COFFEY Time reader David Thorpe has been in touch regarding an old photo published on October 8.

He said: "The photograph is of St Luke's Church of England Primary School on Knowsley Road. It was opened in 1899 originally as a day school and a church.

"St Luke's Church, also on Knowlsey Road, grew from a small house group that met in Cyril Street (now Silkstone Street) and was started by Christ Church, Eccleston.

"As numbers grew bigger premises were needed and the day school was built. The hall of the school was used on Sundays as the church building. Fundraising to build St Luke's Church was halted after St Helens Parish Church was seriously damaged by a fire in the 1920s.

"The members of St Luke's sacrificially offered their fundraising efforts to help re-build Parish Church. As a reward when the funding for St Luke's was underway again the Diocese of Liverpool modelled St Luke's on St Helens Parish Church and if you compare them the similarities are clear to see.

"The school flourished until falling numbers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the mid 90s it was decided to amalgamate St Luke's School with Knowsley Road School to form what is now Queen's Park Church of England and United Reformed Church Primary School on Rivington Road, the site of the old Rivington High School.

"Knowlsey Road School has been built by the Congregational Church (now Newton URC on the corner of Cambridge Road and Knowlsey Road).

"The site of St Luke's School is now Bethany Medical Centre."

Meanwhile, it's a long time since I wrote anything about Laffak and I knew nowt about Laffak Hall.

Clearing up some emails I found this one from Kevin Henegan: "I remember Back Lane as it was in the early 1930s and The Blind Ass which was a whitewashed building and no longer a pub, about 50 yards along what is now Finchley Drive from its junction with Woodlands Road.

"On a patch of ground between there and Carr Mill Station stood Laffak School, a playground and the caretaker's cottage which was occupied by Mrs Wayne and her husband who was a retired collier.

"Back Lane was a terrace of stone cottages and there was also a grocer's shop opposite the junction with Carr Mill Road.

"As for Chain Lane, which led from Blackbrook via Laffak Road to Woodlands Road, it was a rough, sunken track between hedges with fields on either side.

"Since the 1950s the fields have been covered with houses. The way led past Moncrieff's Farm with its old barn which I now know was the original Laffak Hall where Catherine Parr would have stayed on her journeys from Kendal to London.

"Such a pity it was ever demolished."