Patsy Kline.

Jackie, who will run the cafe, and Christine, who is helping out, will recreate the music of the era for customers. But they hope the final touch will be framed pictures of the old Milk Bar - if some can be found. She said: "It was very popular and I remember they sold ice cream as well as coffee and snacks.

"There was an enormous juke box in the corner and it used to swallow old threepenny bits. There were other coffee bars around the town centre in those days but the Milk Bar was king. When we decided to open it again after close on 40 years, there was only one name we could possibly call it. The site was available and it seemed the obvious thing for us to do.

"We've tried everywhere for pictures - Darwen Library, Blackburn Library, Darwen Camera Club, friends and relatives, but haven't come up with anything.

"The nearest we have come is a photograph taken from the railings in Railway Road, probably in the early 60s, and you can just make out the word 'Express' in the distance."

The cafe has its official opening on Monday and will open from 7.30am to 3.30pm, Monday to Saturday, but customers are welcome to pop in for an open day tomorrow.