Looking Back, with Eric Leaver

WHO has still got a moquette-covered settee or a kitchenette?

Not many, I'll warrant, for they are time-warp trappings of the era when East Lancashire had homes heated by open coal fires, precious few TVs, washing machines or cars and before redevelopment brought upheaval to its townscapes.

Yet, that post-war period, when so much was altered in everyday lifestyles and the way our communities appeared, is one that is looked back on with nostalgia by thousands.

Putting the clock back - and dusting off an old moquette settee and a kitchenette in the process - is a special new exhibition that opens this week.

Blackburn Museum is taking visitors on a trip back in time to look at the changing face of Blackburn and Darwen since the late 1930s.

Keeper Maggy Simms promises that the four-month display will be a "rich, nostalgia-laden photofest."

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