People are being invited to step back in time this weekend and experience the sights and sounds of wartime Haworth.

The ninth annual Forties Weekend looks set to be action packed with a mass of attractions, including an RAF memorial flight fly past. Visitors will be invited back to the era of gas masks and ration books as the cobbled streets will be thronging with people in period dress.

Chairman of Haworth Traders Association Jacqui Purlan said: "It is going to be a huge event, the biggest of its kind in the country.

"There will be entertainment for everyone and it is set to be a fantastic couple of days."

The Home Guard will be on standby throughout as troops march along the streets and evacuees arrive by bus.

Children will be entertained with a 1940s games area and children's entertainer. There will be other attractions such as 1940s-style cookery demonstrations, dancing and live music.

Tomorrow the RAF Memorial Flight, featuring a Spitfire, Lancaster bomber and Hurricane, will fly past at 3pm.

There will also be cookery demonstrations on the street all day, as well as the chance to have a cup of Fairtrade tea or coffee with wartime heroes such as Churchill, Monty and Capt Mainwaring. There will be a 1940s Big Dance Band at 7.30pm.

On Sunday, at 1pm, 30 children aged between three and 13 will arrive as evacuees on a 1940s bus, dressed in period costume, complete with gas masks and labels.

There will be street jiving, dancing all day, marching bands, music and entertainment. The wartime heroes will also be at the Parsonage again. For further information contact Haworth Traders Association on 01535 640 321.

l To accommodate one of the busiest weekends in Haworth's calendar, Keighley and District Travel (K&DT) will be increasing its capacity to cope with extra customers. It will be replacing the usual single deck buses on services 663 and 720 to Oxenhope, 664 to Stanbury and service 665 to Oakworth, with double deck buses.

Tomorrow K&DT buses to Haworth will depart from Keighley Bus Station at 15, 35, 45 and 55 minutes past each hour, from 7.45am until 6.15pm.

Services 663, 664, 665 and 720 pass Haworth Railway Station and could provide a welcome lift up the hill to the village for passengers who have arrived at Haworth Station by a Keighley and Worth Valley Railway train.

On Sunday K&DT buses to Haworth depart from Keighley Bus Station at 9.45am, 10.45am, 11.45am and then every 15 and 45 minutes past each hour until 9.15pm. Services 663 and 665 both pass Haworth station.