HOW well do you know the history of our area? Most people are aware of the rise and fall of the textile industry, but did you know that there is evidence of civilisation in East Lancashire dating back to the Stone Age?

Writer, broadcaster and former teacher, Ron Freethy, has put together a truly fascinating account of the people and places of East Lancashire, spanning pre historic times to the present.

Our resulting special supplement will be on offer to any reader and also to schools in our circulation area as part of a Newspapers in Education local history resource, suitable for pupils in KS2 and KS3.

In addition to a class set of the supplement, the NIE history pack delivers daily copies of our newspaper into school from October 4-8, with more articles on local history, plus a set of worksheets to accompany the supplement and written by three teachers from schools in East Lancashire.

Every participating school will also receive at least one free copy of the hardback book 'Images of East Lancashire,' worth £16.99, by LET writer Eric Leaver and featuring hundreds of pictures and facts from our archive to record a century of change.

The deadline for all orders for this material is September 17, so if your school has not already ordered this unique resource, available only from our newspaper, make sure that you respond to the reminders we are sending to all schools this week.

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