MEMORIES of bygone days in a busy working village are being stirred by the new book from Levens Local History Group.

The pictorial history - Luck to Levens - is proving a popular purchase in the run-up to Christmas.

It has been carefully researched with help from parishioners, who shared their memories and black-and-white photographs with the five-strong editorial team.

As Gillian Wood, group chair, explains in her foreword, the book's title refers to the toast that visitors used to have to make when they visited Levens Hall, following a curse put on the house by a 'malevolent gypsy' in the 17th century. He warned that no male heir would be born to the family living at the hall until the River Kent stopped flowing and a white fawn was born to the herd of black fallow deer in Levens Park.

History group members had been talking about publishing a book for several years, explained group secretary Stephen Read, who compiled the book with Ian Hodkinson, Geoffrey Cook, Allan Steward and Gillian Wood.

Many of the evocative photos were collected for a local history exhibition in 2006, and the archive has been added to ever since.

So far almost 200 copies of Luck to Levens have been sold, both by mail order and at the coffee shop held several afternoons a week at Levens Methodist Church.

Its pages conjure up everyday life for Levens folk in bygone days and local characters such as postwoman Thelma Clarke, peat carrier Charlie Shaw, clogmakers and farmers tending sheep in snow. The visit by Diana, Princess of Wales, to Levens Hall in 1987 is also recalled, together with garden parties, fêtes and school Nativity plays.

The book can be purchased from Levens History Group until the end of January, price £10 including P&P, and after that from local bookshops.

To order, email allan.steward@btopenworld.com or phone 015395-60741.