THE YMCA in Blackburn has been meeting the diverse needs of the local community for more than 120 years.

Established in 1896, when its first meetings took place in rented rooms in Victoria Street, it has offered support in a whole host of ways to young people across East Lancashire.

And it has done it in an ever-changing world, for not only has it provided education and spiritual services, lectures and debates, been a meeting place and a hostel for those in need to lay their heads, the YMCA has also offered a range of sports and leisure activities to appeal to many young minds.

Back in the Fifties and Sixties, weight training and acrobatics sessions attracted many teenagers, while table tennis and roller skating were other popular activities.

This photograph from our archives shows how some of the lads created a whole new sport back then - roller football.

It was held in the gym at the YMCA's new headquarters in Edinburgh House, Clarence Street, where it had moved in 1967.

For 50 years before that it been based in premises in Sudell Cross - now The Charles Napier pub - and at the end of the First World War, part of the building was opened as a soldiers' hostel.