A FAMILY have been reunited with a 50-year-old photo album of their relatives which mysteriously turned up among rubbish in a Darwen alleyway.

Gertrude Thornton, 84, of Hawkshaw Avenue, Darwen, saw an article in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph appealing for information about the collection of wedding photographs and pictures of places around Darwen.

It had turned up at the back of Clarence Street, in Hollins Grove, Darwen, when children playing came across the black and blue patterned album.

Gertrude recognised herself in a photo published of her brother John's wedding back in 1944.

She pointed it out to her son Harvey, 65, who she lives with.

Neither know where the album came from or who owned it.

They have narrowed it down to two possibilities but are not certain either is right.

They think it could have belonged to John, who was getting married to Violet in the picture.

He lived in Alfred Street, Darwen, for a decade until his death five years ago.

Harvey said it could also have belonged to his mother, having got lost when she moved house last year, although this was unlikely.

He said: "We couldn't believe it. We don't know how it happened, it's a mystery.

"Nobody else in Darwen could have recognised the photos because my mother and I were the only ones who would know the faces.

"Most of the people from the family lived in other parts of the country."