IT’S a long shot, but do any of our readers remember taking their dolls along to Mapplewell Junior School during the summer holidays of 1941?

The school would be closed for the holidays, but stayed open during the war years so that all the scholars would be near the below-ground, newly-built shelters in the field behind the playground in the event of an air-raid. The teachers continued to supervise but, instead of lessons, the children were allowed to take along their toys.

Mr Green, who was the form master of 3A, persuaded all the girls to take along their dolls for a collective photograph. It appears that around 40 to 50 dolls were taken to the school that day. The gentleman who submitted the photograph was brought up in Mapplewell and now lives in Devon. He said: “Many congratulations to any lady who can identify her doll after 70 years.”

Contact Kath Parkin, Barns-ley Chronicle, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S70 2AS.