MEMORIES will be stirred for many Looking Back readers when they see this old school photograph.

Many of us remember sitting in rows of desks while attempts were made to fill us with useful knowledge.

Neil Brunsden, who lives in Stoneclough, tells me that this picture, showing a class at St Paul's Peel, Little Hulton, belongs to his father Norman.

Neil writes: "We know it was taken in 1949, and, judging by the clothing that the children are wearing, probably in the late spring or early summer months."

The children were about eight years old and the pictures around the walls suggest the class was studying Africa.

Norman Brunsden is the little boy in the bottom right-hand corner of the picture - "the only one who is managing to not look at the camera."

The teacher was Nellie Crompton.

Neil points out that the class had 43 pupils and wonders what teachers would make of that these days.