CAN readers with memories reaching back more than 70 years solve a puzzle for Mrs Catherine Hartley - of just who was the girl who kept a diary all that time ago?

Mrs Hartley came across the diary in St Anne's and suspects its writer may have retired there. But though it shows that she visited the resort many times in 1928 - the year in which, on June 21, she became 18 - she thinks her home was in Billinge Avenue, Blackburn.

"The family next door - Braemar, No 20 - were mill owners called Livesey and she was friendly with the daughter, Mary, and very fond of the son, Tom," Mrs Hartley adds.

Other clues are that she had a brother called Rex and that her own name may have begun with M. She had an aunt and uncle living nearby in a house called Woodway and was a frequent visitor to one named Netherton, which may have been in Meins Road and was possibly owned by relatives.

Names she mentioned in the diary include Mary Birtwistle, Geoffrey and Peggy Heppard, Norman Kay, Phylis Shorrock, Jack Wilding and Tommy Backhouse.

Answers, please, to Mrs Hartley at 94 Columbia Way, Blackburn, BB2 7DT.

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