FOR years from 1909, Oakworth held an annual United Nonconformist Sunday School Festival each July.

Slack Lane Baptists, Lane Ends Primitive Methodists and Bogthorn and Oakworth Wesleyans would walk in procession through streets decorated with flags and bunting. Hymns were sung and addresses given and sometimes wildflower bouquets would be judged.

Here, immaculate in their best clothes, worshippers listen to an address outside the gates of Oakworth Methodist Chapel.

Some are holding their hymn-sheets, which included both words and music and sold at a penny each.

It is sobering to realise this may have been the sixth such festival, on July 11, 1914 – if so, the Great War is less than a month away. The final hymn on the 1914 sheets was entitled “The Call To Action.”