Isn't this a marvellous photograph!

A huge blown-up version is on the wall in Colne Library which has just had a £600,000 make-over.   (Thanks to the previous Labour administration at County Hall.)

The helpful and enthusiastic librarians tell me the photograph was probably taken in the late 1850s or 1860s, after the wheeled stocks had ceased to be used for punishment purposes.

It shows three 'victims' posing with a local constable and was set up outside Colne's Parish Church, St. Bartholomew's.  The stocks were displayed in the churchyard until the late 1980s, when they were removed for safe keeping to Colne Heritage Centre in Colne Library.

At a time when there is so much information out there, much of it total dross, we need libraries and their professional staff more than ever.