Schoolfriends set to reunite after 60 years

For children starting a new secondary school this year social media means they will likely always have a way of keeping in touch with friends after they leave.

But for past generations it was very different. Often the last day of school was the last time you saw most class mates - even if you might not realise it at the time.

It was something that prompted grandmother Karen Feay to track down the people she started Rivington & Blackrod Grammar School in Bolton with 60 years ago.

"I bumped into an old school friend and we got talking about our school memories - and it snowballed from there," she said. "We all started in 1966 which makes everyone 70 or 71 years old now."

Karen and her friend Susan Hart have spent the past two years tracking down fellow school mates on social media.

A task she said had been more difficult for women who had changed their surnames after getting married.

"The more people we found, the more people we wanted to find," she said.

"I've messaged so many random people, it's unbelievable.

"Our main problem is the girls as most will have changed names and we hit a brick wall with our detective work.

"But you suddenly find somebody's name or see somebody's brother... and somebody is still in touch with somebody else... or someone's grandma or mother or aunty... we've found people that way.

The friends have spent the past two years on their search.

After 60 years, inevitably they discovered some classmates had died, and also not everyone wanted to meet up again, but Karen said the overall response had been positive.

"We had two or three people who are not interested, which is fine it's not everybody's thing, but all the rest have responded really well," she said.

"I've got lovely memories, it was a really nice school.

"There was about 90 in the school year and we have tracked down 40 people across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and America."

Some of the group have already met up and 30 people confirmed for the big reunion party this weekend.

Karen said there was a unique bond between the classmates who had known each other before being defined by their adult lives.

"It doesn't matter whether you're a cleaner or whether you're a managing director of a company, we all get on," she said.

She urged anyone who had started at Rivington & Blackrod Grammar School and was interested in future reunion events to get in touch.

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