THE date is 1966 and today Bygones takes you behind the scenes of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, the day Cilla Black paid a visit.

The pop singer, who was then 23 and had just released Alfie, was invited to the offices, to present a £500 cheque to the winner of our popular Cross the Ball competition.

We don’t know who it was, only that he, or she, came from Accrington.

Before the handover, though, Cilla was given a tour of our former building in Railway Road.

Here she is sitting on the knee of Hilton Birtwistle, with, from left to right: Jimmy Haworth, Ronnie Smith, Peter Cooper and Alan Whalley.