NOWHERE better illustrates our former homely entertainments, community involvement and fun, than Marsh Methodist Chapel after the war. Here is part of the cast of their “T’Owd Maids Goas on a Mediterranean Cruise” in March, 1951.

This was described as a dialect sketch in three acts, written and produced by Mrs Percy Greenwood. The 'owd maids' (not seen here), who “created much laughter with their antics and dialect”, were played by Mesdames E Glossop, L Shackleton, H Ryder and A Hartley. The extensive cast, in addition to the ship’s officers, sailors and stewardesses, included a French cabaret singer and a minstrel band.

The photograph has been supplied by Colin Deakin, of Mytholmes Lane, Haworth, who appears as a boy standing third from the left. He names the rest as, standing left to right, Jack Deakin, Rodney Heaton, Walter Hutchinson, Geoffrey Bennett, Malcolm Brook and Jack Storey, and front row, Margaret Sunderland, Margaret Feather, Maureen Dunsheath, Molly Ryder, Kathleen Peel and Pauline Deakin.

The outstanding scenery was painted by the local soon-to-be-famous artist Joseph Pighills. The sketch proved so successful that it was repeated twice, in aid of Sunday School funds and the Oxenhope Parish Cricket Club.