DOZENS of people who can remember England winning football’s World Cup and The Beatles first appearing on TV – but who might be hard-pressed to remember each other nowadays – will be gathering from across the country in September when North Bromsgrove High School’s Class of 1966 holds a 50-year reunion.

They first met as 11-year-olds at what was then Bromsgrove County High School but 50 years on - almost to the day - the group of 61-year-olds will be getting together once more, this time at Bromsgrove Golf Centre, just a few hundred yards from their old school.

A similar reunion for the class of ’66 was held 25 years ago at the school itself but this time social media has replaced letters and phone calls and the event has been principally organised by two people who live many hundreds of miles apart.

Through Facebook, best pals Liz Gill, nee Horne, and Judith Hinton have built up a network of more than 30 former pupils who are already promising to attend the event, despite the fact that Liz now lives in County Durham while Judith is abroad in Salamanca, Spain.

This has allowed them to link up with people all over the country and beyond, from Kent, Suffolk and Dorset to Shropshire, London and even Monaco.

But there are also many former pupils who have put down roots just a few miles from their former school and have never left the picturesque delights of Worcestershire.

Several photographs of the pupils in their first-year uniforms, on school trips, sports teams and socialising at school have appeared on the group’s Facebook site, bringing back many memories of their time in Bromsgrove.

The initial target is to get 50 or more people at the 50-year reunion, and with more than four months to go until the event on September 10, the pair are more than hopeful of achieving it.

Liz said: “We would love to hear from anyone who was part of our year in 1966 and who would like to get together with us to celebrate. It should be a great night, although we will all be looking a little different to when we first got together 50 years ago.”

If you were part of the Class of ’66, get in touch by sending an email to lizgilluk@hotmail.co.uk.

Written by Tim Beard