IT was a day to remember for young winners of our two NIE local history competitions when they collected their prizes from Lancashire Evening Telegraph editor Peter Butterfield.

Superb books and software, all on the theme of history and the millennium, were donated by publishers Dorling Kindersley to the four winners of our local history wordsearch competition and to their schools.

Four youngsters whose entries were selected in our prize draw had correctly answered all 37 local history questions, matched these up to a wordsquare and picked the three odd ones out.

The delighted winners were Farha Noreen, of St Peter's CEP, Accrington; Jessica Hartley from Cliviger Holme CEP, Burnley; Matthew Taylor of St John's CEP, Nelson, and Daniel Kenyon, from Ribblesdale Technology College in Clitheroe.

Each of the history wordsquare winners received copies of the Dorling Kindersley books '1000 Makers of the Millennium,' priced £14.99, celebrating men and women who, over the centuries have helped to shape our modern world and 'Fantastic Millennium Facts, which, at £9.99, is packed with information on milestone events and strange happenings.

The 'Millennium 2000' scrapbook packs and personal data files, also from DK, will hold a time capsule of mementos, information and predictions from their young owners, to keep and open in future years.

Schools attended by wordsquare winners have an extra reason to be proud of their pupils as all four schools received copies of Dorling Kindersley's book 'Children's History of the Twentieth Century' and CD Rom 'The Twentieth Century Day by Day' (including Internet link), worth £20 each. Winners of a second competition, designed to complement our NIE local history classroom resource, all received a copy of the book 'Images of East Lancashire' by LET writer Eric Leaver.

Their task was to match up photographs of local towns from our newspaper archives with the correct name, date and royal connection with three of the places.

The first four correct entries selected in our prize draw came from Joanne Ainsworth, of Helmshore, Hannah Farmer, from Blackburn, Jason Bennett, from Chatburn near Clitheroe and Kieron Rourke, of Blackburn. Well done to all eight winners.

The NIE local history classroom resource 'East Lancashire from the Stone Age to the Space Age' for KS2 and KS3 is still available to schools. For details please contact NIE co-ordinator Rita Shaw, tel 01254 678678 ext 255.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.