A NEW historical social group exploring Pershore's past has been born from an online page set up earlier this year.

Memories of Pershore's Past was created on Facebook in January by Pershore born Kathy Ford after she went searching for photos of the town on the site and came up with nothing.

Having seen pages on the social networking site for nearby places, including Photos and memories of days past in Evesham, she decided Pershore deserved its own site.

Miss Ford said: "My partner Rob is a member of a group called Days Gone By in Cheltenham and he kept showing me wonderful photographs of old Cheltenham and its buildings.

"Then I heard a similar group had been started for Evesham so on January 21 I searched around to see if there was a group for Pershore memories.

"Finding there wasn't one, I decided to create one and added about 50 of my friends. Word of mouth soon ensured the group gathered momentum and within a week, we had a thousand members.

"People are sharing wonderful photographs of days and people gone by."

Then one member Gill Robinson decided to take the group a stage further and organised a meeting at the town's football club on Wednesday, March 12, which a dozen people attended.

She said: "I thought it would be good for a few of us to get together occasionally and talk over old times. I, for one, have found a few old friends through this group that I had completely lost touch with and it’s nice to meet up in person, talk over old times and look at each other's photographs."

A second meeting took place on Thursday, March 27, to which about 35 people attended.

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 15, from 7pm at Pershore Town Football Club.

To check out the group visit facebook.com/groups/531821243592643/.