BEST friends were reunited as old school chums met up for the first time in nearly 50 years.

The class of 1947 from Nelson Grammar School was reunited thanks to the hard work of organisers Pat Duckett, Tony Beckett, Pat Hargreaves and Jack Scott.

They spent four months tracking people down after first getting permission to study the school admissions list kept at County Hall.

Then with a list of names they began the search promoting their reunions through articles in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and other papers and of they managed to locate 100 of the 118 names.

The reunion was at Nelson Cricket Club when 60 former chums were reunited, four members of staff came along and 25 friends and partners.

Pat said: "We had a splendid night. Margaret Howells, nM-Ne Aspden, flew in from Australia especially for the event.

"She was planning to come over in October, but she had talked about the do so much, her husband said why not get on a plane and go - so she did.

"We decided to have a reunion because we would all be 60 this year and it seemed the right time."

Other ex-chums travelled from Scotland, Keswick, London, Kent and Sussex, as well as all over Lancashire, to meet up with their classmates.

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