Saturday August 5, 1972

ALLEGATIONS of wife swapping parties taking place in Blackburn made the headlines today.

Front page news told how a parish vicar claimed other forms of ‘dubious behaviour’ were taking place, among hundreds of apparently respectable people.

The accusations were made by the vicar of Immanuel Church, Feniscowles, the Rev Edward Bland in a parish magazine.

His parish covered Feniscowles, Livesey and Pleasington. Mr Bland explained that as a parish priest he had information of moral trends which was denied to ordinary people.

He said: “The ordinary person would be astonished and shocked by the frequency and terrible complexity of some of the problems with which one is faced and the stories one hears .”

He refused to make any further comment when approached by the Telegraph, which then began making its own investigations.

In three pubs, shocked customers and licensees said they had never heard a whisper.

One resident told us: “I know a lot of people round here and we have very nice neighbours.

“I think it is a load of bunkum.”