AS a boy back in the 1940s, I would catch a tram at Church traffic lights to Blackburn, then change to another to take me to Ewood Park to watch the Rovers.

The service was well used. Sometimes I would use it to watch Church play cricket at West End.

Although trams were lumbering, rattling monsters, like trains in the days of steam, they had character and did move many people around.

It seems funny after all these years that cities are looking into the feasibility of new tram systems like Manchester's.

My father used to tell me about the early days of trams - when Accrington's apparently had the name of 'The Baltic Fleet,' possibly because of the funnels on the steam trams.

K SOWERBUTTS (Mr), Southwood Drive, Baxenden.

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