WHEN it came to planting a tree to mark the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday back in 1981, the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Simon Towneley was not messing around.

For he took to the controls of a JCB to dig a large hole in the ground of Clitheroe Castle watched by crowds of Ribble Valley schoolchildren.

The photograph, from the Lancashire Telegraph archive, shows that although the weather was miserable, there was still plenty of interest in what was happening in the castle grounds.

If you have any interesting photographs of life in East Lancashire in days gone by, you can email gill.johnson@nqnw.co.uk or call her on 01254 298262.