A story last week of now-vanished Regent Street in town-centre Blackburn brought back many memories for Lammack reader Arthur Smith -- of how it was in his boyhood and when his parents were living there in the early 1920s.

The old School of Domestic Science building that stood in the corner of Ainsworth Street, he tells me, was where many Blackburn men signed on for military service during the war. Across the road was the store of Tramway furnishings and further along, towards Penny Street, were the premises of fruit essence manufacturers William Meadowcroft and Sons.

"As a lad, I used to go and knock on a loading bay door and, for the sum of 5p, receive 20 Jaffa oranges which had had the rind taken off to make essences," says Arthur, of Quebec Road.

And it was a spot where peelers of another sort were kept busy. For he adds: "Policemen used to patrol that area in twos, especially on Friday and Saturday nights."