THE new years of a different century, when beer cost 1s a gallon and pork 6d a lb, were recalled, back in 1966, by John Cowell of Worston.

He said: “Imagine the festive season with no television or radio, no gas or electricity, without running water or adequate transport facilities and most of all, no money.

“Then, you have a picture of what it was like in many homes in the ‘good old days’.”

Mr Cowell, however, felt there was some recompense in those days, quoting prices from 1832, when a full goose cost just 6d a lb and gin came in 15s a gallon.

On the other hand, the best tea cost 10s 5d a lb and even ‘ordinary’ tea 5s 8d a lb.

He possessed ancient documents which showed a farm servant could be hired out for a year for £10 and that the Swan and Royal in Clitheroe offered home brewed mild ale at 1s a gallon in jars and 10a a gallon for the barrel.

And what about the festive season in the workhouse? Clitheroe workhouse which, in 1966, had been transformed into the local hospital, had been built in 1873 at a cost of £13,900.

In 1873 the cost of keeping an inmate there was 2s 2d a week and books from 1899 revealed that 99 vagrants paid that amount to benefit from its doubtful comforts during the festive season.