BORN during the war, these 14 -year-olds lads were soon to swap the classroom of St Peter’s CE Secondary School, in Blackburn, for the world of work.

Our photograph was taken in 1957 and has been sent to Bygones by Trevor Jepson, of Feniscowles, the fresh faced young man, stood next to the teacher on the right.

He remembers Frank Knowles, on the front row; Gordon Mather, Maurice Foy and Derek Cowburn, on the second row up, as well as Peter Spencer, Frank Richardson, David Smith and Sam Nightingale, on the third row back.

He can also pick out, John Farrowman, Walter Sears, Peter Hoyle, Tommy Orrel and Bill Wright on the back row.

Trevor wonders if any other old boys can fill in the gaps.

He said: “This picture was taken during our last full term at St Peter’s, before we left in the summer of 1958.

“ I remember a career’s officer, a Mr Collow, coming into school to find out what kind of work we wanted to do and I said I wanted to be a steam train driver.

“He later returned with British Railway steam loco books and literature and told me to go for an interview with the locomotive superintendent, a Mr Sanders.

“ He sent me to Preston station for a medical and I got a job as a locomotive cleaner and started on my 15th birthday, along with classmate Peter Hoyle.”

Added Trevor: “I reached the post of fireman but never made a driver, as steam trains were replaced by diesel in the 1960s.

“I moved to Howard and Bullough as an apprentice engineer.

“In those days, jobs were plentiful and you could take your pick of what you wanted to do.”