SEVERAL of Menston's older residents went back to school to get to grips with modern technology - as part of a

project to preserve history for youngsters.

Ros Steele, 64, and Pat Reid, 62, went straight to the top of the class when they joined pupils at Menston Primary School to learn how to make a CD Rom.

The eager students are hoping to score top marks with their project, which will be used in the school's information technology (IT) department as part of an initiative to record and preserve items of local historical information for the pupils. Mrs Steele, the group co-ordinator, of Moor Lane, said: "It is very exciting. We were contacted by another school for advice about setting up a similar project. They - like us - think they are not going to last forever and want to store some permanent information."

The women are sailing through their lessons, held by tutor Peter Dewrance, who runs Menston-based Script to Screen, and say they are taking the return to the classroom in their stride.

Mrs Reid, of Cleasby Road, said: "We are having a great time being students again. We have got to sit down and do our home work and planning before we can go to our class. We should be quite competent by the time we get to the

end. Peter is being very supportive."

The CD Rom - entitled Menston Explorer - will be completed in ten stages and will begin with the history of the Main Street-based Menston pharmacy.

The project has been funded by an Age Concern Millennium Award - the first to awarded in Bradford and District - of £4,750. Two other members of the group have also been busy

compiling information in the name of posterity.

Jack Kell, the senior member of the group, has shown slides of the development of the

village since Roman times and Eric Caton, is contributing his know-how and craft skills in the collection and preservation of artefacts.

Carol Wooller, chief officer of Age Concern Bradford and District said: "This project has good potential. It is a good partnership between the school and the older generation in the Menston community."

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