A CHANCE meeting in a supermarket has led to pupils from a girls’ school holding their school leavers party - 50 years after it should have taken place.

The class of ‘62 from Burnley’s former Coal Clough Secondary School never got the chance to mark the end of their time together, a fact they intend to remedy at a big bash in the summer.

Christine Sharp (nee Isherwood), 65, from Ightenhill, had the idea for a reunion after bumping into one of her former classmates.

She said: “I was in Tesco in Burnley when I bumped into my old schoolfriend Brenda Smithies, this led to us meeting for coffee and along with four other girls we knew from school we began to meet regularly for lunch.

“Now our number has grown to 15, as news has spread by word of mouth.

“It would be great if we could find the other girls in time for July.

“These girls have waited 50 years for a school leavers party and we intend to have a really special time.”

The event is to be held at The Fence Gate Hotel on July 12, 50 years to the week since the girls left school, all of them aged 15.

Christine added: “We did have a partial get together in 1987 as two of the girls Kathleen and Cynthia held a combined 40th birthday party which coincided with it being 25 years. But we are hoping to get more to this do.”

Former classmates are asked to call Christine on 01282453003.