FAMILY recipes started in an exercise book in the Victorian era have been published over a century later.

"Around the Kitchen Table - A Lancashire Childhood" by Gertrude Bark has been edited by Diane Good, friend and daughter of former Journal photographer, Michael Hope, who supplied old pictures of Leigh for the book.

Gertrude Bark was born in 1896 in Leigh, and known as GB because she hated her name. She was the only child of William and Gertrude Smith of Guest Street, Leigh and her father was secretary, cashier and book keeper at Bedford Colliery.

The hand written notes started by Gertrude's newlywed parents were added to by family, friends and neighbours until the end of WW2 and contain diverse concoctions from tapioca pudding to lobster cutlets, pikelets to Aunt Tilly's beef and ham roll. And every recipe tells a story.

GB, who moved to Leamington Spa in 1923 to marry, and became an English teacher, theatre lover, pianist and well-loved raconteur found that each recipe conjured up memories from the past, especially her childhood in Leigh. As a very old lady in her 90s she dictated stories about them to friends who typed them up.

Thoughts went back to Grandma's Raised Pies which were brought out at midnight on New Year's Eve as "all the bells of heaven were bursting in the quiet town" and to cousin Dick. In 1916 he wrote home from France hoping for some chocolate cake when he got home from the trenches. He never arrived after being killed at the Battle of the Somme.

Diane, whose long-term relationship with GB started through her grandmother and great aunt then her father, has reproduced the recipes and GB's stories exactly how they were told.

The book at £7.95 can be ordered from Brewin Books Ltd, www.brewinbooks.com email Drop a line...admin@brewinbooks.com or ring 01527 854228.