DARWEN has said goodbye to former Technical School headteacher Howard Peters at a special memorial service.

Mr Peters, died aged 89 in July in Southampton where he had moved in 2000 following almost 50 years in Darwen.

His funeral took place in Southampton, so the memorial service at St Peter's Church, in Church Street, on Saturday gave Darwen people their first opportunity to say goodbye.

Friends, former students, scouts rotarians, magistrates and representatives from other organisations Mr Peters was involved with attended.

Mr Peters hailed from Thatcham, near Newbury, Berkshire, and was educated at Reading University.

A teaching post at Lancaster's Quaker School led him to the North West and then the technical school in the 1940s, where he settled.