GOOD memories are being called for by the BBC to add eye-witness accounts to early 20th-century events like this one, above, captured by early movie-makers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon, of Blackburn.

The picture is of children from St Barnabas' School, Blackburn, in 1905. It is one of many local street and 'factory gate' scenes recorded in Lancashire by the pioneering pair in the era before purpose-built cinemas.

They sold their films to travelling showmen who used the "see-yourself-on-screen" novelty to attract crowds to their cinematograph booths.

But now, following the rescue and restoration of nearly 800 reels of Mitchell and Kenyon film by Blackburn film historian, optician Peter Worden in 1994 after they were on the brink of being thrown out of a town-centre shop undergoing renovation, the clips of the Edwardian era form a rich seam of social history.

With a view to a possible TV documentary using the priceless footage, the BBC is looking for people who may help with researching the oral and written history in Lancashire in the early part of the last century -- as depicted in the films shot by Mitchell and Kenyon between 1900 and 1913.

At present, the BBC team is focusing on two areas -- film shot at mills in Pendlebury and Salford around 1900 and footage of school life and religious processions in East Lancashire.

The latter includes processions in Clitheroe in 1913 involving St Mary's Church Sunday School and St Michael and St John's Church; children from St Matthew's and Audley Range schools in Blackburn in 1900 and 1905's pupils at St Barnabas'.

"We would love to hear from anyone with relatives with memories going back to these places and times," says researcher Christine Anderson.

"Did your grandparents work in these mills or go to these schools? Do you have recordings or written accounts of people who were alive before the First World War?" she asks.

If you can help, contact Christine on 0208 752 5711 or by e-mail at chris.anderson@bbc.co.uk