Back in 1950, the pit, the cokeworks, the brickworks and the tar works coated the village of Billy Row in a filthy grime.

More than half a century later, the village has changed - but the pupils who attended its school have not, as Bessie Robinson discovered

THE years fell away as memories flooded back for a group of old friends from a former pit village who got together for the first time in more than half a century yesterday.

Faces and bodies may have shown signs of advancing decades, but for two dozen classmates the experiences they shared growing up in Billy Row, near Crook, County Durham, were still fresh in their minds.

They lived in the same streets with fathers down the same pits; they fought in the same playground scraps and made friends again with the same game of football.

Stories flowed when they met for a reunion in the Farrers Arms, just down the road from their school, Peases West, which is now split up into homes.

Organiser Harry Dowson left at 15, in 1950, the same year as older pupils were transferred to the new secondary modern in Crook, the Alderman Cape.

The school stayed as a primary but was replaced by a new building, which is itself now threatened with closure under a Durham County Council reorganisation proposal.

Now living in Skipton, North Yorkshire, Mr Dowson had not seen most of his old pals since that day, but was soon fondly reminiscing with former policeman Colin Walker, 68, who was with him in the 1st Peases West Scouts.

Mr Walker said: "The place was full of smoke and grime in those days. It wasn't like it is now.

"It wasn't just the pit. There was the Bankfoot Cokeworks, tarworks and brickworks, but people put up with it because that was where the men worked."

Some old friends have stayed close, such as Ann Layburn, 60, who lives at nearby Roddymoor, and Ann Hutchinson, 58, from Crook. Their fathers, Maurice Layburn and Billy Moses, worked together down the mine, the men's birthdays were with a day of each other, they had neighbouring allotments and they retired on the same day.

Mrs Hutchinson, at the reunion with her sister, June Greenbank, said: "The moment we saw people here, the years disappeared. We have talked and talked about the old times. Some people don't look any different."

Mrs Greenbank, a retired teacher from Crawcrook, is horrified at the idea of Billy Row losing its school.

She said: "It is appalling. Village schools are a wonderful environment for children to grow in and learn, where teachers know what is going on in their lives and families are supportive.

"Billy Row was like that. People knew who lived in every house, and they cared about what happened to them."

Mr Dowson is already organising another reunion next year.

He said: "There are so many fond memories. We had a great deal of fun in those days and you can see that in people's faces as they look back. It was worth getting together just to see that."