THE DIY SOS Big Build for Children in Need at Blackburn's St Silas Church Hall has continued to spark memories of the parish centre - the latest from the other side of the globe.

Frank Edwards who lives in Australia read the Lancashire Telegraph's coverage of its conversion into accommodation block for charity Nightsafe.

He recalled appearing in performance of 'The Pied Piper' in the Str Silas Parish Room on Preston New Road in March 1940.

He contacted Blackburn local,historian Barbra Riding and sent her a copy of the programme.

She said: "Frank is an old boy of St Silas’s School.

"He has emailed me the programme of a play he was in, which was performed in the Parish Centre in March 1940 - The Pied Piper.

"I was too young to be in the play but I remember going to watch it. Frank was one of the crowd of people, children or rats.

"A well-known name among the boys is Brian Mercer, who put Blackburn on the map when he invented Netlon.

"80 years ago, I performed on the stage in a school play ‘The Golden Touch’."