I SEE this year is the centenary of the Darwen Model Lodging House. More power to its elbow, I say.

It did have a bad name for the kind of people who stayed there.

I never stayed there myself, but have memories of some of the people who did.

I worked at the bakery called Ben Worsley's, which was at the boundary between Blackburn and Darwen.

But when it ran short of manpower at peak times, such as the run-up to Christmas, the call would be for casual labour.

Within half an hour, there would be about eight men working alongside us.

They were good workers too, 12 hours was normal to them and some had to be told to go home.

So you see, all who stayed at the Model were not bad at all.

K SCOTT, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.

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