THE pub is the place for a convivial evening, a place to meet friends and enjoy conversation.

The landlord at your local is the man who provides the necessary atmosphere, a hearty welcome and good beer.

Pub landlords are a bit like teachers, you never forget the good ones how many Looking Back readers remember Jimmy Wilkinson and his wife Nellie, who ran the Corporation Arms in Burnley for more than 35 years?

The couple, who spent more than 50 years in the licensed trade, were well known for never having drunk a drop of beer between them.

And if you visited them you would find the proof, for they had unopened bottles of beer at their home dating back to 1902.

The couple who were married in 1920, started family life in the Corporation Arms before taking over the Stone Trough at Kelbrook in 1956.

When ill health forced their retirement in the 1960s, Jimmy became a barman at the Rose and Crown and one of the town's oldest.

Both sides of the family had been connected with pubs in Burnley over the decades. Jimmy was the fourth generation to be landlord at the Corporation and remembered the time when beer was 1d a pint, while Mrs Wilkinson heralded from the Grimshaw family who kept the Criterion in Hammerton Street during the 1800s.