VILLAGERS are celebrating cherished bygone days on social media.
A new Facebook group for Goostrey Parish Archive has been launched.
This will run in conjunction with a website where residents and the world at large will eventually be able to access all these historic digital images.
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The intriguing collection includes parish records going back centuries, recordings of local people and thousands of pictures dating from the early days of photography in the 19th century.
The move coincides with Goosfest, a two-week festival of arts, music, drama and comedy that starts on Friday, September 27.
A taste of the website before its launch will be given during the archive's exhibition on touring and racing cycling over the years in Goostrey by enthusiasts from the Midlands and North West from the early 20th century.
Nostalgic pictures capturing the village’s cycling heritage will be held at The Crown Inn on Saturday, September 28, from 10am to 4pm.
Sadly for the cycling fraternity, Miss Bates Cafe, once the popular centre of cycling in the village, was demolished to make way for mobile park homes.
Now only cyclists wearing plus-fours between the wars and modern lycra-clad wheelers and the great racing hero, the late Reg Harris, who lived locally, exist among the memories in the archive of Bates Cafe and its famous feeding station hut.
It was cycling clubs and associations that developed a relationship with Bates Cafe, including Manchester and District Ladies Cycling Association, when in the 40s, 50s and 60s Goostrey became the centre of choice and continued for those interested in cycle racing from South Manchester and further afield.
The village is a convenient 25 miles from the centre of Manchester in the countryside with relatively quiet lanes, but perhaps more importantly because of the key role in good hospitality enjoyed fitted the bill for their activities.
A locally-owned Penny Farthing that appeared on the BBC's Repair Shop several years ago will be on display at the exhibition.
The archive Facebook group is available now with a picture of the planting of the Churchill Oak on The Bogbean in 1965.
A similar photograph and report of the ceremony are also featured in the collection with many of the names of the people present.
Older residents are being asked to add more names of villagers they recognise.
The new Goostrey Parish Archive Facebook page is now live.
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