FOR the first 60 or 70 years of their existence, the boy scout movement retained their traditional hats, only changing to their distinctly more modern caps in the 1960s.

The last troop in Rochdale to ditch the old and embrace the new were the First Rochdale, the town’s oldest scout troop but, in the 1950s, every scout group wore the hats, including the 17th (St James Dearnley) Rochdale troop.

This picture, sent into Bygones by former scout Tony Fardon, was taken in 1956, probably on a typically wet Whit Friday, as local scouts marched through Smallbridge.

Mr Farndon, then a 15-year-old patrol leader, is seen proudly carrying the troop’s flag. Some of the boys are wearing the red and green neckerchiefs, a feature of the 17th Rochdale, but others are more ‘sensibly‘ attired in raincoats, including the group scout master, Geoff Shepherd, who once ran a bike shop in Yorkshire Street.