The most recent batch of photographs which has been added to the SWOP website www.swop.org.uk, consists of over 300 images, many of which were photographs taken by the Free Press’s photographer Ron Goodearl of social events which took place locally in 1958. Here we show some typical examples.

If you have any comments about any of the pictures or would like a high quality print of one of them, please contact me by email deweymiked@aol.com.

Top: Sixteen drivers of postal vans at the Wycombe Post Office are being presented with Safe Driving Awards by the Mayor Cllr Brain, after reducing the 1957 accident rate to one accident per 38,000 miles, Queen Victoria St, High Wycombe, June 1958.

Centre left: Mr G A Hart, the Secretary of the High Wycombe Youth Organisations Committee, presents trophies to a girls’ relay team who were one of the winners in the Youth Sports Day held on the Rye in June 1958.

Centre right: This group of 10 dancers were pupils of Westways School of Dancing; around 100 children took part in this display, which included ballet, acrobatics, a skiffle group and a choir. It was held in the Town Hall, Queen Victoria Rd, High Wycombe in May 1958.

Left: An elderly lady is ‘panning for gold’ at the Union Baptist Church garden party held in the grounds of Castle Hill, Priory Ave, High Wycombe, May 1958. The winner of this event was the one who at the end of the day had found the most ‘gold nuggets’ in a spadeful of spoil.

Above: Visitors watch girls test their Hoop-La skills at the Wooburn Church Fete in the grounds of Fieldhead in Bourne End, June 1958. The event raised over £213 for the churches of Wooburn parish.