CHILDREN from a Horwich primary school danced around the Maypole -- maintaining a tradition which has stood the test of time.

The 120 children at Lord Street Primary School skipped around the same Maypole used by generations of other children over the decades. Many of their parents and grandparents, who had danced around the pole many years previously turned up to watch the annual occasion in the school playground.

Memories of their school days came flooding back for many of the onlookers as children from the primary school, reception class and nursery took part this year.

They were shown a photograph taken in 1938 of pupils taking part in the same ceremony in the school hall.

Suzanne Maxwell, a nursery teacher, danced around the pole with the children as she has done every year since she joined the school seven years ago.

She said: "It's a lovely and an important historical tradition which the children enjoy, particularly for those children who are dancing just as their parents did down the years."