FROM an East Lancashire exile, retired licensee Harry Mussenden, comes this picture (above) from around 1944 of the fit young fellows who joined him in keeping themselves in peak condition at the gymnasium at the old YMCA recreation centre in Blackburn.

The gym was in the basement of the Limbrick building that has been the Sir Charles Napier Hotel since 1967.

It was run six nights a week by physical culture expert Vic Royds (seated in the centre of the second row), who from 1942 devoted more than 20 years to the task.

And says 70-year-old Harry, of Fleetwood, who still trains with weights, young men came from all parts of East Lancashire to work out at the gym.

Among the group, he adds, are many well-known faces -- including his own at the far right of the back row.

For Harry, who was steward of the Furthergate Working Men's Club in Blackburn before taking a pub in Blackpool 24 years ago, says he was rated No.1 darts player in Blackburn where he played in every league.

In the centre of the back row is the late Ray Rimmer who went on to become a Blackburn policeman and rose to be head of Lancashire CID and was famed as the detective who in 1979 smashed the 'Mr Asia' international drugs and murder syndicate.

To his left is a youngster from Accrington called Renshaw, who, says Harry, was a talented amateur boxer and later turned professional.

And he adds that another boxer in the group, George Judson (fourth from the right in the front row), was billed in bouts as 'Blackburn's miniature Bruce Woodcock' -- after Britain's heavyweight champion of the era.

And weight-lifter Bill Moran, next but one to Harry in the back row, was billed as 'Lancashire's Strongest Youth' in public performances.

"He was built like a man when he was only 14," Harry says.

Others he remembers include Geoff Whipp (back row, far left) whose parents had a butcher's shop in Larkhill.

And Jim Bennett (third row, second left) whose father had a barber's shop opposite the Craven Heifer pub up the road -- where boys from nearby St Alban's, Holy Trinity and St Michael's schools acquired the 'close to the wood' three-penny 'Bennett Special' haircuts that were a hallmark of many youngsters in the Brookhouse and Daisyfield areas.

Not pictured, but among other regulars was Jack Taylor, of Clayton-le-Moors, who was a member of the YMCA's gym team in his teens and carried on training there when on leave while serving with the Parachute Regiment during the war.

He later became British amateur lightweight wrestling champion.